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“She made her choice, and he—fuck.”I’d snapped as I’d raced through the darkened streets to the house Scarlet had shared with her ex.“After tonight, I want him to be afraid to go near her. Talk to her. Fucking think about her. I’m done with Aaron trying to take Scarlet from me,”I’d ground.“Taking fucking everything from me.”
His cousin had been there too.
A few of them had. But it’d been clear really damn quick which one had helped Aaron, so Brandon and I had only focused on the two of them. Only leaving once they were unable to get up on their own.
Once I’d gotten home and had been cleaning up in the bathroom, I’d felt Scarlet’s grief and confusion slam into me. Wrapping around me and making my knees shake as my throat had tightened with my own anguish.
“It’s my job to take care of you,”was all I’d said in explanation when I’d finally met her stare in the reflection of the mirror.
Red, swollen eyes had drifted to my busted knuckles before lifting to mine again. And I’d known in the way she was looking at me that she’d known exactly what I’d done. Where I’d gone when she’d been sleeping.
But there hadn’t been any judgment there. Just the smallest whisper of gratitude before she’d turned for the bedroom again.
Giving me those minutes to be alone in my grief before I’d slipped into bed behind her. Holding her close and trying to take on her pain.
“His name’s Aaron,” I muttered, eyes rolling when Scarlet just continued watching me. “I’d forgotten. But that night, I told Brandon, ‘I’m done with Aaron trying to take Scarlet from me.’” Brushing the tips of my fingers over her cheek, I dropped my voice even lower. “I think I just said something kind of similar about Coffee Shop Erin.”
“I see,” she said just as softly as if speaking any louder would destroy something about this moment we were in.
This incredibly unsettling moment because I felt ripped open. Heart exposed in the cruelest way, all while I knew—deep down—everything I was feeling and remembering happened years ago.
And somehow, beyond that and the guilt that lingered below it all, I knew I had never loved Scarlet more than right then.
In that moment.
“I love you,” I said again because I needed her to hear it. To know.
Her head moved in quick, faint nods as tears gathered in her eyes. “And I love you.”
“We need to talk about everything,” I said as I began backing her out of the kitchen. “What happened yesterday and this morning. The notes and the sketchbook. LT...we need to talk.”
“I know,” she murmured, her fingers gripping mine tighter when I pressed her body even closer to mine to steal a brief kiss.
“First, I want to take you to bed,” I said as I loosened my hold on her only slightly. “I want to show you what you mean to me and what you do to me just by looking at me. I want to hold you as you come down from the highs I’m going to push you to.”
Scarlet’s glassy eyes flared with need and her full lips parted on a stuttered exhale.
Turning her down the hall that led to our room, I lowered my hand to the hem of her shirt. “I want to take care of you.”
“You do,” she said, stopping us just as we entered the bedroom. “You’ve always taken care of me.”
The way her voice dipped and twisted, I knew her words went so much deeper than sexual.
She meant when we’d lost the baby. She meant Aaron.
She meant in life.
My head lowered in acknowledgment. “Need to take care of you,” I murmured, hoping she understood that, right then, I needed her on an emotional level just as desperately as I needed her on a physical one. “More than I’ve ever needed anything.”
“Then take me to bed.” Her words edged somewhere between a plea and a tease as she lifted up on her toes to press her mouth to mine.
Taking the bottom of her shirt from my hands, she slipped the material over her body. Revealing her bare breasts and all that flawless skin as she moved away from me, toward the bed. Holding my stare with those fucking captivating eyes as she slowly continued undressing. Body moving in these subtle sways that had my hands aching to be filled with her.
Grabbing the back of my own shirt, I pulled it over my head and let it fall to the floor as I took a step toward her. And then another as I reached for the button of my jeans.
And then she smiled.
Just the smallest twitch of her lips, but that damn look gripped my heart and had me moving. Erasing the last of the space between us and pulling her into my arms as I slanted my mouth over hers.
