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“I don’t know how I missed it. I truly feel like an idiot. Most of my relationships—and I use that word loosely—ended when news broke about something they’d done. Cheated, lied, whatever, I often found out via the paps. After I talked to the PI, I realized Mandi seemed to be around a lot more often after those “breakups”.” I used air quotes because I didn’t think three or fewer dates qualified for the term breakup, and I couldn’t think of anyone I’d gone on over three dates with in the last decade. I didn’t date much at all, actually.
“Finley found out that Mandi paid Janice five grand for the information on where we went and anything she could dig up that Mandi could use to stop our relationship from progressing. After that, Finley kept looking and found trails to every woman she outed to me. She’d paid for the leak. She wasn’t just getting tips, she was hunting them down.”
“Well, shit,” Scarlett breathed. “Mandi is quite the psycho, isn’t she?”
“Agreed. But, don't worry, she’ll get what’s coming to her.”
“Oh?” Scarlett looked way too eager, and it made me laugh.
“Finley found some shit on her, and I’m working on a plan. When I’m done, she’ll be leaving town with her devil tail betweenher legs. No one will even speak to her, much less give her information or hire her.”
“It’s not enough,” Scarlett grumped, crossing her arms over her chest.
“I like this bloodthirsty side of you,” I teased…not completely joking.
Scarlett shrugged. “Not much phases me, but I can be a ruthless bitch if you hurt someone I care about.”
I wanted to jump on her comment and ask if that included me, but it could wait. I owed her to lay out my feelings first, to show her I was willing to risk it.
“Are you ready to talk about us?” I raised a challenging brow.
Rather than take the bait, she simply narrowed her eyes and took her time thinking it over. “Yes,” she answered after a couple of tense minutes. “You were saying something about knowing it wasn’t me?”
“I held on to my anger for a long time,” I admitted softly, taking her hand in mine and playing with her fingers. “I used it to convince myself that I’d done the right thing. But what you said the other day…it forced me to look back and see what really happened.”
Scarlett turned in her seat a little so that she could look at me without twisting her neck. “What do you mean?”
“Baby, everything I said on set was true. I was so afraid to trust you, I grasped onto the moment of doubt I had and blew it up to epic proportions. We were so new…” I shook my head and looked at the ceiling. “I’d like to think that if we’d been together longer, things would have been different.” I returned my gaze to her face and admitted, “But the truth is, it probably would have gone down the same way.”
Scarlett tried to pull her hand away, but I wouldn’t let her. “Let me finish before the crazy in you gets a hold of my words and starts twisting them.”
She gasped, but there was a slight lift to the corners of her mouth. “I don’t have a crazy side.”
Leaning in until my lips were at her ear, I whispered, “I really hope that’s not true. I have all kinds of crazy ideas I was hoping to try out with you.” She shivered, and I licked up the shell of her ear. “Most of them should really be done naked.”
Her quick inhale made me grin, but I put it away before sitting back. “Anyway, I’ve been in this business since I was five years old. Twenty-seven years is a long fucking time in this industry, so I don’t think it will surprise you that I’ve had some terrible experiences with social climbers, coat-tail riders, and gold diggers.”
Scarlett’s features softened with sympathy, and she nodded. “I suppose that would make it difficult to trust anyone.”
“That doesn’t excuse how I treated you,” I told her as I ran the tip of one finger along her jawline. “Scarlett, I knew from the moment I met you that you could become my entire world.”
Her perfect mouth curved up and the glimmer in her amber orbs got stronger.
“It’s taken me two years to get my head out of my ass and come to grips with the fact that my life is empty without you. Protecting my heart from you—which is a lost cause, by the way—just dooms me to a cold and lonely life. And even if it means that it’ll end up crushed someday, I’d rather take the chance and spend however long I can holding you in my arms every night, waking up with you in the morning, and making you smile,”—I smiled wickedly—“and scream, as often as possible.”
She didn’t seem to realize that throughout my speech, she’d been scooting closer and closer. Now she was practically in my lap, so I grasped her hips and moved her over me, settling her astride my legs.
“How about you, baby? Will you take a leap of faith with me and give us another chance?”
Six
SCARLET
cock. Make me come. Fuck!” He bellowed the last word as he punched his hips forward a few more times, then anchored himself deep and buried his face in the crook of my neck. Jets of hot come spurted from his dick, filling me with warmth and pushing me over the edge one more time.
When the pleasure finally ebbed, Kane collapsed on top of me, and pressed me into the mattress for a moment before rolling to his side. Then he slid his arm under my back so he could pull me onto his chest and arrange my body so I was sprawled on top of him.
“Damn, Remington,” I panted. “If this is your tamest fantasy, I’m not sure I’ll survive the next one.”
