Chapter 14
FOURTEEN
AIR OF PROMISE
Ally
With an air of promise around us, Scarlet crossed the threshold to my home, and I followed, crutching over the thick stone sill. The door opened onto a wide hall, stairs at the end and the sunny kitchen to the left. To the right spread a large lounge with dual aspect views of the loch.
Wasp and I had worked out we could see his place from here, and the castle sat just along the bank—both perfect for babysitting when I needed to drop off the bairn to go to work. I had privacy, a gorgeous setting, and space for a family.
I hardly recognised myself, but that was the point.
The old Ally had been lost to the crash, and a new man had emerged.
My hang-ups still existed. By the ton. I had nightmares about screaming metal and holes in my flesh.
I’d dreamt about sex and condoms and pregnancy. About how my daughter came to exist. I also knew I’d never get to the bottom of that event, and I couldn’t stay celibate forever.
More, I’d dreamt about Scarlet.
Scarlet poked her head into the kitchen then entered the lounge. Her eyes widened at each new feature, but I could only see her.
Her long red hair, loose and begging to be wrapped in my fist.
Her bare legs tantalising under her skirt.
Her casual taking over of my every waking thought.
Grimacing at a spike of pain, I lowered myself to the lounge’s floorboards then sat against a wall, my legs wide. Scarlet glanced at me then stopped her exploring. She took a seat on the rug loaned from the castle, resting her shoulders on the couch.
Her gaze took me in, flitting over the bandage on my face and skirting the scars across my biceps. “I have so many questions.”
“I’d imagine ye do.” I shuffled, getting comfortable. We could’ve taken the couch, but sitting with my leg flat out was better for me. “I know we were video calling when it happened.”
Scarlet’s face fell. Ashen, she wrapped her arms around her knees. “We were. You’d been to the solicitors and were telling me how it went. Then you looked up and yelled.”
“I recall. It took a while to come back, but I remember everything now. This guy sped along the other side of the road then swerved to avoid another car. He ended up on my side of the road, hit the kerb, then went flying.”
“Oh God,” she whispered.
“His wheel landed on my bonnet and tried to keep going, then the underside of his car crunched my windscreen and roof.” I gestured at my body. “That’s what did this—the metal and glass from my own car.”
“Is he in jail?” she asked, her voice strained.
“He was pretty bashed up, too. He’s still in hospital, as far as I know, but he’s been charged. Lucky for me, the guy had insurance.”
“What does that mean?”
“I get damages. Eventually.” I pointed around the house. “Which helps with this.”
She continued watching me, her attention so welcome and utterly terrifying. “I gave a statement to the police. I don’t know how useful it was, but I had to do something.”
“I know. Thank ye.” She’d come to the hospital, too. Callum had said.
We gazed at each other for a long moment. The atmosphere grew heavier.
“How hurt are you?” Scarlet finally asked. “Now, I mean.”
I sat forward and took the collar of my shirt, then hauled it over my head, discarding it and sitting up so she could see the damage.
The scratches on my shoulder, chest, and right arm had healed, mostly, leaving a crisscross of pink lines. I’d worked out at the castle’s gym every day, building up my strength. My muscle tone was returning. My body wasn’t hideous.
I hoped.
Scarlet ran her gaze over me. My skin tingled in her wake.
Then I steeled myself and lay two fingers on the corner of the bandage on my cheek.
Scarlet sucked in a breath.
I drew the dressing away, balling it up and taking my time over aiming it at the wastepaper basket, giving Scarlet a chance to stare her fill.
My body might be getting back to normal, but my emotions were fucked. Pressure weighed on me. I’d got used to people’s reactions over the past weeks. They gawked, then they got over it.
I didn’t want Scarlet to get over me. I wanted to tell her how I hated the tight skin and the strange sensation of broken nerve endings. How I couldn’t shave with ease. I wanted to update her on the consultation I’d had with a scar specialist and the prognosis they’d given.
Most of all, I wanted her to lust over me like she’d done since she was a teenager.
It would sting to have her pity. That would be harder to bear than losing my looks in the first place.
Finally, I let my gaze find hers.
Scarlet wasn’t gazing at my scars now. Her attention had wandered south, closer to my dick.
A suddenly very awake dick.
I adjusted myself through my shorts. “Scar?”
“Hmm?”
“Tell me what you’re thinking.”
Her cheeks flamed. No answer came. Instead, she crawled forward. When she was practically in my lap, she lowered her head and kissed my belly.
Heat bloomed at the site of her slight touch.
I groaned but held myself still, letting her do whatever was on her mind.
Another kiss landed on my sternum, then on my pec, between two scars. Her fingertips grazed my left hip, adding pressure as she held me in place.
Then she found my neck, and I tilted my head to give her better access.
“I’m so fucking sorry for what happened. I was so scared for you, but now look at you. Fit and golden and gorgeous.”
Gorgeous?
Soft lips trailed to my ruined cheek. Cautious, slow moves, as if she was waiting for me to tell her to stop.
That wouldn’t happen.
She was touching me, her arms winding around my neck. No fear. No distance.
Instant yearning grew for more. Now.
“Your scars only add to how interesting you are. Nothing has changed otherwise.” Her mouth hovered over mine. “You’re still the most attractive man I’ve ever known.”
I kissed her, my lips taking hers in an easy slide, and I found her waist and guided her to sit astride me while our lips got busy. Shame to say, but I’d already thought through how this might go. How close we could get, how fast we could go without causing me a fresh injury.
Scarlet settled into place, her knees either side of me and her loose skirt making this position work nicely. I traced her waist up to the edges of her breasts, and she gave a moan and put more weight on me, lining up with the hard bulge in my shorts.
“I’ve spent a lot of time remembering our night in that hotel room,” I said between kisses.
“Which bit stuck in your mind the most?”
“What we didn’t do.”
She pulled back, hazy-eyed. “Huh?”
“I wish I’d fucked you senseless.”
Those blue eyes darkened. “I wished you had, too.”
In a beat, the atmosphere shot from sultry to downright dirty.
Deliberately, Scarlet grinded on me. “So that begs the question, how limited are you now?”
A laugh burst out of me. “Do you mean does my dick still work? Aye, Scar, it does. Can’t you tell?” I thrust against her, highly aware that only thin layers of material divided us. “You could say that motivated me to get better sooner.”
“You wanted to get well so you could have sex again?”
“It got me through a number of dark nights.”
Her gaze turned speculative. “I like that. Now all we have to work out is how we can do this without damaging you. What hurts?”
I groaned. “Nothing. Not one single part of me. I’ve got condoms in the bathroom.”
She leapt up. “I’ll get them.”
“Upstairs. In the master bedroom’s en suite. First door on the right.”
“Got it.” Scarlet darted away.
I tracked her movement by her fast footsteps through the house. When she returned, her lustful looks had been added to by a fresh layer of interest.
“That bedroom is sweet. Want to move this show upstairs?”
“Nope. It’ll take too long. Get on my dick.”
She tossed me the box of condoms, and I plucked them from the air. Scarlet eyed the windows then took the hem of her long-sleeved top and stripped it off. Her bra went next. Then she slipped her fingers into her waistband and pushed down her skirt and underwear.
Naked, she waited.
I took my fill of her slender hips, flat stomach, and the short, red hair at the juncture of her legs.
“You’re so beautiful.” I popped the buttons to my shorts and freed my dick. “Come here.”
Scarlet shook her head. “Take your hands off. That bad boy belongs to me.” She dropped to her knees and went onto all fours. Her breasts, a perfect handful, swayed as she moved.
At my lap, she ducked and gave my dick a lengthy lick.
Christ, it had been too long.
“I wish I’d spent more time just working your cock. Admiring it. Getting to know it.”
I closed my eyes. “More than happy to indulge ye now.”
Scarlet hummed in agreement and sucked me inside her hot mouth. She inched over my flesh, sinking deeper, her tongue stroking me in a rhythmic pull that had my eyes rolling back.
I gripped her head and let my stress evaporate. She drew back and worked my tip, dragging over the thick vein and using my foreskin to have me seeing stars.
A few minutes of this and I’d be toast.
“I want my mouth on ye at the same time,” I ground out.
“How are we going to do that?”
“I have no idea, but if I can’t taste ye, I might die.”
She snorted a laugh and rose to gaze around the room. Then her eyes brightened. “Reckon you can scoot to sit with your back to the couch?”
“Scooting in progress.” I shifted to the place she indicated. My shoulders were in line with the couch.
“How’s your upper body strength?” she asked.
“You mean can I hold your weight? Fuck yes.”
Scarlet climbed on the couch behind me, then came forward over my shoulder. I helped her slide down my body then gripped her hips, holding her over my lap. Her breasts pressed against me, and she giggled, grabbing on to my dick and trying to manoeuvre into place.
“This is ridiculous,” she said.
“What? You’ve never given an upside-down blowjob before?” I kissed her thigh. At this angle, I had no chance of giving her a decent go, but I’d try anyway.
The taste of her had haunted me. I needed to get reacquainted, and fast.
Bringing her pussy to right below my face, I licked her clit, earning myself a muttered curse. Then I inched my tongue into the wet centre of her, into all I’d dreamed about.
Ah Christ. This was it.
Scarlet was having less luck getting to grips with me, so I played my advantage and sucked and kissed her into a fever.
Then, somehow, she got her mouth onto my dick, and I sank into the heat of her once more.
“Oh fuck!” I yelled.
Going down on her had turned me from a regular horny guy into a desperate man, ready to come and needing to now.
I lifted her off me.
“We just got there!” She gasped. “Keep going!”
“Or how about ye ride me and I come inside ye rather than down your throat,” I replied, my words indecent. “Either way, I haven’t even touched my dick in forever. I’m far too close already.”
With a wee bit of wrangling, Scarlet got back onto my lap again. She took the condom box from where I’d dropped it on the floorboards, extracted a foil packet, and tore it open. “You haven’t even touched yourself?”
“Not since I was with ye in that hotel.” I took her breasts in both hands and moulded them, playing with her nipples.
Her eyes gleamed. Taking my dick in hand, she rolled the condom on. Then she moved over me, lining us up. “I’ve got myself off to memories of your body on mine. But it was always a solo affair.”
I’d assumed Scarlet wasn’t seeing anyone—no doubt my astute sister-in-law would find a gentle way to tell me if she was—but knowing that she’d been celibate for the weeks that I had, too…
“Very, very good to know.” I gripped her waist and jacked my hips, spearing her in a fast move.
We both groaned.
This was it, the last barrier between friendship and…something else. Before Scarlet, I’d been so screwed up over sex, but this was as natural as breathing. No. More so. I needed to be inside her more than I needed air.
We were protected. I trusted her.
I wanted her to feel me deep inside and I desperately wanted to be the man who made her scream.
Then my challenge was set. I had to get her off before I embarrassed myself.
Scarlet brought her mouth to mine, and our kiss came as slick and hard as our fucking.
She grinded on my dick, breathing hard and charging me up with every lift and fall.
We fucked joyfully, like this melding of our bodies righted wrongs. Each hit met perfectly, and it ignited a pleasure I’d never known before. Irresistible. I was one hundred percent in for making Scarlet enjoy it as much as I was. More.
I reached down to make circles over her clit, but the limited space between our spread legs restricted me.
“Try something for me?” I asked.
“Anything. You could ask me anything right now and I’d agree.”
I grinned at her and slapped her arse. “On your feet.”
She climbed up, and I twisted her to face away from me, bringing her back to ride my dick in reverse.
“But I can’t kiss you.” She lined me up and sank back in place.
I hissed between my teeth.
“No, but I can do this.”
Now, I had freedom to manhandle her, with nothing in my way. I got back to work at her clit while she fucked me, taking over the reins. I groped her breasts with my other hand, laying my lips on her shoulder and neck.
She had freckles there, too.
I kissed every one.
At her escalating moans, I grinned on her skin and slammed harder, lifting my hips in a surge of raw power.
“Yes, yes!” Scarlet chanted, then she arched and yelped.
“There? Is that good?”
“Oh God! That is perfect. Keep doing that.”
I slowed my hand but upped the tempo of my thrusts. I clamped her to me, running my hand between her breasts and holding her lightly by the throat. Pinning her to my chest and keeping her exactly where I needed her. The angle was fucking difficult, but that made it all the more fun.
“Ally!” Inside, she clamped down on me, sending me delirious.
“I know, baby.”
Scarlet jerked and moaned my name, then dropped her head back to my shoulder, losing our rhythm. Tremors shook her, and her pussy pulsed on my dick.
Breathless, I focused on stroking her through her orgasm, blissful and so proud.
I’d expected her to be wary of me. Or worse: polite and careful.
Instead, she still burned for me, and Christ, I burned for her.
My mind ran ahead of me, considering positions to try so that I could get her coming again in a minute.
“You’re incredible,” she uttered, bracing herself against my bucking.
“I—” I’d been about to tell her to jump up again, but then a bolt of lightning shot down my spine.
And I was following her over the ledge.
“Scar!” I yelled, my balls tightening with my impending release. Frenzied, I jacked into her then stilled, coming, my mind blown and all my senses focused on the woman half lying on me.
I knew this would be epic. Damaging. Beautiful.
I wanted to blow her mind, but it was mine that had been lost.
“God, that was something else,” she said happily, but her words were distant behind my heartbeat thudding in my ears.
We held each other like our lives depended on it. What the hell this was, I didn’t know, but it left me only wanting one thing.
More.
Soon.