Chapter 37
Nolan looks over at me after he turns off his car. I stare at Theo’s truck in front of us.
“You good?”
I nod, but I’m far from good. This is a bad idea. So he kept the lily, it doesn’t mean anything.
“If it gets too awkward, grab your plant and wait for me in the car. Okay?”
Taking in a deep breath, I open the door. “I’ll be fine.”
As we approach the door, it opens. I stop, Nolan runs into my back, but it doesn’t distract from my focus on dinner girl—the girl who Theo brought home the night I made him dinner. The girl who thought I was his maid has something in her hands—my peace lily!
“That’s my plant,” I mutter as I charge toward her.
“Hey!” Her eyes bulge out, mouth open in shock, when I snatch the plant from her. “Theo gave me that!”
I glare at her for a full five seconds before I tear open the screen door and march inside with my plant. Nolan says something to her, but I can’t register his words over the anger surging in my veins, making it difficult to hear anything but my own racing heart.
The target of my anger turns, partially hidden behind boxes on the worktop. He gives me the once-over with no discernible expression before he wraps a plate in newspaper and places it in a box.
“Did you fuck that tart then give her my peace lily as a parting gift?”
He ignores me. The stupid wanker has the nerve to ignore me.
“You have your plant, Scarlet. Maybe it’s time for you to wait in the car,” Nolan says, stepping in front of me so I can no longer see Theo.
“Maybe you should wait in the car for me, Nolan,” I grit through my teeth.
“Maybe you both should come back after I’ve moved out. Technically, this place is still mine.”
I step past Nolan before he can stop me. “Ours, you big arse. Technically it’s still ours, but the lily is mine!” My voice proves to be double the size of my body.
“Give us a few minutes, Nolan,” Theo says with his frigid glare on me.
“You okay?” Nolan asks me.
“I’m not the one you should be worried about,” I narrow my eyes at Theo. The humming bird … I will always be the humming bird.
Nolan chuckles with a slight head shake. “I’ll be up the way, getting a beer. Call me when you get this settled.”
I still don’t have a mobile but saying that would break my concentration. Nothing can distract me from plotting Theodore Reed’s death.
The door clicks and Theo steps toward me. I step back.
“Where’s your fiancé?”
“Daniel is in London, but he’s not my fiancé. I broke off my engagement six months ago.”
Theo takes another step. I don’t move; instead, I hug the peace lily tighter.
“You gave me the plant.”
I shake my head. “You rejected her, so she’s mine.”
“You abandoned her.” He takes another step.
I can’t breathe with him towering over me. “You rejected me. You basically spat on my face and dumped me. Then you fucked that tart and gave her my peace lily.”
He laughs—the nerve of him.
“Why do you always think I’m fucking her?”
My jaw drops as my head juts toward him. “Are you serious?” I stomp past him and slam the lily onto the worktop. It’s not my intention to release my frustration on Phoebe, but this man is monumentally irritating.
“Sorry.” I plant my fists on my hips. “But if I’m not mistaken, that’s what you implied when you first brought her here. The night your maid cooked dinner.”
“I didn’t fuck her that night. I told you that.”
“But you did today.”
He shakes his head, pumping his fists at his sides, the muscles along his tatted arms flexing over and over. “She showed up unexpected. Yes, she wanted to ‘fuck,’ but we didn’t. I told her I’m moving. She seemed to like the plant, so I told her to take it. You were gone. What did it matter?”
My name is Scarlet Stone, and I’ve been told I have a fiery personality when it comes to men. Of course, the only people who tell me that are men.
“Gone? GONE!?” I throw my hands in the air.
Then I press my palms to the side of my head.
“I’ve been here! I’ve been waiting for you.
I destroyed a good man to prove my love for you.
I laid my heart at your feet and you stomped the living shit out of it.
The day I found out I had a second chance at life, with endless possibilities, the only—only thing I knew for certain was…
” my voice cracks just like my heart “…that I wanted you.”
With one blink, the last shred of my composure evaporates. I didn’t think I possibly had anything else to lay on the line. I was wrong. So here it goes.
“I know the words…” I can’t stop my voice from shaking, my tears from falling “…were lies. I didn’t want us to be anything because I really felt I had nothing to give, especially time.
But what happened—every undefined moment—was the most honest thing I have ever experienced.
For me, nothing has ever been more true. ”
There it is. No regrets. I’m counting breaths not seconds. I will no longer waste a single one on something that is not real. No more hiding behind lies and fear. Cancer or not, I could die tomorrow, and I can’t imagine taking a single unspoken emotion to my grave.
I wish he’d say something. Every inch of me feels cut open, exposed … completely raw.
“Thirty-six,” he whispers. “That’s how many minutes passed between Daniel telling me you had terminal cancer and you telling both of us that you were going to live.”
A shaky breath sends a shiver down my spine as he erases the space between us, one slow step at a time.
“For thirty-six minutes I couldn’t find one single breath to take. For thirty-six minutes …” He swallows hard, clenching his jaw.
My palm presses to his cheek. He closes his eyes and leans into my touch, his hand gently encircling my wrist.
“Tell me something real,” I whisper.
“I spent thirty-six minutes contemplating putting a bullet in my own head.” He opens his eyes.
Breathe, Scarlet.
I can’t count breaths if I can’t remember how to breathe.
“B-but you said … you didn’t love me.”
Theo cups the back of my neck and presses his forehead to mine. “I lied.”
I fist his shirt. “Say it, and … mean it.”
His lips brush mine.
I inch back, shaking my head. “Say it.”
He reaches for my lips again, his hold on my neck tightening.
My hands release his shirt then push against his chest. “Say. It.”
Theo growls, backing me into the wall, towering over me. Before I can protest, his mouth is on mine, our tongues vying for control of something that we both know can never truly be controlled.
“N-n-no!” I rip my lips from his, turning my head to the side to catch my breath.
He grabs my head and crashes his mouth to mine again. “N-no!” I yank his hair. “Say—”
His lips attack mine again.
I wriggle out of his hold once more. “SAY IT!”
Our bodies could not be any closer without actually touching, my chest rising and falling as rapidly as his. He looks like a wolf ready to attack again. I will be his sheep. All he has to do is say it.
His hands inch to the front of my button-down sundress. I watch them. He’d better say it.
I suck in a quick breath as he rips open my dress in one, quick jerk.
“I …” Ducking down, he bites the swell of my breast.
“Ahh!” I cry.
His tongue makes a languid stroke over the bite mark. “Love …” He rips my bra open.
I gasp again.
He licks a trail down my stomach, lowering to his knees. When he looks up at me, I feel nothing but gratitude for a disease that almost took my life. I see the reason I traveled 4000 miles to … live.
“You,” he whispers.
My eyes drift shut as he drags my knickers down my legs. I’m drunk on this moment—intoxicated by Theodore Reed worshiping my body. Breathe in … breathe out … one … two … three …
His tongue flicks my clit.
My teeth dig into my lower lip, my knees shake.
Four … five … six …
“You drive me so fucking insane.” Another flick of his tongue. “Every word …” Another, but a bit harder.
My hips jerk.
“Every look … I feel so … completely undone.”
“Oh … God.” This is sweet, sweet torture. I grab his hair to steady myself as he cups the back of my legs and presses me closer to him. His tongue diving deeper into me.
Seven … eight … nine …
Breathe in … breathe out …
Don’t think a second past this moment. This is life, Scarlet, grab it and don’t ever let go.
“Th-Theo …” My head thumps against the wall as I grab two fists full of his hair.
Ten … eleven … twelve …
I squeeze my eyes shut, jaw slack, breath held, so close to … God, I’m almost …
The back door, a foot to the right, starts to open. Theo reaches his hand over and slams it shut.
“What the hell?” Nolan’s voice sounds from the outside.
My eyes fly open.
Without taking his mouth off me, Theo moves us over against the door and flips the deadbolt. I try to squirm out of his hold. He shakes his head.
“Stop—”
He presses one hand over my mouth while his other hand hooks my left leg over his shoulder. I wrap both of my hands around his arm trying to move his hand from my mouth, but … Oh. My. God. It’s too late. He takes my orgasm with such command, I’m certain he is the better thief.
“Scarlet, what’s going—” Nolan’s voice is no longer at the door—it’s at the window on the other side of the door.
The blind is shut, but not flush to the window.
He sees us: tits out and Theo’s mouth making out with my vertical smiley face.
This is bloody brilliant. I can’t do anything because it’s physically impossible to stop the progression of an orgasm that’s already started.
My abs pull tight, arse clenches, the muscles in my legs flex, desperate to capture every bit of pleasure.
It’s a complete state of falling and nothing can be done to rectify the situation until I hit the ground.
Then I will run to the bathroom with the now-two-separate pieces of my bra and my tattered dress, only to never come out.
Theo releases his hand from my mouth and my leg from his shoulder, then he kisses his way up my body, stopping at my breast.
“Ow! Bloody hell!”
The cheeky bastard grins with his teeth on the verge of breaking the skin of my nipple, then he bangs his fist twice on the door. “Go home, Nolan,” he mumbles with my nipple still in his mouth.
Fuck the cancer. I’m certain my death will come of complete embarrassment.
“Scarlet?”
My nose scrunches. It’s not like he doesn’t know I’m in here.
“Are you good?”
He can’t be serious. I know he saw just how good I am.
Theo’s tongue makes a trail up to my neck as he unfastens his trousers. Nolan needs to leave before Theo nails me to the door. I know this look in his eyes. He’s pleasured me once, and now he’s ready to guarantee I won’t walk straight for several days.
“Great … good … I’ll make sure your bike gets back to you … uh … bye!”
I grab Theo’s face, forcing him to look at me. “Say it again.” I grin, needing to hear him say it once more.
He licks his lips—licks me from his lips—and shakes his head as he shoves his trousers down enough to release his cock. “It’s not going to make me go easy on you.”
I know this. I would be disappointed if he did.
Some men fuck much different than they look.
Not Theo. He looks like a beast and he fucks like one too.
There has never been anything gentle about him.
It’s like riding in the front seat of a rollercoaster: I’m guaranteed to get jerked around, my body slammed in every direction, my stomach will be in my throat; I fear all the feels as much as I crave them and in the end I’ll feel a bit bruised and battered, but utterly satisfied with the biggest damn smile on my face.
Theo grips the back of my legs and lifts me up, pinning me to the door.
“Say it.”
He impales me, eyes on mine the whole time.
I wince a bit, feeling the first jerk of the rollercoaster.
Theo has no idea what it means to ease into a woman.
He’s everything Daniel never was. The woman I am with Theo is a Scarlet Stone no other man has ever known.
If this life—this moment—is a lie, then the truth will never matter to me.
“I love you,” he says a breath before our mouths crash together.
Theodore Reed is the ride of a lifetime in every way.
“Harder …” I mumble over his lips. “Faster …” My fingers curl into the muscles along his back.
His head drops to my shoulder.
I close my eyes and just … hold … on. “More … more of this … more of us … more breaths …” I whisper to the universe as I let him bleed me dry of every sensation and emotion I have to give.
My name is Scarlet Stone, and I love sex. I believe if all emotion and reason were stripped from human existence, the answer to all physical questions would be sex.