10. Symphonies
Chapter ten
Symphonies
Scarlett
The soft strains of piano music seeped through the corridor, a siren’s call pulling Scarlett from sleep.
Her pulse thrummed in time with it—a slow, dangerous rhythm of anticipation.
Leaning against the sitting room wall, her fingers tingled with the memory of the fire that had already burned between them.
Heat lingered on her skin like a stubborn brand, her chest rising and falling, with a mix of fury and craving.
Ace sat at the piano, fingers poised above the keys, eyes glinting in the dim candlelight.
Dark. Dangerous. Full of that effortless menace that made her blood heat and her thoughts rebel.
His chest rose with shallow breaths, a sheen of sweat glistening on his skin, promising both storm and punishment.
Scarlett stepped closer, her fingers brushing his shoulders, the minimal contact enough to spark the fire coiled between them. “Mine?” She repeated his words from earlier, her voice low, dangerous. “Careful, Ace. You're talking like you forgot who gets to do the choosing here.”
His eyes darkened instantly, his lips curving into a sly smile.
Scarlett tilted her chin higher, refusing to give him an inch.
“No one gets to decide my future for me anymore,” she hissed.
“Not kings, not courts, and certainly not you!” Her lips hovered just shy of his.
“You only get to play your hand, if I allow it.”
A smile spread across Ace’s face, sharp and arrogant. The kind that promised trouble. “That mouth is going to get you into trouble one day.”
“Maybe I like trouble.”
His hands shot to her waist suddenly, fingers digging in hard enough to pull a gasp from her as he dragged her flush against him. “You like teasing me,” he corrected darkly.
Scarlett’s pulse jumped, but she only smirked wider. Reckless enough to push the storm and grin when lightning struck back.
“And what if I do?”
Ace stepped forward until her back hit the piano with a sharp thud. The air shifted around him; it was heavy and impossible to ignore. Every inch of him radiated control held together by the thinnest thread.
“I’m not Maddox,” he murmured against her mouth. “I don't play nice when someone dares me.”
The challenge in her eyes only sharpened. “Big words from a prince who hesitates.” That did it.
Ace’s hand wrapped around her throat—not enough to hurt, just enough to remind her exactly who stood in front of her. His thumb tilted her chin back as he leaned close, his expression dangerous.
“You want honesty?” His voice dropped, rough and low. “I think about bending you over this piano every time you look at me like that.” Heat slammed through her so fast, it nearly stole her breath. But Scarlett only bit down on her bottom lip and whispered: “Then why don't you?”
A dark laugh rumbled from his chest. “There she is,” he muttered. “The spoiled little queen who loves pushing until someone finally pushes back.” His mouth crashed into her before she could answer.
The kiss was rough, consuming, a collision of restraint.
Teeth scraped, Scarlett gasped against his mouth when Ace gripped her hips hard enough to bruise, and he lifted her effortlessly onto the piano.
Grabbing her knees, he pulled them apart so he could settle between them.
The old wood groaned beneath the force. The keys screamed in chaotic dissonance, the music shattered by their intensity.
Scarlett grabbed his shirt, nails digging into his shoulder as she kissed him back just as fiercely. Matching him, fighting for control, instead of surrendering it. Gods, that only seemed to make him worse.
Ace pulled back just enough to look at her, breathing hard and his pupils blown wide with desire. “Do you have any idea what you do to me?” Leaning into her so she could feel his length, pressing insistently against her, fueling her desire with the promise of what was to come.
Scarlett smiled wickedly. “Probably.”
His grip tightened possessively against her thighs. “Careful,” he warned, “you keep provoking me like this, and I'm going to forget how patient I've been trying to be with you.”
“Maybe—” she whispered, dragging him closer again, “I want you to lose control.”
Ace’s chuckle was low, rough—a growl of dark promise. “Oh, I intend to. In every way you can imagine—until you beg—or until you surrender.”
The fire inside her flared in response to his words, his touch, the sheer weight of him pressing against her. She mirrored his intensity, pushing closer, teasing him, testing him without giving in completely.
“You’re insufferable,” she whispered, her teeth grazing his bottom lip in a playful bite, a challenge.
“And yet, you can’t resist me,” he groaned, voice deep with need.
“Maybe I don’t want to resist anymore,” she breathed, her voice a defiant spark.
“Then don’t,” he murmured, mouth crushing hers, lips devouring, tongue demanding surrender.
Her hands clawed at his chest, dragging him down, refusing to yield.
She was no prey. She was fire, a storm wrapped in flesh and blood.
Ace’s hands tore through her bodice, silk ripping beneath his touch, exposing the pale curve of her breasts.
His mouth claimed her, teeth lashing over her nipple, tongue teasing, biting, leaving a trail of fire down to her core.
Scarlett tangled her fingers in his hair, yanking him back to face her. “Careful, you're not the only one who knows how to take what they want.” Her teeth caught his lower lip again in a slow bite, before she released him with a wicked smile. “And I fully plan on having you, too.”
His growl was animalistic, pure, and feral.
He thrust her skirt up, exposing her thighs, one hand cupping her mound, fingers pressing hard, dragging a moan from Scarlett’s throat.
“Already wet for me,” he taunted, sliding his fingers through her slick heat, teasing, torturing, before plunging deep inside her.
Dragging a moan out of her before adding a second finger.
Scarlett gasped, the sound muffled as she bit her lip, nails raking the back of his neck. “I hate you,” she hissed, each word laced with fury and desire.
“You don’t,” he murmured, pulling away only to fumble with his belt, before getting onto his knees in front of her.
He grabbed her by the hip, pulling her to the edge of the piano.
Without hesitation, he slid his tongue along her slit.
Stopping at her clit and sucking, teasing her with his tongue, before adding fingers back into her.
He taunted that space of desire and hate in her by working her up and stopping right as she got louder.
Scarlett shoved his head closer to her, refusing to surrender control.
Frustrations building with his teasing. Curling his finger forward in a slower drag, keeping her right on the edge.
Ace pulled away, Scarlett growling her frustrations, her chest rising and falling quicker now.
Sliding off the piano, Scarlett lowered his pants, and his cock sprang free, thick and flushed.
She kneeded before him looking into his eyes searching for the same fire she had building inside her.
Her hand wrapped around him, curling with practiced, fierce determination to push him to the edge in return. She smiled softly up at him.
“My turn to play,” she whispered, guiding him back to the piano bench, matching his brutality in teasing with her own.
Thrusting his hips for more friction in her hand, his frustration in the teasing building as he grabs her hair at the base of her neck, guiding her down to his cock.
Scarlett circled the tip with her tongue while staring into his eyes.
The storm of desire darkened his eyes. She took his cock into her mouth, fully hollowing out her cheeks, moaning on the way down.
She pulled back slowly, dragging her tongue along the bottom of his cock.
Ace let out a deeper moan before pushing her back down onto him.
Holding her there for a moment, pushing for his dominance of the situation, even though he knew she was in control.
Releasing her, she pulled back with a gasp for air as a tear built at the waterline of her eyes.
Ace pulled her back up for a kiss, before picking her up and setting her on the piano keys, shoving the skirt of her dress back up her hips.
Ace’s control snapped briefly. But when he thrust into her with savage force to the hilt, then stopping only for a moment, Scarlett cried out.
Her nails dug into him as the sheer size of him stretched her boundaries.
She met him with defiance, pressing, dragging him deeper, hips tilting as she dared him to go harder.
“Scarlett,” he snarled, pistoning relentlessly. “You’ll break before I do.”
She locked her legs around him, dragging him as deep as he dared go. “Then break me,” she hissed, eyes ablaze with fury and desire.
Their rhythm became brutal, primal—a war of dominance and surrender.
Flesh collided, bodies pressing, rolling, the piano screaming beneath their storm.
Scarlett’s nails scored his skin in crescents, raw and burning.
Ace punished her with each thrust; she challenged him, meeting him stroke for stroke, testing every boundary he tried to impose.
Her climax tore through her suddenly, violently—muscles clenching, body shaking as she gasped and moaned into his shoulder.
Ace’s breath seared her neck, heavy, demanding, his cock still lodged deep inside her, keeping her tethered.
She drew him back in, teeth sinking into his throat, dragging him through the aftershocks, forcing him to spill inside of her, as the final discordant notes of the piano thundered through the room.
Their hateful passion creates a symphony of its own across the piano keys.