5 Scarlett #3
Bartenders moved quickly through the chaos, pouring colorful cocktails while half-dressed girls danced on raised platforms above the crowd.
Toward the back of the club sat a more private lounge area hidden behind smoked glass walls and guarded doors where the truly wealthy and dangerous people disappeared throughout the night.
The second we enter the club; Harper somehow cons her way into getting drinks despite strict instructions from Roman and Declan that we were absolutely not drinking tonight.
Naturally, she ignores them. We toss the drinks back quickly before she grabs my hand and drags me toward the dance floor.
The music vibrates through my body instantly as Harper pulls me into the center of the crowd.
I let myself relax for the first time in days, moving my hips to the beat as lights flash around us.
Then suddenly, strong hands slide around my waist from behind.
Before I can panic, Asher’s voice brushes against my ear.
“If you move like that again, Red, I’m gonna have to punish you.”
My pussy clenches at the though. God what I would do to be punished by this man.
“I told you to stay close to me,” he murmurs, pulling my back flush against his chest as we move together with the music.
My breathing catches. He turns me around slowly, and I loop my arms around his neck while we dance.
His hand settles low against my waist, dangerously close to the hem of the tiny dress Harper forced me into.
I’m starting to think she picked it specifically to torture me.
Across the dance floor, Harper is already dancing with two different guys at once.
Typical. We’ve been here less than twenty minutes and men are already swarming her.
Roman stands near the bar beside Declan, glaring openly at the guy’s dancing against Harper.
Hmm. That definitely looks interesting. I continue dancing with Asher until Harper suddenly appears beside us again holding another drink.
I’m about to take a sip when Asher smoothly steals it from my hand.
“I thought we said no drinking.”
“Oh, come on,” Harper whines dramatically. “One drink isn’t gonna kill us. Loosen up a little. It’s not like we don’t have an entire tactical team ready to deploy if something goes wrong.
Asher sighs.
“Fine. One drink.” I grin up at him and impulsively kiss his cheek before taking the drink back. The look he gives me afterward nearly melts me into the floor.
An hour later, Harper is completely drunk.
I honestly have no idea how she managed to sneak drinks past Roman, Declan, Asher, and Zariah, but somehow, she did.
Probably because everyone’s more focused on protecting me than watching her.
She’s currently stumbling away with one of the guys she’s been dancing with all night when Roman suddenly steps directly into their path.
“Oh shit,” Asher mutters beside me before immediately pulling me behind him toward the scene.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re taking her?” Roman asks coldly.
The guy scoffs.
“What’s it to you, man? You her brother or something? Back the fuck up.”
The second he shoves Roman’s shoulder; everything happens so fast. Roman twists the guy’s arm behind his back and slams him against the wall so quickly the entire area feels like it goes silent.
“No,” Roman says calmly near the guy’s ear. “I’m not her brother.”
Then his expression darkens.
“But I am the one taking her home tonight.”
Before Harper can protest, Roman throws her over his shoulder like she weighs nothing. She immediately starts pounding against his back.
“What the fuck was that asshole?!” she yells while he carries her outside. “Who gives you the right to tell me who I can go home with?”
Roman doesn’t even slow down.
“What gives me the right?” he snaps. “How about the fact that you’re eighteen, drunk off your ass, and too wasted to realize that guy looked old enough to be your father?”
Harper gasps dramatically.
“Also,” Roman continues, “we’re here protecting Scarlett. Which means while you’re with her, you’re my responsibility too.”
“I do not need a babysitter!”
“You absolutely do.”
He finally sets her down once we’re safe outside the club, but the second she stumbles sideways into a parked car, he catches her again with a long-suffering sigh.
“Will you put me down?!” she screeches.
“When you learn how to walk without tripping over oxygen,” Roman mutters before hauling her back into his arms and carrying her toward the SUV while Declan laughs the entire way.
We make it back to the house sometime after midnight, and by then Harper is completely passed out. Roman carries her inside effortlessly despite her occasional drunken mumbling and dramatic complaints about how he’s “ruining her hot girl moment.”
“You’re lucky you’re cute,” he mutters as he disappears upstairs with her thrown over his shoulder.
“Well…” Zariah says with an amused smirk while slipping off her heels near the staircase. “That was entertaining.”
Declan snorts.
“Night, y’all.” The three of them head upstairs, leaving Asher and me alone in the quiet kitchen.
Suddenly the house feels very different. Too quiet, too intimate.
“Do you want anything to drink?” I ask softly as I move toward the refrigerator and pull out a bottle of water.
“I want something,” Asher says from behind me, his voice low and rough, “but it’s definitely not a drink.”
My breath catches. I slowly turn around and nearly forget how to breathe entirely. The way he’s looking at me should honestly be illegal. His eyes drag slowly down my body before returning to my face.
“Do you have any idea what you were doing to me tonight?” he asks quietly. “Watching you dance around in that tiny little dress, grinding against me like that…” He exhales sharply, like he’s trying to regain control.
“God, Scarlett.”
Before I can respond, he closes the distance between us.
Strong hands grip my waist as he lifts me effortlessly onto the kitchen counter.
I gasp softly as he steps between my knees.
His hands slide slowly down my legs, fingers brushing against my skin as he removes my heels one at a time before tossing them carelessly aside.
Then his mouth follows the same path. Slow.
Deliberate. Dangerous. My pulse jumps wildly as his lips brush against the inside of my thigh.
“You smell so damn good,” he murmurs against my skin. Every nerve ending in my body ignites.
His fingers trail lightly over my hips before settling against my waist, and I swear the entire room feels too hot.
“Asher…” I breathe.
His mouth moves higher, kissing slowly up my neck before his teeth graze gently against my skin.
“Tell me to stop,” he says quietly against my ear. “Tell me that we shouldn’t be doing this, please just tell me something.
Instead, I grab onto his shirt tighter.
“Don’t stop.”
That tiny bit of permission completely destroys whatever control he had left.
He kisses me hard enough to steal the air from my lungs as he lifts me off the counter and carries me upstairs.
I can barely think straight, by the time we reach my bedroom, I’m breathless and shaking.
He kicks the door shut behind us before lowering me carefully onto the bed.
For a moment, he just looks at me. Like I’m something dangerous, no something precious. His fingers brush my cheek gently.
“You sure about this, Red?” The softness in his voice nearly undoes me more than the heat ever could.
Because after everything that’s happened… After all the fear and pain and humiliation…Asher is still asking, he is still making sure, still giving me a choice, and somehow that matters more than anything.
“Yes,” I whisper honestly. His forehead rests briefly against mine before he kisses me again, slower this time.
Like he’s trying to memorize me. I tangle my fingers into his dark hair as his hands slide carefully along my waist and find the inside of my panties, and for the first time in what feels like forever, I don’t feel broken.
I feel wanted.
Safe.
Protected.
Loved in a way I don’t fully understand yet.
And when he finally pulls me fully against him beneath the soft glow of the bedroom lights, I realize something terrifying.
I’m already falling for him far harder than I ever intended to.
He works his fingers in and out of me as his tongue works in and around my tongue.