“It’s a beautiful specimen.” She shifts and settles on her back. “My pride and joy, standing at just over eight feet tall. I bought her a couple years back, and she’s currently in storage until I get my own place, fit for her.”
“It does sound likesheshould be displayed,” I agree.
Though, when I see her like this, starry-eyed, daydreaming of things she loves, I would agree with my own murder just to keep her in this state.
I’m so thoroughly fucked, my world is spinning.
“It would look mighty pretty in the center of that great big church of yours, stained-glass sunshine raining down on it,” Scarlet says, laughing. The whimsical sound shoots straight to my cock. “I didn’t mean—” She covers her mouth, eyes widening in horror. “I didn’t suggest living there or...I know this is only one night and—oh god.” She pulls the blanket over her head in clear mortification.
But the surprise she sees in my eyes is not what she thinks it is. Because that might not have been what she was suggesting, but fuck if Scarlet wouldn’t lookmighty prettyin that great big church of mine.
For the first time, the solitude I’ve always thrived in doesn’t feel as attractive anymore.
Chapter 25
Scarlet
Our clothes are dry, the storm quieted down sometime in the middle of the night, and the rain stopped before Carter and I woke up, limbs entangled as we nested in that small bed.
I think he woke up before me. His eyes bore no trace of sleep when I opened mine and found him watching me. I would have thought it creepy if it wasn’t downright flattering. The usual chill in his gaze was still present, the emptiness still looked back at me, but there was a comforting familiarity in it. A kindred malice that felt like home.
Today seems different. Like last night’s storm cleansed the negative, unsettled tension between us.
Conflict remains, but it’s internal. Because the end of this mad chase and the explosive sex left me with...feelings. Thick and heavy feelings, all for the man that quietly walks beside me now.
I never thought that one night could shift the earth as much as it did, but it left space for desires, doubts, and a longing for things that could probably never be.
As we walk shoulder to shoulder through the wet, calm woods and steal hopeful glances, I can’t help but wonder if he’s going to bring up what happens next.
Is this a one-off?
Do we shake hands and part ways now that he declared he no longer wishes to kill me? Or do we...see where this road takes us?
Don’t be stupid, Scar. This road leads nowhere.
He can’t love you, and you can’t give him what all men seem to want.
I sigh, disguising it as strain from all the walking, as I turn my attention to anything but the man beside me.
“Careful,” he urges, arms wrapping around me as my feet catch on something and I lose my balance.
“Shit. Sorry.” I grip him as he steadies me when I almost trip on a fallen branch. It wasn’t small, either.
I really need to pay more attention rather than think of all the ways a relationship between us lacksallthe potential.
But his careful touch is warm, possessive, and so fucking inviting. How could I not think of it?
He doesn’t release me when I look into his eyes with the same hope that burns in my chest. He pulls me closer, brushes the fallen strands of hair off my cheek, and tucks them behind my ear. Such gentleness for a man with a nickname that inspires bloodshed.
Swiping the tip of his thumb over my bottom lip, hunger fills his eyes, and I have only a second to take a breath before he crushes his mouth to mine.
In my chest, buried in that cavity that stalls my breath when he touches me, fire burns with furious fervor. With one hand on the small of my back, he presses me against his taut body, and I all but melt into him. Our tongues stroke each other, lips gripping every ounce of passion the other has to offer, and fuck if I don’t want him to take me right here, right now. Bury me in the mud and offer me to the fairy gods that lie in wait.
I’ll be his sacrifice, dying thoroughly fucked and perfectly spent.
When he comes up for air, panting heavily, I swear I see humanity in his hypnotizing hazel eyes. For one brief moment, when his gaze is so focused on me, our impossible future flashes before my eyes.
“We—”
