Luke
Scarlett rolled off the couch wearing the same sweatpants and T-shirt that she had been in for three days. She didn’t want me to talk to Chief Williams about the firing, so I hadn’t, but it was clearly affecting her. We had been staying at her apartment for the last few days, and I wasn’t sure she had left the house once.
“What’s the point?” she asked when I gently tried to guide her toward a shower and a change of clothes this morning. She relented on the shower, but the sweats, apparently, were staying.
My heart broke for her. It wasn’t a tragedy; it was just a job, after all. But being blindsided like she was, it was hitting her hard.
After working all weekend and the federal holiday we had on Monday, I was finally off today. My phone buzzed, but my gaze was glued to the wild mess of copper curls that I wanted to sink my fingers into as Scarlett stood at the counter, buttering her raisin toast. One of the few things that would get her to move off the couch: raisin toast, coffee, bathroombreaks, and string cheese. She was a woman of interesting comfort food, but hey, who was I to judge.
Another text notification vibrated. I pulled my eyes away from her, looking just as sexy in those dirty sweats as anything else, and checked my messages.
Wyatt: Maeve and I have a babysitter tonight. Who wants to go out?
Seb: I’m in
Reid: Yeah, Claire and I will be there.
“Hey, the crew is going out tonight for drinks. Do you want to try to get out of the house for a bit and hang or just stay in?”
She didn’t say anything at first. I wanted to go out with the group. It had been a while since we all got together. But if Scarlett wasn’t ready for it or didn’t want to be around people yet, that was fine too.
“We can just stay in, baby. That’s fine,” I told her.
“No. I was just thinking. It’ll be good for me to have to get dressed in real clothes. I, um.” She rubbed her hands on the counter, wiping away nonexistent crumbs. “I haven’t told anyone about getting fired though.”
Shit. My stomach dropped.
My rounded eyes must have been a clue that I may have messed up.
“You already told them, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t know it was a secret. I should have asked first. I was just so pissed about the whole thing, and I was venting to them about it,” I admitted with a cringe. “Are you mad at me?”
I stepped into her space, tilting her chin up so I could kiss her.
She hummed softly against my lips. I parted her lips with my tongue, deepening the kiss. I was only going for a quick touch of her lips, but Christ, I couldn’t get enough of this woman. I couldn’t regret the decisions I’d made in life, because they’d brought me here, to this moment, but I couldn’t help but wish we could have gotten here sooner. I thought I had forgotten what feeling in love felt like, but with Scarlett in my arms, I had to admit, it felt a lot like this.
She sank into my touch, her warm hand pressed firmly against my bare chest. I grabbed a fistful of her soft ass, and all my blood ran south.
“Are you trying to distract me from being mad at you?” she teased. She peppered kisses along my jaw and down the column of my neck.
“You don’t seem too mad right now, so I think it’s working.”
Her laughter lifted a weight I didn’t even realize I was carrying.
“I’m not mad. It actually makes my life easier.” She shrugged.
“Well, drinks aren’t until later. What do you think we should do to kill some time between now and then?”
“I’m sure we can think of something.”
I hauled her up by her waist and sat her on the edge of the kitchen counter. She tried to wrap her legs around me.
“Uh-uh.” I shook my head at her. With my hand on the waistband of her sweatpants, she lifted her ass in the air so I could drag them off her legs. “The only thing I want between these thighs is my face, Letty Girl.”
“Luke.” She breathed my name like it was a plea. She had been down in the dumps for days, and she could take as long as she needed to process being fired and the injustice that Iwasn’t being treated the same way, but if I could make her feel better, even for a little bit, I wanted to do that for her.
I nipped at the soft skin on her inner thigh. She moaned quietly and shifted herself closer to me. I let my tongue trail a line higher and higher up her leg, so close to her center but not giving her what she wanted just yet. She rocked her hips again, seeking that relief. I had every intention of teasing her, drawing this out until she was begging for my mouth, but the tangy, sweet scent of her was driving me wild. My tongue circled her entrance, dipping into her sweet pussy. I licked a path through her slit, and when I reached the tight bundle of nerves, I sucked on her hard.
