by Bella J.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, her nails pushing hard into his scalp. He didn’t care that it stung like a bitch, he liked it. It fueled his already out of control, red-hot desire for her. Within seconds the sound of their mouths slapping together filled the room, the air around them laden with sexual desire, their out of control craving for each other fueling their every move. Faster, harder, they started to ravish each other, their bodies growing more demanding with each passing second.
As she dragged her nails down his neck, over his shoulders, he was sure it drew blood. The pain mixed with the pleasure of touching her, swallowing her moans in his mouth, sent his body, his mind into a fucking frenzy.
They were kissing, touching, tasting like their lives depended on it. It was all hands, tongues, and labored breaths, trying to devour each other as fast and as hard as they could.
He pulled his hand away from between her legs, and she moaned.
“Don’t stop, Ace.”
“I don’t plan to.”
He grabbed her around her waist and lifted her while she wrapped her legs around him. Fuck him. He was in physical pain being so close to her but not feeling her around him. His body was screaming, wanting nothing more than to feel her heat possess him.
He moved to the cabinet next to the sink, and with one hand he pushed everything to the floor. The sound of glass breaking filled the room, but they didn’t stop. A fucking nuclear weapon could go off next to them and they still wouldn’t be able to stop. Whenever they were together like this, it was like they consumed each other completely.
After he placed her on the cabinet, he reached up and wound his fist in her hair, pulling her head back, wanting that soft skin of her neck offered to him like a goddamn sacrifice. While he sucked, nipped, and kissed her skin, unable to get enough of her sweet taste, Scarlet started to undo his belt, zipping down his pants.
The way her knuckles touched his skin felt like they were burning straight through to his soul. All the while in the back of his mind, he knew that this was wrong. This wasn’t the time. Neither of them were thinking straight. But fuck him, he couldn’t stop.
As soon as his cock was freed from his pants, she wrapped her hand around it, and Hunter groaned against her skin, pushing forward, deeper into her touch.
“Fuck, Scar. What the hell are we doing?” He hardly recognized his own voice as pleasure started to consume him.
“You know we need this, Ace.”
And then she moved forward, thrusting her hips, pushing his cock inside her. That was when Hunter finally let out the roar he had been keeping in. Feeling her heat, her tight walls closing around him was almost too fucking much.
Scarlet pulled his hair, lifting his face to hers before slamming her lips against his. Her teeth grazed against his lips, her tongue pushing as deep as possible inside his mouth.
Guided by nothing but desire and need, he started to move, thrusting in and out of her, needing to get that release as quick as fucking possible.
Hard, fast, and uncontrollable—that was how it was with them.
“You see, Ace,” Scarlet started, leaning against the mirror behind her, letting him watch as her tits bounced up and down as he fucked her. “This is what we need. This is how people like us deal with shit.”
She grabbed his hand and placed it on her breast, squeezing her hand around his.
Hunter was too far gone to even try to make sense of what the hell she just said. His mind was nothing but a frenzy of sensation, the need for pleasure.
While kneading her breast hard in his palm, fucking her like his life depended on it, Hunter closed his eyes and lowered his head, allowing the pleasure to consume him.
Scarlet grabbed his hair and pulled his head up with a hard jerk. “Don’t you fucking dare. Look at me, Ace. Look at me while you fuck me.”
“Fuck!” He slammed back into her hard and opened his eyes, staring straight into blue irises dark with the kind of need that mirrored his own.
Blue. From out of nowhere a picture of her face flashed inside his mind.
Harder, faster, more merciless thrusting of hips.
Blue. Memories of her beneath him, her beautiful face flushed with the exertion of their love making poured through his mind like poison. Her blonde hair splayed over his pillow, her back arching as the pleasure he gave her ripped through her body.
Blue.
Scarlet kept a tight hold on his hair, forcing him to keep his eyes on her. Blue fucking eyes. Blue eyes just like hers. It was like it was her staring back at him.
He closed his eyes, wanting to block out the image of her.
“Look at me, Hunter,” Scarlet demanded, and by God he did. He fucking did. Fuck knew why, but he looked at her. The only problem was, it was no longer Scarlet he was seeing.
Suddenly it was her face, her breasts, her body against his. It was Blue. It was all her, nothing else.
Hunter felt his spine start to tingle with the pleasure threatening to erupt from his body while his mind was still possessed with images of the woman he had lost. Yet now, he could feel her, feel Blue’s soul reach for his, taking control of him.
With another hard thrust, he lifted his hand and pushed his fingers through the blonde hair he had missed for so long, and grabbed hold of her neck as he continued his relentless pounding, his cock sliding in and out of her. And then he heard a voice that sounded a hell of a lot like his own. “Blue.”
The second he said it, it was like the haze he was in evaporated, and he instantly realized what he had done.
He stopped, his release seconds away from ripping through his body. Ice spread through his gut as the full extent of what he had just done dawned on him.
“Jesus, Scar. I didn’t mean—”
“Shut up.”
Their gazes remained locked on each other, and when Hunter noticed the hurt on her face, he cursed. Guilt spread like a damn cancer through his chest, infecting every part of him.
He wanted to rear back, but Scarlet grabbed his ass and pushed him forward, forcing him to stay inside her.
“Don’t you dare stop.”
Hunter shook his head. “Don’t—”
Scarlet flexed her hips, pushing him deeper, and Hunter immediately felt the pleasure, his need for release returning with full force.
“You fucking finish what you started, Ace.”
Determination beamed from her face while she continued to flex her hips, letting the pressure build and build inside him again. And he allowed it. He allowed her to push him past the point of no return even after what he had just done, after hurting her. What kind of monster was he?
But it was too late. He was too damn close. He wouldn’t have been able to stop even if someone held a gun to his head.
He grabbed her hips and pulled her forward, wrapping an arm around her back, pushing deeper into her. His body had taken complete control, and he continued to fuck Scarlet while images of Blue still poured into his mind.
It was like he was there, but he wasn’t. He had no control. He lost it completely. For a man who thrived on control, lived and strived for it, this fucked-up situation was all it took for him to finally lose it.
When Scarlet pushed her nails deep into the skin of his ass, Hunter came. Violent shudders of pleasure tore through his body as he pulsed his release inside her.
Everything around him went dark. There was nothing but his pleasure crashing against every corner of his body…and the images of the woman he lost. Blue.
Only when the tremors of his orgasm subsided did reality slowly start to sink back in, colors seeping back into his mind. He opened his eyes and saw Scarlet staring at him. And what he saw took his fucking breath away.
Tears. There were tears in her eyes. Tears while she stared at him with so much hurt on her face that it was almost too damn painful to look at her.
“Scar…I’m so fucking sorry.”
She didn’t say a word as she just kept on staring at him. The way she bit into her lower lip,
he knew she was fighting back the tears, the hurt he had just caused her. But she was failing since the tears just kept on slipping down her face.
Jesus Christ.
He stepped back, pulling out of her, and watched in horror as more tears silently moved over her cheek.
“Scarlet—”
“Please leave so that I clean myself.” She got off from the cabinet, and Hunter glanced down at her legs, watching in horror as the remnants of his release moved down her thighs.
Dear God. Never had Hunter felt like a bigger prick than he did right at that moment. He had done some fucked-up shit in his life, but nothing came close to this.
That was when he realized he was no better than the man who stole everything from Scarlet. Brent. Hunter was right up there next to that son of a bitch.
No longer able to look at her without wanting to tear his own goddamn skin off, Hunter zipped up his pants and turned to walk out the door.
“Ace?”
He stopped and glanced at her. She was looking at the tattoo on his side, the one with Blue’s name.
“Don’t worry about it too much,” she continued. “It was good while it lasted.”
Hunter cringed when her words stabbed right through his chest. Her voice was as cold as steel, and Hunter knew that if there had been even a little piece of good left inside her, he just destroyed it.
Whatever hope she might have had, Hunter just fucking slaughtered it.
Chapter 6
The moment Hunter shut the door behind him, Scarlet grabbed ahold of the bathroom sink, trying her best not to collapse into a puddle of pity.
But it hurt. It fucking hurt.
Why did it hurt so bad? She wasn’t supposed to feel anything. The part of her that was capable of feeling had died years ago. Hadn’t it?
So why the fuck was it hurting so bad that she couldn’t even manage to take a simple breath?
Tears welled up until she could no longer keep her sobs contained. With knuckles turning white as she tightened her hold on the sink, Scarlet let go. She allowed the tears to stream down her cheeks, hoping that some of the pain would escape along with the saltiness of her heartache.
It was all her fault. She pushed him. She pushed Hunter to look her in the eye while he fucked her, knowing her eyes made him think of her. Yet she kept on pushing, forcing him to think about the one person he had fought so hard to forget. It was like she wanted him to fuck it all up. Deep down she wanted him to break that little bit of hope she had been feeling for the last few days. If she didn’t have hope, she didn’t have expectations. Not having expectations was good…for her. So she pushed him into a corner, wanting him to fuck up.
While she was in the shower earlier, feeling really fucking sorry for herself, washing dried blood out of her hair, all she could think about was how glad she was that Hunter was there. It was like his presence made everything bearable—made her capable of handling it. And it scared the shit out of her, because that only meant one thing. She was starting to depend on him, and she didn’t want that. She did not spend the last few years of her life hardening herself, making sure she didn’t depend on anyone but herself, just to have one man swoop in and fuck it all up. Allowing herself to feel anything for anyone was not a luxury someone like her could afford. So she tricked him. Scarlet tricked Hunter into fucking up so that she could have a reason to hold on to the walls around her heart. So that he had a reason to let go of that sliver of hope Hunter had forced into her heart.
Yes, that was what she did, and what she did had a damn name. Entrapment.
She set the trap knowing all too well that Hunter’s scars, his regret and lingering love for Willow, would be the weakness that caused him to fall hook, line, and sinker into the trap.
But now, while her tears moved down her cheeks, she was the one bearing the sucky consequences of her fucked-up trap.
She lifted her gaze and stared at herself in the mirror. Eyes red and swollen from crying, her cheeks wet from her tears, and her hair a tangled mess, she looked like shit. No wonder they said beauty came from within. Her outer self was now a reflection of the chaos and the complete mess she was inside. There was nothing pretty about her…not anymore. There was no beauty hidden anywhere inside her. It was all withered, black, and dead.
Scarlet wiped away the wetness on her cheeks, took a deep breath, and stared at herself in the mirror.
“This is the last time you ever allow yourself to be weak.”
After splashing some cold water over her face, cleaning the remnants of Hunter’s “fuck-up” between her legs, Scarlet steeled herself and stepped out of the bathroom.
She knew Hunter would no longer be there. After seeing the grim expression on his face after he realized what he had done, Scarlet knew he wouldn’t stick around. Hunter didn’t cope well with regret, and that was exactly what she saw on his face. Regret.
Regret that he fucked her.
Regret that he called her Blue.
Regret that she wasn’t Blue.
Fuck.
When she walked into the bedroom, there was a pair of women’s jeans on the bed along with a black shirt. It made sense that these people had women’s clothing lying around since it was a safe house for abused girls rescued from slavery.
Scarlet wondered if it was even possible to rehabilitate women who had been abused, raped, and sold on the black market. Seemed like Scarlet actually had something in common with them—just not the sold on the black market part. And she sure as hell didn’t have the potential to be rehabilitated. What happened in the bathroom with Hunter earlier was proof of that.
After getting dressed and pulling her hair up in a sleek ponytail, Scarlet left the room in search of her supposed father. While she was trying to get her mind off Hunter, she was gathering a hell of a lot of questions for James Baxter. Questions she was about to get answers for.
It took her a while to find James’s office. When Hunter basically carried her to the bedroom earlier, drawing a map wasn’t exactly her top priority.
She was just about to step into the office when she heard his voice. Hunter. He was still there.
“What else do you know about this Brent fucker?”
“First, tell me the nature of your relationship with my daughter.”
“I’m sorry, but you’ve only been her father for, what, two hours? So you don’t yet have the right to know anything when it comes to Scarlet and me.” She could hear the annoyance in Hunter’s voice.
“Okay. I deserved that,” James replied.
“Sure did.”
There was a long pause before she heard a chair being pulled across the floor. “Brent Wolfe has become a threat to what we’re doing here.”
“Explain,” Hunter demanded.
“Brent found out about his grandmother funding our operation. And now he wants in.”
“Why is that a threat?”
“He doesn’t want in to help us. He wants into the underground. Brent wants to use his grandmother’s ties and money to build his own empire by selling women.”
Scarlet sucked in a breath, and placed her palm in front of her mouth, not wanting James or Hunter to know she was eavesdropping.
“Which is why Brent wants Blanche—Scarlet—dead. As long as he only has power of attorney, his expenses are being watched. So until he rightfully inherits everything, Brent can’t use any of the estate money to fund this empire he’s so hell-bound on building.”
“Fuck me,” she heard Hunter curse. She imagined him rubbing the back of his neck, trying to process everything James was saying.
“So we need to take Scarlet to the family attorneys, let her claim her inheritance,” James continued. “That’s the only way we can stop him.”
Scarlet almost vomited right there. Just the thought of going back made her feel sick to her stomach.
“She won’t go,” Hunter said. “There is no way Scarlet will do it.”
How was it that this man knew her so well?
“I
don’t think she has a choice here, Hunter. It’s the only way to stop Brent.”
“I’m telling you now, there is no way in hell Scarlet will go claim that inheritance. There isn’t enough money in this world to make her face him again.”
Scarlet’s heart fell straight down to the pit of her stomach. He was right. They could offer her the fucking crown jewels, she still wouldn’t face the devil.
“What happened to her, Hunter?” James asked, his voice low, like he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the answer.
“You need to ask her that.”
“I watched over her as much as I could through the years. And after I heard about her running away, I searched for her. When I found her, I made sure there was always someone close, keeping her safe and out of trouble.”
Hunter snorted. “Now it all makes sense. It was you. I never could understand how she managed to get away, why it was so fucking impossible to find her. But it was you. You worked behind the scenes to make sure she disappeared without a trace. You made it happen.”
“I did. I figured that whatever happened that made her run away from her home was big enough to justify her needing a little extra help…without her knowing it.”
Scarlet stared down at the floor. Suddenly everything made sense. All those times Scarlet managed to get away, how everything just always seemed to work out for her—it was James. He made it all happen without her suspecting anything.
“That was until you, of course,” James said. “When I got word that a new PI had been hired to find Scarlet, I looked into you. Hunter Keaton. PI by day, illegal cage fighter by night.”
“You knew about me?”
“I did. But I had a gut instinct about you, which is why I allowed you to get close.”
“You allowed me?” Hunter snorted again.
“Turns out my gut instinct was right.”
Scarlet’s head was starting to spin. It was like an information overload going down inside of her brain.
“Tell me, Mr. Baxter.” Scarlet heard the threat in Hunter’s voice. “If you were so fucking resourceful, and so good at protecting your daughter, then why the fuck did you not know what the hell Brent was doing to her?”