Covet

by Alison Ryan

  She was completely frustrated. As usual, Barrett was taking control of things, something he was inclined to do and something that she used to love about him. But in this situation, it was a problem. She’d hoped for a short dinner where she could be cold, with clipped, and unremarkable conversation. She’d make him wonder what he ever saw in someone like her. They’d part ways and he could move on with his life, knowing her leaving him five years ago wasn’t a mistake after all.

  The car slowly rolled onto the tarmac where a sleek plane was waiting for them, red carpet and all. As she got out of the car she couldn’t help but be impressed at Barrett’s preferred mode of travel. He looked back at her as he started walking toward the steps leading up to the plane.

  “You first, Scarlet,” he said, holding out his arm. Without even thinking, she took it, a natural habit from their old days. His arms were still solid and strong under his blazer. She felt a literal spark between them and he caught her eyes for a moment and she almost let it all out right then, everything she was holding back. She’d forgotten how intense his gaze could be, how much it heated her thighs up to have him looking at her. And now they would be alone on a plane together for who knows how long.

  “Where are we going anyway?” she was finally able to ask.

  “San Diego,” he said as they were greeted by the pilot and one very attractive flight attendant. “I like to eat my dinner by the water.”

  Scarlet, inexplicably, found herself laughing thirty minutes later as they glided through the cloudless sky above Nevada and then California.

  “I can’t believe you remember that!” she said. “I was ten years old. It was the worst moment of my life.”

  Barrett laughed as he sipped his whiskey and water, “Of course I remember. I felt terrible about it for years. Your sweet little face looked so upset. As soon as I saw your reaction I instantly regretted doing that to you.”

  Barrett was recounting the tale of the broken arm. He and Ben had pretended to fall out of the Blooms’ treehouse and had faked a severe compound fracture by using movie make up and props to have it look like Ben’s bone had burst out from his arm. Lots of fake blood and gore. Little Scarlet had taken one look at her brother, screamed, and immediately fainted. What was supposed to be a prank suddenly became Ben and Barrett getting into major trouble with the Blooms and Nancy. Time made it funnier though, and Barrett couldn’t help but love hearing Scarlet laugh. It had been so long.

  Scarlet had to admit, it was easy to be around Barrett, too easy really. He was still charming, even more handsome, and his body was still as in shape, maybe even more so, as when they were young. She was sipping a generous glass of chardonnay and feeling calmer than she’d been on the drive to the airport.

  But she still had to watch herself. She couldn’t let him too close again.

  Although, would it be so bad to have just one more night with him? With the clear condition that it would only be one night and they would never see each other again. The wine and his disarming smile made her think about the prospect longer than she should have.

  Scarlet hadn’t been with anyone since Barrett. Not even close. However, she assumed he must have been with plenty of other women since they’d broken up. She read US Weekly. He seemed to be in it at least once a month, linked to the newest starlet or supermodel. Seeing Barrett on the glossy pages of magazines made her heart ache, wishing it all could have been different somehow.

  But now here he was. Somehow he’d made it back to her again.

  “How much longer ‘til we’re there?” she asked, taking a long sip of her wine. “I’m going to need food to soak up all this alcohol.”

  “We should be landing in the next ten minutes,” he replied, gazing at her from his plush seat. “Speaking of alcohol, blame it for me saying this: you look absolutely stunning tonight.”

  She blushed, “Thanks, Barrett.”

  “I don’t know how it’s possible, but you’re more gorgeous than you were the last time I saw you,” he said, leaning towards her. “How did that happen?”

  She looked away from him and out the window, “I don’t know.”

  He sat back again, not wanting to push her too far. He wanted to save that for later tonight.

  Chapter Nineteen

  In typical Barrett fashion, they landed and a large, luxury SUV waited for them. It whisked them off to Addison, one of the finest restaurants in San Diego. Not that Scarlet knew that. She’d Google it on her phone while in the bathroom later, freshening up.

  They’d had the tasting menu as their dinner, which consisted of about a dozen courses of one delicious plate after another. Scarlet’s nerves were getting the best of her, but she managed to eat a little as Barrett tried his best to have a conversation that didn’t include too much from their past. An almost impossible thing to do.

  Barrett hoped that after dinner they could talk about something more. Either way, he refused to allow the night to end until he had something from Scarlet, some reason why she’d chosen to go back on the promise of not breaking his heart so long ago.

  After dessert was finished and it looked like they were finally on their way back to Las Vegas where he knew the date would be quickly over and thus out of his control, he made a decision.

  “Do you mind if we stop by my house?” he asked. “I want to check on something. I haven’t been to it in a few months.”

  Scarlet rolled her eyes, “I’m not stupid. Don’t expect me to fall for that, Barrett.”

  “What?” he asked innocently. “I just figured while I’m here, I might as well stop by.”

  “Okay,” she suddenly said, to his surprise. “Take me there.”

  The SUV couldn’t have gotten there fast enough for Barrett’s liking. He didn’t want her to change her mind. Because of course he had ulterior motives. There was no way he was letting Scarlet off this easy.

  As they drove towards Rancho Santa Fe, Scarlet thought that maybe she should say something. Bring up her idea of just having one night with him. Before she could say it, Barrett spoke.

  “This might be out of line, but I don’t care,” he said, moving over closer to her. Her long legs were crossed but they were facing him, a good sign.

  “Okay,” she said, looking at him.

  “We don’t have to talk about the past,” he said. “But what if for tonight we pretended we were back there. That nothing had ended. That you still felt for me how you did then.”

  Barrett I never stopped she thought, wishing she had the guts to say it.

  “What do you mean?” she said in a low voice, looking up at him with those damn chartreuse eyes.

  “You know what I mean,” he replied and suddenly he couldn’t help it. He grabbed her, kissing her passionately on her mouth that was still open in surprise.

  To his complete relief, she kissed him back. She tasted just as she had and all at once, everything started happening.

  They’d practically tumbled out of the car when they finally reached Barrett’s sprawling estate in Rancho Santa Fe. The driver had walked in front of them to unlock the door.

  As soon as they were in the house Barrett ambled over to his office. It was the first room to the right of the front entrance. Freshly renovated, it was all mahogany wood and maroon curtains and valances. A large desk was in the center of everything.

  Scarlet followed, suddenly not caring about anything but being near him. Just for tonight she said to herself.

  “How badly do you want me?” Scarlett asked.

  She was on his desk now, her legs open. She could feel her arousal soaking the papers she was sitting on; she hoped they weren’t important.

  “Desperately,” he whispered, walking towards her. She could see it was true, the large bulge in his tailored pants told her as much.

  “Fuck me, then,” she said. It wasn’t begging as much as it was a challenge- a dare. Underneath her dress, nothing separated him from being inside her.

  “Don’t tease me,” he growled, now on top of
her, his hands riding up her inner thighs to her dripping sex. “You will get fucked. It won’t be sweet. It won’t be love. It will be what you need more than what you want.”

  His mouth smashed against hers, a groan escaping her lips as he beared down on her. She reached for the bulge, desperate to have it, needing it as much as she needed the air she was gasping for as he pushed up her dress and then unzipped the back, pulling it off her in one swoop. She hadn’t bothered to wear panties but the bra she had on was black, sheer, and inconvenient. He tore it off, making her yelp.

  “Yes,” she threw her head back as his mouth met one of her turgid nipples. They were hard and darkened, just as he wanted. Amid the heat between her legs and the hardness of her nipples, there was no hiding the fact she desired him.

  He sucked one as he pinched the other, her yelps only spurring him on.

  “Barrett,” she was begging now, “Please. I need you. Fuck me however you want. I’ll do anything.”

  He stopped his molesting of her for a moment, staring deep into her eyes. The fucking chartreuse eyes, wide set on her perfect face. He’d admired them for so long but having them on him now, in this moment, with such pleading in them, made him harder than he’d ever been in his life. The pain from his erection was almost unbearable.

  He immediately unzipped his pants. The heat and girth and feel of him in her slender hands made them both moan audibly. She spread her legs wider, eager for him to enter her. As much as he wanted to tease her, he couldn’t wait even another second to be inside her.

  His size stretched her to her limits and she cried out in temporary pain from it. He paused for just a moment to make sure she could recover, though he wasn’t sure how he would be able to stop fucking her, even if she’d asked. But of course, she didn’t ask him to stop. She pulled him closer and said, in a lusty voice, many octaves lower than her normal one: “Deeper. Give me every single hard inch. As hard as you can.”

  He had his large hands around her curvy hips now, making it easier for the plowing and pounding he was now punishing her pussy with. Nothing had ever felt so good in his life, no sex equaled what he was experiencing in that moment. Her pussy squeezed around him, pulling him closer to her core, trying so hard to coax his orgasm from him, but he would resist. He wasn’t even close to having as much of her as he wanted. It took all of his strength not to erupt inside of her. She was sexual heroin. Nothing felt better.

  “Barrett!” she called out to him. Her ass was in his hands now, he was using it as leverage to fuck her as hard as he could.

  He didn’t respond, just kept up his pace, a sheen of sweat across his brow. Her moans became louder and he knew she was close. He could feel her pulsing under him, something that almost turned him inside out with pleasure.

  “Barrett, my body. You’re making me feel so fucking good,” she said breathlessly in his ear, “I’m going to come so hard for you, baby. So hard. Please don’t stop fucking me. Ever.”

  They looked at one another, their eyes filled with such yearning, and as much as he hated to admit it, his old feelings from the past couldn’t be denied. He still felt so many things, things that were hard to articulate when he was balls deep inside of her.

  They’d done this before, so long ago, and it felt like they were back in that space, though so much had changed. Looking into her eyes again made it all come flooding back. As much as he wanted this to just be a fuck, it was hard to push the past away.

  “Look at me when you come,” he said to her, surprise marking her face. “And tell me exactly how good it feels.”

  They kissed tenderly as he slowed his pace a bit. She arched her back and he took her nipples in his mouth again as he continued the slow fucking of her body.

  “God,” she said. “My God. I’m coming, baby. Barrett. You’re making me come-“

  She yelled out with pleasure and he couldn’t take it, he came too, flooding her with his seed and all of his anguish and desire that he had held back for so long because it had always been her. It would always be her.

  Chapter Twenty

  What originally started as fucking had turned into an entire night of lovemaking around his office and then an entire weekend in his mansion by the water. Hours of pleasure, of sweat, of confessions. Every position they could arrive in, every fantasy they’d ever had they replayed on one another, pausing only to sleep and occasionally eat.

  He’d gone down on her as she sat in the leather chair behind his desk for an hour, eating her with such relish, the taste of her something that couldn’t be described, and one he could never tire of. She begged him to keep going until more than an hour had gone by and they were both covered in sweat as they collapsed on the plush carpeting of his office.

  After midnight they made love in the traditional way, in his bed, her riding him for a long while as he watched her luscious body move up and down on a cock that never seemed to get tired of her. He had resisted finishing in her again that day, wanting only to enjoy her and watch her get enjoyment from him.

  They slept a few hours, him waking to fuck her again, hard and aggressively, as she cried out with pleasure, begging him to come inside of her again.

  “I need to feel it,” she said. “I need to have you deep inside me all of the time.”

  He had kissed her passionately, “Not yet. We have all weekend. Some things are better when you wait. Just enjoy this.”

  She’d gotten on all fours for him while he plowed her from behind, the sensation of it and the view of her perfect, plump ass almost making him finish sooner than he wanted. She writhed on the Egyptian cotton sheets of his bed, crying from ecstasy, turning over after her orgasm and pulling him on top of her.

  “Barrett,” she whispered. “Is this a dream? Is this really happening?”

  He smiled. Curiously, she sounded so innocent then, like the 19-year-old Scarlet that he’d first loved so long ago. He kissed her neck and worked his way down to her amazing breasts, the nipples as hard as ever. He sucked them and she groaned. With his hand he slipped a finger inside of her, his thumb on her clit, gently massaging it until she came. As soon as she was there he kissed her- hard.

  “Seems like it’s happening to me,” he said. “Though as fantastic as you feel, it does seem dreamlike.”

  They made love again, this time while looking into one another’s eyes for a good half hour, pausing momentarily when their lunch was delivered by the concierge service Barrett had called that morning.

  They put on robes and ate out on the rooftop deck, looking over at a view of the coast. He was famished but he couldn’t help but think about what he wanted to do to Scarlet next as he ate his Kobe beef short ribs. She sat across from him, cutting into salmon, her legs tucked under her. Part of her robe had slipped down her shoulder, revealing her collar bone. Barrett became hard underneath his own robe, just looking at even a glimpse of her golden skin.

  “You know I’m going to fuck you right here after we eat,” he said matter-of-factly, biting into his red skinned potatoes. “I want this whole state to hear you scream my name.”

  “I would expect nothing less from you,” she replied, a cheeky grin appearing on her face. “As long as you make me come, I’ll scream your name from every damn rooftop in the world.”

  “I’m holding you to that,” he said. He imagined taking her from behind on top of the St Regis in New York City. Going down on her at the Mandarin Oriental in Shanghai. Fucking her senseless in the royal suite at the Plaza Hotel Athénée in Paris.

  And even beyond that, he imagined marrying her in a small village outside of Florence. Conceiving their first child on their honeymoon in Bali. Kissing her on their tenth anniversary on a jet across the country to visit his parents for Christmas. As far as he wanted to see, all he could think of was her.

  What was happening here? This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. His every thought since picking her up had been about sex and only sex. Taking from Scarlett what he could so they could both heal their wounds, the woun
ds they’d carved into one another. But as soon as he was around her, as always, all he could think about was how he could possibly ever let her go again.

  Scarlet knew she was letting it all go too far.

  She watched him sleep that second night after hours of fucking by the pool under the moonlight. It was hard not to tell him everything, to explain what had happened. She knew that with each time they were physical, it was just going to make him think all could be like it was again.

  And it couldn’t. Not because she didn’t want it to be, but because of what he didn’t know; what no one knew.

  She’d quietly gotten dressed once she knew he was deep asleep. She knew Barrett well enough to read his breathing patterns. He wouldn’t be awake for a while.

  As she slipped out the door and out to the town car she had called, she wept. Nothing killed her more than doing this to him again. There was nothing Scarlet wanted more than to stay in that bed with Barrett Evers for the rest of their lives.

  But Scarlet Bloom had to leave him again. Both of their lives depended on it.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Scarlet nervously tapped her nails against the leather seat of the town car. Everything seemed to be moving so slow. It was the middle of the night, should there really be this much traffic? Even in a city the size of San Diego, she hadn’t counted on it taking this long to get her to the airport. She needed to get as much distance between her and Barrett as possible. And quickly.

  Tears spilled down her cheeks and she tried her best to wipe them away, but they still kept coming. Being with him had been such a mistake. As soon as she’d seen him at Elixir she should have turned straight around and boarded the next flight back to Atlanta. She’d let it go much too far. And now she was reliving the hell of the past again, leaving the man she loved more than anything in this world, and breaking his heart yet again. He would never have believed it, but breaking his heart broke hers even more.