Page 85 of Taming Scarlet

My gaze moved over her, going constantly back to the collar as I fucked her hard and fast.

I needed to get her a real one.

A discreet one, given her public persona.

But something she could wear all the time, a symbol of us, of this.

She said she was going to hit the spa with the girls the next day. I could cut out, hit a specialty store, get her something she would like. Something worthy of our connection.

Then do what I was dying to do.

Collar her.

Officially make her mine.

“Fuck,” she cried, her whole body tensing as the orgasm slammed through her, taking me with her.

I moved away afterward, not releasing her for a moment, watching her pant and stare at me with those lovesick eyes, seeing my release slide down her thigh.

“Come on. Let’s get you cleaned up,” I said, releasing her, then walking her to her bathroom, cleaning her up, then running her a bath.

We spent the rest of the night eating take-out in her bed with Hugh passed out at our feet.

It was a fucking perfect night.

Right before the worst day of my fucking life.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Scarlet

“Oh, come on,” Di said, looking over at me from her pedicure chair. “Something is different with you.”

“I think it has something to do with Mr. Tall, Dark, and Smoldering,” Drea added.

We hadn’t shown any signs that we were together when we’d shown up to pick up Hugh. But the way Drea’s head tipped to the side, and her eyes went intense as she looked between the two of us signaled something.

Had my gaze slid to him as often as I thought it did?

Had he looked at me a little too intensely, or softly?

It was hard to say.

But after the time in Portugal, I was pretty sure our feelings toward each other practically seeped out of our pores.

Clearly, even without being with Julian, I was exuding something that my friends could pick up on.

“Also, your socials are different,” Di said. “Not in a bad way!” she rushed to add. “Just… different. Like, you know that kind of manufactured fake voice we all use online?” she asked, and we all had to nod a bit at that. As much as we tried to avoid it, we all knew it slipped in there. Especially if our moods were low. “Yours isn’t so fake anymore.”

“Which leads us to conclude that you and your bodyguard have been getting… glandular,” Drea said with a smirk.

“It’s… not like that,” I said.

I’d had sex before.

But nothing had ever felt quite as… intimate as things felt with Julian.

Maybe that was because I’d never let anyone know me as well as I let Julian get to know me. He was the person in the world who knew the most about me. Good and bad. He saw it all. And hewantedall of it.

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