Page 20 of Torment

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 ofher.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.

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