Her tears fall one by one, the tremor in her voice killing me with each word she lets out.
“I tried, East. I really tried. But the knots were just too tight for me to untangle. I took off her gag, and she screamed for me to run. I cried ‘no,’ but she begged. My momma begged for me to run, and I just cried, saying I wouldn’t leave her. But then I felt him behind me. He had been standing in the corner of the room all along, just watching his handiwork. This time, when she shouted for me to run, I did. I ran. I ran, East, and left my mother to die in the fire with that monster.” She breaks down.
I hold her to me as she shivers in her grief, her wails feeling like a million small cuts on my soul.
“Scarlett, look at me. There was nothing you could have done.”
“I could have stayed with her,” she hiccups between sobs. “I shouldn’t have left her to die alone with him. I should have stayed.”
“I’m so fucking glad you didn’t. Because if you had, I would have lost you before I had even found you.”
But she doesn’t hear a word I say, too consumed with the memories that haunt her of that night. She continues to cry inconsolably as I hold her to me, kissing the top of her head, vowing never to let her go.
It isn’t your choice. She’ll leave you. The Society will make sure of it.
I hold Scar tightly as I battle the plaguing thoughts that torment me. The relentless feeling that the woman I love is falling apart, at this very moment, in the arms of another devil set out to destroy her, claws at my insides.
“Scar, baby. Why are you afraid of the dark?”
Her eyes are bloodshot red, her glasses fogged up by her tears.
“It’s not the dark that terrifies me, Easton. It’s the monsters I don’t see coming.”
Chapter 24
Scarlett
I lie silently still, watching Easton sleep. It’s late, so I should probably wake him up to drive me home since we both have class in the morning, but I can’t summon the will to do it. Lying here in his bed, enfolded in his arms, feels just too good to pull away from now. His pouty lips part slightly, his chest heaving slowly up and down with each intake of breath, while one of his arms holds me by the small of my back, intent on keeping me close.
As the light of the moon shines upon us through the large bedroom window, I feel as if we are the only two people on Earth. Where nothing can touch us, not even the ugly secrets of the past that we have both carried for far longer than we should have. A soft sigh leaves me as I trace his beautiful features with my lingering gaze.
How could they have ever scared me once upon a time?
I gently raise my head up, just enough so that our faces are but a hair’s breadth away from each other. His gentle breathing kisses my cheeks as I begin to caress his with the back of my hand. Even in his slumber, he feels my touch, his expression relaxing as I trace my fingers over them. With a feather-light graze, I run one finger over his parted lips, cherishing their softness. My heart squeezes inside my chest with how at peace he is by my side.
“I love you,” I whisper softly.
Consumed by foolish bravery—or unending love—I lean closer to his lips, pressing a chaste kiss to them. His lips are so warm on mine. So deliciously inviting. A gruff moan leaves me, and before I can control it, my mouth melts to his, demanding his lips to kiss me back.
Easton’s eyes spring open in surprise, startling me in return. I instantly pull away from him, but before I’m able to get much space between us, he forcefully grabs me by the nape of my neck and kisses me with such fervor that I become breathless. We’ve done so many intimate things together, and yet, this is only the second time he’s let himself fully kiss me. Our eyes remain locked on each other as we take everything our lips and tongues have to offer.
This is more than a kiss. It’s absolution.
Easton grabs me madly by my hips and pulls me on top of him. I sigh into his mouth as the crown of his cock slides against my slick folds. I eat up his low, groaning moan as my pussy grinds itself on him, desperate for the blissful friction. We both hiss out when he thrusts ever so slowly inside me, never once breaking our maddening kiss. I’m so aroused that his cock slips in and out easily. I pull my head back to get some air, but Easton is having none of it.
“Easton,” I beg, craving for air in my lungs as much as his next kiss.
He thankfully hears my plea and releases me from his hold, allowing me to pull myself up, and letting my hands find solace on top of his chest. His silver eyes burn into me as I take the lead, slowly moving my hips up and down his steeled length.
“So fucking beautiful,” he grunts with one hand gripping my waist while the other palms my breast.
He lifts off the bed slightly, just enough to latch his mouth over one aching nipple. He taunts it with his teeth, and then switches to the other, as I keep my steady pace, feeling full with him inside me. My head falls back of its own accord, loving the slow push and pull of our bodies. I feel the heavens open up above me with an angelic symphony ringing in my ears. I continue to take him in, Easton’s cock hitting that one spot inside me that has me seeing stars. The loud cry that erupts out of me is quickly silenced by yet another of his relentless, earth-shattering kisses. With his lips moving with mine, I shatter in his arms.
I haven’t even fully recovered from my orgasm when Easton turns me over in one quick move, his lips never leaving of mine. My back lays flat on the bed as he rams himself into me over and over again, so deliciously unforgiving that another orgasm begins to build, starting off as a soft flame and quickly becoming an intense, volcanic need. He doesn’t say a word, too caught up in our kiss.
It’s a battle.
A war.
A conquering.
And Easton… he’s the commander determined to strip down all my defenses.
I’m slowly going insane with each thrust and hot kiss, realizing what is truly happening here. This isn’t fucking—this is Easton’s version of making love. And no matter how brutal it is, I lap at every tender touch and caress. With his body, he’s giving me his heart. With his lips, he’s vowing to always be mine. Without saying one word, he’s confessing everything my hungry heart yearns to hear.
“Easton,” I plea again, praying he leaves behind some small part of me and doesn’t swallow me whole.
“You’ve ruined me, Scar. You’ve fucking ruined me,” he admits, pumping madly into me in a way that white light shines throughout the room, making me fall off the precipice with his name echoing on my lips. His own rapture hits him hard, and I feel his warm cum filling me up and slowly begin to trickle down my thighs.
We stare at each other for what feels like an eternity, our erratic breathing slowly simmering down. His chest and mine continue to heave as the words we are too afraid to say out in the open strangle us both.
“You kissed me,” he finally says, breaking the silence.
“I did.”
“You shouldn’t have done that.”
My brows crease, sadness mixed with anger beginning to shatter this perfect moment of happiness we just created. I turn my face to the side, but he grabs my chin, forcing me to look at him.