‘If I behave we get on.’
‘If you don’t?’
She shrugged but Luke persisted. ‘What happens if you argue?’
‘People don’t tend to argue with Anya,’ Scarlet said.
Luke stayed silent as she prevaricated. It was a survival mechanism, he knew, and it concerned him greatly. He knew she was seriously scarred.
‘Ever?’
Scarlet shrugged. ‘I choose my battles.’ She gave him a smile and moved in for a kiss. ‘You’re going to be one of them...’
He halted their kiss, wanting to talk some more.
‘When you say—’
‘You ask too many questions,’ Scarlet said. ‘We’re a one-night stand.’
‘Are we?’ Luke checked. ‘It doesn’t have to be.’
‘Don’t you have a girlfriend?’
Luke frowned. ‘I wouldn’t be here if I did. I told you we just broke up.’
‘When?’
‘A month or so ago.’
‘That’s ages!’ Scarlet laughed. ‘How long were you together?’
‘Two years,’ Luke answered. ‘What’s your longest relationship?’
‘Oh, I’m too busy to have a relationship,’ Scarlet said. ‘Anyway, they only want me to get to my mom.’
‘Not true,’ he said. ‘Scarlet...’ He wanted to tell her that was utter lies she’d been fed. He wanted many things, not just for Scarlet but for both of them.
Scarlet’s thighs gripped him, but her hands were relaxed to him rather than suggestive. His were the same, running over her slender ribs, positioning her a little bit farther back and just enjoying her as they spoke.
‘Why did you break up?’ Scarlet asked.
‘We just did.’
And he was very glad that they had, or he’d have missed this.
He looked up at her smiling mouth. Her face was flushed and pink and her hair was tousled. Luke’s eyes moved down over her body. There was a bruise on her left breast from him and her nipples were darker from his attentions.
He didn’t answer her question; instead, he put one hand behind her head to pull her down and, with her body angled over his, he went for the other breast.
‘I wish we...’ Scarlet panted as he licked her breast and then took it deep in his mouth, but she didn’t finish saying she wished they had condoms. He was hard against her thigh and she had never wanted someone inside her so badly.
Luke wanted her badly.
But then he remembered he was the sensible one and dragged her turned-on and wanting body to lay by his side. Scarlet felt as if she were floating, with only his arm pinning her down.
They kissed, a kiss that demanded more from both of them, one that had Luke deciding that soon he’d just get dressed and find an all-night store, but now it was Scarlet that halted them.
‘Why did you break up?’
‘Because,’ Luke said.
Because he hadn’t want to drag her on a bus and make out with her, because he hadn’t had to fight not to pull her down onto his aching hardness.
He wanted all of that with Scarlet.
‘When you say this doesn’t have to be a one-night stand, does that mean you’ll call me?’ Scarlet asked.
‘Of course.’
‘When?’
He reached over and handed her his phone and she tapped in her number and then took a photo of herself lying in his arms. ‘Send that to me.’
‘Okay.’
He did so and Scarlet heard her phone buzz across the room and smiled.
‘Do you want to go out tonight?’ Luke asked. He was more than happy to miss checkout and spend the day in bed and then take her out but Scarlet shook her head.
‘I can’t tonight. Anya’s performing.’
‘So you can’t go out because your mother’s working?’ Luke checked. ‘I don’t get it.’
‘She needs me there when she goes on and all the build-up beforehand,’ Scarlet explained. At first she had said it as fact but, resting her head on his chest, the madness of her world was all the clearer for her short six hours away from it.
‘Maybe we could go out?’ Scarlet said. ‘Or we could stay in again.’
‘Sounds good.’
She thought of telling her mother that she wouldn’t be there today, or tonight, and the hell that would break out. And then she thought of the worst scenario—being there for her.
Again.
And again and again.
Panic was starting to hit and she tried to deny it, to just lie there and keep her breathing calm and not ruin what had been a wonderful night.
Feeling the sudden tension in her, Luke pulled her in.
His hand stroked her arm and that, just that, had Scarlet feeling a little better.
It was the nicest sensation she had ever felt, just these soft yet firm strokes and the thud of his heart, and, despite her best attempts to stem them, silent tears started coming out of her eyes.
‘Scarlet?’ Luke checked, and lifted her chin. And it was then, for Scarlet, that panic truly hit as she revealed a truth she had never dared to.
‘I don’t want to go back...’
Tears never usually moved him but hers did. He could almost feel her desperation and she turned in his arms and released herself and lay on her back, panting as if she’d just run a race.
‘What do you mean?’ He came over her and started kissing her tears, and they were talking in whispers as she revealed her secret.
‘I don’t want to go back to my life. I’ve been trying to work out for years how I can get away,’ she admitted, and then closed her eyes. ‘Sorry, too much...’
‘No, no,’ Luke said, when usually he’d be thinking, What the hell?
‘I don’t know how to, though,’ Scarlet admitted. ‘Everyone I speak to is employed by her.’
‘What about friends?’ Luke asked.’
‘All of my friends are hers first.’
She lay there rigid beneath him. His legs were on the outside of hers and Luke was up on his elbows, looking down at her, and a more lonely world he could not imagine.
Oh, his family had their own issues, but nothing like this.
And he had friends that went way back.
There were people he could turn to if he chose to.
That he chose not to was his own issue.
‘I’ve run away before but I never get very far,’ Scarlet said.
‘What do you want?’ Luke asked.
‘I want,’ Scarlet said, ‘this.’
He got it that she wasn’t talking about them at that point, just normality, and on a cold, wet morning, in a very warm hotel room, it didn’t seem an awful lot to ask.
‘We’ll make it so, then.’
And then she was more honest than Scarlet had ever dared to be. ‘I want you.’
‘Good,’ Luke said, ‘because I want you too.’
Those dark brown eyes looked right into hers.
‘It will be okay.’
She believed him.
‘It will.’ His mouth was on her lips and they tasted of hope and his words were so assured. ‘I’m here now.’
His kiss deepened and it was like he had opened a tap in her heart and kept filling it.
She had lain there rigid but now she just moved beneath him. Like curling ribbon, her limbs wrapped around him and her lips were in thrall to kisses that were deeper and edgier than last night.
His skin was rough and she craved it. Her tongue matched his and her breasts, which had already had more than due attention, were needy and sore as his thumb tweaked one so expertly that her hips arched as if he had touched her between her legs.
The covers were too hot and heavy but the weight didn’t feel like a burden, it just cocooned them. As her hips arched she felt the thick length of him pressed to her groin and stomach and then he moved back so he was between her thighs and she squeezed them tight and he moved into their vice.
She was damp, he was too, and there was an ache for more that rushed be
tween them and her hands went to his buttocks and dug in.
‘I want you.’ Scarlet had never heard her own voice in that tone. It was determined, it was assured, it was desperate, though.
He moved and she could feel him thick at her entrance and she felt dizzy at the brief feel of him parting her, but as he pulled back she moaned and pressed her fingers tighter into taut muscle and begged him in.
He entered just a little way and those small thrusts had their breathing halting, because if they dared to take in air they might lose the giddy sensation.
Common sense, where was it? Luke wondered, because he had been overtaken by sheer want. She was swollen and aroused and sore for him and when Scarlet sobbed, ‘Please,’ he drove in hard.
‘Oh...’ Scarlet was frenzied. She had never been made love to like this, nowhere even close.
He offered the brief lie that he would stop soon and took her over and over, and it felt as if he were exploring her deep inside because knots of nerves awakened and he addressed each one.
He kissed her cheek and there were no more tears as he moved down from his forearms so more of his weight was on her and he scooped his arms under her. Her body was shaking and taut beneath his and he felt the intimate pull of her—she wanted more.
She was coming and claiming him with her thighs wrapping around his waist, and she sobbed out as he drove in harder and she met each thrust.
It wasn’t pretty but it felt divine.
The bed was banging, both could hear it, and Luke, who never lost his head, quite simply did.
The feel of her was intense, the sound of them was volatile, like a drive-by shooting was taking place as they exploded one into the other.
Bang.
Bang.
Bang, bang, bang.
Bang, bang, bang, bang.
And Luke, who always held back a part of himself, was moaning and shouting and coming deep into her.
The hotel room rattled to their tune, and they were still going.
She came again, just on the tail end of his, and Luke groaned and shot out a final release, and then they collapsed into a void of silence and breaths and hot kisses and promises that made no sense because they’d been together for just a few hours.
Her hair was wild and damp and it felt as if they’d made love in a sauna.
It was hot, sticky sex with no end in sight because he was still inside her.
He moved to pull out but Scarlet gripped him. She gave him no rest, just a slow kiss to recover, and then a deeper kiss as he started to grow within her. But then came a knock on the door.
‘Damn.’ Luke laughed. ‘Breakfast.’
She had no idea in that moment that the knock on the door heralded the end of them.
* * *
Scarlet opened her eyes as if someone had just knocked on the door to Luke’s bedroom.
Her face was red in his pillow, her sex still twitching as it had that morning, and still she wondered what would have happened if breakfast hadn’t come then.
Sometimes she lost herself to her imaginings of how their worlds might have been had they not been disturbed, but not today. Instead, she remembered how he had climbed from the warm bed, semihard, and had pulled a towel around his hips.
She’d heard the door open and then, after a moment, it had closed and, suddenly remembering what she had done, Scarlet had closed her eyes in regret.
Scarlet could almost hear the rattle of the tray and Luke’s tense breathing as he’d slammed it down on a table.
‘Scarlet...’ His voice was clipped and she could feel his contained fury. ‘There are three security guards outside the door...’
It had been the end of them.
The beginning of a very rapid ending and now, two years later, she lay alone in his room.
Last night, Scarlet had thought she had no more tears left to cry over them.
But of course she did.
CHAPTER NINE
THERE WERE DIVERSION signs in place as Luke drove into the hospital.
‘What’s going on?’ Luke asked, winding down his window and speaking with Geoff.
‘One of the news vans broke down at the entrance to the staff car park,’ Geoff said. ‘At least, that’s what they’ve said has happened. I think they’re trying for a view of ICU.’
‘Call the police,’ Luke said. ‘Get them moved.’
Instead of parking in his usual spot underground, Luke took for ever to find a space.
The press were still outside the foyer and security and other staff who were arriving for their shifts were looking very unimpressed with it all.
As was Luke.
Instead of heading straight into A and E, Luke headed up to ICU to catch David before he started handover.
Anya’s people were still there but their numbers had thinned down.
In the other waiting room he saw Ashleigh’s parents. Evan was sitting with his head in his hands as the mother paced.
When Luke stepped into the unit he found out why.
The space where Ashleigh’s bed had been was empty and Luke walked over to Lorna, who was just coming off the phone.
‘Did he get a liver?’
‘He did.’ Lorna nodded. ‘He just went to Theatre.’
He saw that Lorna, who was possibly the toughest of the tough, was on the edge of tears.
‘Ashleigh’s been in and out of here for the last six months. It’s wonderful to see him get this chance.’ Lorna shook her head. ‘I’m not going to be able to sleep.’
‘Well, you need to,’ Luke said, ‘so you can be back here tonight to look after him.’
‘Please, God,’ Lorna said.
He glanced over at Anya. ‘How has she been?’ Luke asked.
‘She’s had a stable night, apart from a spike in her temperature, but we were anticipating that. David’s going to be a while. He took Ashleigh down to Theatre, just to see him put under. He’s not staying for the op, though. He should be back soon.’
‘That’s fine,’ Luke said.
He’d call back in on his way home, Luke decided, but for now he made his way down to his own department and worked through his list. But at ten, just before he started the fracture clinic, he called Scarlet.
Luke wasn’t sure if she’d be up but he didn’t know when he would get a chance to call again so he rang three times and hung up then called again.
Scarlet had spent a long time crying and her eyes were still watery as she lay in his bed and stared at the ringing phone at the bedside.
It rang off on the third ring and then rang again and she picked up the phone.
‘Is that you?’
‘It is,’ Luke said. ‘How are you?’
‘How’s Mom?’ Scarlet asked, by way of answer.
‘She’s stable. There’s no real change.’
‘Is that good or bad?’
‘It’s good for now,’ Luke said. ‘Have you been crying?’
‘A bit,’ she admitted.
‘Well, your mum’s doing as well as can be expected and...’
Scarlet listened to his soothing words. She could let Luke think she was crying about her mother.
Later on she might be.
Just not now and she told him so.
‘Luke, I wasn’t crying about my mom. Seeing you, being in your home, well, it’s kind of brought it all back. Not that it ever went away. I’m sorry for what I did—’
‘Scarlet,’ Luke interrupted. ‘Let’s not do this over the phone.’
‘When, then?’
He didn’t answer.
She lay in his bed when she should be sitting by her mother’s.
‘Do you think I should come in and see her?’
‘That’s up to you.’
‘I know it is, I’m just asking for your take.’
‘Okay, then, I think you need some time.’ Luke was honest with his answer. He had seen Anya’s lab results and it was looking less and less like the accidental overdose the spin doctors were trying to say it
had been.
‘What if she wakes up and I’m not there?’ Scarlet asked.
‘Yeah, well, I know how bad that feels,’ Luke said, and it was the first real glimpse of his temper weighted against them because he abruptly rang off.
Luke stared at the phone.
He told himself to pick it up and pretend that he’d been cut off.
But as he sat there staring, he was reliving it too.
Not the nice part before, just the hell of afterwards, when he had walked back into the hotel room.
‘What are they doing out there?’ he’d demanded.
There had been three guys standing right outside the door and he’d recognised a couple of them from the club!
Scarlet hadn’t fully understood his anger. ‘I texted them to let them know where I was.’
‘You. Did. What?’
Each word was an accusation in itself and Scarlet rose in the bed to her own defence. ‘I didn’t want people worrying.’
‘So while we were...’ His anger was mounting at the thought that her bodyguards had been standing outside and would have heard the noise they’d made. Worse, that Scarlet thought this completely normal incensed him. ‘You told me that you wanted a night away from it all.’
‘And I did, but I didn’t want to make trouble.’
‘You said—’
‘You have no idea what my life is like,’ Scarlet shouted.
‘I’m trying to understand.’
‘Well, you can’t!’ Scarlet could not take it in that he was angry at her. It spun her into a panic and she started crying. There was a knock on the door and then another, and, despite Luke telling her to leave it, Scarlet opened the door to say that she was okay. But, given she was crying, her bodyguards came in.
‘What the hell...?’ Luke exploded at the intrusion. He was furious at the insult their coming in inferred—as if he might have been about to hurt her.
‘So you’ll stand outside while she’s having sex and then interrupt a discussion?’ Luke shouted at the burliest one, and what had him raging was that Scarlet was standing there naked.
‘Get back in the bed,’ Luke shouted. He wanted her covered, he wanted this audience gone, but she misread his anger and dressed instead and within moments she was gone.
And now, two years later, he sat staring at the phone.
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