Scarlet Disaster by Colette Rhodes

Chapter 19

This is not how I intended today to go. It wasn’t how Gabriel had intended this day to go either. We approached the rental house with a heavy sense of finality in the air, because while the day wasn’t over, the clock was running down on our time with Lou.

Nate was going to flip his fucking lid, but I didn’t know what he could have expected us to do. We weren’t in the business of holding women hostage, and the only thing that would convince Lou to stay is to explain everything to her, but we couldn’t do that either. Humans couldn’t know about shifters unless they were mated to one. It was always going to be a relationship built on lies, and we should have known she’d be smart enough to see right through our bullshit.

Besides, it wasn’t like Nate had actually been around to do his bit to convince Lou. I’d been a little resentful about him spending all of his time either at his studio or in his fur, and basically avoiding the house at all costs. But then he’d come through and lured Frank away from Lou’s house when I wasn’t paying attention, so I couldn’t be mad anymore.

He’d claimed he was fine, but I wasn’t even sure Nate had healed from his last set of injuries because he’d been running himself so ragged.

At least between Nate, his brother’s pack, and the bear shifters, there were a decent number of eyes on Frank. I liked to think the guy wouldn’t go for her home a third time, but Frank was a wild card. For all of Lou’s confidence that Frank wasn’t a threat, he hadn’t gone away.

The three of us would just have to work a little harder to keep her safe from afar if Lou refused to stay with us.

We pulled up in front of the cabin and the three of us climbed out in silence, despite all of our weak attempts at pretending this was going to be a final day of fun or whatever bullshit Gabriel had spouted.

I glanced at him as he unlocked the door, trying to gauge his mood. Gabriel was more stoic than I was in general, but did he not feel his animal riding him, urging him to keep Lou in our territory? Safe? I felt like I was turning into Nate. Maybe there was something to be said for his theory that Lou tested our control.

I watched as Lou hung her coat on a hook by the door and neatly lined up her boots underneath, a pang going through my chest that absolutely didn’t belong there. I wasn’t interested in something serious anyway. Was I? I never had been before.

She just looked like she belonged here. Not here, in Alaska. Just here, with us, wherever that was.

Gabriel gave me a searching look, his eyes never missing anything, even when I would have preferred that they did.

“Ah, shit,” he said suddenly, not nearly as subtle as he thought he was. “I just remembered that I need to pick something up from the post office. I’ll be back in a little while.”

He had disappeared out of the front door before Lou had a chance to open her mouth, and she stared after him, eyebrows raised.

“What was that?” she asked, turning to me.

“A thin excuse for giving us alone time,” I replied drily, flopping down on the couch.

“Oh.” Lou frowned as she came to sit next to me. She curled up with her feet tucked underneath her, and I was relieved that she at least wasn’t plastered to the other corner of the couch, as far away from me as possible. “I kind of thought he was into me too?”

I coughed a little, not entirely sure where she was going with this. If she thought we were going to have a threesome then send her on her merry way, she was definitely mistaken. I could control myself just on my own, but seeing her with my best friend?

I’d get possessive. Or jealous. Or be weirdly into it. I didn’t even know.

I was so lost in my thoughts, I barely registered Lou moving until she landed on my lap, straddling me with a stern look on her face.

“You are thinking very hard. I don’t know how I feel about Serious Brooks,” Lou teased, her hands resting on my shoulders. “Give me back Playful Brooks, who told me that if I needed to fuck the last guy out of my system, he’d politely consider my request.”

“Is… is that a request?” I asked, my hands sliding up to rest on her hips.

“It is.”

“That was before I knew who the last guy was,” I pointed out, feeling a little guilty when I thought of Nate.

“You don’t know now. You’re just making an educated guess,” Lou replied with a cocky shrug, her confident flirty side back in full force. Now that I knew her a little better and knew more about her past, I got the feeling that a lot of this was ‘Scarlet’. I didn’t hate it, but I preferred her natural dry sense of humor, and the way she totally lost herself in desire when she wasn’t trying to impress anyone.

“You are trouble,” I told her, sitting up to nip her bottom lip. “Tempting.” I nipped her again, my wolf rumbling silently in approval, and soothed away the sting with my tongue. “Delicious.”

Lou hummed, her nails digging into my skin through my shirt. Mark me, baby girl.

“You can keep the compliments coming, but first tell me if you agree to my request,” she said breathily.

Was I interested in Lou? Abso-fucking-lutely. Did I want to fuck her? More than almost anything.

Was Nate going to lose his shit about it? Probably.

But he had given his blessing, albeit reluctantly, and I’d already crossed several lines with Lou anyway. Frankly, she was a grown woman and if she wanted to work out some tension on my body, I was more than happy to oblige. I was a gentleman like that.

Or that’s how I usually felt when it came to women. While I wanted to do this for Lou, and I wanted to have this memory with her more than anything, being her palette cleanse fuck didn’t feel as good as I thought it would when I initially suggested it.

She doesn’t want you for your feelings, Brooks.

“What would you like, Red?” I purred, cupping her jaw and admiring the way her breath hitched in response every time I touched her. So damn responsive.

If she just wanted to ride my tongue like it was a mechanical bull for a couple of hours again, I’d be completely fine with that, but I kind of hoped she wanted more. Everything.

“I would like you to fuck all the guys I’ve been with out of my head,” she said breathily, a touch of vulnerability in her eyes that I knew she wouldn’t want me to see.

“I can do that,” I replied in a low voice, my grip on her jaw tightening a fraction.

“That sounds like I’m using you,” Lou murmured, her hands sliding under my shirt, stroking reverently over my abs.

I shot her what I hoped was a reassuring smile. “Use me, Little Red. I’m a big boy, I can handle it.”

My hands went to her waist and before she could doubt herself again I stood up, giving her a moment to wrap her legs around my hips. Honestly, her squeal of fright was a little offensive. I was definitely strong enough to carry her. I’d carried Nate over my shoulder the whole length of the beach in Punta Cana when he’d gotten too drunk to walk.

I made a beeline for the room Lou had been staying in, grateful that it smelled purely of her now and tossed her lightly on the bed, kicking the door shut behind me.

“You sure about this, Red?” I asked, standing at the edge of the bed.

“Very sure,” Lou replied, no hint of hesitation in her voice. She was all vulnerable and open, no hint of Sultry Scarlet to be found.

I definitely put a little bit of fuckboy swagger into it as I reached behind my head and tugged my shirt off, flexing my abs and biceps for maximum impact just like she expected me to. Fortunately, my pants were hanging pretty low, showcasing the V that had definitely gotten me laid in the past.

As potent as the scent of her arousal was, her expression was impressively aloof as she ran her eyes down my body, pausing at the top of my pants.

“Well?” she asked, all dry sass. “On with it. Or off with it, I should say,” she added thoughtfully, gesturing at my pants.

“You sure? It might scare you off,” I teased, gripping my hard on through the fabric.

Lou rolled her eyes. “Try me.”

Maybe she thought I’d been exaggerating, but her eyes definitely widened when I dropped my pants. I was packing some decent equipment, and I had no shame about that.

My Big Dick Energy came from Big Dick Ownership.

“Gimme,” Lou breathed, crawling to the edge of the bed, not looking intimidated in the least. I was so surprised by her reaction that her tongue had flicked out before I even registered it, licking a long stroke up my length like my dick was a limited edition flavor of her favorite popsicle.

She smiled up at me before wrapping her hand around the base of my shaft and taking me as far into her throat as she could, and I think I might have swooned a little bit. Goddamn, this girl. She was so… contradictory. Unpredictable. Fucking awesome with her mouth.

I’d never really thought of myself as boyfriend material before, but maybe I could figure it out for Lou. I wasn’t done with her yet by a long shot.

She’s done with you. This is just to get your best friend out of her system.

My hands ran through her thick red hair, pulling it up out of her way as she worked her magic, relaxing her throat and taking far more of me than I’d anticipated. It wasn’t just that it felt good, it was that it was her.

Fuck. Danger.Do not come.

I tugged her back gently, pushing her back onto the bed and pulling down her patterned leggings.

“What are these fucking things?” I muttered, wrestling them down her legs. Why did she always wear such difficult pants to get off? Lou lifted her hips, giggling as I eventually managed to get her legs free and toss the torture device across the room, starting on her panties next.

She sat up and quickly stripped her top and bra off for me, then it was game over. I was going to get my tongue on every inch of her skin I could manage. Surely if I thoroughly licked her, she would be mine? I wasn’t going to take any chances. Knees, elbows, armpits, the works.

“If you lick my armpits, I will dismember you,” Lou said breathily as I stopped my muttering long enough to scrape my teeth over her nipple.

She made a mewling noise as I sucked the hardened bud into my mouth, swirling my tongue around it until she squirmed.

Mark her. Must mark her.

God, what the fuck was wrong with me? I growled at my own illogical thoughts, moving down Lou’s body towards her delicious center, pausing to press a kiss against the phoenix winding up over her hip. There was no shy hesitation or surprise from Lou this time. Her legs fell open and she all but invited me to help myself as I kissed and licked her inner thighs, attempting to tease her but rapidly running out of patience.

“Don’t tease, Brooks,” Lou moaned, on the same page as me. “I am fucking ready.”

She said that now. She would not be saying that when my dick split her in half because I hadn’t taken the time to really get her ready and relaxed.

“Come for me first,” I demanded, my voice rougher than usual as my animal instincts rode me hard.

I pinned Lou’s hips down and buried my tongue in her pussy, a satisfied rumble rising in my chest at the sweet taste of her.

“Fuck, never mind,” Lou sighed, writhing against me as much as she could with my arm keeping her down. “Keep doing that. That is great. You are a very smart man.”

Her lighthearted words helped counter the possessive instincts that kept rudely intruding when I was trying to fucking concentrate. I didn’t need this bitey, ‘mark her’ shit popping into my mind right now. What the hell was wrong with my brain?

It hadn’t been this bad the other day, but she hadn’t been planning on leaving us then.

I pushed one finger into her entrance as I lightly sucked her clit into my mouth, just the way she liked, and Lou clenched around me almost instantly, gasping my name as she came. Wanting to relax her as much as possible, I kept going, adding a second finger and massaging her clit with my tongue to prolong her pleasure.

“Fuck me,” Lou half sobbed as the second wave eased. “I need to feel you.”

I was right there with her. I didn’t think I’d ever needed anything more. I crawled up the bed, leaving closed mouth kisses on her skin as I went, forcing myself to keep my canines covered.

I needed to see Lou ride me. Needed it. Partly because she was so small and human, that I felt like this was the safest position for her, and partly because I wanted to see her body moving on mine, see every expression on her face as I filled her up.

And I needed to keep my teeth away from her.

I laid on my back, gently pulling Lou on top of me, encouraging her to straddle me.

“Condom,” Lou breathed a little deliriously as she leaned over to the nightstand and grabbed a foil from Nate’s top drawer, throwing it a dirty look like she was annoyed they were even there.

Fucking hell. I’d never in my life forgotten protection, but if Lou hadn’t brought it up, I wasn’t sure I’d have remembered. How had this tiny human woven such an effective spell around me? It was like nothing else existed when Lou was around.

I wrapped up as quickly as I physically could before dragging Lou back over my body, her legs straddling my hips. She planted her hands on my chest and rolled her body confidently, grinding her clit against me. She was a sexually confident woman who knew exactly how to make herself feel good, and damn if that wasn’t incredibly arousing.

“You good, baby girl?” I asked, reminding myself that I was a gentleman when I wanted to act like an animal.

“So good,” Lou said dreamily, lining my dick up at her entrance and slowly sinking down, one inch at a time. If my size was off putting, she didn’t let on at all, relaxing and rocking, toying with her nipples until her ass hit my thighs.

My balls already felt tight, pleasure tingling at the base of my spine. She felt so goddamn good, and for the first time in my life, I cursed having a stupid condom on. I wanted to feel all of her, no barrier between us.

“So full,” Lou choked out, only lifting herself a little at a time before sinking down again. “How do you just walk around with this anaconda in your pants all day? Isn’t it heavy?”

It is now. All the blood in my body is currently residing in my dick.

“If you keep talking about how big my dick is, I’m going to come,” I grumbled. Size compliments were probably a stupid thing to get all excited about—honestly, there were times when it had been a fucking pain to deal with—but whatever. Lou turned me into a dick swinging caveman.

“You’re taking me so well, baby girl. Riding me so fucking good,” I murmured absently, lost in sensation as she found her rhythm, head thrown back in ecstasy.

“Brooks,” she gasped, dropping her chin to stare at me with wide eyes, her walls clenching around me. “More. Talk more.”

Fuck, that was sexy. Both that she wanted me to talk dirty to her, and that she was assertive enough to ask for what she wanted. I grasped Lou’s hips, holding her in place and fucking up into her, reminding myself to be gentle even as Lou let out a long, exquisite moan that let me know just how much she liked me when I wasn’t being so gentle.

“You like hearing me tell you how pretty you look on my dick? Of course you do,” I rumbled, my fingers digging into her hips as I bounced her on my cock. “You look like you were made just for me. Keep taking me, like that. Good girl.”

Just. Like. That.

It was like the magical keyword to Lou’s vagina, because she went off, slumping over me with her forearms resting on my chest, an orgasm wrecking her body. I ran my hands up and down her back, stroked her hair, praised everything I could think of until words became too hard because my jaw ached with the need to mark her.

God, I wanted nothing more than for this to last forever, but I got the feeling I was playing with fire.

Fighting to maintain my self control, I rolled us both over, bracing myself above Lou and driving into her harder, my vision going a little hazy at the edges as a blinding orgasm built. She pulled her legs up, hooking them either side of my forearms in an impressive flexibility that made each thrust go even deeper, and I fucking lost it.

Pleasure like I’d never experienced in my life ripped through my body, destroying me and remaking me all at once. I was in fucking knots over this girl, and she was only fucking me to erase the memories she didn’t want.

As soon as my soul returned to my body, I was going to put up some healthy walls between us because I could not keep going the way I was going. We were keeping secrets from her. She was leaving. I did not need to fall in love with someone who was completely unavailable to me.

Unwilling to pull out just yet, I slumped over Lou’s body, guiding her legs into a more comfortable position while carefully keeping my weight off her body, trying to memorize her drowsy smile and hooded eyes. God, she looked so beautiful like this. Flushed, boneless, and happy.

I kind of wanted to ask if I had successfully fucked the other guys out of her system, but with the way I was feeling, the question would probably come across wrong. Or right, because I was jealous. But bringing up my jealousy would definitely be a dick thing to do right now.

“Holy shit,” Lou mumbled. “You put my vagina into a coma.”

“Yeah?”

“Uh, yeah. Just knocked it right out with that baseball bat in your pants. You hit a home run.”

I dropped my forehead to hers, smiling to myself. Maybe I could stop being a jealous moron for a few minutes if she kept saying stuff like that. Reluctantly, I pulled out and took a few minutes to dispose of the condom before rejoining Lou in bed where she had rolled onto her front and buried her face in the pillow, apparently very chill with being naked. I was chill with her being naked too.

I tugged Lou towards me and draped her over my chest, running my hand up and down her spine, admiring the silky smooth skin of her back. Her chocolatey scent was tart with her desire, and the combination of our scents together was already making my dick stir, ready for round two. Ideally without the revolting lingering latex smell ruining it.

“Did I fuck you to sleep?” I teased, forcing myself to keep the conversation in safe territory.

“No,” Lou groaned. “Not yet, anyway. I have to go pee. Safety first.”

Smiling to myself, I scooped her into my arms and lifted her off the bed, earning myself a muffled shriek from Lou.

“Put me down! You are not watching me pee. That is not my kink.”

“Fine,” I chuckled. I set her down on her feet, laughing as I flopped back on the bed to wait for her.

“Come back and snuggle me after, Red. I’m feeling needy,” I teased, mostly joking, but also not quite.

“Yeah, yeah,” she replied drily, rolling her eyes before darting out of the room stark naked, which was a pretty ballsy move. Fortunately, Gabriel hadn’t returned yet, and Nate was still in the wind, though he’d promised to come back here to sleep at some point so I should probably tell Lou to get dressed. I mean, if she wanted to walk around the house naked all day, I’d be fine with that, but Nate and Gabriel… they’d probably be fine with it too, actually.

That fact should bother me more. Even with Gabriel’s talk about us all dating her over winter, the idea of sharing a woman that I was this into should bother me.

Her spending all this time with us should have made Nate crazy. Why didn’t it?

I shook my head, trying to clear it before Lou got back. My jealousy, or lack thereof, was irrelevant anyway. Lou was leaving because we couldn’t give her the honesty she deserved. What I needed to concentrate on was keeping her safe from the asshole Alpha who wasn’t taking no for an answer, and then figuring out how to let her go.