Covet (16 page)

This had to be a terrible nightmare. Women this malicious couldn’t really exist, could they? Scarlet had never in her life heard such vileness from a human being. And it didn’t appear that Patricia had any feeling about the fact this baby was her grandchild. All that mattered was it was half-Bloom. As if that was the worst thing that could happen to someone.

Scarlet didn’t know what to do. Everything that had been so beautiful about her life had now been twisted into a malevolent, ugly story.

She’d forgotten that sometimes fairy tales didn’t have happy endings.

B
arrett had finally fallen
asleep around six-thirty in the morning, but woke two hours later, still slightly drunk. He’d texted Scarlet figuring he could be okay by mid-morning, but he was starting to wish he’d asked her to meet for a late lunch instead of a late breakfast.

In his drunken stupid last night he’d spilled the Balvenie 50 all over the carpet. Over $36,000 worth of liquor was now soaking into his floors. He knew he should be ashamed of himself for wasting it, but he had three more bottles of it back in Las Vegas, so he shrugged it off.
Shit happens
, he thought.

His body felt heavy and achy. He missed having her near him, and when he took a shower in his master bathroom to get the drunk stench off himself, he could still smell her scent as the steam clouded up around him.

Her half-empty shampoo and conditioner bottles were tipped over on their sides on the shower bench. Nothing so simple had ever made him so sad. The smell of her permeated around in him in such a way that his cock twitched and then stiffened, as if it could sense her body was near. He had an involuntary reaction when it came to Scarlet Bloom.

He might as well take care of it, he thought. He started to stroke himself, remembering one of the best times he’d ever had with Scarlet. And it happened under a canopy of stars.

“
S
o this is a
business
trip
?” Scarlet teased him as they picked up their rental car at McCarran airport in Las Vegas. “What are we really doing here?”

Barrett smiled, “Elixir and Evers Holdings are thinking about building some condominiums here. Which would also act as our Las Vegas office headquarters. So I’m just here with our brightest and sexiest intern to scope it all out. You know, typical business stuff.”

“I see,” Scarlet said as they unlocked the luxury SUV that would be theirs for the next three days. “And here I thought you’d just used it as an excuse to fuck me in some high roller penthouse suite.”

“Well, I mean that, too,” he said, winking at her. As soon as they were both in their seats they leaned over and started kissing one another, hard and fast, their desire filling up the rental and immediately steaming up the windows. They’d only been dating a month but they were already completely dependent on each other. They had sex constantly, multiple times a day, such was their unquenchable desire for the other.

“I want you so bad,” she whispered. “Get me to a hotel room. Now.”

He’d sped out of the parking garage and down Las Vegas Boulevard making record time as he pulled into the valet at the Bellagio.

They’d practically sprinted through the massive square footage of slots and table games, taken their private elevator to a top floor suite that overlooked the strip and the Bellagio fountains. Barrett was naked and inside of her within ten minutes of pulling into valet and her climax was so loud they were afraid the front desk was going to call up and complain.

He’d fucked her slowly against the glass window, looking out onto the world below them.

“This is just the beginning,” he whispered in her ear as he ran his hands up her body. “I have so much more in store for the intern.”

* * *

B
arrett really did have
a tiny amount of business to attend to, so while he went to his meetings, Scarlet visited the spa. She enjoyed a very long Swedish massage, along with a facial, and manicure and pedicure. She soaked in a hot tub for almost an hour and when she went back to their suite, she was all pink and soft. And eager for Barrett to touch her again.

Barrett couldn’t focus on anything during his meeting other than the fact that Scarlet was waiting for him back at their suite. Under the conference table he throbbed at just the thought of her ass from behind and he shifted uncomfortably in his seat as some doughy guy in a suit droned on and on about permits and codes.

As soon as he was back, he found her sprawled out naked on their bed, her blonde hair wild, and her eyes full of lust.

They didn’t leave their room for sixteen hours.

* * *

“
W
here’s Tonopah
?” Scarlet asked. It was the last day of their trip and they both decided they needed to go on an adventure. As fantastic as fucking in a fancy hotel suite certainly was, they also both longed for a unique experience. So Barrett had come up with the idea that they should seek out a ghost town in the desert.

“It’s about three hours away,” Barrett said. “That’s what GPS says, anyway.”

“So we probably won’t make it back until after dark,” Scarlet said. “I wished we’d left earlier this morning.”

Barrett smiled, “Well. Someone wouldn’t stop riding me long enough for us to get out the door. I can’t help it that you’re so damn attracted to me.”

She rolled her eyes, “You’re the one who was begging for it.”

“Can you blame me?” he took her hand in his, the other hand on the steering wheel. “Your body is my heroin. I can’t resist.”

“You know,” Barrett said. “This all used to be the bottom of the ocean. Kind of cool to think, right?”

Scarlet looked around, “I can easily imagine it.”

Barrett nodded, “Yep. And now here we are. Driving in a vehicle run by fossil fuels. Heading to look at history. It’s a weird life.”

“It’s a great life,” Scarlet said. “I love you, Barrett Evers.”

* * *

T
heir first stop was Rhyolite
, a little known ghost town about an hour and half from Las Vegas. Very few people seemed to be in the mood to climb through its rocky remnants being that it was well past noon time and the heat was almost unbearable. Barrett poured a bottle of water on his head. This was maybe not one of his better ideas.

Scarlet for her part, didn’t seem to be bothered even the slightest. She stared at a house made of glass bottles, the only complete building left standing in Rhyolite.

“It’s so beautiful,” Scarlet said. “Look at how the light hits it. How long did this take to build, you think?”

“Well, being that this town was founded by a bunch of miners who loved to drink, probably not as long as you think,” Barrett said, putting an arm around her bare shoulders. “Let’s go look around.”

Most of the buildings were crumbles of nothing. There was an old general store that was halfway torn down, though the entrance of it remained, old signs on the doors and windows. There was part of the old train station left and Scarlet stared out at the vista views from the old Rhyolite bank. The silence around them was eerie.

“I can feel the old life that was here,” Scarlet said. “You said it didn’t last long? This town?”

Barrett shook his head, “Boom and bust town. Once they’d exhausted the mines people moved on. Happened a lot back then. It was gone almost as seen as it was built.”

‘Wow,” Scarlet wrapped her arms around Barrett’s waist. “If it wasn’t so damn hot, I’d make out with you near the old train station.”

Barrett laughed, “You’ve always got one thing on your mind. I feel so objectified.” He kissed her head and they stood for a few minutes in silence, staring out at the vastness around them, both thinking about how they wouldn’t have chosen to be in that moment with anyone else.

* * *

T
onopah had been
a tiny town where they’d spent a couple of hours exploring an old cemetery and browsing in a used bookstore, the owner’s cat following them around.

“Can you imagine living in this place?” Scarlet whispered to Barrett. “What do people do here?”

“Have a lot of kids,” Barrett replied. “Not much else to do.”

Sure enough, it was dark when they got back on the road to Las Vegas. Where the desert had been easily seen and studied earlier, there was now nothing on their drive down the 95 but blackness and an occasional pair of headlights. Every ten to fifteen minutes another car would pass them but otherwise, it was just the lovers, their car, and a long road slicing through the middle of nowhere.

They drove for an hour, listening to The Killers, neither saying much while lost in their thoughts. Barrett glanced over at Scarlet’s bare legs that were crossed now, her feet tapping absent mindedly to the rhythm of the music. He loved her thighs and he couldn’t take his eyes off them. She’d worn a tiny pair of running shorts that day since they’d be outdoors and they were driving him crazy.

“I’m going to pull over,” he suddenly said. “I have an idea.”

Scarlet looked at him with a questioning face.

“In the middle of nowhere?” she asked. “Seriously?”

He ignored her and pulled over to the side of the highway next to a dirt trail. He walked to the back of the SUV and pulled out a blanket he’d noticed had been left there by previous occupants when he’d loaded their bags the first morning. He had no idea it would come in handy later on.

“What are you doing?” Scarlet whispered, even though they’d probably never been farther from other human beings in their entire lives. “This isn’t the time or place for a picnic.”

“Come here,” he demanded. She stepped out of the SUV and he backed her up against the side of it.

His eyes stared at her intensely, “Look up.”

Scarlet glanced up at the dark night and gasped. Above them were millions of stars, more than she’d ever seen in her entire life. The sky was cloudless and clear and being this far from civilization allowed nature to shine at its brightest.

“Oh my God,” she muttered. “This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

He took her by the hand, the blanket under his other arm, and led her to a small patch of dirt, where he laid out the blanket.

“You don’t think rattlesnakes are out here, do you?” she asked nervously.

Barrett chuckled, “There probably definitely are. And tarantulas,” he teased her. “All sorts of creepy things, but they want as little to do with us as we do with them. Come lay with me.”

The ground was hard underneath them but the large comforter cushioned a lot of it. Scarlet settled into the crook of him and they held each other for a good five minutes, just staring at the universe.

“Do you think,” Barrett started, “that in a past life we might have been together? Staring at these same stars?”

She turned to him, “Most definitely. That’s possibly the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard.”

He slowly slid his hand up her tank top, “Do you think we made love as much as we have the past month? In other lifetimes of course.”

She gasped at his touch, “Yes. I can’t imagine we wouldn’t have.”

“Do you think you came as easily as I’m about to make you come?” he whispered, sliding his hand under her bra. “You know, before this life.”

She slowly nodded, “Please kiss me, Barrett.”

They kissed, their tongues dancing together. She bit his lip as he squeezed one of her turgid nipples.

“Get undressed,” he commanded. “Let me watch.”

She stood up before him, the moonlight bathing her body in twilight. He pulled down his shorts and boxer briefs, whipped off his shirt as he watched her slowly pull her tank top over her head. She stepped out of her shorts and panties and slid off her Asics. Her curves had never looked so delicious and she fell to him, their passion filling up the space around him.