Covet by Alison Ryan

sat on stiff chairs in the Delta lounge for a good thirty minutes before she was able to speak. He held her as she cried, not knowing how to react. Part of him was furious with her and another part of him just wanted to take away all the pain she was clearly in.
    Scarlet had no idea what to say to him. She was exhausted mentally, emotionally, and physically while also tired of running from the past and fooling herself into thinking she could possibly ever move on from that summer. It was clear she couldn’t.
    Yet she didn’t know where to start or what was okay to tell him.
    “Scarlet,” he finally said quietly. His square jaw rested lightly on her head, his arms around her. “We should go back to the house. You need to sleep.”
    She sat up and looked at him. Tears had smeared the makeup she had carefully applied for their date hours before, leaving rivers of black on her flushed cheeks.
    “Okay,” she nodded. “Let’s go.”
    He took her by the hand and they walked through the lines of people hustling around for early morning flights to distant places. Scarlet tried to keep her head down, after all, she must have looked insane. She wasn’t someone who made a public spectacle of herself and she was deeply embarrassed that her card had been declined at the counter. The pretty Delta clerk probably assumed that’s why she’d started crying.
    How wrong she would be.

    * * *
    T he car ride home was mostly silent other than the sound of Barrett shifting gears. She glanced over at his forearm, his rough knuckles white against the stick. She could tell he was upset with her but didn’t want to make things worse. Scarlet looked back out the window, the trees blurring by as they entered Rancho Santa Fe. All she wanted was a shower. And Barrett wrapped around her.
    As they entered his house she glanced over at his office, where the weekend began. Papers were strewn all over the floor, nothing had been picked up yet. The clock said it was 7 AM and just seeing it made her sleepy. Yet she was scared to close her eyes, scared of what she might wake up to.
    “I’ll show you where the guest room is,” he said, plodding up the stairs. She shook her head.
    “No,” she spoke for the first time since they’d left the airport. “Don’t leave me alone.”
    He looked at her surprised, “I just figured-“
    Before he could finish she jumped into his arms, smashing her mouth against his, her arms around his neck. She could feel his hesitation underneath her, but the intensity of her kiss somehow convinced his worn out body to return her affections.
    He carried her to his room, the sheets still crumbled from their earlier tryst.
    “Scarlet, we don’t have to…” he started.
    “I need it,” she replied. “Please.”
    She slipped out of her clothes, pulling on his belt as he held her head in his hands, kissing her down her neck.
    “I need you so bad, Barrett,” she cried against him. “Feeling you inside me will make everything okay.”
    It didn’t take much to convince him. Her body was a drug, something he could never bear to withdraw from, and as soon as they were both completely naked, he was on top of her.
    “Scarlet,” he said, warning in his tone. “With how I feel, I don’t know how gentle this is going to be.”
    She smirked, “Fuck me hard. Hate fuck me if you have to. Just don’t stop.”
    He entered her forcefully, there was no reluctance, and she moaned at the fullness. He was large and throbbing, and her nipples expressed their approval. She liked the aggression.
    He pounded her relentlessly, the headboard smacking the wall, her cries only spurring him on as he took what he craved. All of his anger and frustration spilled out of him and his growls made it clear that this was what fucking was. It was nothing like the slow love he had made to her last night. This was all heat and anger. This was all about his pleasure, at her expense.
    And she loved every second of it.
    He flipped her over without