Surviving Valentine (4 page)

Chapter 5

Scarlet

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!!!  I ran away from Darien as fast as I could. I was caught up in him and almost kissed him, AGAIN! That was the second time today I almost let him get me. Not that it would be a bad thing, but I am trying to over a new leaf here. Every relationship I have had, have been ruled by the physical stuff. Candace hasn’t been much help either with pushing guys at me left and right. I want to get to know the guy and become friends before we give into the physical stuff. I feel like it might not be as a much heart ache.

I opened the door, got our pizza’s and gave the delivery man an extra tip just for saving me from kissing Darien. I walked back over and put our pizzas on the coffee table when my cell phone rang.  I reached over and answered it. I winced as a loud, screeching voice attacked my ear.  “SCARLET!!!!!!!!!! Oh my god girl, I am in heaven right now! I think I am in love, oh my god! Ross and I haven’t left the condo since last night. He is amazing! AHHHH!”  I had to pull the phone away from my ear at that last scream. Darien was looking at me curiously; I wonder if he could hear what she was saying. “With that being said, we are going to have to reschedule our dancing night tonight.  I am not even close to being done with this man.” I head a man’s voice in the background. “Hell no you aren’t, now get your sweet ass back in this bed!”  I giggled. “Ok Scar I’ve got to go! I’ll talk to you whenever we make it out of the apartment.” Then she hung up. Darien looked at me “Guess we aren’t going dancing tonight huh?”

“Nope seems like they are going to be holed up for a while.” He laughed “I warned him she would eat him alive.” I laughed along with him “Yeah she definitely is a man eater, but maybe he will prove to be her match.”  We both grabbed our slice of pizza and settled back into the couch. We were both very content in our silence and watched the movie.  I kept peeking over at the gorgeous man on my couch. He seemed so relaxed. I was having fun laughing with him. He is very easy to be around you know? I wanted to learn more about him. “So how do you know Ross?” He smirked a bit. “We both grew up around here.  We went to school together, rode the same bus.  The first time we met we were in a your mamma joke battle. He said my said my momma was so fat that when she talks to herself it was a long distance call. Asshole. We got in a fight and somehow became best friends after that.”  I laughed. That was hilarious. “That was a good one!  Candace and I took self defense classes with each other; she yelled at me about not getting a piece of her snatch then punched me in the stomach. Then she baked me a carrot cake and we have been friends for a few years now.” We were both laughing now. “So are you from around here?” He asked. “Nope, I’m from Asheville, North Carolina.” He seemed to be committing that information into memory. “Nice, the mountains, what brought you here.”  I bit my lip and thought about how to answer without going into a whole different topic. “I was in a bad relationship and decided I needed a change of scenery. I have always wanted to live by the beach and here I am.” He looked like he wanted to press the issue but decided against it.

“Do your parents still live in Asheville?” He asked. “No, my dad is an archeologist, and my mom is a writer. They are currently living in Cairo, Egypt.” His eyebrows raised, he looked a bit impressed. Most people were when they find out what they do and growing up getting to visit all kinds of places was pretty cool. “Nice. My dad is a Police man and my mom is a dentist.” He gave me a very cheesy smile “See perfect teeth!”  I laughed. “Very nice, glad to know that even seals brush their teeth and floss.” I winked at him. He laughed. “Hey just because we do dangerous missions, and sometimes are stuck out in interesting conditions doesn’t mean you can forget your teeth. My mom would kill me!”  He looked around like she might jump out at him. “I didn’t know seals where scared of anything.” I teased. “Well you haven’t met my mother, she can be a peach.”

   Talking about our parents made me miss mine. I haven’t spoken to them in a few days, but being so far away sometimes the reception was pretty spotty, especially when they were on digs. “What type of books does your mom write?”  I looked at him, curious of what his reaction would be. “She writes contemporary romance novels.”  He smirked. “Romance novels huh? Nice.”  I decided to have a little fun with him. “Yeah you know the type of books where guy meets girl, they want each other so badly but don’t give in, then something happens and they give into their primal needs, they fuck everywhere, lots of blow jobs,  fall in love , go through something then have a happily ever after.”  His eyes turned a deep dark blue. He cleared his throat. “Sounds like you have read quite a bit of those books.” His voice was a little rough.  “Oh yeah, hot guys, sex, love, happily ever after, I love them!”

Our gazes locked. He moved closer to me, I couldn’t look away. I mean, I should. I should stop playing with him, but I kind of wanted to see what he would do. Maybe one kiss wouldn’t be so bad. I have been kissed lots of time before.  He stopped right next to me, our bodies angled towards each other like magnets. His voice was rough, and low. “Hot guys and lots of sex does it for you huh?” He looked at my lips; I felt tingles all over my body. “Oh yeah. You know being slammed against the wall and---” Before I even finished what I was saying his lips were on mine.  Our mouths moving over each other, he slowly licked my bottom lip. Asking permission to let him in. I caved. I parted my lips and our tongues meshed together in an erotic dance and started caressing each other. He groaned at my acceptance then deepened the kiss.

I don’t know how we got there but I was suddenly on my back and he was above me.  This kiss was that good!   Hands roaming everywhere they could as we continued to devour each other.  I gasped a moan as we came up for air. His mouth never left me. He moved his lips over my jaw, then the part of my neck behind my ear and continued his wonderful assault down my neck. I moaned. There was sound from the back of his throat half growl, half moan and then his movements got a little more possessive.

His hands ravished the curves of my waist.  My hands slid up his back to the back of his neck. My fingers snaked through his hair. His body was so warm. Pleasure and panic came over me. This was like no kiss I have ever had. This kiss would be my undoing.  Shivers went all down my body and tension building between my legs. On its own accord, my back arched and my hips came into contact with his, causing sweet friction. “OH GOD” I whispered. He pushed his hips down, and now I knew this man was a danger to me, with kisses like this, and oh god his hands. He also had an outstanding piece of man that was pressing against me. This was too much. My senses were in overload! I felt everything everywhere. If I didn’t have him soon it felt like I would explode! That thought brought me back to reality.  I have to stop this. I have never been friends with my lovers first, and it was always a dead end. 

No more Scarlet. Maybe this could be different. I stilled and stopped the kiss; he looked at me with a confused expression “Are you ok?” he asked. His voice was laced with desire. It made this very hard for me to stop. My body was still craving him.  “I can’t do this, I’m sorry.” He started to rise off me and moved back. I got my body back in control and sat up; I looked at him hoping he wasn’t mad at me.  He didn’t look mad. Thank god! He looked more concerned that anything. “I’m sorry, I feel like I have some things I need to explain.” He shh’d me. “No, you don’t.  You don’t owe me anything.”  Aw gosh he was too sweet. “No its ok, You are amazing and I need to let you know what’s going on with me before this gets any further”

I took a deep breath; he put his hand on mine. For some odd reason I truly felt comforted. Weird.  I looked into those beautiful beach eyes as I spoke. “Right before I turned 18 my parents were in Nevada working on a site that supposedly had skeletons older than what we have seen before. On their ride back to the hotel they were hit by an older woman who was so close to being blind. They were in a coma for about 8 months.  During those 8 months I worked, and took care of our house. I met a guy named Frank; he was hot, sweet, and from New York. I was hooked. We got physical right away and never really got to know each other. He soon got very possessive of me, the jealous type you know? He would freak out when I wanted to go anywhere where men would be present.   I wasn’t as confident then; and he was there through everything with my parents so I really depended on him and the attention he gave me.”

Getting towards the hard part, I looked towards my shaking hands and I started to tear up a bit. I was no longer that shy, broken girl. I could do this. “The man that I ended up falling in love with was not the man I got. I was hanging out with my best friend Shelly at this lounge in downtown Asheville. Some guy came over and was talking to Shelly and me, we were having a very harmless conversation when Frank came in and beat the guy to about an inch away from dying. Then dragged me out of the lounge and beat me. He left me there after the sirens were getting close.

The cops pressed charges and filed a restraining order on him. I thought everything was going to be good after that. But while I was at work he surprised me and he came at me with a knife.” I shuttered.  I still remembered what he said to me.
You stupid bitch, I love you; you are going to be with me or no one else!
  A hand came under my chin and lifted my head until our gazes met. His eyes were filled with empathy and concern. I felt things I didn’t want to feel. I quickly shoved back those not so foreign feelings. “I remembered some moves from one of the self defense classes my mom and I took as research for one of her books. I broke his nose and some of the guys from the kitchen grabbed him and held him until the police came. Sadly he still got me on my right shoulder, it wasn’t real deep but enough that I needed stitches.”

Darien looked at my shoulder, and raised his hand to touch it. He looked up at me as if asking a silent question to see it. I nodded.  He slowly moved my sleeve up till the 3 inch scar was showing. “Fuck Scarlet!”  His thumb grazed over it very softly. I shivered. I have never let anyone touch my scar besides medical personnel.  He leaned forward and kissed it. My head fell back as his lips grazed my shoulder. It’s like he was taking away all the bad memories and replacing them with his kisses. He coughed to clear his throat then sat back up. I could see he wanted to continue with his mouth on me but knew now was not the time. “So what happened?” He asked. “He went to prison for attempted murder. I decided to move away, and I owe my life to those self defense moves. So I decided to take as many classes as I could then decided I wanted to give the knowledge that I knew to other women, so that they would be able to defend themselves like I was.  That’s why I named my place Scars, because of my name but also because of the Scar, and Scars that have been left behind. People don’t need the Scars I have. I can help them.”  He took my face in his hands. “You are amazing Scarlet.  You are so brave, and confident.”

He softly kissed my forehead then I was in his embrace. His strong, muscular arms surrounded me making me feel safe.  “So after that I was with some men and it was all physical, but then I decided after all that I am going to be friends first with the next guy.” I felt him smile. He gave me a little squeeze. “After all the talk of hot guys and sex, what you really want is friends first huh?” I laughed.  He spoke again, “Well friend. It is getting late, how about we call it a night. I’ll see you tomorrow ok?”  “Sure friend. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I smiled as I spoke. This was sweet. He gave me once last squeeze then let go and got up to leave. After he left, I got up then tripped over Roxy. Geez what a day “I’m sorry baby, I didn’t see you there.”  I totally forgot she was around. Getting up off the floor, I headed back up stairs. I am definitely in need of a shower. Maybe a cold one?

Chapter 6

Darien

After leaving Scarlet’s house I walked up the porch and into my house. I needed a drink; I walked over to the fridge and grabbed a beer. Taking a big swig of my drink, I felt the cold liquid taming the fire inside my body. I still remembered the way her lips felt against mine, the way she tasted. I have never felt anything like that. I’ve made a few rounds when it comes to women but nothing ever has felt so good, so right. Her body just melting in my hands, I wanted to spend days just mapping out every inch of her body. And now I need a cold shower. I head upstairs and turn on the water. As I step in and let the cold water run over my back I feel a little at ease. My body still craved more of her but at least I can hold off a bit longer, otherwise I will have to take things into my own hands if you get my drift.

Damn I can’t believe her story about that dick she used to date. The thought pisses me off to no end that someone tried to hurt her.  I wanted to hunt that fucker down and kick his ass.  I’ve met guys like that; they play the sweet guy then flip their shit and turn into crazy, insecure assholes.  At least that prick is in jail now and can’t get her. God, I’ve only known this woman for 24 hours and already I feel the need to be there for her in any way.  She says she wants to be friends with her lovers first. Well damnit I will be the best damn friend she has ever had. The cold water did its job; I’ve got a long day ahead of me tomorrow. I step out of the shower, dry off, and grab a pair of sweats. I turn the TV on and lay out on the couch.  I slowly drift in a dream about me, Scarlet, and a princess Leia slave costume.

Damn, I fell asleep on the couch. I stretch my neck and shoulders, everything feels stiff. I need coffee; I wonder what time it is, I think I got back from Scarlet’s around 11. “Shit 8:30!”  I have a meeting with the lieutenant commander at 9. I start the coffee pot and run upstairs to get dressed.  Dressing in my Navy shirt, uniform pants, and boots I run back down the stairs, I stare at the coffee maker practically jumping with impatience. “Come on coffee!” I grab my thermos and put my cream in. I hear a BING, thank god! I grab the pot and pour the coffee in the cup. After making sure the lid is secure I grab my keys and run out the house towards Aunt Tara’s Jeep. As soon as I am inside I turn the heat up. February in Virginia can be brutal sometimes. I switched gears and peel out of the driveway. I only have 20 minutes to get across town to Little Creek.