Page 150 of Scarlet Wars
Emma froze mid-reach, groaning under her breath. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Ignore it,” I commanded, my hands gripping her hips tighter, refusing to let this slip. My cock throbbed beneath her as she ground down on me, slick and warm like she’d been made to ride me. Like her body knew exactly how to ruin mine.
But Emma gave me a pointed look, and I swore a trillion curses under my breath. If I’d been on a mission for anything besides saving my best friend’s husband, I would’ve crushed her phone into a thousand fucking pieces.
Instead I yanked it off the floor beside us and answered. “What.”
Sean’s voice came through, strained and breathless, barely holding steady over the crackle of interference. “Jackson just checked in. They’ve got food and water, but they’re still chained to the wall. No movement. No way out. They’re both alive, but…” He hesitated, the pause stretched and heavy. “Caden, it was brought to them by translation.”
Emma pushed upright and sat back down beside me as all the warmth drained from her face.
I could see it, the guilt slamming into her like a physical blow, snapping her out of whatever moment we’d had.
“What do you mean, by translation? Did they move to somewhere else?”
“No. They’re still in New York as far as they know. Their food just appeared,” Sean replied. “Materialized in the cell without a sound. No human interference.”
I rubbed my mouth once. “That proves whoever abducted them is the same one behind the bubble. If they’re still here, beneath it, only its creator has magic.”
Sean exhaled hard, the sound cracking through the line. “Please, brother. Get him out of there. Get them both out.”
“We’re on our way.” I hung up before I could say anything else, staring at the dark screen for a second before turning to Emma.
She was already halfway dressed, movements quick and frantic. “We should’ve left sooner,” she whispered, eyes fixed somewhere beyond me.
I reached for my own stuff. “No. We shouldn’t have.” My voice came out harder than I meant it to. “But we go now.”
She didn’t argue, pulled on her boots, looking all efficient though her fingers trembled slightly when she tied her hair back. The fire had burned low, the last embers hissing softly in the chill air, as if the room itself knew what we were walking into.
When I turned back, she was already by the doorway, her silhouette framed by the flicker of dying light.
I crossed the space between us, one hand finding her jaw, tilting her face up to mine. “We’ll talk about this after,” I said firmly, my thumb brushing the edge of her cheekbone.
Her eyes were locked on mine. Then she nodded, a small, steady smile breaking through the tension. “Can’t wait.”
I snorted, then kissed her, soft, sure, a promise more than a question. Before I could pull away, she caught my collar,pulled me closer, and kissed me back, deeper, fiercer, sealing something I hadn’t dared to hope she would.
Then she was gone, slipping through the door and into the cold.
And I followed.
Leaving the boathouse at dawn,we moved through the shadows like two recently escaped fugitives.
The world was still asleep. Staying unseen wasn’t hard; no one with a functioning brain was awake at this hour, and the few who were, probably belonged on a watchlist.
With Emma’s phone in hand and Sean’s coordinates guiding us, we pushed through the woods as fast as we could. It was freezing. We were exhausted. But the image of her riding me—head thrown back, skin flushed—kept my adrenaline spiked enough to outrun the fatigue.
We’d finally kissed. And it had blown every fantasy I’d ever had about it straight to hell. Now, all I wanted was to do it again. And more. Until she was carved into my fucking DNA.
Obsession. Love. Whatever you wanted to call it, it was past containment.
She would have to choose: a future with me…or without me.
And the latter was no longer an option.
Emma was trudging through the forest ahead of me, her pace steady but silent, shoulders hunched slightly against the cold. Moonlight filtered through the trees in fractured silver beams, casting shifting shadows across the frost-covered ground. The woods were dead quiet—too quiet—but she didn’t seem to notice.
She was somewhere else entirely. Somewhere far away.
