Page 185 of Scarlet Wars
Caden frowned. “You’re asking me if sleeping with you would mean the end of my obsession?”
I nodded, unable to say anything else.
He laughed softly. “No, Emma. Pretty sure you and me having sex would have the exact opposite effect.”
Status oxygen: back in lungs.
I gulped in air as if I’d been drowning for an hour.
“Right. Okay. So that’s…good. No, yeah, okay, so… to be clear—having sex with me wouldn’t cure you? Of the obsession?”
Stop stammering, you blithering idiot.
Caden’s reply was maddeningly simple. “No. Not even close.”
“Right, okay, so… Yeah, that’s…what I wanted to know. Just making sure.”
He leaned back against the couch with that same infuriating calm. “Glad I could help clear that up for you.”
I kept staring at him for a beat longer than I should have. I had my answer. He’d said it, plain as day.
So why did my brain insist on filing it under unsolved mysteries?
Gods, I wasterribleat this.
Time to retreat and rethink before I achieved a new personal record in public idiocy.
“I’ll be back,” I muttered under my breath, already backing toward the door.
I slipped out, pulling it shut behind me.
On the other side, Caden’s low chuckle followed me. “Take your time.”
It took me another solid hour to compose a single coherent question. Sixty minutes of pacing, berating myself for being so “communicatively challenged,” and realizing I might be highlyallergic to emotional vulnerability. Every attempt in my head sounded either unhinged or insufferably sincere.
Until two words popped into my head, offering more courage than any other word in the English language:Fuck it.
For the second time, I shoved the door open, harder than I meant to, the wood slamming against the wall as I barreled inside once more.
If Caden was surprised to see me, he didn’t show it. Instead, his eyes lifted, dark and steady, and landed on me as if he’d been waiting since I’d left.
I closed the door behind me with a loud thud, the sound ricocheting through the room. My red haze spilled out at once, as I locked it from the inside.
Caden closed his book again, then set it aside. He simply stared at me, unblinking, patience radiating from every line of him, as though he could wait me out forever.
My mouth went dry, pulse roaring in my ears. I had seconds before I lost my nerve completely.
“We kissed,” I almost shouted, the words tumbling out too fast, too loud.
One brow arched, the faintest curl tugging at his mouth. “Did a bit more, but sure, we kissed.”
Heat rushed to my cheeks. “And, um…that was fun, right?”
“Fun isn’t exactly the word I’d use. But again, sure.”
I shoved a strand of hair behind my ear, refusing to meet his stare. “Are you…hmm, are you going to kiss anyone else?”
His smile sharpened, slowly but certain. “Wasn’t planning on it.”
