Page 42 of Fighting for Scarlett

Now he was watching her with an inscrutable expression and she had to know.

Had to know if he finally believed that she was innocent.

It shouldn’t be important or matter to her at all what he thought, but for some reason it did. Because even though he didn't feel the same way, she had felt a connection that night and his opinion of her did matter to her poor, lonely, scarred little heart.

This could very well be the stupidest thing she had ever done, but in this moment, Scarlett didn't care. All she needed was a connection to someone who wouldn’t hurt her.

Well, Tate, unlike anyone else, did have the power to take her heart and crush it beyond repair, but he would never lay a hand on her to cause her pain. Even when he thought she was a traitor he had been gentle with her.

Did he still think that?

Please believe in me.

The words whispered through her mind as she straightened and stood. Rejection in this moment would hurt even more than when he’d pretended not to know her that day at the grocery store.

But she didn't stop.

Couldn’t stop.

Forces she didn't even understand were driving her toward this man who was lounging in an armchair watching her with a desire that already had her body responding.

She wanted his touch.

Craved it.

Was desperate for the high she knew he could give her.

One moment, just to forget, was that too much to ask after everything she had been through?

He didn't stop her as she walked the few steps toward him. Didn't reach for her as she straddled his lap. Didn't do anything as her palms touched his abs and smoothed up his chiseled chest and then back down again.

Dressed in only gray sweatpants and a black T-shirt he looked good enough to taste. If he let her, she’d devour him the same way she had that night, matching him orgasm gotten for orgasm given. Tate’s sex drive had been insatiable that night, and she wondered if he was always like that or if he had felt the same connection she had only to him it wasn’t a beautiful thing but something to be shut down.

While he was still in a relaxed position, Scarlett could feel the tension in his body, his muscles bunched beneath her hands as they continued to stroke up and down his chest. Although she had replayed that night many times in the lonely nights she’d spent alone in her house, Tate felt even better than she remembered.

Bracing her hands on his shoulders, she shifted, lifting her hips so she could grind her center against his rock-hard erection.

There was still no movement on his part, no attempt to participate, and for the first-time doubt entered her mind.

What if he really didn't want her?

What if she was trying to take something from him, he didn't want to give?

Shame burned through her. She was trying to use him to forget. If he wanted sex with no strings, too, then that was okay, but if he didn't then she was no better than the men in Raul’s dungeon torture chamber who would have raped her if they’d been given permission even though it wasn’t what she wanted no matter how many times she had begged for relief.

Humiliated, Scarlett tried to withdraw, and quicker than lightning Tate’s hands gripped her hips, holding her in place.

Her eyes snapped up to meet his. What did that mean? Was he about to accuse her of being a rapist on top of everything else?

“I-I’m sorry,” she stammered. “I thought …” she trailed off because she wasn’t really sure what she thought. She hadn't been acting on logical thinking only on instinct.

Regret filled his unusual eyes, and for a moment, she wanted to silence him, not sure she could take another blow right now.

“Scarlett, I?—”

“It’s okay,” she cut him off. “You don’t want me. I get that. You don’t like me. I haven’t forgotten how you treated me after the night we spent together. I just …” How did she admit to a man who loathed her how badly she needed a human connection right now?

“I can't … give you what you want,” Tate said, and the regret in his eyes was echoed in his voice. There was pain there, too, and stupid romantic at heart that she was, she wanted to soothe it all away.

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