Page 67 of Rags to Royals

Our movements slow until finally, I slump against him, and he collapses back into the chair.

He wraps his arms around me, pressing my head into his shoulder. He runs his hands up and down my back.

And I just let him hold me again.

Ruby and Mariah are both huggers, but that’s the extent of the physical touch I get, and this just feels too good to let go.

I did not expect this to happen when we came out here. But I regret nothing.

And I promise myself I won’t tomorrow either.

It’s sex. Between two consenting adults who’ve done it before.

I trust him. I like him. I’ve been upfront about what this can be and what it can’t. And… I deserve this.

For now anyway.

We just sit for several minutes. Crickets and frogs are singing in the night. A car drives by on the road in front of the house. A dog barks somewhere a few blocks away.

Finally, I stir.

Cian puts his hand on the back of my head, keeping my cheek against his shoulder. “Before you say anything,” he says. “Everything we talked about still goes. I’m here for eighteen more days?—”

“Seventeen,” I murmur.

He blows out a breath. “Right. Seventeen. And we’re going to spend time together. We’re going to get to know each other. And we’re going to keep doingthis. You’re going to explore all of your fantasies. You get to be whoever you want with me, Scarlett. The real you. Maybe a you that you don’t even know very well yet. But this is not the last time we’re doing this.”

Maybe a you that you don’t even know very well yet.

That sucks the breath right out of my lungs.

That sounds so…nice.

I’ve been working on being a new me. A me that I like and that I’m proud of. I want to be someone Mariah can be proud of, and someone Ruby can feel is worth all of the time and energy and trouble. Someone Brian would have been proud of.

But she’s not the me I am right now. And I’m fucking frustrated as hell by that.

I want to be accepted here in Emerald. I want to be a part of this community in a meaningful way. Someone who actually doesgood.Someone who actually takes the stuff I used to preach and practices it and is seen for that.

But damn, it feels like an uphill battle.

When I try to sit up this time, Cian lets me. I look at him for a long moment before I say, “How do you know that I’m still working on being the real me?”

He lifts a brow. “Because I’m extremely intelligent despite my laid-back playboy persona.” He starts to give me one of his flirty grins. But he stops and lets the smile die. He shrugs, a more solemn look on his face now. “I like people. I pay attention. Iespeciallylike you and I paid a hell of a lot of attention to you. You let go with me because I knew nothing about you, and you thought you’d never see me again.”

He’s exactly right. Stunned, I nod.

“You need to bethatScarlett.” He pauses again. “Right?”

I think about that Scarlett. There was a lot about that Scarlett I liked. A lot. And it wasn’t just the orgasms.

I nod.

“You’re going to have to learn not to underestimate me,” he says.

I swallow. “Yeah, I’m figuring that out.”

“Good.”

---