Page 34 of Rags to Royals

“But I asked you to take me to your hotel.”

“Not because it hadn’t occurred to me that’s where I wanted you.” I lean onto the countertop. “And I told you, I’ve never felt this way before. So stop with that.”

She swallows. And doesn’t agree. But she doesn’t argue.

She removes the pan from the burner and carries it to the island. She starts stirring cereal into the marshmallow mixture.

“So Ruby’s wild and crazy?” I ask.

She laughs lightly, but it doesn’t sound amused. “Ruby is the fun one. Always has been.” Scarlett looks up and meets my gaze directly. “I’m the good girl. Theverygood girl.”

I realize that she’s telling me this in an attempt to shut me down. Push me away. Turn me off.

It has the exact opposite effect.

“How so?”

She starts spooning the sticky cereal into the glass pan, pressing it down as she goes. “No partying. No night clubs. No staying out late. No drinking. No wild sex.” She pauses. “Not really any sex at all. I’m very responsible. A rule follower. Above reproach.”Her tone of voice changes slightly on those last two words. Almost as if she’s mimicking someone else.

I grip my glass a little tighter. “I’m not sure you should’ve told me that,” I tell her.

She looks up. One brow lifts. “Why not?”

“Because there’s nothing hotter than a good girl who will be bad for only you.”

Her cheeks get pink. She quickly turns away, setting the pan in the sink and running hot water into it.

I also don’t need her to admit that there are several details of our weekend flipping through her mind like a very sexy movie. I know that’s exactly what’s going on.

When she shuts the water off, I say, “And you were a very good girl for me.” My voice is gruff. “I think I told you that. More than once.”

She thinks she seduced me? No way. She might have been the first to say the word ‘hotel’ but I was the one making her moan and gasp and scream all weekend.

Scarlett was a very good girl for me. Over and over.

She turns, but leans against the sink, as if she needs the support. She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes, shaking her head. “You have to stop that.”

No fucking way. “See, I think there are actually a lot of honest things you told me that weekend, Glinda,” I say. “I think you werecompletelyhonest when you told me how much you liked the way I ate your pussy. I think every time you begged me to fuck you harder and deeper, that was totally honest. I think thatyou were being entirely yourself when you asked if you could ride me.”

She stares at me for a long moment, then groans, and covers her face with her hands. “Oh my God. Seriously. Stop it.”

Under other circumstances, I might find this funny. But remembering that weekend and thinking about the fact that she is trying to convince us all that it was fake isn’t fucking funny at all.

I stand and stalk around the counter, not stopping until I’m standing directly in front of her. I can smell the scent of her shampoo, count the freckles on her shoulder, study the tiny stud earrings in her ears.

I tug her hands away from her face. When she looks up at me, I’m hit with a rush of emotion.

There you are.

Unlike the moment I first saw Ruby, when I look into Scarlett’s eyes, the familiarity hits me directly in the chest.

It’s how I feel when I first step off the plane in Cara. It’s how I feel when I smell my mother’s perfume. It’s how I feel when I hear my sister’s laugh. It’s how I feel when my niece comes running at me with a bright smile.

It’s a feeling of home and contentment and belonging that sucks the air out of my lungs.

I take a deep breath. “You were pretty specific about the things you wanted me to do to you, Glinda. You got those all from your sister?”

Scarlett shakes her head. “Seriously, Cian. That weekend was a one-time thing. I am not usually like that.”

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