Page 79 of Red Flagged
“You don’t want easy,” I said, voice low. “You wantme.This fucked-up, unhinged, control-freak version who’d ruin the whole world to make you feeleverything.”
She went still.
I stepped closer, brushing my nose against hers. “And you’llneverhave to doubt if I can handle your fire. You were made for war, Aurélie. And I’m the one who burns with you.”
We loved each other so much, we just fell harder when our ugly sides showed.
She trembled again. I licked her bottom lip.
“You want to keep fighting?”
Slowly, she shook her head. I kissed her throat, the underside of her jaw, the corner of her mouth.
“Good. Then get back in the car and finish telling me every goddamn thing I did wrong. I’ll take it.”
She blinked. “You will?”
“Every word,” I promised.
And when I glanced down to tuck myself back together, I froze.
There was blood.
All. Over. Me.
The first thingI saw was Callum’s face. He’d gone still, hand frozen mid-adjustment at the waistband of his pants, brow furrowed as though something wasn’t right.
“What?” I asked, chest heaving, still coming down from the high of whatever the fuck that was between us. “What’s wrong?”
He didn’t speak. Just stepped back slightly, like he didn’t want to scare me, and looked down again. That’s when I saw the blood. It painted the softening length of him, deep red and unmistakable, streaking down the underside of his cock, pooling at the base. It matted the fine hairs along his thighs and darkened his happy trail in jagged lines. Even his balls were slick with it, soaked and glistening under the brutal glare of the headlights.
“Oh–oh mon Dieu,” I stammered.
His eyes flicked to mine, then down. I followed his gaze, and I tensed when I saw the vivid streaks of crimson trailing the insideof both my thighs.Merde, there was so much.Toomuch, and it looked all wrong. Not the right texture, not the right color. Thin, bright, almost watery, like wine spilled over porcelain.
Panic bloomed in my chest, but I forced myself to think—to check.
With shaking fingers, I started to yank my dress down over my hips, then paused and tugged it up again, desperately inspecting the mess between my legs. I wiped at it with my hand, heart pounding as I scanned for clots. There weren’t any, not yet. Just that runny, liquid red. It wasn’t brown-tinged or thick. It wasn’t gushing in waves. That… eased the terror a fraction.
It could still be my period,I told myself. I’d had flares like this before. Endo cycles that started off slow and drippy and left me keeled over for days. I’d dealt with this for a decade. Maybe this was nothing new. Maybe this was just another one of those flares.
Maybe.
But deep down, I was already waiting. Waiting to see if the blood would change. Waiting for the clots I didn’t want to find.
“Auri.” His voice dropped like an anvil, guttural and frayed at the edges. “You’re—fuck,are you okay?” His hands moved, hovering near my hips, brows pinching like he couldn’t breathe. Like this washis fault. “Tell me–tell me I didn’t do this to you.”
When he started to lower himself to the ground, I caught his wrists. “No. Don’t.” His gaze snapped to mine, wild and wide and still so full of so much fucking love. I softened my voice, the way I knew would calm him down. I traced my fingers over his pulse. “Détends-toi, mon amour,” I breathed.Relax. “It’s just my period.”
Callum paused. I smiled weakly, trying to joke even as my stomach twisted.
“When you said you were gonna split me open…” My voice shook as I tried to play it off, straightening my soaked clothingonce more. “Didn’t know you meant literally. Bit on the nose, don’t you think?”
For a second, there was silence.
Then we both broke. Callum barked a laugh that sounded like it hurt. I doubled over, snorting, breathless, clinging to his shoulder as the rain poured harder. We were half-naked, bleeding, soaked and trembling, and completely unhinged.
We laughed until it almost sounded like crying.
