Page 81 of Crushed
EPILOGUE
three months later
Cormac
Sage City didn’t often welcome sunshine, but it was easier to forget about the weather on the island. We had been planning this trip for a few weeks now; Rose wanted to bring a shell to show and tell for her kindergarten class, and Scarlett wanted nothing more than to have a picnic in the sand for the first time, like a normal family.
In a flowing white top and jeans, Scarlett looked at ease. Her hair blew in the wind. Lizzy let Rose pick out whatever she wanted to wear, which meant checkerboard rainbow pants with a dark green shirt and two pink hair clips. But I hadn’t given that liberty to Scarlett; I had selected everything, down to the lack of panties underneath her jeans.
Lizzy and Rose pointed at the different vegetation as we approached the island. It was surrounded by the same pine trees as Sage City but was less crowded and cooler. Only a few people owned property on the island, and so, we could do almost anything we wanted without worry.
Scarlett looked out at the water, and she wasn’t afraid.
“Can we go to the beach first?” Rose asked. “Please, Daddy? I want to make a sandcastle.”
“As long as we have time for Scarlett’s picnic,” I said, making eye contact with Scarlett.
“It can be a night picnic if you want,” she said.
“Yay!” Rose cheered. “Lizzy, let’s find the sand toys!” Rose grabbed Lizzy’s hand and dragged her through the house, rambling excitedly about how I probably had sand toys hidden somewhere.
I held Scarlett’s hand, the two of us walking out to the patio.
A young woman, around Scarlett’s age, with long, curly black hair waved to us. It took me a few moments, but eventually, I recognized her: Haley, one of the servers that used to work at the Dahlia District. A shorter teenage brunette sat next to her. They were on Lucas Conway’s property, one of the other billionaires that lived in Sage City. I had seen him in the Dahlia District a few times, but not since he had met Haley. He walked out of the beachfront property barefoot, and the two girls turned around to meet him.
“Do you know them?” Scarlett asked.
“She used to work at the Dahlia District,” I paused, “But then they fell in love.”
“Huh,” she said, then laughed. “I wonder how that happened.”
Sometimes, life was determined to take a certain path. You could fall in love, even when you rejected it, even when you resisted it and tortured it with all of your might. Glancing back at the house, making sure that Rose and Lizzy were still occupied and out of view, I pushed Scarlett against the wall, forcing her into an overwhelming kiss, exploring her body, squeezing her firm stomach and breasts.
When we broke from the kiss, I pushed her hair back. My full name was written there. It was her signal; she wanted me to control her, then. My cock pulsed in anticipation.
After our trip was over, Scarlett had a new assignment to complete. Lizzy had given her the complete reins of Silent Network Consulting, and since she had finally gotten the hang of leading the Network, she could take a new assignment. This was her first one since me. It was hard to let her go, but I knew she would be okay.
Which meant tonight, and for the rest of the weekend, she was mine to control. She gave me her power, and she flourished in it.
She bit her lip. Images of her bound and naked in the bedroom upstairs crossed my mind; the soundproofed room, her lips biting into her flesh until she broke her own skin, the many ways I would tease and torture her into pleasure’s oblivion.
Rose’s voice broke the silence. I resisted the urge to bite Scarlett’s lip, to give her a taste of what was to come. Because she knew. She was smart like that.
“Are you ready to build a sandcastle?” Scarlett asked, winking at me. I took her hand, and we walked down the path to the shore.
“As long as you don’t light it on fire.”
She smacked my arm. “Hey! I did not burn down the club.”
It seemed like ages ago that she had first walked into the Dahlia District. But a lot could change in a few months. I thought about the ring box tucked underneath the pillow in the sound-proofed room, knowing in my heart that she would say yes.
Our naked feet touched the damp sand, and a wave crashed into our feet, wetting our ankles. A subtle tan glowed on her cheeks. Scarlett smiled. In so many ways, she was free.
And we were free.
THE END
