Woman Named Red Read online

No, he doesn’t get to do that. I’ll force him to listen to my side. I screwed him over, no doubt about it. But he did the same to my family. And the things he said tonight about my father, as if he was totally blameless in the whole thing… My blood lights with anger all over again.

  “We’re here. Get out.” Kennedy’s voice is icy and totally foreign. I look over at him. He’s still staring straight ahead. There seems to be nothing of the man I’ve gotten to know over the past month. He’s a stranger.

  I throw my door open and step out, slamming the door behind me. And that’s when I realize where we are.

  Benson’s House.

  On the same ground where Bianchi’s once proudly stood.

  I turn to Kennedy—he’s out of his car, having already handed off his keys to a valet. He’s walking toward me.

  “You bastard,” I hiss. How dare he bring me to what used to be my family’s restaurant? The legacy my dad meant to pass down to me and Enzo?

  He smiles at me, a cruel upturn of his lips.

  “Welcome home, sweetheart.” He grabs my upper arm and starts dragging me beside him. It’s not a bruising grip and I could jerk away if I wanted. But I don’t.

  I’ll see this through.

  But I think I had it all wrong. I didn’t come for Kennedy or even to punish myself.

  I came because this is what I needed to see. I have to witness first-hand what a heartless bastard Kennedy Benson really is. To prove that everything I always thought about him over the past nine years is the real him. It’s just the last month that’s been a mirage. Then I can damn him to hell where he belongs and Enzo and I can get on with our lives.

  Chapter 20

  KENNEDY

  We enter the hostess and bar area. I force myself not to look at the woman beside me or else I’ll lose my cool. Even touching her makes my skin burn. She’s still as soft as ever, goddammit. It’s like her entire body was created to lure men in. To entice. She’s a lying demon cloaked in an angel’s body.

  The restaurant is packed with beautiful people—at the bar, in the waiting area, and in the open space of the restaurant beyond. Usually I’d be clocking it all, calculating traffic flow and estimating revenue. Today I ignore everything. The hostess, Meghan, I think her name is, approaches and tries to get my attention. I brush right past her.

  I just keep hold of Scarlet’s arm and make my way through the restaurant, shouldering people aside when they get in my way.

  I head straight for the corridor toward one of the private dining rooms in the back. The others should be here any minute. The sooner the better.

  I let go of the she-witch right after we get in the room and I flip on the light. She jerks away from me as soon as I drop her arm. I can feel her glare but don’t give her the satisfaction of looking her way.

  No, I’m done giving this woman an inch. I think thirty million dollars was enough. Not to mention what that thirty million represented. All my future plans gone in the blink of an eye. I’m back where I was three years ago right after I bought Chandelier. Funds depleted and banking everything on the hope that each and every one of my businesses continues to turn a healthy profit. If even one of them has a couple of bad quarters, I’m sunk. There’s no cushion to fall back on or group of other investors to share the burden now.

  It’s all gone.

  My hand shakes as I turn away from Scarlet and head for the minibar. Even having her in my peripheral vision makes me feel dangerously off-kilter.

  Fuck, why did I even bring her here tonight? I should have just kicked her and her idiot brother to the curb as soon as we got back to my apartment.

  That would have been the sane thing to do.

  I slam the whiskey bottle back on the small bartop and down the shot I just poured. My blood immediately lights from the alcohol and I pour another glass.

  Because fuck it. I’m feeling decidedly not sane at the moment.

  I look in the reflection of the mirror at Scarlet where she stands behind me. She’s so goddamned beautiful in that body-clinging red dress. Blonde hair cascading down her back. Her bright, intelligent blue eyes. Blood red lips. The perfect package.

  The door opens and I turn to see Bruce. I pour another two fingers of whiskey and then head toward him, forcing my walk to seem casual and easy.

  “Bruce.” I smile and hold out the glass of Glenlivet to him. He takes it and I cuff him on the shoulder, then gesture him into the room. I pointedly ignore Scarlet where she stands awkwardly off to the side.

  Bruce is only a few years older than me and he’s always impeccably dressed. We work out together sometimes. He’s made a fortune in real estate and this pitch is right up his alley. He was going to be my next call before Vale offered to double his investment.

  I lead Bruce over to one of the couches where we sit down and start talking sports bullshit. I’m barely aware of the crap coming out of my mouth. I know Bruce loves the 49ers so I ask a question about them and it’s enough to get him going. I nod along. Even as he carries the conversation, though, Bruce looks Scarlet’s way uncomfortably a few times. She’s moved closer to the little circle of chairs and couches but is still just standing there.

  Until she suddenly walks right up to Bruce.

  “Hi,” she says, flashing her signature gorgeous smile. “I’m Scarlet Bianchi.”

  Bruce’s grin stretches across his whole face as he meets her gaze, white teeth gleaming. “Great to meet you.”

  I get the strangest urge to slam his head into the floor. In the past, I’ve always been amused at the way Bruce uses his All-American charm and good looks to pick up women. In truth, he’s a dirty bastard who sleeps with anything that moves. He’s not especially deviant, but he certainly likes to brag about his conquests. It’s suddenly not so funny, however.

  Especially when Scarlet bends over to shake his hand and he unabashedly stares straight down her the top of her dress.

  “Scarlet.” My voice cuts like a razor blade. She drops Bruce’s hand and looks over at me in surprise.

  I point a finger at the other end of the couch I’m on. “Sit.”

  She crosses her arms over her chest and her eyebrows drop to glare at me when the door opens again. Malcolm and Nelson come in. Malcolm’s only middle-aged but looks about a decade older—the way he tells it, he spent most of his twenties partying. It certainly shows in the heavy bags under his eyes and the permanent tire around his waist. He’s the top engineer of one of the most popular electric car companies in the Silicon Valley, and wealthy enough that most women don’t care about what his looks.

  Nelson is the oldest of all of us, almost sixty, but he keeps in great shape. He works out with Bruce and me sometimes and keeps up pretty well. The gym costs a shit ton for membership but it pays off in exclusive contracts and networking opportunities.

  Malcolm and Nelson are best friends. I know from their drunken bragging that they visit girls in Yang’s Geisha House on a regular basis. That alone was enough to keep me from ever doing any sort of business with them.

  Before.

  Before the only woman I ever told I loved apart from my Mom pissed and shit all over everything I thought we—

  Before I had no more fucks to give.

  It’s time to get this done. To get the lying whore out of my system once and for all.

  Seeing how she responded to Bruce and flashed her cleavage at him just proves what I’ve known ever since her betrayal was revealed.

  I was only a mark to her. I could have been any man in this room and she would have done her job just as ruthlessly. So yeah, I’ll do what needs doing tonight.

  But first—seal the deal.

  I grit my teeth as Bruce introduces everyone to Scarlet. I turn away from them and get everyone drinks.

  She doesn’t sit where I told her to. No, she takes a seat that puts her right between Bruce and Nelson.

  Is she already on the hunt for her next target? Trying to hook them right in front of me?

  When she gets up and sau
nters to the bar, both Nelson’s and Malcolm’s eyes are firmly glued to her tight little ass that she swings back and forth all the way there.

  I put my whiskey glass down on the side table, sure that if I keep holding it, I’ll crack the damn thing with my grip. Could she be more fucking obvious?

  She saunters with just as much sultriness on her way back to sit down, a clear bubby liquid in her class. A vodka soda? A little classier than the margaritas she drank when she was at the club with me that time. Maybe she changes her drink depending on the man she’s trying to seduce—with each persona she adopts.

  God, was I even her first? How many times has she run this scam before? Yeah, she spouted that bullshit about me taking over her Dad’s restaurant, but that’s obviously just how she picked me out of the crowd of all the potential millionaires in the city. Maybe also so she could look like the hero in her brother’s eyes.

  That and she must have watched that stupid fucking documentary on me. Of course. She knew just the way to approach me—in a fucking soup kitchen, of all places. She was playing off of my shitty childhood from the start. I made myself such a pathetic, easy mark.

  Fury burns hotter and hotter in my veins all the way through my muscles until it feels like my skin is on fire.

  I keep bullshitting with the guys about their businesses and successful ventures. I’m good. I can close deals in my sleep these days. The whole time, though, I’m watching Scarlet as she smiles coyly at one man and then another.

  Finally it’s too much.

  “So, while I do love social calls,” I say, “I know your time is money. And that’s why I asked you here. You might have heard I’m putting together a group to buy The Sutler Hotel.” I get to my feet and cover the distance to where Scarlet sits.

  The startled look on her face is priceless.

  Oh, am I interrupting her little game of seeing who she’ll next seduce and con? What a shame.

  I come to a stop in front of her and hold out a hand. I smile at the beautiful snake.

  She thinks she can ruin me and then walk away scot free?

  Two can play this game, sweetheart.

  For a long second, she just stares up at me, uncertainty clear in her eyes. Indecision.

  Though who knows? She’s obviously an expert liar. This could be just one more deception.

  I remain standing and waiting for her reaction.

  She’s the one who brought us to this place.

  And just as she likes, I’ve provided an audience.

  Her breath hitches and her eyebrows drop. For a moment, just a moment, she looks… heartbroken. My outstretched hand falters.

  But then her glare is back. She grabs my hand so hard I won’t have any feeling left if she holds on for too long. She jerks herself to a standing position beside me.

  Her mouth presses into a tight line and her ice-cold glare—God, if I didn’t see it before, it’s clear now just how much she hates me.

  I’m finally seeing the real Scarlet. How long did she hide her true feelings toward me? How many times did she secretly grit her teeth in disgust when I touched her? But she swallowed back her obvious loathing. And for what?

  Money.

  She all too willingly made herself a whore. And she turned me into even more of a miserable, disgusting, unlovable piece of shit than I already was.

  For a second, I can’t remember what I was trying to say to the guys. I lose my train of thought. I never wanted to be in this place again. I feel the same as I did right after I learned my mom killed herself. Realizing once and for all that she never loved me. Where my life feels like it’s worth nothing. Where I’m worth nothing. I swallow hard.

  Scarlet did this to me.

  I could never love you. No one will ever love you.

  No. Fuck that. Fuck both of them. I’m Kennedy Benson. Kennedy fucking Benson does not give up. No matter what. No matter who.

  I move around until I’m standing at Scarlet’s back. That’s better. I don’t have to look into her beautiful, lying face.

  Her body tenses. She feels how close I am but she doesn’t look over her shoulder at me.

  In one swift motion, I reach around to the front of her fucking tease of a dress, grab it at the center of the bodice, and tear it down the middle.

  I’m furious enough that my muscles bulge and it comes apart in one long riiiiiiiip of fabric.

  Scarlet lets out a shocked gasp and her arms move to cover herself. She’s facing Bruce, Malcolm, and Nelson, and their eyes immediately zero in on the show. She’s got some fancy underwear on, which immediately sends my temper flaring again. She had no idea what I had in store for tonight. Just who was she planning on seducing by putting on that sexy, red lingerie? Was it for me, or for wherever she was planning on going after she and her brother left tonight?

  I can’t stand to see it on her. She’s worn it for me before. And now she would so quickly wear it for someone else.

  My chest hollows out.

  I want to rip it off her body but as soon as I feel her soft skin underneath my fingers, I immediately know I never could.

  No matter my rage, I could never hurt her.

  I undo the clasp of the bra at the back and run the tips of my fingers down between her shoulder blades. So creamy and silky. How can hell feel like heaven?

  I lean in and inhale her as I slide the bra straps down her arms. Vanilla and coconut. As if they have a mind of their own, my lips fall to the back of her neck as I push the bra straps down her arms. I push her sweet-scented hair aside for better access. She shivers underneath my touch.

  Once, twice, I brush my lips across the tiny, fair little hairs at the base of her skull.

  Her breathing comes out stuttered.

  For a woozy second, I forget where we are. Who we are. My hands move from their grip on her upper arms to cup her ample, natural breasts.

  She hisses out a little high-pitched groan the second my fingers make contact with her nipples.

  I know that sound.

  I love that sound.

  Fuck.

  No.

  No I don’t.

  That sound is a lie.

  Her entire body is a lie. Every response. Every moan.

  Her gasped, I love you, Kennedy, the last time we made love.

  I pinch the nipple I just caressed. Hard.

  She jolts. But she doesn’t pull away. Instead she twists more in my arms. And rubs her round ass back against my hard-on.

  I suck harder on the back of her neck and pull on her nipples, then flick them.

  She gasps but just continues to writhe.

  My cock jumps in my pants, pressing up and into her ass. Is this how she really likes it? Hard? Rough? All the times we fucked, was she just giving me what she thought I liked?

  “You like this?” I growl furiously into her ear. “And look at them watching you. You’re making them hard. That makes you even wetter, doesn’t it?”

  From behind, I watch her eyes move to the three men looking on. I wasn’t lying. The bastards are captivated as they watch me fondle her.

  Bruce’s hand is at his pants but the other two have their dicks out and are just unabashedly jacking off. God. I jerk my eyes away. I don’t need to see that shit. I shift my eyes back to Scarlet.

  She seems mesmerized by looking at the men watching her, though. She twists her legs together and pants with need.

  She seems far more interested in them than me even though it’s my hands on her.

  I slap at her breast to get her attention.

  “On your knees.” I snap and point at the floor.

  Will she obey or not?

  She turns around and glares at me. For a second, it’s a standoff.

  But then she drops to her knees in front of me. I lose my breath at seeing her there bowed at my feet. I mean— I didn’t think she’d really—

  “Take my cock out.” I manage somehow to say. My dick is hard as a rock and her sitting there, like that—

  She unbuckles
my belt and undoes my button and fly faster than I would have thought possible. Then she’s got my cock out, so big in her tiny, delicate little hands.

  I can’t help hissing as soon as her fingers close around me. God. Yes. Any kind of relief feels good. But not nearly as good as her mouth will. Or fuck, that tight as heaven sweet little pussy of hers—

  Shit.

  Even after everything I know, she’s still pulling me in.

  “Now suck it,” I demand. Then I add just for good measure, “I want you choking on it.”

  She glares up at me through her lashes, then a devilish grin flashes before she licks just the tip. Slowly, she tongues all around the rim. I bite my lip and grab onto the arm of the couch beside me. God-fucking-damn it. She’s going to kill me if she keeps it up like that.

  But I don’t know the true meaning of the word torture until she scoots over on her knees, making sure she’s angled sideways so the men on the couch can see her in perfect profile. She looks over at them as she teases the tip of my cock with her tongue. She’s giving me the blowjob, but it’s them she gives the fuck me eyes.

  I’m just a prop in her little show.

  Even Bruce has his cock out and in hand now.

  Scarlet lets my cock slip out of her mouth so she can smile at each of them in turn.

  That’s fucking it.

  I grab her hair and shove her down my cock so that she’s forced to swallow me deep. Let’s see if she can focus on anyone else but me now.

  I think that she’ll choke and smack at me. I’ll let her go, she’ll pull away, we’ll both throw up our hands in disgust and then that will be it.

  The perfect ending to our fucked-up pairing. I didn’t have an exact plan in bringing her here tonight. Some kind of ugly scene. I couldn’t have our last sexual experience be…be…

  I love you, Kennedy. Such sincerity in her eyes as she said it. What I thought was the most beautiful, perfect moment of my life.

  No, much better to end it like this.

  But Scarlet doesn’t yank off my dick. Instead she swallows me even deeper and does some kind of vibrating thing, humming, holy— I stagger a little, only managing to stay on my feet because I’m holding onto the couch.