Contract of Shame (11 page)

Please, god, no.

****

Scarlet smiled at him, and his whole world became clear. She was younger than he, and he’d fucked up with this shit contract. He had it in his hands right now. Richard had purposefully brought her to his little hideaway to see how she’d react. Since her trust in him with her secret and claiming her and Harry to David he knew what he wanted most in life. He wanted to have a family to come home to. To fall in love and not worry about what the world thought. The time to react was at his fingertips. He’d be forever miserable if he didn’t show Scarlet how much he loved and cared about her.

This wasn’t about sex but about the rest of their lives. In life there are only a few moments, and split seconds to make decisions and he had to act now.

Scarlet dropped the phone and ran out of the house. Her hands were shaking, and she dropped her car keys three times before she managed to get the door open.

“Baby, what’s wrong?”

“Harry, he’s had an attack, and they might need to operate. They’re not sure. Lily was a bit hysterical.” Richard stopped her and called for his driver. In no time at all they were at the hospital and rushing toward the paediatric wing.

Lily and Wayne sat in the waiting area looking frantic. Scarlet passed them, and Richard knew she’d pulled away. Everything about her was different.

“Everything is all right. Calm down. Harry is stable. His inhaler didn’t work, and he couldn’t catch his breath. We’ve got him on oxygen at the moment, and he should be fine. I’ll need to prescribe another inhaler.”

Richard stared past the doctor’s shoulder to the room. He saw Harry lying in the bed, weak.

He rubbed a hand over his face, and John stopped him from going further. “Only family is allowed.”

Scarlet turned round, and he waited for her consent. The look she gave him stopped him in his footsteps. “I don’t want you here.”

In those words his world died. Their time together meant nothing in face of that binding, fucking contract. John gazed at him with pity.

“Everything is paid for. Send the bill straight to me,” Richard said.

“I’ll do what you ordered, but my first responsibility is to my patient. If Scarlet asks about payment, I’ll tell her where it’s coming from.” John flipped his papers over and walked away.

“I’m so sorry, Richard,” Lily said walking over to him. “We didn’t know what to do, and she gave us the hospital details and everything. He couldn’t stop coughing, and getting his breath back was difficult.” He calmed her down and stared at Wayne.

“Sorry,” he said over her head. Richard nodded. He didn’t blame his friends. There was nothing they could do.

“I think it best you go home. I’ll handle everything.” His friends offered to stay and keep him company, but he refused. There was nothing else to say or to do.

All he could do was wait it out. Hope and pray Scarlet forgave him. He should never have taken her away from her son. Richard cursed himself.

For hours he waited outside the room. Scarlet didn’t move from beside Harry’s bed. He wanted to go in and see her little boy. To see with his own two eyes that Harry was safe.

“Don’t do that. Don’t make out you care about us. The only thing you care about is what you want and how desperate you are to get it.” Her voice rose with every word.

“I care, Scarlet.”

“Really? You see, I’ve been thinking about it, and to be honest you’re no different from David.”

“Stop right there. I’d never force myself on you. I’m nothing like that snivelling little shit.” Usually from his upbringing he didn’t like to cause a scene. He knew where this argument was going to lead, and he had to stop it and nip it in the bud.

“You’re right. At least David only forced himself the one time. You, you forced me to sign a fucking contract giving you complete access to my body. You wanted me, and you couldn’t just ask me on a date like a normal person. Tell me, Richard, what is so fucking wrong with me that men can’t ask me on a date? They make demands and force their way into my life?” The tears were pouring down her face, and his gut twisted.

At any time in his life, if he ever had any doubt about his feelings with regards to this woman, in that instant they were wiped clean.

Scarlet Hughes, the woman he’d been the biggest bastard to, was the very woman who owned his heart.

He knew the look in Scarlet’s eyes. This was it, and they were over.

“There’s nothing wrong with you,” he said.
I’m the screw
-
up.

“I think you should leave.” She brushed away her tears.

“What?”

“I want you gone. I want nothing to do with you anymore. Consider this the end of it.” Scarlet turned to leave. Richard couldn’t leave it like that.

Chapter Eleven

“Darling, you should have brought a guest with you.” His mother false kissed his cheeks in a sort of French style. Richard knew he looked a mess. He hadn’t eaten, and the only reason he’d turned up is because his sister had begged him to.

Scarlet hadn’t called or sent any word, and what little information he’d gotten out of John Barnes had been the boy was stable. She refused his telephone calls, and the gifts he had sent to her were sent back. Today was Saturday, and at least he’d see her at work on Monday. He prayed she wouldn’t quit.

“That woman I’ve been getting reports on. A small fat girl with blond hair. Please, darling, you can do so much better, and remember image is everything. I mean I know Wayne’s fallen far from the tree, but that’s to be expected. and Opal has finally gone on a diet....”

He placed a finger over her lips. “Don’t say another word if you don’t want a scene at this anniversary, even if this whole load of
shit
is false.” Richard smirked when his mother glanced around to make sure no one had heard him shout the last word. “Another warning. Don’t throw any of your sluts in my direction.” He grabbed a shot of whisky from a passing waiter and went to join Lily and Wayne at the table farthest away.

“Wayne, would you take him and give him a change?” Lily handed her son over to his dad. Wayne chuckled, and Richard wanted that. He wanted to be a dad.

“She’s not coming back, Lily,” he said to the sweet woman at his side. Richard took a large swallow of whisky while he watched his sister play with the young children at his parents’ wedding anniversary.

“You love her?”

“Why can’t you just let it go?” He glanced around in case Wayne had come back with the little guy. The man was super protective of his wife.

“He’s gone to change George,” Lily said.

“Sorry for yelling.”

“Good. You can make it up to me by explaining what happened with Scarlet. You were so happy. I can’t accept it’s over. You spent most of your time staring at her with love in your eyes.”

He told her the whole story. The contract and Harry. What had happened in the aftermath. How Scarlet despised everything about him. “I don’t get it. I was prepared to give her the world.”

Lily sat silently at his side staring out at the sea of people dancing and laughing. “Let me get this straight. You cornered Scarlet into signing a contract to screw her body for a week, and in return you’d pay her money which would supply all medical professionals and care for Harry?”

“No. The fact that it
is
bad is the reason it sounds bad. I can’t believe, when you were so against what Wayne did to me, you did worse than that with Scarlet. At least he offered me marriage. You didn’t offer her anything.” Lily sipped her water.

“With everything she went through with that scumbag and the way she looked at you, I’d say she would have been happier with your love. If you ask me, Scarlet doesn’t know what it means to be loved. I saw the way she stared at me and Wayne at that casino.” She paused as Opal came over.

He didn’t need Lily to tell him how he’d feel. Being alone at night killed him. He couldn’t even face going to his penthouse anymore because of the memories of her. Hours were spent gazing down at the engagement ring he’d bought her.

Richard drank his whisky and watched his parents. They didn’t stand close together, no hands touched. His father stared off in the distance staring at the driveway.

Did he want this from his life? To have a stuck-up old fish as a wife and forever to want someone else?

He swigged his whisky and stared at his friends when Wayne came back. Opal was being introduced to a man older than she. He recognised him as Charles Clarke, another man from his parents’ society.

Another glass of whisky was swung back.

This would be his life without Scarlet.

Chapter Twelve

On Monday morning, Richard watched from his office as Scarlet gathered her belongings. A few of the other office workers came to wish her goodbye. She smiled at them and continued to gather her things. He couldn’t watch this. With every item she placed in the brown boxes a punch landed directly over his heart.

He fucking hated this. Erratic fingers ran through his hair, and he watched her fish out her keys and come to his office.

She didn’t look at him or say any words as the keys to the files and office landed on his desk.

“Please, don’t go,” he asked. He’d promised himself while he fought for sleep last night he wouldn’t beg or plead for her to stay. The thought of losing her wasn’t as powerful as physically watching her leave.

How could he cope without seeing her every morning? Take away all the sex and everything he’d forced on her, and his life wouldn’t be worth living. Very dramatic for a man of his age and his standing. Being alone he could deal with, as long as he could see Scarlet every day. Ever since she’d begun working for them, he’d lived his life begging for the next smile or touch.

Without even realising it, Richard had fallen in love with her long before last week. Opal adored her, and his friends enjoyed her company. He was fucking worse than David Buttons. He’d forced her and used her body’s responses against her.

“I don’t give a fuck what people can see. I’m so fucking sorry. Please, don’t go.” With her hand still in his he walked round the desk in front of her and went to his knees. He didn’t care about the stares or what people would think. Scarlet, the beautiful woman before him, she was the only thing that mattered to him.