Free Scarlett's Letter (Touched by a God #1) by Ellie Keys

she’d heard him in the hallway that led to her room, she simply scooted to the end of the bed and crossed her feet at the ankles on the footrest that sat there.  The door wasn’t locked.  Aides had thrown the door open and proceeded to read her the riot act for ignoring his shouts.  She stood, walked past him and down the hallway without a backward glance.  That evening and every evening after, she found that no room except for his held a bed.  Stupidly, she’d never questioned how all the beds returned during the day, but were gone again in the evening.  He’d been tormenting her and she hadn’t even realized it.
    The night that she’d spent in peaceful slumber was the night that she’d overheard his conversation about time tables.  Evidently, he had a small window to convince the woman that would “bring forth his heir” before she would be lost to him forever.  Amazing how things look when you think back on them.  The conversation wasn’t one she really entertained then.  It was a pastime as she waited for him to pass by her area.  She had barely breathed the entire time that he’d been in the hallway.  When he’d left, she’d taken a nice long bath and gone to bed.  She hadn’t thought about it again until just then.
    Scarlett would have until the end of the Season of Harvest to make her decision.  As far as she was concerned, there was no decision to make.  There was no way she was going to be the forever lover or the “just for the time being” lover of some god.  Her child was hers to raise, period. Since he didn’t have the five days to convince her to stay, which, let’s face it, had a snowballs chance in hell.  There was nothing more that she had to ponder.   
    In the meantime, she rested in the knowledge that he couldn’t call her to him until the following year.  There was no way she would be able to think or even resist him if she had to be there with him all day, every day.  The man…god had a hold on her body.  If she wasn’t sure of anything else then she was sure of the fact that she couldn’t resist the sexiness that was Aides.  Hateful, manipulative bastard that he was, he knew how to prepare her body for him with just a single word.  She shuttered at the thought of being near him again and reveled in the fact that she had at least a year to train her body not to adhere to his call.  With any luck, she wouldn’t have to worry about anything.  Aides could find another to be what he needed.  Maybe he would forget about her altogether.  Before that thought completed itself, the hope and possibility mystified and disappeared.  There was no way that he was going anywhere.
    Scarlett decided that she’d had enough for the day.  It didn’t matter to her that she was pregnant, she wanted out of the house. No more confinement for her.  She’d practically spent the entire day inside the confines of her home.  She needed her friends and she needed them right then.  As she’d thought about her predicament, she’d listened to her voicemails and reviewed her text messages.  Her overprotective father and two brothers had worked her already frazzled nerves into a more insane state of frenzy.  Who lives like that?  She needed to move as soon as possible.  Those fools were going to cause her to drop dead at a very young age. 
    Two hours had passed and plans with her friends were made.  To say that her friends were looking forward to getting her out of the house would be putting it lightly.
    “Damn, bitch, I thought you were dead.  If I had to hear one more time about R. J. wanting to visit with her Auntie Scar, I was going to pull my fucking hair out,” Qui screamed into the phone.  “Drop off the face of the earth again and see what happens!”
    “Well, ‘hello’ to you too.  Oh and by the way, I love you,” was her quick fire response.
    “Bull. Shit!” Qui’s laughter rang out loudly from her end of the phone.
    “Yeah, Triflin’ Mother of the