The Resilient Lady Collins

Chapter 90: Bet (2)

"As fun as it would be for me to toss something with your face into a fire, I don’t want to sit for a portrait today. This is my gift to you," Scarlet said. freewebnøvel.coɱ

"Scared?" Ian teased. "I didn’t think a Collins would be so scared."

Scarlet bit her tongue. She was not scared that he would still be in her life a year from now. It was just weird to have to sit for a portrait with a man she was not in a real relationship with. "Collins are not scared. Well, at least the ones that I like."

"Yet you are quick to run away from an easy challenge. Admit it, you think I will still be here when a year goes by. I won’t tell anyone about it. What is there to fear when you will have the portrait?" Ian asked, refusing to let the day end without Scarlet in a portrait beside him.

Scarlet couldn’t help wanting to crush his confidence. The portrait would be in her hands and a year from now or earlier than that, she would get to burn it. "I will burn it as soon as it is a year from now. Showing up before me around that time will not stop me from burning it. Do you still want to go through with this?"

"I have nothing to fear when I am confident I will still be around. Especially with me haunting your dreams," Ian teased once more.

Scarlet regretted telling him of her dream because as she suspected, Ian was not going to let her forget about this.

"You are insufferable," Scarlet muttered, walking fast to get away from him.

"The view, Scarlet. It’s remarkable."

Scarlet stopped as she was reminded about what he said she gave him when she ran away from him. "Are you some kind of pervert, Ian? Do you need to be wherever Robert is now?"

"Don’t compare me to that man, Scarlet. There is a stark difference between the two of us. Care for a demonstration?" Ian asked.

Scarlet turned around to face Ian. Again, she witnessed how much he was attracted to her just from his stare and she didn’t find it uncomfortable. There was a playful side to him now while his gaze could still leave all kinds of thoughts in her head.

Ian was skilled with showing his interest and not having her want to be far from him like with some other men. She found that most men needed to look in the mirror to see their frightening gaze when they looked at some women.

"From now on, you are not allowed to walk behind me. You are to always be by my side. Hurry," Scarlet ordered Ian.

"What a shame. I was enjoying the view but since you need me close," Ian said, going to Scarlet’s side as he spoke. "I must feed your needs. And Scarlet, while you aren’t open to my touch yet, feel free to touch me and I won’t call it unfair."

"What are you doing?" Scarlet questioned as Ian suddenly held her hand. "You!" She exclaimed, caught off guard by him placing her hand on his chest. "Are you-"

"Oh!"

The sound of a voice not belonging to Ian startled Scarlet and to her horror, Scarlet found Florence slowly backing away to leave her and Ian alone.

Scarlet knew what had to be running through Florence’s mind as she had witnessed Ian purposely pushing her lady’s hand in his shirt. Though her gaze was on Florence trying to get away, Scarlet could still feel Ian letting her hand roam his chest.

"However you killed Robert, it’s going to be worse than that for you if you do not let go of my hand," Scarlet warned, tempted to pinch him. It would be a good lesson as to why he should not want her hands anywhere near his body.

"Tell me the truth. Is there some kind of plan that you have which involves you having a child with me? It is hard to believe that you only want to upset Layla by having her see you around me. Tell the truth."

"I never thought of having children, Scarlet. Even revenge for it is not something that I would ever think of. What use is a child for me when getting revenge?" Ian replied.

Not once before returning to Lockwood had he thought about having a child. All his plans were put together before his return and back then neither Scarlet nor a child had come up.

Scarlet frowned, not knowing what to think. She could see someone in his shoes not wanting to have a child after the childhood he had. He could either be worried about being like his father or as she was starting to think, Ian didn’t care to have a family. Not when his own flesh and blood had already treated him poorly.

"Yet you would offer yourself for me to have a child. A child you would forever have a connection to," said Scarlet.

"Yes,’ Ian answered. It might be like Owen said that when Scarlet was near he became a fool. He had only offered himself to tease her but having a child with a woman like Scarlet wouldn’t be so bad. "But not right now. I need you to have feelings for me first. This town doesn’t need any more children born with no feelings amongst their parents."

"The future is quite unknown so you can never be certain if this is reserved for something special later," Ian said, poking Scarlet’s flat belly to upset her. Like always, she swatted his hand away.

"Even if I wanted to make use of you that way to have an heir to leave this to, I doubt that I can easily have one. I came out of my marriage without a single child after sleeping with Jack throughout the years. I wouldn’t get my hopes up if I were you that I would ask you to help me," said Scarlet. ƒгeewёbnovel.com

Though she was grateful that she didn’t share a child with Jack to be stuck with him forever, Scarlet couldn’t ignore that something was wrong that she was never pregnant. Before many of their problems, she had been intimate with Jack and nothing came out of it.

Scarlet didn’t know exactly how long he had been seeing Beth as she didn’t need to know anything more than the fact was cheating, but Beth seemed to become pregnant fast. It was upsetting that it came easily for someone else. Someone who had snuck around with a married man was given a child.

"Unlike the fools in this town, I believe that your husband was more involved in you not having a child. Forgive me but I am thrilled that you didn’t have his children. I’d hate to think that you might have stayed with him for the children as I have witnessed some do," said Ian.

His first thought was Layla who snuck with her husband and chose to blame the world for his actions.

Scarlet couldn’t answer what she would do if there was a child involved when she found out about Jack’s affairs. Would she have tried to make it work and then leave or just leave as she did now?

"So, you are saying that I wasn’t capable with Jack but you and I might be?" Scarlet asked. She was going to try again at some point to have a child but she was planning to wait until what she felt now passed.

"We’ll only know in the future if we ever become that close," Ian answered.