Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 540

"The pool," she said. "Nobody is watching the pool."

I looked. She was right. Through the glass doors at the far end, the water sat flat and blue under the lights with not one man posted anywhere near it.

"Call Scarlett now, while she is still walking."

She told me what to send. I typed it with my thumbs shaking.

*Come to the pool area right now, Scarlett. If you genuinely love me like you say you do, then do exactly whatever I tell you to do in front of my friends, without hesitation.*

I sent it, put the phone back in my bag, and we all went out to the pool area and I stood by the water with the four ladies arranged behind me. The air out there was cool, and the water moved against the tile with a soft slap I could hear over my own pulse.

Scarlett came faster than I expected.

The glass door opened and she crossed toward me with her brows drawn together, and she did not look at Lucia or the others even once. She took hold of both my arms and searched my face.

"What happened? Are you all right?"

I pulled my arms out of her hands.

"Get on your knees, Scarlett. Right here, in front of me."

She went still. Her hands stayed where they were for a second, curved around the space where my arms had been.

"Excuse me?"

"Do you want me to repeat myself?"

For a long moment she did not move at all, and the only sound was the water and the low hum of the city. Then her face went down, and she lowered herself slowly, keeping her eyes on mine the entire way, until her knees met the floor.

She held my gaze for one heartbeat longer than she should have. Then her eyes came down.

Behind me, the laughter started.

Lucia's three friends had arranged themselves in a loose row with their handbags and their perfumes and their careful smiles, and one of them, the one in the cream dress with the loud mouth, tipped her chin toward Scarlett and did not bother to lower her voice.

"Look at her. An ugly stray dog with red fur, sitting on the ground where it belongs."

The others laughed with her, and the sound crawled down my spine like something with too many legs. I did not turn around. I kept my face still and my chin up, because Lucia was already in my ear again.

"Her necklace," she said. "Take it. A woman does not wear a chain like that for no reason. If she gives it up for you, you have your answer."

I looked at it. A thin chain with a small pendant, the one Scarlett had not taken off in forever. She slept in it and probably showered in it.