Chapter 20: Hidden Message

Scarlett's birthday came around quickly and on the day she woke to a text alert, groggily she reached for her phone and pulled it from the bedside table.

8:45

Message From 'Sherlock'

Happy Birthday, we are going out tonight be ready for 7. SH

She smiled at the text and threw her phone onto the pillow beside her. Laying her head back down onto the pillow she looked up and the ceiling with a smile, before grabbing her phone again.

What should I wear? XX

She replied and it took no time for the response to come through.

Surprise me. SH

Now that sounded like a challenge. With a grin spreading across her face Scarlett, jumped out of bed and adorned her running gear, she grabbed Bruce though he seemed reluctant and went for her morning run. She did about 3 miles in total all the time mentally going through her wardrobe for something different something surprising. But as she was nearing the end of her run a dress in window caught her eye, it was expensive but not ridiculously so. It had a long black lacy bodice that hugged the figure of the mannequin finishing about mid thigh, from the dress flared out into a delicate mermaid cut with cream coloured tulle.

(If you would like to see Scarlett's dress go to my profile page )

Setting off again, Scarlett made it home and showered before grabbing her purse feeding Bruce and heading out again.

She brought the dress and some nude coloured high heels before heading home again.

Her parents called at 2 to tell her happy birthday and that there was a card in the post. John stopped by shortly after to give her two card one from himself and one from Mrs Hudson as well as a bunch of flowers and some chocolates, he stayed for a while and two chatted, he asked her is she was up to anything that night and she replied, she was out with a friend. After an hour of so he left and though it was a little late for lunch Scarlett ate before calling a number she had not called in a while. Her personal stylist, she arranged for Henry to come round at 5 to do her hair and make-up, before hopping into the shower for the second time that day. She shaved her legs and painted her toenails and fingernails. Before sitting down in front of the telly to watch something while her nails dried. She had not pamper herself like this in a long time.

At 5 Henry arrived, Henry was in his mid 20's and was the most flamboyantly gay man Scarlett had ever met, he was dramatic and loud as well as easily excited. He was lovely and Scarlett found she got along with him well.

"So what's the occasion, I haven't heard from you since the last black tie do for the modelling agency" Said Henry as he sat Scarlett down and began to brush her hair out her face.

"It's my birthday today and I'm going out with a very lovely man and he's asked me to surprise him" Scarlett said with a small grin.

"Oh lucky boy" said Henry with a laugh, the conversation continue in the idle way it always does when a person is talking to a stylist or hairdresser. After and hour and a half Scarlett was done with half an hour to spare. She paid Henry before rushing to get dressed, she was still zipping up her dress when the buzzer went. With one last tug it was on and Scarlett smoothed it out, before grabbing her black leather coat, pulling on her heels and grabbing her bag.

She pressed the receiver button and called into it.

"It's me" said Sherlock's instantly recognisable deep voice.

"I'll be right down" Scarlett called before bidding Bruce goodbye and locking up, she walked slowly out careful not to step on her dress and pull it down. Sherlock stood waiting for her a little way away. His hands in the pockets of his long coat, it was open slightly and he wore his usual dark grey suit and a dark purple shirt. He stood staring at his feet, but looked up when she approached his eye went wide and he smiled.

"Surprising enough" Scarlett asked as she reached him, Sherlock looked her up and down slowly his face filled with a cheeky smirk.

"Yes I would say so" he said with a nod, he hailed a taxi and held the door for Scarlett before jumping in himself.

They pulled up to a restaurant and made their way inside, Sherlock was immediately greeted by the owner as soon as they had sat down.

"Sherlock! Anything you want on the menu, anything at all, free of charge" said the owner to him and Sherlock smiled at him and the two men shook hands over the table.

"All on the house for you and your friend" the owner said looking to Scarlett as he past her a menu.

"A bit more than a friend, Angelo" Sherlock said and the man looked at him surprised.

"Bit different than the last date you came in with" said Angelo.

"That wasn't a date" said Sherlock to him and he simply nodded as though he didn't quite believe Sherlock.

"Well either way, you've got yourself a real diamond here" said Angelo looking to Scarlett again.

"Thank you" said Scarlett with a smile.

"So I take it you two know each other then" she continued looking between the two men.

"This man got me off a murder charge" said Angelo happily looking to Sherlock, who smiled awkwardly under his gaze.

"This is Angelo, about three years ago, I proved to Lestrade, at the time of a particularly gruesome triple murder, Angelo was in a completely different part of town house-breaking."

"If it wasn't for Sherlock I would have gone to prison" said Angelo smiling widely.

"You did go to prison" said Sherlock simply and Scarlett giggled slightly.

"I'll get a candle for the table, make it more romantic" said Angel before disappearing off to get a candle, oblivious to anything Sherlock had just said.

He appeared a second later with a candle before disappearing off again.

"A real diamond" said Sherlock looking over the menu.

"Apparently so" Scarlett smiled.

"It's strange to think I have something other people want" said Sherlock looking her over strangely. "I've never experienced that before"

"Well as much as I don't appreciate you thinking of me as a possession, I think that it is something you will just have to get used to, females who look a certain way make most men's brains turn to mush."

"Evidently" said Sherlock simply as he motioned with his eyes to Billy the waiter who was pretending not to stare a Scarlett.

"You should feel privileged, lucky maybe" Scarlett said with a laugh.

"I do" said Sherlock honestly but before Scarlett could say any more, Billy was their asking them what they wanted to drink.

"Can I ask a question" Scarlett said once their bottle of wine had turned up.

Sherlock just looked at her and she took this as a sign to continue.

"Have you had many girlfriends before" Scarlett asked and Sherlock took a sip of his wine.

"None, not really my area" he said looking at her in the eyes, Scarlett looked at him strangely and he opened his mouth and shut it again.

"Till now" he corrected himself.

"But your not a..." Scarlett question trailed off and Sherlock looked at her strangely.

"Virgin, no, I'm not" he said "I've only experience it twice before but I studied before hand, learnt what to do, where to put my fingers and how to use my tongue. I learnt how to pleasure a woman in such a way, we wouldn't even need to have sex but when it happened it would be explosive" said Sherlock and Scarlett looked at him her eyes wide and her mouth slightly agape.

"Your fingers" she muttered to herself as images of the other night flooded her brain.

"Yes, naturally. I do play the violin" said Sherlock nonchalantly and Scarlett swallowed hard. She had never really heard Sherlock flirt like this and was finding it almost embarrassing but exhilarating all the same.

"Surely you are not embarrassed by this conversation, I would have thought your job would have made you immune to this kind of thing" said Sherlock and Scarlett sipped her wine.

"Ordinarily you would be right as you so often are, but you Mr Holmes do funny things to me. I have never been so confused by someone, so madly in love and so ridiculously attracted all at the same time, as I am with you. Apparently this makes my brain turn into a school girl, I am not one to swoon easily, but you have me every time" Scarlett admitted and Sherlock looked slightly taken aback by her honestly.

"I feel much the same about you" he said and Scarlett could see him struggling with this admission.

"I have worked hard to push my self away for emotions, to stop myself feeling them, but just one look at you and all that work seems to fail me." he said looking at her in the eyes and she smiled, she knew this was hard for him.

"Happy Birthday, beautiful" he said raising his glass to her, they clinked glasses before he lean over the table and kiss her sweetly.

The rest of the dinner went well and the food was amazing, they went for a walk along the river as they had before simply enjoying the other company the did not speak much but Scarlett could see Sherlock was thinking hard, and from the conversation tonight she assumed it was probably something to do with his emotions towards her and in general.

The walked for a long time stopping on Westminster Bridge to stare down at the water.

"Do let it frustrate you, believe me it's not worth it" Said Scarlett as she watch Sherlock's face frown slightly.

He understood perfectly what she was saying and simply turned his face back to the water. There were silent for a while until Sherlock turned to face her.

"I got you a present" he said pulling a large flat box from his pocket and handing it to her. She pulled off the lid to find a sliver chain inside on a jeweller pillow, at the bottom of the chain was a sliver orb it was quite large and had strange indents into each side from which tiny levers protruded from.

"It's a puzzle if you can work out the right combination of levers to pull in what order the sphere will open and inside there is a message" said Sherlock as Scarlett pulled the necklace from the box.

"I love it, thank you" Scarlett said looking to him and smiling as she clipped the chain around her neck before putting the box back into her pocket and taking Sherlock's hand in her own.

She could see his brain whirling away with itself at a hundred miles and hour and she looked at him and smiled reassuringly and she watched at the motors behind his eyes ground to a halt and he smiled back. They began walking again vaguely towards Baker Street.

"I've started reading John's blog, interesting insight of you when your working, you seem so different there than how I see you" Scarlett said peering at him slightly before looking back towards the direction in which the pair were walking.

"Yes well as I said before you do see a different side to me that no one else ever will" he said not looking at her, but he took her hand in his own.

"Yeah I know, but I still find the 'work you' fascinating" said Scarlett and Sherlock chuckled.

"Does it make you feel like you don't know me" he asked again not looking at her but his hold on her hand did not realease.

"No. Maybe I'm reading it all wrong, I mean I can't read people like you can, by their clothes or how they walk but that stuff matters little to me anyway. But I think I can read eyes, maybe faces. And I've read lots in those big blue eyes of yours. I think I know you, I've learnt all I would ever need to know about you in them" Scarlett said not looking at him and she felt him looked at her quickly before turning his head away again.

"Maybe so" he said simply.

"So you don't read my blog then" he asked looking at her with a strange look and she smiled coyly.

"I did look at it when I first met you, but quite honestly it all kinda goes over my head" said Scarlett.

"You don't give yourself enough credit, you are very intelligent when you put yourself to it, more so than anyone else I know" said Sherlock and Scarlett smiled at him but he did not turn to see.

The was silence for a little while longer and the pair continued to walk the sound of Scarlett's heels clicking on the pavement, was the only sound.

"I've been offered a job with a perfume company, as a fashion model" said Scarlett after a while and Sherlock turned to look at her finally.

"I think it comes off the back of just being voted FHM's sexiest woman in the world" Scarlett said with a laugh and Sherlock's eyebrows rose up his face.

"Really? I thought you didn't want to do modelling any more" said Sherlock and Scarlett shrugged.

"No, I just didn't want to glamour modelling any more. I think deep down I still like modelling. I'm just not sure I want pictures of my boobs on the covers of magazines every time I go into a newsagents.

Sherlock simply nodded to her and said nothing more, he felt she was giving up and just going back to what she had always done as she did not know what else to do, but he would not question it any further, plus he was dating the worlds sexiest woman according to a particular magazine and some small part of him, loved that.

When the ended up at Baker Street he turned to Scarlett and looked down at her, even in her heels she was only 5'11 which he still daft at his lean 6'1.

"I enjoyed tonight, thank you" she said and he smiled that little smile that was just for her.

"Me too" he said and he bent to kiss her, their lips met and he grab he round her waist pulling her tight to his body so her neck had to crane back slightly to hold the kiss.

"I'll walk you home" he mummer to her as he broke the kiss and she only nodded as her head began to swim. She wasn't sure if it was the 3 glasses of wine she had hard at the restaurant or simply Sherlock himself.

"Do you want to come up" she asked him as she typed the release code into the call box of her apartment building.

"Sure" he said simply and the pair entered the building together.

Upstairs Scarlett made coffee for herself and Sherlock, her dog Bruce seem unaffected by the visitor blearily lifting his head from his bed in the living room as the pair entered.

She sat down next to Sherlock the sofa and pulled off her heels before wrapping her legs up onto the sofa and beside herself, she looked to Sherlock who sipped at his coffee before she decided. She lay her head on his shoulder and she felt his muscles tense for a second before he relaxed and she grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. They sat like that for second after finishing her coffee Scarlett stood and grabbed both her mug and Sherlock went to make her way to her small kitchen but Sherlock grabbed her free hand and pulled her back towards him, the movement shocked Scarlett so that she dropped the mugs and they landed on the carpet with a soft thud, the remnants of the coffee spilling into the carpet. She fell towards him slightly and he caught her and within seconds his lips were on hers.

He kissed her hard, his hand on her waist as the pair fell from the sofa onto the fall between the sofa and the coffee table, Scarlett was on top now and she kissed him back as his hand moved to her bum. Her lips moved from his lips to his throat and Sherlock let out pleasured gasp. She continued the assault on his neck before pulling open his shirt and move down his chest, Sherlock let out a deep growl in the back of his throat and in less than a second, Sherlock had pulled himself and Scarlett up to standing position. He looked at her with lust stricken eyes as if asking her a silent question on whether on not he should proceed. Scarlett only nodded and in second Sherlock's lips were on hers again as he led her backward towards the door he knew led to he bedroom, once inside he kicked the door with his foot and it swung shut with a pleasing click. He back her up, his lips never leaving her as he unzipped her dress allowing it to pool at her feet as the backs of her knees collided into the bed and she collapsed backwards onto it. In a second Sherlock rid himself of his jacket and shirt before leaning down to Scarlett, quickly she shuffled herself the bed and Sherlock's arm reached behind her back to unclipped her bra before discarding it with the rest of their clothes.

His fingers slipped under the band of her knickers and he pulled the item from her body as he began to nip softly at her neck again. Her head hit the stars as he began small quick circles with his fingers on her bud and within minutes she was cumming so hard her head felt heavy. Her back arched up and Sherlock's hand move up onto her stomach to push her back down to earth and she came down from her high but he gave her no respite as his hand travelled south again. He kissed her this time and as he brought her again up to her point, he pulled away to looked at her face as she moaned loudly. He kissed her hard as his hands came up to rest on the bed beside her, and before she knew what what happening Sherlock was moving down her body and when his tongue collided with her clit she almost screamed. She couldn't say he didn't warn her at dinner he had said about his tongue and his fingers and he definitely was not wrong.

As she saw stars for the third time that night with his head in-between her thighs she screamed out his name and with a grin plastered across his face he moved up he body again. Only for his mouth to attack her nipples now, she need him more than she thought possible.

"Please" she begged as her voice high and breathy. His eyes glanced up at her before he smiled and continued his assault on her body.

"Please Sherlock I need you" she said again but Sherlock did not move his hand going south again.

"I want you so bad" she moaned as his finger began to the small circles again. Suddenly his movements stopped and he climbed up her body, spreading her legs so his were in-between them he knelt up on his legs and began to undress himself, she watched all the time her eyes heavy with lust. She help him rid himself of the offending items, she glanced a look and grinned at the sight of him. He leaned down over her and placed his mouth next to her ear, she shivered with anticipation and bit her lip. He nibbled her ear lobe before he spoke.

"I haven't got any" he sentence faded off and she nodded.

"Don't worry, I'm on the pill" she said her voice much deeper than usual.

"If you want me to stop just say" he voice was dark a gravely and she shivered again but nodded none the less. As he entered her slowly it was like a bomb went off behind her eyes and she her hips bucked up, only pushing him in further.

At first he started off slow and Scarlett gripped at his shoulders her eyes shut as she tried to bring her self back down to earth, but as his strokes sped up her grip on his shoulders dug in harder and she began to moan loudly. Her eyes snapped open as he brought her over the edge in such an explosive way her body physically shook. He grinned at her and grin she had never seen before and in his eyes the animal was roaring. She moved her head up and kissed him before biting his lips softly and he growled, and again, his paced sped up.

His eyes glazed over slightly as he neared the end and suddenly his stokes became hard and slow, his mouth opened slightly as his eyes half closed and with a loud growl and a strangled moan he was over the edge, his movements stopped and he opened his eyes to look at her she smiled sleepily and she slipped away from her. He lay on his back next to her and she turned and looked at him. He motioned for her to lay with him and she did, with her head on his chest and her leg place over his waist she closed her eyes and sighed.

"I love you" she said quietly as her body was consumed by sleep and she past out laying on top of him. He looked down at his raven haired woman and smiled he had absolutely no idea who he had managed to acquire such a beautiful jewel but he was determined to protect it.