The bathroom door sounded off as it opened, cracking and spilling out the buzz of an overhead fan and a motherfucking monsoon of lavender. Immediately, I changed to breathing from my nose to my mouth, only to choke on her scent just the same. The smell of her bogged down my lungs, drowning them in the weight of purple flowers as they sprouted all over inside, filling me from head to toe with her sweet fire.
Not only was this woman chaos embodied, but she also inspired it in every one of her victims.
And that’s exactly what I was turning out to be.
I was a victim of Scarlett Avery, her venom deteriorating my mind and principles to smoke and sin.
God fucking help me.
As if she was waiting to make a grand entrance, she let every bit of steam roll out of the bathroom before walking out. The fog clouded the visibility of her to nothing but skin and maroon hair gathered on top of her head in a messy bun.
When the steam finally parted and Scarlett walked through, the bun on her head glowed a lot more like a freaking knob I wanted to grab so I could throw her right the fuck back in the bathroom.
“Oh shit,” Derek cursed under his breath as he saw her—every barely covered inch of her.
He swung around to me, jaw about on the damn floor and eyes wide. “Are you fucking the boss’s daughter?”
“No,” I hissed like his accusation had stung. “She walks around like that, no matter how many times I tell her not to.”
Derek didn’t quite look like he believed me, but he took that disbelieving look with him as he snapped his focus back to Scarlett as she strolled to her phone sitting on the nightstand in nothing but her bra and those godforsaken lace panties.
A low whistle blew beneath his breath. “You’d have to be an idiot to not want to see that any time you could.”
“Or just not a pervert.”
“You know I can hear you both, right?” Scarlett jerked her head back over her shoulder, casually eyeing Derek and I.
“I’m not ashamed.” Derek took a step away from me and closer to Scarlett. Every single muscle in my body tensed. “I was kinda hoping you’d hear,” he said, flirting with her right in front of me.
I didn’t know whether to gawk at him for how bold he was or to strangle him ‘til his lips cracked blue for ever speaking to Scarlett like that.
Her stare was on Derek, silent for no more than two seconds before shifting her emerald focus to me.
“I don’t like him.”
“Hey!” Derek exclaimed.
A smile twitched the side of my mouth, but I kept it in check.
“Noted,” I replied, voice deep and clipped.
Scarlett held my stare to hers, daring me to slip up and lower my gaze. She arched an eyebrow up, mirth ringing around her eyes and testing my demons she’d gotten well acquainted with yesterday. She was relentless, and I was so fucked.
I lowered the tilt of my chin just as I lowered my voice. “Clothes. Now.”
The devil was in her smile as it curled the ends of her lips, eyes rolling back in show as she nabbed a pair of jean shorts off of her bed.
“All right, all right. Hold onto your big cock.”
Jesus fucking Christ.
That word in her mouth was a bullet straight from her wicked tongue through my flimsy morals, and she knew it. Scarlett Avery was a smart woman with the devil’s playbook in her hands and the page turned right to my name.
Everything she did and said was with an intention, and that intention was to send me to an early grave.
Again, Derek snapped to me. “The fuck did she just say?”
Vexation rumbling in my chest, I snarled, “She thinks she’s being funny.”