“No, I know I’m hysterical.”
“I should have just left you at the bottom of that cliff,” I mumbled, trying not to watch as she shimmied on her shorts.
She clicked her tongue, popping her hip out as she clasped the button closed. The ones that I hadn’t broken.
“Now who’s being funny?”’
Her eyes were gems that sparkled as she tossed me a wink, and I had to clench my jaw really fucking hard not to smile.
“Does your dad know you walk around grown men without clothes on, missy?” The suggestive tone of Derek’s voice caught both mine and Scarlett’s faces in a grimace. She was the first to react.
“My name is Scarlett, fuckface,” she deadpanned.
Derek reared back, and annoyance sunk down my chest as his eyes lit up at my firecracker’s response. “Feisty one, I see. I’ll take that as a no.”
“What does it matter what I walk around dressed like, hmm?”
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about how you’re dressed or not dressed. Trust me.” Derek gave a chortle that curdled my stomach. “I’m just sayin’ that you’ve probably been torturing Reyes over here for the last few days with it.”
Before I could bite his head off, Scarlett beat me to it.
“Reyes tortures himself.” She scoffed, earning a side-eye from me.
The fuck does she mean by that?
“I’m allowed to dress however I want. If men can walk around shirtless, who’s to say I can’t?”
“Um…” Derek craned his head around to me, looking to me for support on whatever shit was about to spew out of his mouth. “Society says you can’t?”
“Oh, and I really give a fuck what society says.”
Her sarcasm splashed across the walls as she took down her damp hair and shook her head from side to side. Her hair was an even darker red than normal, falling across the swell of her tits like blood hitting against snow.
Shit. I understood her point and agreed with her, I really did. But holy fuck did I wish she’d put a shirt on right now so Derek wasn’t allowed to see the same perfect tits I was trying hard not to stare at.
“You should care considering how dangerous it is out there for women like you to walk around like that.”
Scarlett flashed her eyes of green fire over to Derek, expression blank. “Women like me?”
Uh oh.
Derek being the idiot he was smirked like what he was about to say would be taken as a compliment by the hot-headed woman he was giving it to.
“Yeah, hot women.”
“Oh, so if I was ugly I’d be allowed to walk around without a shirt?”
Derek shrugged, fumbling as he realized his mistake. I leaned back against the wall, crossing my arms with a steady smile on my face as Scarlett set him in her sight.
“Look, if you want to walk around in just your bra and little panties, I’m not going to stop you, all right? I’d have to be brain dead to want to stop you.”
Her top lip curled up. “I’m flattered, but you didn’t answer my question.”
Derek threw his head back with a groan, and I snickered without bothering to hide it. Not being on the receiving end of Scarlett’s tenacity made the entire thing pretty fucking amusing. I could watch Derek getting verbally skewered by Scarlett all day.
“Okay, no woman should walk around in public without a shirt. Happy?” He pleaded Scarlett with eyes wide with exhaustion, and he was only a couple minutes into knowing her.
She’d have chewed him up and spit him out if he’d been in my shoes from the beginning.