Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 91064 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91064 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
But what’s a little blood for the sake of someone you care about?
Of course, it’s a grand notion to have, until we walk into the club. This place isn’t at all what I expected. It’s swanky and private. Heavy buy in fees and rich pricks strolling around in Armani suits. If I could read minds, I’d be murdering some motherfuckers right about now. How casually they leer at Scarlett as she passes by as if they have that right.
The patience I claimed to have only moments ago is nowhere to be found now.
The trade off, I remind myself.
At the end of the night, Scarlett is going home with me. Not any of these other blokes. This is the only way with a wild one like Scarlett. If I’d suggested dinner and a movie, she’d have laughed in my face and walked right out the door.
So, I grab a drink at the bar and scope out the room, careful to keep her in my sights. She finds the table she’s looking for in moments and it’s faster than I expected and Scarlett is a true pro.
The table isn’t as bad as I thought. A few older businessmen. And one bloke around my age, maybe. Of course, that’s the one she’s got her sights set on when she takes a seat beside him.
I join the table and take my place two seats down from her, focusing on my drink while Scarlett launches into her role.
Within a few short moments, I come to understand that the story she gave me earlier was only the practice version. This time, she’s fully locked and loaded with her smile and her fake accent and her cleavage that even I can’t fucking look away from.
The men are eating it up, all of them offering to help her out, purely from the kindness of their cocks.
I’m rapping my knuckles on my leg and focusing on the table. Trying not to let it get to me. But the arsehole she’s with is eating it up with a fucking spoon, and when he smiles, it’s smarmy and I want to knock those teeth right out of his mouth.
To my complete fucking irritation, he accepts her proposal to help spend her bastard of a husband’s cash.
The game begins soon after, and Scarlett is supposed to be giving me the signals. But she isn’t and all I can see is red when Ethan- her new best friend- wraps his arm around her and leans close to whisper in her ear.
I’m about to fucking snap, and at this rate, I’m about to lose as well.
I need to cop onto myself.
So, I order another drink and get my head into the game, deciding the only way to salvage this clusterfuck is to ignore Scarlett completely. She didn’t come here to play poker and if I’m going to win, I can’t be distracted by the game she’s playing too.
So, I do what I do best.
I start hustling.
And I recover from my initial blunders once I’ve got my focus right. Now things are changing. Now Scarlett’s eyes are on me, but I don’t look up at her.
Her laughter is musical and the tales she spins for Ethan, syrupy sweet. She’s a good fucking liar and Crow was right and she really is Satan and what the fuck am I doing and why do I still want her?
She’s playing me too.
The viper disguised as a kitten. And she’s dead wrong if she thinks I’m just another ignorant bloke being led by his cock and she’s going to watch me crash and burn while she laughs in my face.
Just when I think I’ve got it all sorted out in my head and that I need to let go of her, Niall’s words from earlier come back to me, warring with that thought. Am I only sabotaging this, exactly as he said I would?
The game breaks, and Ethan excuses himself to the bathroom, with promises he’ll be right back. Scarlett and I already agreed that we wouldn’t speak until the end of the game. That was the plan. But she knows that none of this is right and she can sense the want in me to leave this behind. To leave her behind and forget her.
And the devil in her wants to reel me back in.
“What does it feel like?” she whispers as she moves around beside me. “Is this jealousy?”
It’s an innocent question. And the honesty in her voice softens my resolve. Scarlett doesn’t have relationships. She told me herself she doesn’t feel anything for men.
It shouldn’t surprise me. Or piss me off more.
But it does.
“Why don’t you tell me?” I nod to Ethan as he comes strolling back from the bathroom.
She gives me a funny look but resumes her games with Ethan.
With the few minutes we have left, I turn around and scan the crowd. There’s a cute blonde across the bar, glancing at the tables hesitantly. Like she wants to play, but isn’t sure how.