Seducing powerful men into telling her all of their secrets is Scarlett Ambrose's specialty. Ace Hardwood is probably no exception.
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The gorgeous, confident and charismatic Scarlett Ambrose is perfect candidate to help Terrence Burke take down the...
"She's a little mix of happy and sad and inside her,
quite a lot of magic."
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Ace Hardwood sat on his bed, scrolling through an e-book on his laptop.
Outside the open doors to his room, he could hear her moving.
He could hear her whispering to herself.
He could hear her singing softly to the world.
He didn't even know that he wore the softest of smiles.
When he heard the light in her room being turned off and the soft pats of her feet against the carpeted floor, crossing the landing to his room, he didn't even know that he had been reading the same word on the page for the entirety of that time.
Scarlett came into the room, with a peaceful smile on her face. She climbed on to the bed and sat on her knees, looking at Ace.
Playfully, he went on reading his book, this time actually moving his eyes across the page.
"Vanessa Wright," came Scarlett's voice, soft, but firm.
Ace shut his laptop and put it on to the bedside table, turning to her fully. He looked at her expectantly. She was smiling at him, with a slight air of nervousness, but happy, nonetheless.
"Vanessa Wright," she said, again.
Ace reached out and took her hand. "Who is Vanessa Wright?"
A few silent seconds passed before Scarlett said, "She's a girl I used to know a long time ago."
Ace nodded. He wasn't sure where this story was going, but the way Scarlett told it, he had a feeling that it would be important.
"Tell me about her," he urged.
Scarlett sighed, thinking. "She was a nice girl, really shy and scared of almost everything. She was a little girl who couldn't do much by herself. She depended on people a lot; on everyone around her, even people she didn't know. She didn't really have anything or anyone to call her own."
Ace knew that she wasn't ready to tell the full story yet. So, he asked, "Did you know her well?"
Scarlett thought again and nodded. "As well as someone can know someone, I guess. I know that she was scared all the time. She was never confident. She would never volunteer to do anything in school. She always stayed in the shadows."
"Why was she scared?" Ace asked.
Scarlett gazed down at her fingers tangled with Ace's a small smile playing at her lips. She raised his hand and pressed her hand against his, inspecting the difference in size. Ace's hand was tanner than hers, bigger, his fingers broader and longer. Slanting her fingers, she interlocked her fingers with his and squeezed. He squeezed back, reassuringly.
