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...
"And one day, she discovered that she was fierce and strong, and full of fire that not even she could hold herself back because the passion burned brighter than her fears."
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On the outskirts of that town stood a small, two-storied mansion, richly decorated with the taste of an egotistical Victorian megalomaniac.
The house was up for renters to grab whenever it tickled their fancy to live the way the rich might have over a century ago, with a touch of modernity.
Upstairs, in one corner of the house, in a room where windows were barred and the door could be easily locked from the outside, Scarlett Ambrose slept anything, but soundly.
She was jolted awake and her shoulders sagged, already tired of the day even though it had barely begun.
The fact that she no longer awoke peacefully was a constant reminder that she no longer slept in Ace's arms.
She reached over and pressed a button on her phone to make it light up.
It told her that it was barely five in the morning.
In the two days that Scarlett had lived in the same house as Kai Wickham, his housemate Brad Windom and their frequent guest, Terrence Burke, she had barely gotten any sleep.
Each morning, she forced herself out of bed and sat on the floor, crying to herself, the same way she cried herself to sleep. She was getting so tired of crying.
She cried because she was heartbroken for the loss of Ace.
She cried because she was so angry at herself for losing Ace.
She cried because her life had just been getting good and she felt like she had ruined it for herself.
And now, she was stuck in a house with her nightmares and there was no one to save her.
The only person who could save her, the one who protected her, didn't seem very sympathetic towards her cause.
Scarlett looked at herself in the bathroom mirror, inspecting her red eyes with a hollow look and her paled skin. The marks that Ace had left on her skin as they kissed were fading away into nothing.
She felt zombie-like as she readied herself for the day, prepping and primping, dressing in clothing that they would approve of.
Scarlett spent extra time caring for her face, careful to put on enough makeup to hide her lack of sleep, something her new bosses didn't like seeing in her, as primitive as they were.
She sat at the vanity in her room, combing her hair, wondering how her life had become what she ran away from years before. Even when she escaped, it seemed that she could not escape.
She opened her case of earrings to select a pair and stopped, staring inside.
The ever-present, familiar lump rose to her throat as she reached inside and picked up the small, cool silver stud and turned it around in her fingers.
