Page 20 of Regret

Chapter 8

They stopped in front of the elevator and Scarlet turned to Hunter. “I’d like to take the stairs, please.”

Hunter looked confused. “You what?”

“The stairs. I want to take the stairs.”

“Why?”

There was no way she could tell him that she had this extreme bone numbing fear of enclosed areas. That whenever she was stuck in a tiny confined space, her heart would pound like a jackhammer behind her ribs and her lungs would feel seconds away from collapsing. She had already shown too much vulnerability to this man she hardly knew. So she lied.

“I want to take the stairs, and I want to walk first so that my fine-looking ass can be right there in front of you.”

Okay, maybe it wasn’t that big of a lie.

His eyes narrowed. “You’re not going to let this fine-looking ass thing go, are you?”

“Nope.”

“Figured.” He pulled his hand through his hair and Scarlet watched as it fell back to frame his face again. “Fine. The stairs it is. But be warned, I’m on the top floor.”

Scarlet clapped her hands together and faked a little thrill of excitement one would come to expect from a diva Barbie doll. “Oh yay, a lot of stairs means a lot of time for you to ogle my ass.”

Unimpressed, Hunter grabbed her elbow and led her to the stairs. When he opened the door, he stood to the side. “Please go first so that I can—how did you put it?—ogleyour ass so that we can please, in God’s name, just move past it.”

Scarlet slowly walked by him and paused for just a second, placing her hand on his chest, looking up at him with batting eyelashes. “I’ll be sure to put some extrasashayingin my walk. You know, to make it worth your while.” She winked and then walked on, starting up the stairs.

“You know you need help, right?” Hunter started. “Professional kind of help.” He closed the door and made his way up the stairs behind her.

True to her word, Scarlet swayed her hips as they continued up the stairs. Hunter didn’t say anything, but she could feel his eyes on her ass the entire way.

“So, Ace, is this the type of thing you do every weekend?”

“What thing?”

“You know, rescuing princesses from dragons, evil witches, and little men with baby obsessions whose names sound disturbingly a lot like the wordforeskin?”

She heard him snicker softly behind her. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I do every weekend. Ride in on my noble white steed and rescue little princesses from freaky villains.”

Scarlet glanced over her shoulder and smiled. “See, I knew it. I got you all figured out.”

“Seems like it. But the only problem with this little rescue mission is that according to you, you didn’t need saving.”

She held up a finger. “This is true.”

“And you definitely ain’t no fucking princess.”

Abruptly she stopped and turned around. Hunter almost knocked right into her before taking two steps back. She placed her hands on her hips. “Are you saying that I don’t have the potential to be some or other fairy tale princess?”

Hunter took a step up, getting closer to her. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

Crossing her arms, she slanted her head to the side. “Explain.”

“Well, for starters, fairy tale princesses don’t have filthy mouths like yours.”

“I like my filthy mouth.”

“And then there’s the whole thing where the princess is eternally grateful for being rescued by the prince that she gives him a token of her gratitude.” He held up his empty hands. “I don’t see no token.”

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