Page 40 of Regret

Hunter narrowed his eyes, his attention now fully focused on her—and not what was between her legs. “Brent was adopted?”

“Yes. By my uncle, the same year I was born.”

Hunter rubbed his jaw. “If he was adopted, why would he be inheriting the fortune?”

She shrugged. “He’s the only living grandchild—so to speak. Granny doesn’t have any more living children to inherit her money.”

“You’re still alive though.”

“Yeah, but dear old Grandma doesn’t know that.”

A kind of sadness dropped like a veil over her, casting shadows of regret over her face. For a second he got a glimpse of the vulnerable Scarlet—the hurting Scarlet—and it somehow pricked at the stone cold heart inside his chest.

Not liking the feeling one little bit, he pulled his hands down his face and tried to focus on the problem at hand.

“Okay, but that still does not explain why he had all those men trying to kidnap you last night.”

Scarlet moved her gaze away from him and stared at the black sheets on his bed. “Let’s just say that I know something that might jeopardize him inheriting everything.”

“Explain.”

She squared her shoulders and looked him in the eye. “There’s nothing to explain. I know his secret, and if I should tell Granny, she wouldn’t want him inheriting shit.”

Hunter shifted, moving a little closer. “What is the secret?”

“Nope.” Abruptly, she jumped off the bed. “I’m not telling you anything else.”

“If you want me to help you, you need to tell me.”

She spun around to face him, and her eyes seemed like they wanted to burn holes in his forehead. “I never asked for your help, remember?”

“No, you didn’t.” He got up and rounded the bed to stand in front of her. “But I’m here, and for some unknown fucking reason I want to help you.” She opened her mouth, but he held up his hand. “Don’t ask me why, because I honestly don’t fucking know.”

She closed her mouth and continued to stare at him.

Without him even realizing it, he somehow managed to get dangerously close to her, staring down at her full, inviting lips, wanting to do nothing more than kiss them so hard they would be red and swollen for days. He didn’t know what it was about her. There was just something about this woman, something that seemed like it was reaching out to him—to his soul. He just couldn’t place it. But he really had this undeniable urge, this need to help her, and he had no idea why. It wasn’t like he was the kind of guy to go around helping every damsel in distress he came across. But her? He didn’t know what it was, and he didn’t even know what he was supposed to be helping her with in the first place, but something was pulling him toward her…and he didn’t like it one little bit.

“Let me help you, Scarlet.”Fuck.

For a few moments they stood there staring into each other’s eyes. He saw it. He could see her vulnerability behind all those layers of hard-ass steel and smart-mouth comebacks. There was much more to this woman than what she was allowing everyone to see. It was like he could feel her, sense her fear and her need to be free.

Her eyes softened and he thought she was actually going to let him in. But then she turned around and headed in the other direction.

“I don’t need your fucking help.”

“Goddammit, you stubborn as shit, insufferable woman.” He’d had about enough of her ungrateful, cocky fucking attitude. Without even thinking it through, he rushed forward, grabbed her around the waist, and pushed her face first into the glass of his floor-to-ceiling window.

“You really have an attitude problem, you know that?”

She placed her palms flat against the glass. The way he covered her entire body with his, the way her cheek was pressed up against the window, her warm breath fogging the glass—everything about it was so fucking erotic, he no longer thought about Brent Wolfe, Granny, or SUV fuckers. All he thought about was his anger, his frustration, how his cock was pressed against her ass. He wanted to be buried inside her right then and there—against the window with all of Chicago watching as he fucked her until dusk.

She moved her ass against him. “It seems you have a problem of your own, don’t you, Ace?”

“I can easily show you how quick my hard-on can become your problem as well.”

Her cherry scent surrounded him, her heat teasing him, taunting him, his self-control slipping little by little.

This was all so fucking insane. She wasn’t his type. He didn’t like women with big mouths who didn’t know how or when to shut up. Hunter liked his women tame, obedient, and easy to control. This woman, Scarlet, she was everything but that. She was nothing more than a fucking pain in his ass, yet his body wanted her.

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