Page 62 of Wallflower in Bloom

“I see we’re having a conference.” A sultry voice sounded from behind the doorway, and all three parted for the most terrifying creature of all: a threatening older sister.

Rose sauntered in, never breaking eye contact with Jack, closed the door, and locked it.

Oh fuck.

“I noticed things were looking very cozy out there,” Rose said quietly, walking slowly toward him.

This bloody powder room was starting to feel like a sardine tin. Could he climb out the window behind him? It was a two-story fall, but it had to be better than being cornered by Rose and her three henchmen.

He gulped. “I’m just trying to make her happy.”

“Hmm.” Rose’s mouth was curved in a smile, though her eyes threatened murder. “I’d hate for you to lead her on. To play with those deep, earnest feelings of hers for shits and giggles.”

She tapped her fingers on her crossed arms, her blood-red nails feeling like a threat.

“I would never do that. Gray knows I prize loyalty above all else,” Jack said.

He hated that they didn’t think about Violet as an intelligent, competent woman who could make her own decisions. “I have full faith in Violet and her ability to kick me to the curb when she’s done with me.”

A slight satisfaction glimmered through Rose’s eyes. “Good, because”—she took a step closer to him, her cat-like eyes narrowing—“if you hurt my peach of a sister—the softest, sweetest, kindest person we know—I will reach down your throat, pull out your internal organs, stomp on them in these heels”—she pointed to her four-inch spikes—“and punch you in the balls with them. ’Kay?”

He gulped, and she looked only too happy when she was threatening to torture him.

“Okay,” he said quietly, his stomach turning. Without another word, she turned around, unlocked the bathroom door, and walked out.

He blew out a breath. “Jesus fucking Christ.”

“She’s great, isn’t she?” Gray said, smiling. “God, I love her.” He chuckled and walked out the bathroom door after punching Jack on the shoulder.

Jack got out of the bathroom as fast as humanly possible. That’d be the last time he’d let himself get cornered by this crew.

The next afternoon, Violet appeared in her greenhouse with enormous bags of mulch on either shoulder.

“Oh my god, let me help you with that.” Jack rushed to her. He’d insisted on helping her catch up.

“It’s fine. I do this all the time.”

“That’s got to be at least 40 pounds each.” He knew guys at the gym who couldn’t do that; color him impressed.

She threw them down and shrugged. “Comes with the territory. Also means I don’t have to go to the gym. Win-win.”

So that’s how she’d gotten her solid arms and sculpted back he’d admired yesterday.

“Well, I can grab the next two,” he said, hoping he could carry them as well as her.

“You don’t have to do that.” She shrugged, looking guilty, as if his help would be too much.

He’d practically had to force her to let him help. “Violet, I swear if you tell me to go inside again—”

“Sausages!” she called over from the back of the greenhouse, and his lips twitched with humor.

He brought several bags of mulch and dirt into the greenhouse. No wonder Violet had been sore yesterday. He’d fire his trainer and be a gardener instead when he went back to filming.

“How’s your audition going?” She picked out dead leaves from the plants, ready to go into Bloom.

“Ah, the self-tape. It was fine. I haven’t done one in a long time, so most of my takes were absolute shite. He’s much different from Lord Eagleton.” He started picking out leaves too. His father had taught him that, as far as gardening was concerned, don’t wait to be asked. See what needed to be done and do it until told otherwise. “The character I’m auditioning for oozes possessiveness. Supremely alpha male.”

“Oooh,” Violet cooed, shimmying her shoulders. She was wearing overalls, but given the intense afternoon heat, she only wore a sports bra with a low scoop neck under it, revealing the vast expanse of her breasts.

---