by Celia Crown
Vermilion Desire
Celia Crown
Copyright © 2019 by Celia Crown
All rights reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and events are from the author's imagination or folklore, legends, and general myths.
The book or any portion of the book may not be reproduced or used under any circumstances, except with the written permission from the author. Public names, movies, televisions, and locales, or any references are used for atmospheric purposes. Any similarities and resemblances to alive or dead people, events, brands, and locales are all complete coincidences.
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Cover Editor: Designrans
Editor: Syeda Erum Fatima Naqvi
Contents
Vermilion Desire
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Epilogue
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Vermilion Desire
by Celia Crown
Scarletta is not a helpless damsel in distress.
She doesn’t need a prince to come to save her because she is a fighter, a manipulator, and a researcher with the twisted mind of a predator.
Mr. Wolf is not a cold-blooded animal.
He is a seasoned detective; he puts his life in the line every day, face criminals and put them behind bars, and walks on the path of morality.
Her love for him is pure. She loves him with a vibrant soul and a heart of glass. His love for her is not; his possessiveness trespasses the boundary of obsession, but she wants that.
Braxton Berkshire is their enemy.
A man behind a face of perfection, but Scarletta is going to annihilate him because Mr. Wolf is hers, and no one is allowed to hurt him.
Chapter One
Scarletta
I knock on the door, letting the silence of the night eat away the sound as a distant howl from a dog echo through. A car passes behind me as the headlights drag my silhouette on the door of my beloved Mr. Wolf’s house.
The door opens and in comes a man with burly shoulders, towering height, and an intimidating aura. At first glance, Mr. Wolf is what every fairy tale story describes as villainous; his name is self-explanatory, his appearance resembles a bear with skin, and he has a growly voice.
Everything in him screams predator.
“Mr. Wolf!” I greet, smiling up at the man who curls his eyebrows in confusion.
He steps aside without questioning me or the luggage that I haul behind me. He takes the suitcase from me and effortlessly puts it to the side while I toe off my shoes to face him.
“Are you hurt?” he asks, wrapping his hand under my jaw to tip my head side to side.
His hand is warm, and I shiver involuntarily, and he smells even better. He just showered, his wet hair is evident, and I kind of regret not coming here quicker.
Anyone who finds Mr. Wolf unattractive is utterly foolish. When I was sixteen and became the child under Mr. Wolf’s detective partner’s care. I’m in the program for international student housing service, and my guardian is Mr. Wolf’s friend, Cal.
I like the other older man; he’s funny and lax with his rules. As long as I’m safe, he doesn’t care what I do in my free time. The day I was introduced to Mr. Wolf was the week after being settled into my new housing situation.
He had come over to discuss a case while I was in the middle of figuring out my program situation and find out who my seniors are.
It was love at first sight with Mr. Wolf. He was so handsome, so alluring, and so big. Not only did he brought me a pastry, but he was also extremely kind to me and helped me in locating the research facility that I have chosen to work in my international program.
People say only gifted children can be presented this opportunity, but I don’t see myself as anything special other than being a bit too interested in rare diseases and the ability to focus on my studies.
Anyone with the right motivation can be like that. Either way, this opportunity allowed me to meet Mr. Wolf.
“Scarletta?” Mr. Wolf pinch my cheek, dragging me out of my thoughts.
I pout at the slight sting. “It hurts, Mr. Wolf.”
A flicker of panic crosses his face, and he lets go of my cheek to rub on the tender spot. “I’m sorry, baby. Are you okay?”
Mr. Wolf is not the stereotypical villain. He’s pure-hearted and gentle; he’s mindful of his monstrous strength when he’s touching me, and he holds me as if I am the most precious thing to him.
He seems to not notice the pet name, and I don’t mind; it makes me fizzy on the inside as I giggle. I shake my head; my red hair falling from my bun and crack a grin at him.
“I’m just playing with you!”
Mr. Wolf scowls and retaliates with another pinch. He ruffles my hair and steers me to the kitchen, where he has a bunch of files out, and he swipes them with proficiency as if he has had a lot of practice.
“Sit,” he says as he jerks his thumb to the kitchen chair.
I look around the kitchen first, and nothing stands out to me other than the window above the sink that peers into the other house. It shows nothing but a wall of blackness. However, the light in his house pinpoints the wall color to be copper.
They’re bricks. I shrug and turn to Mr. Wolf as he raises an eyebrow, a cup of warm water in his hand that he passes to me. He waits for me to explain myself as to why I’m not at home with Cal when it’s way past midnight.
“He was called back to the station,” I say, shrugging my shoulders and sipping on the warm water to let the temperature of my body rise.
“Don’t tell me you’re scared to be home by yourself,” he teases, ruffling my red hair again.
My nose itches as I peer at him through my thick lashes. “It’s really scary. Can I stay with you tonight?”
It’s redundant to ask since I have already packed every piece of clothing in my suitcase, but that’s for a different reason that I need to get his permission. I’m positive it isn’t going to be difficult, Mr. Wolf has a soft spot for me, and I know he would do anything to make me happy.
Or Cal would come flying through the door. Cal is a protective father figure that I never had, nor have I ever had a mother figure who taught me anything about love. I only lived with my grandmother until she had a stroke and had to be put into a nursing home and then I was picked up by the gifted children program that grooms rising talent.
“Take my room.” He smiles, and I nearly swoon at that beautiful gesture.
I shake my head, hooking my small fingers on his tight black shirt. This way, I can cop a feel of the rigid muscles under his shirt, and he doesn’t disappoint.
“I can take the couch, Mr. Wolf. It’s your bed; you should sleep in it.”
As expected, Mr. Wolf’s answer is an immediate refusal. “No. I don’t want you to be on the couch. It’s uncomfortable.”
I would never let him sleep on the couch. Especially when his body is so much bigger than mine, and he’s going to have back pain in the morning, and it’s going to hinder his ability to perform the best at his job.
“We can share,” I offer; the innocent smile doesn’t have any purity behind the thought process. I can’t let this chance of sleeping so close to him drop off. This is the perfect chance to push him a little more.
I know he wants me. I can see it in his eyes when he looks at me, and I want him just as much. My love for him only grows on a daily basis, and it’s maddening to know that he’s h
olding back. Either because of his partner, Cal, or Mr. Wolf has too much pride to go after someone way too young for him.
People’s opinion has never affected me before, and it still doesn’t.
“That’s not a good idea,” he says, hesitation is clear in his deep voice.
“You don’t want to sleep with me?” My eyes are downcast, and my lips pull into a frown as I shuffle my feet, gauging his reaction through whatever body part my eyes can land on.
“I do, baby. I want to sleep with you.”
When I look up at him, his face turns a touch of red before he clears his throat. “I meant—the bed is big enough for both of us, and I have to get some shut-eye for tomorrow.”
For a senior detective, he can’t lie to me. I found that out a long time a lot. Mr. Wolf can spin a web of delicate lies to trap in the most vicious criminals who don’t fear prison, but he can’t lie to a twenty-year-old girl that only comes up to his chest.
“Mr. Wolf?” I whisper, testing out the water to see where he is.
“What is it?” he asks back, hand slipping a piece of red hair behind my ear.
I lean into his touch; it’s warm and welcoming as happiness fills my heart. Kissing him would be a dream come true right now, but I need him to make the first move. It’s his choice to take the first step down a path of where he wants, and I might just manipulate that decision with a pinch of that and this.
I want him to choose me, and I will do anything to achieve it.
“Can I ask for one more favor?”
He promptly nods; there’s no hesitation behind his answer. “Anything for you.”
“Can you take me in for six months?” I ask.
I plan on staying with him forever, but one step at a time. This is an opening that I refuse to let go of because he’s mine, and I’d be damned if I let another woman infiltrate his life when all he needs is me.
“Is something wrong with Cal?” he questions, wrapping his big hands around my small shoulders.
I shake my head. “No, he’s okay. It’s just that he has to go get his captain training to be qualified to be the police station’s captain.”
Cal has ambition, and his goal is to be the new captain when the current one retires. He wants to bring the station into a new light and make it more efficient. There is nothing wrong with the place right now, but there is always room for improvement, and Cal has told me that.
“One of the conditions of my international housing program agreements is to have Cal actively be in the house.” I don’t know the full reasoning behind it, but I’m glad that the agreement is in place.
“His captain training is in another place, and he won’t be there a lot. Can I stay with you?” I leave the explaining as vague as possible because it is possible for me to reside in Cal’s home because he’s still technically there, but his training lasts four hours in a one-week time span.
I make it sound like he won’t be there at nighttime at all, but it’s an exaggeration that got out of hand. Well, it’s all or nothing. Cal already sighed the documents to transfer me to Mr. Wolf’s care while he undergoes captain training.
“Are you sure?”
I take out the document and let him see Cal’s signature, he nods and reads over the entire agreement. A page gets his attention, and I sometimes curse his habit of reading every single thing on the paper.
He’s the type to read the Terms and Conditions page with keen eyes.
“It says that Cal can still be your caretaker as long as he doesn’t miss more than four nights in one week.”
As I said, a bit overexaggerating on my part. I’m feeling desperate, so he can’t blame me, and Cal didn’t read too much into it before he signed. He said that I was an adult, and I could make my own decisions, so I couldn’t just let that freedom go to waste.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to do it, Mr. Wolf.” I look down on my socks, curling them on his kitchen floor.
“What would happen if I don’t sign it?” he questions, scrutinizing the top of my head, and the heat of his gaze makes my scalp itch.
It’s not a lie, but it’s not the truth either. It’s a loophole that I found that comes into play for now. “The program will find a new caretaker for me. Away from here and I don’t know, maybe—”
“Where do I sign?” he inquires, taking the pen from the kitchen table.
My head snaps up with a smile. “On the last page!”
He narrows his eyes, but I don’t know what he’s thinking. He’s going to take me in, and I don’t have to think about how to find a reason to see him every day.
“Thank you!” I squeal, planting a kiss on his cheek as he finishes his signature on the paper.
He scowls, racking his fingers through my hair. The rough treatment makes me whine as he ruffles the already tangled mess while putting the stack of paper in my hands.
“As if I’m going to let you into another man’s home.” His words lace with overprotectiveness and a heavy tone of possessive.
A shiver curls into my spine as I shudder. He catches it with dark eyes, slowly watching my reaction with every second as his hand dips into the curve of my neck. He kneads there with intention as I hold back a whimper; it feels good for many reasons.
The dominance in the underlining touch and the piercing gaze that controls the erratic heartbeat in my ribs causes me to whisper his name in a manner too inappropriate.
“Did Cal drop you off here?” he asks.
“No,” I breathe. “I walked.”
“You what?”
My shoulders jump at the deadly drop of his voice. The frightening glare in his eyes strengthens as Mr. Wolf wraps his hand at the back of my neck, unyielding and hauntingly tight with an unforgivable heat scorching under his touch.
“Cal had to leave first and—”
“No excuses, baby.” He squeezes tighter in a warning. “You call me whenever you need me.”
I nod, swallowing the aching dryness in my throat. “I promise, Mr. Wolf.”
He praises. “Good girl. Now, call Cal and tell him you’re with me.”
I don’t try to suppress the shiver as I take out my phone to dial the number that I had memorized for emergency purposes. Before I could call, the knock on the front door snaps Mr. Wolf out of his haze.
He blinks and narrows his eyes in suspicion as he lets go of my neck. He pushes me behind him and approaches the door.
“Stay here.”
I obey him, watching him stop at the door for a moment as if he’s letting his sense guide him. It seems that whoever is at the door isn’t a threat when he opens it, and there comes Cal with an eyebrow raised at Mr. Wolf.
The men at the door talked for a moment, and he lets Cal in before tipping his head towards me. Cal cocks another eyebrow, a frown on his face as I can practically feel him reprimanding me with his aura.
“You need a curfew, kid,” Cal comments with a hand on my head, messing up the already messy hair.
He narrows his vision down at the stack of paper in my hands. “You already roped Wolf into this?”
“It’s better now than later.” I offer him a small smile.
He rolls his eyes so hard that I think they got stuck in the back of his head for a moment. “Did you ask or you just told him what to do?”
I take offense to that accusation, but Mr. Wolf comes to my rescue. My hero. “I can take her in.”
“She’s not threatening you, is she?” Cal squints his eyes. “The kid’s sneaky. You have to watch out for her.”
“She’s a good girl,” Mr. Wolf remarks, casting me a simple look. “She didn’t give me any trouble.”
“She better not,” Cal scoffs and focuses on me. “I’ll ground you, kid.”
I bat my eyelashes at Cal the moment Mr. Wolf looks away. “Mr. Wolf won’t let you do that.”
“I won’t,” Mr. Wolf agrees wholeheartedly, and I nod with a contented smile. “But I will take you to work with me.”
Is that a new tactic to s
care me like that show where delinquents are thrown in prison to face hardcore criminals to scare them back into the path of righteousness?
“It’s hard work,” Cal says with a nod. “A lot of screaming and blood.”
They’re making fun of me because actively seeing crime happening isn’t my style, and I like to avoid violence, but it’s hard to do when Cal and Mr. Wolf are detective partners and are two of the best in the state.
A lot of violent cases go through them because people request them due to their case-closure rate. My Mr. Wolf sure is popular.
“Alright, get to bed.” Mr. Wolf cocks his head and points to his bedroom. “Cal and I have to finish our work.”
“Don’t think about playing games on your phone.” Cal’s warning isn’t as bad as the glare on Mr. Wolf’s face.
I nod quickly, running down the short hallway and into his room. The scent of him is deeper as I inhale, filling his smell in my lungs. I shudder; a whisper in my head tells me that I’m a creep. I mean, I can’t deny it that much since being in love makes me a bit desperate for him.
I already showered before I came here, and it’s one of the smartest choices I have made because I can just jump into his bed, roll around in his scent, and squeal into the pillow.
The scent is more concentrated on his bed as I pull the cover over my shoulders, too excited to sleep as I look around his room.
A closet and a drawer for his clothes, a nightstand with a light, and a curtain too dark to see what color it is. The moon shines through it, so it’s a bit sheerer than I thought, but I guess being a detective has exposed him to all kinds of dangers, so he needs to know if someone is trying to climb into his room.
An educated guess, but it’s the best that I can come up with as of now since I’m too distracted by the smell of him.
I close my eyes, straining my ears to see if I can hear what is going on in the kitchen. It’s nothing too loud, but I can hear their muffled voices and a constant buzz that brings me a sense of security.
