Grit & Glamour (Sins & Riches Book 1)

by Cece Rose

  Already I’m desperate for another shower, and I’ve only just got out of one. I had been clean and dressed, and was desperate to leave. It was all over, I’d told myself… until he’d demanded I get back onto the bed.

  After roughly tearing off my freshly put on clothes, leaving them discarded over the bed and the floor without care, he’d pushed me down. Knowing what was coming, I’d chosen to turn over and stare at the wall. Anything is better than looking at his face. Seeing his eyes, and his pleasure at my lack of.

  She’d said I just had to do it once. Then it would be over, and Caleb would be safe. She’d leave him alone, she wouldn’t let anyone else hurt him if I just did this one thing, this one time. But the one thing had turned to two things, then three, then photos of the fourth, as if I didn’t feel ruined enough already.

  But then, it was over. Just for a few moments, I really thought it was. Again, I was wrong. Always wrong. I can’t trust anything anymore, or anyone. And never her. She can’t be trusted with Caleb, she wouldn’t blink over trading him off too for the right price, the right favour, the right friendship she wants to cultivate. It doesn’t matter that I’ve kept up my end of the agreement, she’ll just take and take from us until there’s nothing left, because that is all she is capable of.

  His hand moves from my hip, between my legs to try and pleasure me. I quickly swat his hand away, shifting my position to make it more difficult for him to do it again. The idea of him touching me like that makes me feel even more sick than I already do. With his hand back on my hip, I return to the numbness of shutting him out.

  Glancing over at the clock, I see that it’s already nearly midnight, the day almost over. I’d arrived in the morning, stupidly expecting him to wait until night time, hoping against the odds that there would be some chance for an escape or a way to convince him against this. Maybe plead to some kind of morality in him.

  This morning I’d been stupid, naïve even. Not anymore. I’m nothing more than a product to be consumed on demand here, and it’s all thanks to her. She’d sold me, for what, I’ll probably never know. I wonder if it was worth it? What’s the going rate for destroying a person’s soul?

  I glance at the clock again for a distraction, just one more minute of the day left. An entire day of this, and it still isn’t over yet.

  Happy Fucking Seventeenth Birthday.

  Violence & Charm

  Scarlett’s story continues in book two, Violence & Charm.

  About the Author

  Cece Rose is the proud owner of one dog, four turtles, and one annoying boyfriend.

  She hails from Devon in the South-West of England, but dreams of sunny skies and sand between her toes. Although, whenever abroad, she will moan about the heat and the sand that gets everywhere.

  She has largely convinced all who know her that she’s a vampire, mainly due to her nocturnal habits and tendency to bite. In reality, it’s because her creativity only ever strikes when the sky is dark and the stars are shining. (Plus, it’s actually quiet enough to concentrate on writing.)

  You can follow Cece on Facebook, Instagram, and Amazon. She’d also love it if you’d join her Facebook reader group, The Demon Den. It’s the best place to keep up with all her new releases, giveaways, and teasers.

  Also by Cece Rose

  Standalone Titles:

  Black Monarch (Coming May 2019)

  Snowflake (Steamy RH Winter Romance Novella under the name Cecelia Rose.)

  Sins & Riches Series

  Grit & Glamour

  Violence & Charm (Release Date March 31st 2019)

  The Grey Witch Series

  Grey Witch and Halloween Magic (Prequel Novella)

  Black Spells and Twisted Souls (Book One)

  White Charms and Dark Secrets (Book Two)

  Grey Magic and Forbidden Love (Book Three)

  Grey Gods and Ancient Blood (Book Four - Coming April 29th 2019)

  Souls of Creatures Duology

  Vengeance

  Justice (Release Date TBA)

  The Marked Series (With G. Bailey)

  Marked by Power

  Marked by Pain

  Marked by Destruction

  The Desdemona Chronicles (Book One with Caycee English)

  A Demon’s Blade (By CC. English-Rose.)

  A Demon’s Debt (Cece Rose)

  An Angel’s Defiance (Cece Rose - Release Date TBA, 2019/2020)

  The Last Siren’s Song Trilogy

  Blood Sea

  Blood Song (2019)

  Blood Moon (2019)

  Black Spells and Twisted Souls

  Please continue reading for a short sample from my book, Black Spells and Twisted Souls.

  Grey Witch Series:

  Grey Witch and Halloween Magic (Prequel Novella)

  Black Spells and Twisted Souls

  White Charms and Dark Secrets

  Grey Magic and Forbidden Love

  Grey Gods and Ancient Blood.

  Chapter One

  Tapping my pen absently against the edge of my desk, I stare blankly at the computer screen in front of me. The sounds of the busy, London-based office barely reach my ears as I zone out. A hand waves in front of my face, trying to demand my attention back in reality.

  “Are you even listening to me? Hey! Earth to Kayla!” Lizzy chirps in her usual sing-song voice.

  “Huh?” I turn and look up at her, blinking as I pull myself back into focus.

  “I said, did you get that email about the meeting in the glass room? I’m on my way there now.” She gives a pointed look at the desktop, which is on the locked screen from my lack of use. Oops.

  “When did he send it?” I ask, trying not to yawn as I stretch a little in my seat.

  “I got mine about twenty minutes ago,” she answers absently, picking at the vibrant blue polish on her nails.

  I unlock my computer and check my emails. Sure enough: Team meeting in the glass room @ 2:30 p.m. Received at 2:12 p.m. An organised affair as usual, then. Eighteen minutes was actually a pretty good notice time for my manager, the creep. Though, as I look around at the desks surrounding me, I’m not sure it will be enough.

  “He’ll be lucky if we’re all able to get there. Some of the guys are on break or stuck on calls. He never plans ahead for these things,” I mutter, leaning back in my seat. I’m not in any rush to be trapped in a room with my manager, awkwardly waiting for everyone else to show up. Even with Lizzy in there too with us too, it’s bound to be awkward.

  Ever since the Christmas party a few weeks ago, I’ve been avoiding the man at all costs. Not that I’d much liked his presence before then, but since I’d spurned his advances directly, he’s been hellish. Before the party, I couldn’t have imagined him being any worse than he was. How naive and optimistic of me, considering how the past few weeks have been.

  “I think he does it on purpose to drag out the meetings, waiting for us so he can avoid Clive.” Lizzy looks pointedly over at him as he leans down over the desk of one of the other team managers. Mindy is staring straight at her screen, her resting bitch face game strong as she listens to whatever Clive is telling her. Knowing him, whatever he’s telling her is completely incorrect, and Mindy is stuck humouring Mr Know-It-All until he goes away and she can finish her work in peace. If only he was as strict on the male managers as he is the females. I roll my eyes in annoyance.

  “Jay doesn’t even need to try to avoid him. Clive just lets Jay, Lee, and Kyle get on with it. They’re all idiots; it’s utter bullshit,” I mutter.

  “Come on, we better get in there anyway. Jay might check our call log, see we weren’t on call, and get pissy at us for being late,” Lizzy says, always the voice of reason. I really don’t want to get stuck alone with him while he tells me off like a child for not being busy working. Considering he spends the day surfing the web and going for near-constant smoke breaks, it’s not like he has room to talk. Hypocritical asshole. Shuddering at the thought of his slimy hands going for my ass, I dart my ga
ze towards the glass conference room and notice two of the guys from our team heading in.

  “Fine, it should be safe now.” I nod in the direction of Paul and Darren walking through the glass door.

  “Safety in numbers,” Lizzy jokes.

  “Safety with witnesses,” I reply, grinning despite our misery. I drag myself out of my swivel chair and walk silently with Lizzy to the glass room. She pushes the door open, allowing me to go first. I head in, quickly darting for the chair furthest away from our manager. I give Lizzy a smug smile when she drops down into the seat next to mine.

  “Is this it?” our manager, Jay, says loudly in an irritated voice. He looks around the mostly empty board table, while the skinny newbie takes a seat next to Lizzy. I think his name is Rhydian… or maybe Gideon. I squint at him, trying to think.

  As Jay starts talking, I zone out and settle on skinny guy’s name being Gideon. Rhydian sounds far too sexy, not suited to the skinny human. At least, I think he’s human. I concentrate on him, calling on my second sight. Colours swirl around the room, auras shimmering over the bodies of my co-workers. Everything is blurred, and yet, somehow clearer. Gideon’s soul is plain; a murky brown. No magic spilling from him at all. Definitely human.

  I look over at the rest of my co-workers in the room. As my eyes fall on Darren, a tiny pang of sadness hits me in my chest, as it always does. I smother the feeling quickly, focusing instead on his light, or rather, his dark. Darren’s soul is strikingly dark, but it has shimmers that roll over him with the magical current that blows across those of us blessed with being more. His magic is subtle; not particularly powerful, but shifters’ gifts don’t usually lie in magic, more in their physical strength. Paul, a human, sits next to Darren with his dull-coloured hue surrounding him, but Paul knows what sits around the table with him. Paul was raised by a cousin of Darren’s, and he’d been allowed in on the secret of supernatural existence that few humans are permitted to know.

  He is trustworthy, for a human at least. He’d grown up grateful to shifters for saving his life and raising him as one of their own.

  Lizzy’s aura is golden, and her hair always seems to be blown by an invisible wind, tossed about by the current that all magical beings know, but only some can see. Her soul is dazzling, almost blinding, when looking at it with my second sight. I will never understand why she chooses to work in an office when she’s clearly powerful, much more so than myself. She could work using her gifts instead of being stuck in an office with a split population.

  Working for a company that also hires humans sucks sometimes. No magical amenities in the office. No using your gifts on site. The red tape they wrap around us is suffocating, but we have to accommodate the unknowing humans.

  Darren, Paul, and Lizzy are the few people in this office I’d actually go for a drink with, and every Thirsty-Thursday night we do exactly that. I blame the cheap three-for-one drink offer at Rosie’s. How they make a profit on that is beyond me. Our Thursday nights always end with me, Lizzy, and Paul splitting a taxi fare home and dying at work the next day. However, they also always end with Darren pulling some sexy female shifter and taking her… well, wherever it is that shifters go to get it on. Maybe a bed, maybe the woods… who knows? I feel the smirk spreading across my face as I try to hold back the snigger that wants out.

  “Something funny, Kayla?” Jay asks, smacking his hand onto the desk to get my attention. I jump in my seat.

  “No, nothing. Sorry.” I look up at him, biting my tongue on all the things I wish I could say. ‘Yes, sir. Your attempt at pretending to be a real manager is hilarious.’ Or even a basic, but classic, ‘Your face is funny.’ I’m not sure how well that would go over, but it’s probably not worth finding out. Honestly, if anything, his face is kind of scary rather than funny-looking. Not his actual features themselves, but how he looks at people. His eyes are like creepy little beads that watch your every move.

  “Have you even been listening to a word I’ve said?” he asks, and I bite my lip. Fuck, I have no idea what this freaking meeting is about.

  “Of course I have,” I answer with fake confidence, knocking my foot into Lizzy’s leg under the table. Save me. I push the thought into her mind, and instantly I feel a tingle flow over me. My mouth opens, speaking with my voice, but it’s not me controlling the words. “You were just explaining about the new CRM system that is being rolled out next week. And how we need to be trained to use it sometime before then, so you’ll be pulling us out in smaller groups for the two-hour sessions,” my voice explains flawlessly. I feel the tingle fade and shoot a grateful smile at Lizzy. Darren gives me a knowing look, not fooled for a second, but luckily the only one I need to fool is Jay, and Jay is human. His face turns disgruntled, clearly unhappy that his chance to get me in trouble has been ruined somehow. My smile grows wider.

  “Well, that’s everything then,” Jay says, his voice grumbly.

  “Did we really need a meeting for this?” the new guy asks quietly, and everyone turns, wide-eyed, to look at him in alarm. Poor little human. So new, and now he’s already doomed to suffer for eternity, or at least for his tenure here.

  Jay looks at him like a cat that’s just caught a mouse, and I know he wants to play with his kill.

  “What do you mean, Gideon?” he asks. I high-five myself in my head. I knew his name was Gideon!

  “Um, I just meant that, um, wouldn’t an email have… We just have so much backlog at the moment… I don’t…” He finally allows his nervous explanation to trail off. Jay stalks around the table to stand behind him. It’s intimidating as shit to have your obviously pissed-off boss standing right behind you, and Jay knows it.

  “Are you the team manager now, Gideon? Would you like to go sit in my seat over there? Do you want to make the decisions on which directives need to be given in person, and which over the group email? Do you want to make the decision about which new employee isn’t working out? Because I make those fucking decisions,” he shouts, slamming his hand down. All of us cringe in our seats. Other than Darren, that is. He looks pretty relaxed as he leans back, tapping away on his phone, just ignoring the situation completely. Jay wouldn’t dare tell him off for it, though. He’s way too scared of the bulky shifter. The dominance Darren lets off is enough to scare most people, even dumb humans.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”

  “I don’t give a rat’s ass about what you meant, newbie. Get the fuck out of here,” Jay says, cutting Gideon off. The new hire looks about ready to sink to the floor in a messy puddle of melted human. Shit, he can’t seriously be telling him to leave-leave, right? Surely he only means out of the glass room... “What are you doing just sitting there? Go pack up your shit and leave,” he adds angrily, and my eyes widen when I realise he’s deadly serious. What a prick. He really can’t stand anyone correcting his bullshit.

  “Don’t you think you’re being a little harsh?” I ask, the words flying out of my mouth before I can crush the fuckers with sense. He turns his glare on me.

  “Everyone except Miss Harlow, get the hell out of the glass room,” he growls, and they all hastily get to their feet. The new guy is the first to the door, in a rush to escape the embarrassment of being sacked in his first week at a company I doubt he even wanted to work for in the first place. “Newbie, go sit by my desk. We’ll discuss this in a minute, once I’m done with Kayla,” he adds. Gideon’s gaze flies to me from the doorway, and he gives me a small nod of appreciation. I gave Jay’s anger a new target—me. He may not get fired today, but I might. I sigh, watching everyone else file out of the room. Lizzy shoots me a worried look over her shoulder as she exits, the last to leave.

  I watch as Jay crosses the room and slowly pulls down all of the blinds, cutting off the rest of the office to give us complete privacy. Once they’re all closed, I hear the deafening turn of the lock on the door and gulp anxiously. This really can’t be good. He strides back across the room, strutting like a fucking peacock, before climbing up and
sitting on the table close to me.

  I push my chair back a bit to give myself some more space. I don’t like how he’s looking down at me, so I tug my shirt up a little, paranoid he can see too much.

  Having a curvy frame sucks sometimes. Clothes that cover and look modest on mannequins almost always end up looking a little provocative on me, thanks to my chest, hips, and ass. The rest of the world never lets you forget that when you’re a curvy girl, either.

  “While I’m shouting at the newbie for questioning my management, you decide that that is the opportune moment to do the very same?” he asks, scooting a little closer. Why do men have to sit with their damn legs apart? I am way too close to his crotch for comfort right now.

  “I didn’t mean to question your management, it’s just that he’s new. Can’t you cut him some slack?” I ask, trying to keep my voice even and stay calm. My grandma always said you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, and Jay reminds me so much of a fly. Small, annoying, and pesky, they always fly around when you don’t want them near.

  “And what about you, Harlow? Should I cut you some slack too?” he asks, his voice dropping lower, and I shudder at the sound of it. Creep.

  “Well, I don’t think I deserve to be sacked for sticking up for Gideon. He’s new. He’ll get the memo to keep his mouth shut and fall in line like the rest of the robots that work here,” I respond, cringing at the robot comment, worried I may get in trouble for that one, but he laughs.

  “I’m not going to fire you, Kayla,” he says, and I let out a relieved breath. “I mean, without you and Lizzy here, what else would I beat myself off to when I get home?” he adds, and I suck that breath right back in. He did not just say that. I choke on the air and he laughs, like it’s all just a joke to him. Maybe it is.