“Take off your dress.”
Her throat twitched and began to tingle. She’d never known a man to be so direct and didn’t know what to do. Didn’t know what to say. Having never been in official employment, she didn’t know what was normal, what was expected. Shyla doubted that a boss could ask an employee to strip. But it was late, they were alone, maybe this was less of a professional order and more of a personal request.
Denying that she was attracted to him would be crazy. Despite never admitting it out loud, her desire wasn’t in doubt. She’d never been able to breathe right when he was in the room and struggled to look him in the eye without blushing. It terrified her to think he might see straight through her into the insane and wild fantasies she cast him in. Until meeting Score, Shyla hadn’t known she was capable of having such vivid carnal dreams.
She struggled to claim each shallow breath. “I… I don’t think I should,” she said, sensitive to the pace of her chest rising and falling.
Her own panting filled her ears. Sealing her lips in an attempt to stifle the sound forced the air through the narrower passages of her nose, amplifying the noise.
“I’m not suggesting we fuck… Just take off the dress.”
Also by Scarlett Finn
MCDADE BROTHERS NOVELS
ALL. ONLY.
ONLY YOURS
WRECK & RUIN
RUIN ME
RUIN HIM
GO NOVELS
GO WITH IT
GO IT ALONE
GO ALL OUT
GO ALL IN
GO FULL CIRCLE
EXILE
HIDE & SEEK
KISS CHASE
THE BRANDED SERIES
BRANDED
SCARRED
MARKED
THE KINDRED SERIES
RAVEN
SWALLOW
CUCKOO
SWIFT
FALCON
FINCH
THE EXPLICIT SERIES
EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION
EXPLICIT DETAIL
EXPLICIT MEMORY
RISQUÉ SERIES
TAKE A RISK
RISK IT ALL
GAME OF RISK
HARROW DUET
FIGHTING FATE
FIGHTING BACK
MISTAKE DUET
MISTAKE ME NOT
SLEIGHT MISTAKE
STANDALONE ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
RELUCTANT SUSPICION
RESCUED
STANDALONE CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
GETTING TRICKY
HEIR’S AFFAIR
MAESTRO’S MUSE
REMEMBER WHEN…
RIVALS ON AIR
SWEET SEAS
THIRTEEN
XY FACTOR
Copyright © 2020 Scarlett Finn
All rights reserved.
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
First published in 2020
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form on by an electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.
All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
www.scarlettfinn.com
CONTENTS
Until that week, Shyla Bellamy had never been to a single job interview.
At that moment, she was on her way to her third. Her baptism of fire would continue until she acquired a job. Tough as it was to be optimistic, she had to keep going. Without work, she wouldn’t be able to secure an apartment or pay her bills. She’d be homeless and destitute. She had to keep going.
As pep talks went, that wasn’t the most inspiring. Every interview had been a bust, so believing the next would be any different wasn’t easy. But there was no alternative. Anyone who’d agree to see her was a potential employer. All it took was one person willing to take a chance. Just one.
Shyla didn’t make the best first impression. Knowing that didn’t do much for her anxiety. If anything, that made it worse. At that moment, relaxing was all the more difficult because she was on her way to interview for the role she wanted most.
Walking through the entrance into the glass lobby and seeing the valet parking intimidated the hell out of her. While travelling up in the elevator, she reminded herself not to be nervous. Nerves meant rambling and that was unprofessional. She would nail this. Nothing but potential. Nobody rewarded a quitter.
With few vocational skills, and no formal education beyond high school, Shyla wasn’t a catch for any employer. But time was of the essence, she needed a job and had to believe that it would happen. Succeeding in the next interview would put an end to her problems. That was easier to focus on than the opposite.
Losing her job and home had happened almost overnight. Caring for the elderly could be that way. Three years ago, her grandfather’s sudden death hit her hard. One minute he was there, the next he was gone. Adjusting to being without him took time, she’d been caring for him since her teen years.
The person responsible for getting her through that loss was her grandfather’s best friend, Stanley Sedgwick. Caring for him and her grandfather, Bernard, had given her purpose. The three of them had lived together in Stanley’s home. If it wasn’t for Stanley, Shyla wouldn’t have known what to do with herself after her grandfather died. In the years since, Stanley had been her crutch. They’d leaned on each other.
Five days ago, Stanley passed in his sleep. Life as she’d known it was over. Shyla was out in the world on her own, really for the first time.
While in the midst of grief over losing the only person she could count as a friend, Shyla was also
