Burning Violet

by Watson, A. P.

  “Allowing yourself to be haunted by things beyond your control will eventually break you,” Violet breathed, disrupting my reverie.

  “Isn’t that something you should be telling yourself?” I asked.

  Her face contorted into the most solemn expression I’d ever seen. “I’ve tried to forget, believe me, I have.”

  “But it’s easier said than done?”

  “No, I just doubt that it can be done at all.”

  What could I ever say to ease the agony she carried? I’d never experienced loss on such a great scale as she had. In the years since I graduated from Harvard, I’d spoken on the behalf of a multitude of clients, but never once have I been rendered speechless. Until now.

  She left without another word, and I wanted to chase after her. Hell, I wished I could, but this woman had been through enough in her life. I wouldn’t force her to open up to me. The more I contemplated the things she’d told me about her past, the more I shuddered to think of the things she suffered at the hands of her father. I’d read enough criminal cases to understand the depravity of the human race. So, I could only imagine the kind of secrets that had ripped her family apart.

  If anything, Violet should be proud of herself. She made it out of Vegas despite the odds against her. Not only that, but she’d become a compassionate soul. I was incapable of comprehending the depths of her misery. The troubles I faced were nothing in comparison. Yet, she took the time to listen to me. She sympathized with the hurt my own father inflicted on me. I may have been a grown adult, but hearing the man I’d admired for the majority of my life say he never wanted to see me again had cut deeper than I realized. My mother wanted us to make amends. She believed our relationship could be easily repaired, but some things were meant to fall apart. That was one of the secrets you’re never told as a child. And it was one of the truths I realized the moment I opened up that email.

  Surprisingly, sleep came easier than I suspected, even with the darkness swallowing my mind. All rational thought was gone as soon as my eyes closed, and it felt as if I’d just laid down when Violet’s voice woke me.

  “Hunter?”

  Her voice was gentle, like a soft caress to my ears.

  Stretching my arms over my head, I sat up. “Yeah?”

  “Here.” She placed a steaming mug of coffee in my hand.

  “Thank you.”

  “I started the shower for you.”

  “You’re a saint,” I replied with a groan. I took a sip of coffee, the caffeine instantly waking me from the inside out, and walked to the bathroom. I was just about to close the door behind me when I noticed there wasn’t an extra towel. Turning for her bedroom, I knocked on the doorway and stepped inside. “There isn’t a towel. Where can I—”

  The rest of my sentence fell away, never to be finished. Violet stood in front of a mirror as she slid the straps of a pink bra over her shoulders. I’d thought about how lovely she was hundreds of times each day, but when she suddenly turned around, I couldn’t stop staring at her. It was almost as if I were reliving the first time I ever laid eyes on her.

  “I’m sorry, I knocked on the doorway, but I guess you didn’t hear me,” I stammered.

  Her arms crossed over one another in an attempt to cover herself. “Did you need something?”

  I nodded and dropped my gaze. “Where do you keep the extra towels?”

  “Oh my gosh! I completely forgot to grab you one.”

  “I promise I wasn’t trying to stare at you.” I muttered the word fuck at least a hundred times in my head. Seeing Vi in pink lingerie was a sight I wouldn’t be able to forget anytime soon . . . if ever. “I swear I wasn’t being a creepy mother fucker.”

  Laughter filled my ears as she shoved a towel in my hands. “Go get in the shower. I’ll be in there in a minute.”

  “Excuse me?” Hope conjured images of Vi and I in the shower together. The visions teased my consciousness, causing every hair on my body to stand at attention.

  Her cheeks flushed, the red color spreading down to her chest.

  I was a prisoner to my thoughts, and in another second, I’d be a fucking goner.

  “I need to finish my makeup. I figured you wouldn’t mind if I was in the bathroom while you showered.”

  “At first I thought you meant something else, but that . . . is a conversation for another day.”

  “Agreed.”

  I hurried into the bathroom and closed the door behind me. After stripping off my slacks and boxers, I jumped beneath the scalding stream. Water flowed over the muscles in my back, and slowly, the tension coiling around my spine released.

  “Hunter?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Is it okay if I come in and finish my makeup?”

  “Of course.” Pouring a few drops of body wash into my hand, I scrubbed the dregs of sleep from my face and body. “Thanks for letting me crash here last night.”

  “You don’t have to thank me for that.”

  “Then what about thanking you for listening to me talk about my dad?”

  “You offered to do the same for me.”

  “That offer still stands, by the way.” I shut off the water and stuck my hand outside the shower curtain. “Can you toss me the towel?”

  “Sure.”

  I dried off quickly and wrapped the towel around my waist. I emerged from the shower, moving to stand next to her. Vi leaned toward the mirror as she applied red lipstick.

  “That’s a nice color.”

  “Thanks. It matches the dress I’m going to wear today.”

  I picked up the mug of coffee she had poured for me and downed the rest of its contents. “You wouldn’t mind stopping by my place so I can change into a fresh suit, would you?”

  “That was my plan,” she replied, looking at me in the mirror. “If you want to pack a bag too, you can. Holidays with Nadine usually mean copious amounts of wine, so you probably won’t feel like driving anywhere.”

  “Alright, I will.”

  “Well, I’m going to change out of this robe. I’ll give you some privacy.”

  “Okay.”

  When I was alone, I changed back into my boxers and slacks before heading out of the bathroom. I could hear Vi’s heels clacking on the kitchen floor. Picking up the shirt I had discarded last night, I slid it on and joined her.

  “I poured you a bowl of cereal. I hope that’s okay.”

  “It’s perfect.” I accepted the bowl from her, finally able to get a full view of the dress she had on. Red fabric hugged every single one of her curves. God, she was stunning. “Is that a new dress?”

  “Nope.” She leaned against the counter, grinning triumphantly. “Why, do you like it?”

  “I think it’s best for both of us if I don’t answer that question.”

  “I’m going to talk to Joel today. Red happens to be his favorite color.”

  “Don’t worry about talking to him. Seriously, what happened in Chicago is done. There’s no point in digging through that whole mess.”

  “There absolutely is a point.”

  I took a few bites of cereal as I tried to think of the best way to get my point across without sounding like a complete dick. “As payment for helping you, he’s going to make you go on a date with him,” I blurted out. For once, I think I surpassed Alex in being an asshole. Vi and I weren’t in any kind of relationship; I had no right telling her who she should and shouldn’t date.

  Cursing myself, I shoved another bite of cereal in my mouth before any more idiotic sentences could pour from it.

  “I figured he would too.”

  “And you still want to help me?”

  “Yes, I want to help you.” She set down the bowl she held and moved to stand next to me. “Be honest with me. Do you want me to talk to him or not?”

  I weighed her question. Would having proof that I didn’t fuck around the office in Chicago be amazing? Yes. But did I want to obtain that evidence by forcing Violet to go through with something she didn’t want t
o do? No, absolutely fucking not. “I don’t want you to do anything you don’t want to do. I know Joel has asked you out before, and I also know you turned him down.”

  “Let me do this for you.”

  “No.”

  “Yes.”

  “I don’t want you to go on a date with him. Fuck, is that what you want to hear?”

  “Actually, it is.”

  “Really?” I asked, inching closer to her.

  “You know it is.” Her breath slid across my cheek as I leaned in. “You were jealous, weren’t you?”

  “You already know the answer to that question.”

  She set her hand on my chest, her fingertips barely rubbing the fabric. “It will only be one date, and then we’ll have the name of the person who fucked you over.”

  “I don’t like it.”

  “Hunter, trust me.”

  “If you change your mind, then you call the date off as soon as possible.” I still didn’t want her anywhere near Joel, but I wasn’t in control of her. Vi had the right to make her own decisions.

  “Deal.”

  By the time Vi and I arrived at the office, I was a huge bundle of testosterone. I may have agreed to her plan, but that still didn’t mean I wanted to see her carry it through. Turning on my laptop, I took another drink of coffee as I waited for it to power up. I was already on my third cup for the day, and the excess caffeine certainly wasn’t helping the shit mood I was in.

  “Hey, I have Mr. Adams on line one for you.”

  I tapped on the space bar a few times, but my laptop was running at the pace of a snail today. “Fuck.” The word came out much louder than I intended, and Vi’s eyebrows lifted in response.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “Not really.”

  Her hips swayed perfectly as she walked toward me. Curse that fucking red dress and, even more, curse the fucking man she was wearing it for. I guess the thing irritating me the most was the fact Joel could ask her out. He worked in another department, and while inter-office relationships weren’t exactly forbidden, Vi worked directly under me. If we started seeing one another, people would label her as a slut who slept her way to the top. And I’d rather ruin my own reputation again before putting a single stain on hers.

  “What can I do?”

  “Nothing. I think I’m just tired.”

  “I’m leaving at four today to pick up Nadine from the airport. Why don’t you take an early day too? Everyone upstairs is calling it quits after lunch.”

  “There’s too much work to be done.”

  She stood behind me. “You need to relax for a minute.” Her hands grabbed my shoulders, gently massaging away all the stiffness. “What has you so stressed?”

  My eyelids closed as I exhaled loudly. Her touch was like heaven and I didn’t want it to stop. “I think it’s this holiday. It’s brought up a lot of shit I’ve been trying to ignore.”

  “I see.” She leaned forward and picked up my office line. “Mr. Adams, I’m so sorry, but he is working on a contract and is completely tied up at the moment. Is it okay if I have him give you a call back?” She paused for a moment and grabbed a pen to scribble out a note for me. Her closer proximity instantly made my heart rate speed up. “Thank you so much, sir. And have a happy Thanksgiving,” she said sweetly before hanging up the phone.

  “I’ll give him a call in a few minutes. Thank you for doing that.”

  “It’s no problem.” Her hands returned to my shoulders and continued kneading my muscles. After a while, the tension squeezing the life out of my spinal column for the past hour began to dissipate. When she pulled away and headed for the door to my office, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed. In the time we’d known one another, I thought of nothing but her. “Oh, and make sure you’re finished up by four today. You’re coming with me to the airport to pick up Nadine.”

  “I am?”

  “Yup. It’s not up for discussion either.”

  Despite my piss poor mood, I laughed. Beautiful, intelligent, feisty . . . Beakman knew what the hell he was doing when he hired Violet. “I’ll be ready.”

  I worked like a madman the rest of the day. I even skipped my lunch break just to ensure I would be ready to leave by the time four o’clock rolled around. Keeping busy was the key to distracting my brain from the thoughts that had hijacked it. And Vi wasn’t kidding at all. When I went to leave a contract in Beakman’s office, the entire floor looked like a ghost town. The only person I did happen to run into was that fucker Joel. He seemed especially smug when he wished me a happy Thanksgiving. And the worst part of the whole thing was knowing the reason he was so smug. Vi told me she was going to talk to him during lunch, and apparently, the conversation went well.

  The second I stepped off the elevators, Vi was waiting for me.

  “Hey,” she said.

  “I bumped into Joel just now.”

  “And?”

  “He seemed especially happy.”

  “He can track down the information of the person who sent the emails. I didn’t share any details with him, so he doesn’t know all of this is connected to you. He actually thinks he’s tracking down someone who has been sending me lewd emails. I told him I suspect one of my exes.”

  “I guess you were right when you said he’d lick the ground you walk on.”

  “And he did. I’m going on one date with him.”

  “It seems we were right about what his request would be.”

  She caught my hand and forced me to face her. “If things were reversed and you were having to do a favor for me, would you do it?”

  “Without hesitation.”

  Her hands slid around my neck as she pulled me in for a tight hug. “Then know that’s the same way I feel about you.”

  My arms folded around her and tightened until our chests were flush against one another. “I think I’ve needed this all day.”

  “I think I’ve needed this since I caught you spying on me in my underwear this morning,” she teased, her hands rubbing down the length of my back.

  Leaning into her, I held onto her waist like there was no tomorrow and slightly lifted her from the floor. “I knocked! What else did you want me to do?”

  “Announce yourself.”

  “I did!”

  Slowly, she ended our embrace. “You know I’m only teasing you.”

  “I would hope so.”

  “You ready to go to the airport?”

  Her smile was infectious and impossible not to return. “Absolutely.”

  At least that jerk off Joel didn’t get a hug from Violet. No, that was something I could have all to myself.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I navigated through the crowd with Hunter right on my heels. After running for what felt like a mile, we finally made it to Nadine’s terminal just as all the passengers were filing out. My eyes scanned the crowd like a hawk, meticulously searching for my friend.

  “Oh my God! Violet!” I heard her voice before I could even see her.

  “Nadine!”

  Nadine burst through a line of people and began sprinting in my direction. She didn’t even bother slowing down as she collided into me. “I’ve missed you so much! And geez, you look amazing.”

  “Thanks! I freaking love your hair.”

  We separated from one another and I drew my fingers through her newly dyed locks. Nadine had styled her hair into a sleek bob that reached her shoulders a few months ago. But her latest change was the color. The bottom half of her usually black hair was now dyed cobalt blue.

  “You do?” she asked uncertainly.

  “It’s gorgeous.”

  “I got bored and decided what the hell, let’s dye it blue.”

  “I love it, and I’m so glad you’re here!”

  Nadine and I hugged again. “Gosh, it feels so damn good to get out of Vegas.” She looked past me and noticed Hunter for the first time. “I see you brought your fine ass boss to the party.”

  “Nadine, you promised—
”

  “You know I’m only joking!” She stepped around me and stuck out her hand. “I’m Nadine. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

  “Hunter. And same here. I’ve heard nothing but wonderful things about you.”

  “Well, that makes two of us then, because Violet talks about you all the time.”

  “Really?” he asked, his attention settling on my face. “Is that so, Vi?”

  “Maybe,” I countered. “Why, are you gonna sue me or something?”

  My stomach practically did a somersault inside my body as those pale green irises flashed with mischief. “Only if you want me to,” he whispered. Hunter and I inched closer to one another out of habit. Whenever I was around him, nothing else in the world seemed to matter.

  “Holy fuck.” Nadine’s voice ended the trance Hunter and I had been caught up in.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Are the two of you finally together?”

  “Nadine!” I could feel my entire body turning the same shade as my dress. Behind me, Hunter’s laughter filled the air around us. “No! You know we work together! Now, come on. Let’s get your damn suitcase.”

  “Oh, it’s going to happen. Mark my words.”

  I grabbed her arm and started toward the baggage claim. “Just so you know, I’m going to murder you when we get home.”

  “Are you spending the holiday with us, Hunter?” she questioned, clearly unphased by my threat.

  “As far as I know, I am.”

  “Nice.”

  I huffed loudly and picked up the pace. My heels clicked against the tile flooring as I wove through the gathering horde of holiday travelers. Within minutes, we snagged Nadine’s bag and headed back to my car.

  To call the ride back to my apartment awkward would have been an understatement. Nadine spent the entire drive turning everything Hunter or I said into a sexual innuendo. It was so bad, I seriously considered tossing her out of the car while we waited for Hunter to drop off his laptop and briefcase. Honestly, inviting him to stay with us through the holiday felt right. That’s why the offer had popped out of my mouth as soon as my brain finished concocting it.