Sin Series

Chapter 7

“You should stick to your no stranger allowed in your apartment. I’ll see you on Wednesday?”

Her brows furrowed. “Wednesday?”

“Yeah. At the lab.”

“Oh, yeah.” She rubbed the back of her neck, and it was wrong to stare, but it made me want to bite and taste it.

“Bye, love.” Before I could open the door, it swung open. A petite Asian lass appeared, wearing a green scrub suit with a red sweater.

Her face lit up like she’d seen the Man of Steel in person. “Oh, my god! You’re hotsome!” Her squinty eyes bulged. Her mouth formed an O-shaped as she poked my arm playfully.

“Who’s hotsome?” I raised my brows innocently.

“Kat!” Arella called from my back.

“Wait. Who is hotsome?” I asked again.

The woman named Kat checked me out whilst kneading my arms. “You’re a catch, hotsome.”

“Kat, he’s not hotsome!” Arella grabbed and released her friend’s hands on me.

I nodded slowly. “Uh-huh, the date?” I glanced at Arella. So, she talked about the guy on the app to her friend. I wondered what else she mentioned to Kat.

“Then who is this guy? Another date?” Kat asked. Arella remained tongue-tied. Her face was already creamy red.

“Wow! Are, I can’t believe you take him home. Well, if I were you, I would definitely bring him home with me and cuff him on my bedpost and the rest is just the two of us,” Kat whispered that I could still hear, then side-glanced at me with a smirk. “Right, handsome?”

Arella glared at her with a looked telling her to shut up, but Kat seemed a type of person who never listened.

“Unfortunately, I’m not her date nor whoever this hotsome guy is.” I shrugged. “But what I can assure you of is, I’m way hotter than this guy you’re talking about, right, love?” I raised my brow to Arella, but she still had an incredulous looked on her face. “Please to meet you, pet, I’m Skip.”

Her mouth gaped open. Her eyes unbelievably widened. “Oh, my God! You are Skip Linton?”

“That’s me. Mind telling me how did you know my name? Did she talk a lot about me?” I smirked, pointing my thumb to Arella.

“Kat, get inside, and Skipper is leaving.” Arella grabbed my hand and dragged me away from her roommate. Her warm and soft hand made me grasp back.

“Nice to finally meet you, Skip Hotbrit Linton!” she yelled from inside whilst Arella was still dragging towards the lift.

“Arella, how does she know me?” I stared at her, looking for any signs of lies.

“She knows Brett, and I mentioned that I met you during a family dinner.” She rolled her expressive eyes.

“That’s it?”

“Yeah, that’s it. What else would it be?” She sounded annoyed and defensive.

“How about that hot arse some guy?”

“I don’t think it’s any of your business, Skipper. You don’t want to stay for dinner, so go home.”

“Are you sure you don’t have anything else to tell me, Arella?”

Her body went rigid, eyes quickly meeting mine when my voice suddenly turned firm. “I-I don’t think I get what you mean.”

“Of course, you don’t. Keep it that way. You can be dumb, but—”

She raised her hand. “Look, Skip. I don’t know what you’re talking, and I think you might have mistaken me with someone else because I don’t know you and I’ve never seen you in my entire life, so you better stop telling me I’m—”

“Are you sure about that? Because I haven’t mentioned to you anything else, yet—” My heartbeat pounded, and before I could tell her what tied us for years, she cut me off.

“Of course, I am sure.” She looked away.

“And you’ve never seen me before?” I stared at her intently and hissed with anger as to why she had to lie to me again.

“Y-yes.”

I scoffed, “Such a terrible liar.”

Chapter 8

Ms. James

Arella

IGNORING MY hammering heart was hard enough, but what was harder was facing the man who never left my mind these past days. He left me standing outside my apartment two days ago with a billion-dollar question that might remain unanswered.

Right now, I was facing a deja vu as my body hummed to his closeness while he was talking to our head chemist, Dr. Duke Mackenzie. The disappointment plastered on our faces when Skip didn’t like any of our samples. He said it was too sweet for women and too strong for men.

But instead of taking it as an insult, it encouraged and drove me to work harder for this project. I wanted to prove to him that we could compete with the top leading fragrance laboratories all over the world. I able to come up with some ideas now I knew what he liked.

He faced me. “Ms. Rogue—”

“It’s James,” I corrected him, smiling sweetly. I was still Arella James in our lab—my ex-husband surname. Though legally, I already changed it after our divorce.

His jaw instantly clenched, shoving his hands on his dark grey tailored-suit pants. If his eyes were warmed when he arrived earlier with his assistant, Eli, now they shot me with cold and flinty stares.

“Okay, Ms. James. I want the scent is simple, sweet, yet seductive, and that lasts longer. I think you should conduct a survey on what men want in women, and so as for women—”

“I don’t think we have much time to conduct a survey, Mr. Linton. We already wasted eight months—”

“Make time, Ms. James,” he cut me off. “We made a deal, and I will ask all over again for as long as I’m not satisfied with the samples your team had come up with. You and your time have until six weeks to come up with new samples, otherwise, I will cut the deal myself.”

Dr. Mackenzie looked alarmed, then cleared his throat. “We will make sure the samples are ready by the end of next month. We always ended up satisfying our partners, Mr. Linton. I can guarantee you that. We have the best team, and our products had been tested with our previous clients.”

“Good. See you after three weeks then, Dr. Mackenzie.” Skip shook his hand, then turned to me. “With the survey.” He then walked away, leaving us all stunned.

Dr. Mac followed him after throwing me a glare.

“Are, what was that all about? You are rude to hot British owner of the Everly brand.” Maj, my co-chemist nudged me.

“I wasn’t rude, Maj. You knew we worked hard for those samples. My olfactory nerves were literally damaged, but he didn’t like every single one of them. Then he wanted a survey? We don’t have time for his bull!”

“Hush. Lower your voice down. We’ll be in deep trouble if Mac hears you say that. What’s got your knickers in a twist anyway?”

“Nothing. I’m just tired, and the pressure was all on me. Why did Mac have to tell him that I lead this project were in fact, it’s him, Maj?” I stomped out of the testing room, still annoyed.

It all started when I succeeded in creating a signature fragrance for a famous baseball player. Now, it was stuck to Mac’s head that I could possibly do other scents for this project. Besides, I would do anything he asked for because I was just a trainee.

Maj’s high heels echoed in the entire hallway as she followed me. “Are, wait!”

I stopped to a halt and turned. I was so annoyed for some unknown reason. Or I was annoyed at Skip for bailing out on me two days ago. He had the right, I knew, but did he have to be cold then warm, then cold again? Couldn’t he just tell me what was wrong? Because I was not a freaking fortune teller to guess his twisted game. Didn’t he really remember me? Or it wasn’t worth remembering at all?

“Are you listening, Are? Quit frowning!” She pressed her forefinger between my eyebrows. “I’m asking you. How did he know you’re a Rogue? Did you two happened to have a wild night together?” Her caramel face lit up in a mischievous way.

A long wild night, yeah.

“Hell no!” I pointed to my ID, and she looked down.

“Thank, God! You got new! Good for you, Rogue. Let’s go out tonight, then and have a few drinks? Stop overthinking everything, Are. We are a team, remember? We can do it. We always did!” She kissed my cheek and left.

How did I become such a liar after that night? Not a big big lie, but it was still a lie.

“Are!”

Holy crap!

“Mac, if you’re going to fire me, just do it! I don’t want another pep talk,” I started before he could.

He was a good boss, nosy, but tolerable. He propped his hands on his hips, then blew an exasperating breath. He pressed his lips into a thin line as he continued looking at me with brows drew together as if deciding to fire me or I still had used to him. “I don’t wanna lost my best shot, but if you’re gonna be rude again, I’ll s***k your ass, woman.”

I huffed. “You don’t like my ass, I know, but Linton was also an ass. Did you see his reaction every time he smelled our best works? Does he even know perfumery? I bet his daddy dear only promoted him because he’s an heir to the throne of the Everly Cosmetics and Fragrances, and he knows nothing!”

“Quite a judgmental of you, Arella James.” The voice at my back made me freeze. A coldness wrapped around my body like a plague that seeped through my bone—it almost made my blood stop with shame.

Crap!

Mac’s eyes were wide as saucers. Colors drained from his already pale face.

I closed my eyes as my heart sped up upon hearing his footsteps getting closer. I took a deep breath and turned around when I was definite that his body standing close behind me. “Shouldn’t you be back to your castle, Mr. Linton?”

Mac gasped at my back.

Instead of getting insulted by my sarcasm, he smiled—a smile that made my heart thunder, a fluttery feeling spread on my belly—a smile that made me feel imprisoned and a smile that popped out hearts from my eyes.

“Sassy, aren’t we? I come here to talk to you before I leave.” For the second time, he shoved his hands on his pockets like a mighty god he was.

“What do you wanna talk about?” My curiosity struck.

“Your work, of course.”

I was so lost in thought that I forgot Mac until he cleared his throat. “I was about to tell her before you came, Mr. Linton. I’ll give you two time to talk then. Have a good day ahead. Are, I’ll see you later.”

I smiled and nodded.

“Talk,” I started when Mac was finally gone.

“I might not be an expert about perfumery like you, but I study business management with your brother. I’m exposed to my dad’s business which is perfumes and cosmetics all my life. I agree, I’m not as good as you, but I know if the scent will fascinate the consumers or not. I must say, you’re good at it. I’m actually impressed, but I’m not going to boost your ego. Clients have different tastes, that’s why I want to conduct surveys. It’s not a part of the deal, but I want to team up with you.”