good lord he looks so hot it could be illegal 👅

Movie 🎥 Casino Royale (2006)

Happy Reading xx

~T

✖️✖️✖️

S C A R L E T T 💣  

The venue for Cruz's fortieth birthday bash was enormous. It was in a ballroom in one of the grandest and most expensive hotels in the whole of Las Vegas. The room was filled with rich arrogant people who indulged in some canapés and white wine while chatting about how much money their companies earn per annum, or something similar to that. But there were also criminals here; mafia and drug lords who were friends with Cruz attended the party with their beautiful wives dressed in extravagant designer dresses. Obviously there were some leaders whom were female and seemed to do a very good job in looking intimidating yet undeniably stunning in their gowns as they looked down on anyone who was lower than them.

   "There's a shit load of people here," Harry muttered under his breath, escorting me to the bar.

   "Yeah," I agreed, my eyes darting to every corner of the area, looking for one person in particular: Andrei. "He's not here yet," I breathed, turning to face him as I leaned against the counter.

   "Seth said he'll give the signal once they spot his car," Harry informed me, his gleaming eyes staring down at me.

  I bit my lip, allowing my brown irises to rake down his body, studying the expensive Gucci suite he was wearing. It clung to his toned body in the most perfectly way, showing off his lean legs, strong back and impressive biceps. When I first saw him, I almost swooned at the sight of him; his chocolate curls styled to perfection with his face cleanly shaven, making his features look sharper than usual. His piercings and tattoos on his neck gave him a daring and slightly intimidating look, and honestly in my opinion, he looked fucking hot with them. I noticed a couple of ladies around my age staring at him, sending him flirtatious looks. To my pleasure, he ignored all of them, focusing on me most of the time, while other times whenever he'd turn around, I'd send those women death glares as a warning.

   "Take a picture, it lasts longer," Harry's deep voice spoke up with a smirk, bringing me out of my thoughts as I looked at him with an amused look.

   "I can't be bothered," I waved him off, watching him as he let out a small chuckle at my words, his adorable little dimple popping out as he did so.

   "Stop staring at me."

   "Why?" I questioned with a smirk. "Does it make you uncomfortable?" I arched a brow at him, making him roll his eyes at me and nod slightly.

   "Yes, your eyes give me a look indicating that you're mentally undressing me," he smirked cockily at me; his words making my eyebrows shoot up.

   "I am not!"

   "You sure about that, babe?" he questioned in amusement, his arm wrapping around my waist to pull me against him. "I know you're lying?"

   "How so?"

   "You're always smiling adorably when you lie," he told me, smiling smugly as I gave him a look implying that I was impressed. His words made me realize that I actually did do that action whenever I lied, I never even noticed it.

   "What other little things do you notice about me?" I asked in interest, placing a hand on his chest as I watched him frown deeply in thought.

   "You always double-knot your laces, and leave the window open at night. You always play with your hair whenever you're thinking deeply about something. You bite your lip whenever you're feeling anxious, worried, scared, hurt, or horny."

   "You blush whenever I say something dirty or compliment you. Always automatically smile when you see me smiling. You always tug on my lip ring while we kiss, love tugging on my curls too and playing with them while I'm asleep. You love tracing the outline of my tattoos while we lay together on the bed, and don't think I don't know about how you always lay a kiss on my jaw and whisper 'goodnight' to me before snuggling against my body."

  He paused for a second to think of many more little things I do as I stared at him in slight shock, surprised that he noticed all those tiny details about me. I knew Harry was the type of person to analyze everything in detail, and notice every flaw and tiny thing. But I never thought he'd pay close attention to small habits of mine like these. I was almost speechless as to what he had just said.

   "Dammit, I can't think of anymore. I swear there are so many though," he told me, licking his lips as I still stared at him with wide eyes. "What?" he frowned, noticing my strange expression.

   "Harry I-" I paused momentarily to think of what to say, before shaking my head with a shy smile. "I can't believe you noticed all of that. I-I'm touched," I bit my lip timidly, a soft smile playing on my lips as I stared up at him.

   "I suppose I like staring at you too, which helps me notice all of that," he smiled back at me, his words causing me to laugh a little. "What little things do you notice about me?" he cocked an eyebrow at me challengingly, almost positive I didn't know any of his habits, but oh I did.

   "Hmm, you always run your hand through your hair, especially more aggressively when you're angry or frustrated. You play with your lip ring whenever you're thinking deeply or just daydreaming. I don't know if these are habits but you take really long showers, you hate mayonnaise, you love bananas; hate fizzy drinks but love coffee."

  "Sometimes you even play with your eyebrow piercing while you're thinking. Oh and sometimes you talk during your sleep. You always sleep with your shirt off and honestly if I wasn't living it you, I think you'd just stroll around your house naked all day, because you seem to not mind it at all," I giggled, remembering the amount of times I'd walk in on him naked, but strangely enough I'd always see his back and his cute butt, not the front.

   "Oh and my favorite habit of yours would probably be that you stick your tongue out before putting food in your mouth, while you eat. That is honestly just too cute!" I grinned widely at him as he stared at me with parted lips, having the same expression as I did earlier.

   "Wow, I'm feeling...flattered? I don't know, I'm just feeling something weirdly nice about the fact that you paid attention to these small things," he mumbled with flushed cheeks as he leaned in to press his lips against my cheek.

  He pulled away to say something but was momentarily distracted by his vibrating phone in his pocket. He let go of me for a second, digging his hand into his pocket and pulling out his silver i-Phone. His features formed a serious expression as he spoke sharply into the phone, his pale jade eyes narrowing as his dark eyebrows lowered. I looked around the ballroom as he talked, trying to find Jade but she was nowhere to be seen. My eyes continued to wander around before they were drawn to a pair of azure irises.

  My features slackened a little as I gazed at this stranger who was staring at me from across the bar. He had that kind of face that stopped you in your tracks. His thick dark brown locks were pushed back from his bronzed face, his strong dark brows arched in amusement over his sky blue eyes. His thick pink lips curved into a smirk as he tipped his head at me, bringing his glass of champagne up to his lips as he held eye contact with me.

   "Scarlett," Harry's voice brought my out of my thoughts, his warm hand landing on my lower back to gain my attention. I turned around to face him, shaking off my thoughts of the attractive stranger who was staring at me. "What were you looking at?" Harry asked me curiously.

   "I was just looking for Jade," I lied, making sure to keep a straight face as I did so. I didn't need Harry sizing up anyone tonight. He shot me a skeptical look before nodding slightly.

   "We need to find her. Andrei's here with his gang," he told me, the sound of that bastard's name causing my skin to crawl. "Hey, it'll be okay," he told me softly, his hand running up the skin of my right arm as he gazed at me with a reassuring look.

   "I just can't believe this is happening," I breathed, my eyes now darting around, as if I was scared Andrei was gonna pop up somewhere close to us.

   "Well it is, and I'm sorry I lied to you about him not being real, it was-"

   "Vlad's orders, I know," I told him with a shake of my head. "Okay so let's go find Jade first before locating Andrei and spying on him," I suggested, all seriousness setting in as we focused on the missions now.

   "Let's," Harry nodded sharply, jutting his elbow out for my to hold. I linked my arm around his elbow, staying close to him as we weaved through the crowd.

  We moved cautiously, keeping an eye out for Andrei, all while looking Jade. I knew she had excused herself to go to the bathroom; apparently it was something typical of her to do during a mission. My eyes wandered around for her, looking around for that stranger too at a point because his face refused to erase itself from my memory. Who was that man? He was staring at me as if he knew who I was. Was that even possible?

  We were crossing the dance floor just before they started to play some music, calling out for all couples to come and dance. I immediately tugged on Harry's arm to keep moving, indicating that I didn't want to dance and make a fool of myself. My hand slid down his arm to tug on his hand, my face shooting a pleading look at him while he smirked. A short gasp flew out of my lips when his hand tightened around mine and pulled all of a sudden, the abrupt action causing me to bump into him.

  He smirked at me, looking devilishly handsome as he did so, his arm going around my waist while the other one laced its fingers with mine, holding our joined pair of hands up. My hand moved to land on his shoulder, giving him a death glare as he simply snickered. And then we moved in sync with the music.

   "Why are we dancing? We're supposed to be looking for Andrei and Jade," I questioned in a sour tone, as we moved gracefully.

   "Relax, baby. Andrei will be making the exchange at midnight. We can spare a few minutes for dancing," he told me with a slight smirk as I grumbled something incoherent under my breath.

   "I haven't danced like this in ages," I muttered, referring to ballroom dancing rather than just regular dancing.

   "When was the last time you danced like this?"

   "At senior prom, with Zayn," I told him lowly, watching his features harden. "It was ages ago, and it's not the same thing as this. This is more...formal, I suppose," I said quickly.

   "I really wish I killed that prick," Harry snarled, his dark brows pulling tightly over his bright eyes. He gets angered so easily.

   "Harry, calm, forget I said anything about him," I hushed him, pressing my lips to his in a quick kiss, without thinking. Right after the action, I was struck by worry as to if Harry was going to get mad again for kissing in public, but then again it wasn't like he knew anyone here. "Sorry," I muttered an apology, averting my gaze.

   "What are you apologizing for?" he asked in slight confusion. I lifted my head up, studying his expression. He didn't look angry.

   "For kissing you in public?" My words came out in more of a question.

   "I think I'm over the whole 'no PDA in front of people I know' thing," he told me with a small grin; rolling his eyes playfully as I mirrored his expression, mine seeming happier.

  My thoughts were cut off abruptly when my eyes landed on a familiar figure. Andrei. My features slackened, face paling at the sight of the man who had appeared in my nightmares countless times. My breath caught in my throat when his gaze fell my way, but Harry moved in front of my to block my body from the man's view. My heart was pounding erratically against my ribcage, my breathing was shortening as my hands fisted Harry's suit slightly while I tried to calm down.

   "Hey, it'll be okay. I'll be right here with you. I won't let that bastard touch you," he spoke lowly into my ear, pulling his face away to allow his hands to cup my cheeks.

   "I'm just...scared," I weakly admitted, averting my gaze as I stared at Andrei, over Harry's shoulder.

  He was dressed in an all black expensive suit, a woman accompanied him but I barely took notice of her, my eyes were locked onto Andrei. He was almost the same in my dreams, multi-colored eyes, thin lips curled into a demeaning sneer. His brown scraggly hair was pushed back and gelled down neatly. His face that normally had light stubble, at least in my dreams, was cleanly shaven, revealing his angular features.

   "Don't be scared, baby," Harry's soft gruff voice stole my attention once again. "You're an assassin now, you're fully capable of beating his ass down and putting a bullet through his head," he spoke firmly; his words making me grimace slightly.

  I didn't want Andrei dead. I wanted him locked up for eternity, to make him suffer for his terrible crimes. After my official Valkyrie meeting, Harry told me every single thing there was to know about Andrei. He told me about how Andrei was a stone-cold killer with no morals. He told me about how Andrei loved torturing people in the most sadistic ways possible, how he'd always make them suffer before leaving them to die rather than ending their lives right then and there.

  I nodded slightly at Harry's words, somewhat distracted by the familiar woman who was accompanying Andrei. Her back was facing me at the moment, while she spoke to someone. A gasp flew out of my lips once she had turned around, the sight of her dark chocolate eyes and strong features striking something deep in my mind.

   "What's wrong?" Harry frowned, turning around to follow my gaze, his features falling and eyebrows shooting up. "Holy fucking shit," he whispered slowly.

   "Oh my god," I breathed when the woman leaned in to kiss Andrei's lips, the sight of them kissing making my stomach lurch.

  Just as she pulled back, her eyes fell upon my way, locking with my own. Her expression was indescribable; her strong brows were lowered over her dark eyes that were so similar to mine. Her ruby lips spread into a smirk as she cocked an eyebrow at me challengingly, causing my breath to hitch in my throat. She kept her eye contact with me as she leaned in to whisper into Andrei's ear. I felt my body tense up as Andrei started looking around, obviously searching for me.

  But before he could spot me out. Harry grabbed my arm and immediately tugged me away hurriedly. I don't what we were running from, but I didn't ask any questions, I just followed him. My chest was rising and falling quickly as we jogged up the stairs, one of my hands fisting my dress to raise it up, while the other one was clutching Harry's tightly. Numerous thoughts ran through my head as we rushed upstairs into a random room.

   "Fuck, our cover's blown!" Harry cursed as we entered a random suite, which I didn't know how on earth Harry managed to get into.

  I couldn't care less about our cover being blown. That woman back there was someone I had known a long time ago. Someone whom I was close to, at least I think I was close to. Seeing her with the man I resented the most, was shocking.

   "Harry," I called out weakly, feeling my breathing shorten. I was feeling a mixture of unknown emotions that was causing me to breathe unevenly and panic all of a sudden.

   "Scarlett," he sympathized, running back to me to hold me. "It was written in the letter, your dad told you about what happened," he told me gently. "I'm sorry it had to be that way."

  I didn't even know why he was apologizing, he didn't do anything, and it wasn't his fault. But he was showing me pity.  It literally killed me to see the woman, who gave birth to me, kiss the man who murdered my father.

  Yes. The woman who was with Andrei was my mother.

✖️✖️✖️

-the next few chapters are so bad-ass and action-packed 👊🏽👊🏽👊🏽

-just to confirm, Andrei is real and he is the man who murdered Scarlett's father. He also helps lead the organization, Black Arrow, which is also looking for God's Eye. Oh and Scarlett's mom is a spy from Black Arrow and now is with Andrei!1!1!1!1!1!

-hope y'all are doing alright, we're edging closer to the Christmas holidays and my birthday (a week from today 🤗) 💖💖💖

Until we meet again...

~T