Skin Deep (Snow White Reimagined)

Chapter 2

I nearly drop the poisonous lip gloss when my office door opens without warning.

Orion closes it behind him. He crosses the room, a smile in his playful blue eyes. With his muscled arms and broad shoulders, he's a perfect bodyguard, but he's more than that to me.

Before I can greet him, he leans in to kiss me. By their own will, my fingers weave into his blond hair. He tastes bitter today, like grapefruit. He pulls me closer, deepening his kiss until our breaths become one.

It's then, when I'm at the edge of forgetting who I am, that I remember it most clearly.

"Not in my office," I murmur.

Orion laughs softly. "Then why did you call me?"

His mouth trails to the edge of my jaw, barely there, like a whisper of a breeze in still air. I sigh, surrendering to the ebb and flow of his touch. He pauses to catch his breath, and I reclaim my ability to think.

"I wanted to give you something." I press the tube of lip gloss into Orion's palm.

"Oh gee, Jaci." He examines the lip gloss before smirking up at me. "It's just my colour."

I roll my eyes. "It's for Snow, not you."

"Then why are you giving it to me?"

"So that you can give it to her."

"Okay, I'm lost." Orion frowns. "Start at the beginning, Jaci."

My words catch in my throat.

I can still backtrack. Nobody but Cassandra knows of my plan. If I let Orion believe I summoned him just to see him, he'll never know the truth. Nobody will.

I have been drawn to beauty all my life. Of course I'd shrink away from something as ugly as murder, but sometimes ugly things are necessary.

I swallow. "I must kill Snow."

Orion's eyes widen. Something stirs in their depths, some feeling I'm afraid to name. 

"You can't mean that. You wouldn't hurt anyone, Jaci."

I wouldn't if I had a choice, but I don't. I look down, both in shame and avoidance of the disappointment Orion wears plainly on his face.

"Jaci." Orion tilts my head upwards. "What's wrong? There must be something else we can do."

I shake my head. "Do you remember me yelling at Snow on the phone last night?"

He nods.

"Yesterday, she recorded an expense of one million dollars as a donation, but I suspect it was for the flowers for her best friend's birthday."

Orion's brow furrows. "Surely someone can follow the money trail and incriminate her."

I shake my head. "I don't know how she did it, but my best forensic accountants can't track the transfer. The money has as good as disappeared."