Scandalous Read Online Free

long time ago that sometimes in life, even if you have the best intentions and motives, the road to victory was curvy and paved with shades of grey. It was never a straight shot, and it was CERTAINLY never black and white.
    Anyone that told you that it was had never been in a real-life battle. In theory, you can have lots of pretty ideals about what is right and wrong, ethical or unethical. When you got down in the dirt, you found out that it's true what they say – all IS fair in love and war. All that matters is the victory.
    They also said that no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy, no matter how brilliant and well thought out it was. The key to winning was to roll with the punches, and adjust your plan as necessary – and not to be afraid to rely on instinct.
    He had planned to create a warm and collegial atmosphere with Cristal, here in this house. He had planned to be so goddamn charming and fun that he couldn't help but grow on her.
    He shrugged. That had been a good plan, but it hadn't survived first contact. So what now? His instincts told him that laying all his cards on the table was the best play, and so that was what he intended to do.
    Trust your instincts. Roll with the punches. Attain victory. These were concepts that he was familiar with, and he had no problem applying them here.
     

Chapter Two
    Cristal quickly undressed and hopped in the shower, letting the water wash away the scummy feeling that she hadn’t shaken since leaving the bar. The hot water sprayed her body and she closed her eyes and enjoyed the heated liquid massage.
    She knew that she was going to have to do a much better job at not letting Dominic get to her if she planned on leaving this house with her sanity intact. Which she fully did. She wasn't going to give him that kind of control over her.
    God. It was just that he made her feel so out of control, so completely reckless...
    Cristal shook her head under the hot stream of water, trying to shake away the fogginess that always seemed to pervade her brain when Dominic was on the scene. Only when he was around. No one else had that effect on her.
    She prided herself on taking to heart the lessons she had learned at a very young age, when she was being shuffled from foster homes to group homes and back again countless times. Lessons about never letting people get to you. That no matter what others did – and Cristal had endured some pretty rough treatment – the truth was, the only real power they had was the power you yourself gave them. She never gave anyone control over herself…not mentally, emotionally, and not physically.
    When she was in 6th grade, she had read an autobiography written by a Holocaust survivor. The author had written about the experience of quickly reconciling themselves to the fact that they may very well die in the camps, but resolving to never let the grim realities of their physical surroundings touch their spirit or their mind. The Nazis could take everything from them, but they could never take their dignity or their human spirit.
    Cristal had felt a chill run through her entire body when she had read those words and, even at that young age, she knew that she had just discovered her own life philosophy within the pages of that book.
    Her asshole foster parents. The scam artists that ran the group homes. The violent little shits she had to sleep next to on a nightly basis. They could take everything from her, and – yes – they may eventually take her life...but they would never really touch her. Not inside. Not her spirit. Not her mind.
    Not where it counted. That part belonged to her and only to her, and that was how it was going to stay.
    That philosophy was what had helped her survive the next seven years with dignity and toughness, and twenty years later, that philosophy was still serving her well.
    She sighed. With one notable exception.
    The problem was that whenever she was around Dominic she had to fight with every fiber of her