Ash smoothed my hair back from my face.
“I’ll be here if you need me, but not in your room. I’m too tempted to be here right now.”
“Bishop said the same thing.” Close enough.
I sat up. “Why won’t you sleep with me?”
“Because you’ve been drinking. Probably more than you realize. When we have sex, it will be with all parties completely sober. That’s how we do things, Noelle.”
Sweet and chivalrous even when presented with an opportunity most men wouldn’t dream of passing up.
“Goodnight, Noelle.” He kissed my forehead again. “Try to get some sleep.”
“Night.” I expected to fall asleep right away, but as soon as the door clicked shut, my eyes flew open.
My heart pounded in my chest like it wanted to race on the Indianapolis speedway.
I flipped onto my back and stared at the blacked out ceiling with a galaxy of stars sparking with gold and silver.
What a day.
I’d barely given myself time to process all of it, and now that the world had gone quiet, my mind attempted to catch up.
Groaning, I smacked my fists onto the soft cover.
All the warm feelings I’d experienced downstairs fled in an instant.
How was I supposed to get dirt on three of the best men I’d ever met?
They deserved better than that.
Was there even anything illegal that they were hiding?
My brain hurt from all the thinking, and I rolled over, trying again to fall into the oblivion of sleep.
Failure.
That one word repeated with every heartbeat.
I’d failed my colleagues, failed myself as a detective.
I’d fallen into the idea of the Steel Vipers being good men because they knew how to please me.
I fought against that idea.
They treated everyone with kindness.
Even the night that the townspeople confronted Rafe, he implied threats but nothing else.
I’d not seen or heard of a single one of them being bad.
Was that the point?
They knew I was a ‘reporter’ so they acted nice for me?
Sleeping with them should feel like a mistake.
It obliterated the line between work and play and allowed me to focus in the wrong direction because to me, the Steel Vipers were a bunch of cinnamon rolls underneath their gruff exteriors.
