“Huh?”
Waving down the car driving across the lot, he tells me, “Going to yours, old rat bastard.”
“Yeah, sure,” I say absently.
I’m not paying attention to anything he says. I’m too laser-focused on Rowan and the likelihood of her being disappointed – or even hurt – that I’m this goddamn drunk. If she’s awake when I walk into that house, I’m going to break her heart. Just another man in her life she’ll feel like she can’t rely on, and I was already on shaky ground in that regard.
I shouldn’t care about letting her down; at the end of the day, I’m still her boss, and way too goddamn old for her. I shouldn’t care. But I do.
It isn’t until we stumble through the front door and Davis throws me a quick salute before toddling his way toward what used to be ‘his room,’ that I snap out of my own thoughts and realize that he’s about to walk right into Rowan’s room.
“Shit, wait!” I shout a whisper after him and sloppily jog to catch up as he turns the handle on the doorknob.
He turns slowly toward me, his face pinched together, and points toward the open room.
“Why am I looking at your assistant’s ass?”
I lean my head past him, just a bit, and sure enough – Rowan is on her stomach, one knee hiked up with her bedding bunched toward the foot of the bed.
Thankfully, she’s at least wearing a t-shirt that covers her breasts, but her panties leave little to be desired, hugging her ass and letting just enough skin show that I want to punch my best friend in the throat for even looking at her.
Yanking him away from the door, I tell him, “I was wondering the same thing.”
A tired groan echoes out of Rowan’s room and her sleepy voice rasps, “Colt? Is that you?”
“You bastard,” Davis says in surprise with a wide grin spread across his face, then he punches me in the shoulder. “I told you you wanted to fuck her. Was it good?”
“Just go wait on the couch,” I order.
I shove him away as he laughs to himself, then wait for him to be at least at the end of the hall before slipping into the bedroom and gently closing the door behind me.
I walk toward the bed and pull the blankets back up over Rowan’s small frame before sliding onto the bed next to her.
Jesus, that made the room spin.
I blink away the dizziness as best I can and bring a hand up to brush her hair behind her ear. I want to see that beautiful face smiling at me, even through her exhaustion. I press my lips to her temple and let out a quiethumagainst her soft skin.
“You smell like whiskey,” she whispers, disappointment lacing her words. Just like I knew it would.
I reach into my suit jacket and produce both my keys and Davis’s, then show them to her.
“No one drove.”
“Swear?”
“On my life, baby.”
She sleepily lifts herself just enough for her mouth to meet mine. I wrap my hand around the back of her head and pull her closer to me, deepening the kiss until her lips part enough for my tongue to slide in and take control of hers.
“God, I—” I stop myself, cutting my sentence short.
Don’t say that. Don’t even fucking think it. You have no right.
“What?”
I kiss her forehead twice, then roll away to climb off of her bed. “I have to go, you get some sleep.”
I’m a little relieved when she pulls the covers up closer to her chin and shuts her eyes, because if she asked me to stay, I would probably leave Davis waiting for me in the living room in a heartbeat.
