She matched my laugh. “My pride was left behind after the second martini.”
“Ah, so it was two, not one,” I mused, helping her up the stairs. “How many more?”
Her eyes rolled again, though her smile didn’t falter—not even for a second. The fabric of her dress snagged on my watch, which pulled her dress farther up her thigh.
“Details, details,” she muttered.
“Details indeed,” I said with a smirk, freeing my watch from her dress. “Like the detail where you can’t handle your liquor.”
“I handle it just fine. It’s the heels that are to blame.”
“The heels I tell you not to wear?” I asked, lifting her up into my arms.
She shot me another glare. This one seemed a lot like a warning. “They make my legs look great,” she quipped, lifting a brow. “Didn’t you notice?”
“I did. Hard not to when they’re wrapped around me.”
When we reached the top of the stairs, I lowered her to the ground. Her breath was warm against my neck as she leaned on me for support. I guided her down the hallway. Every step was a test of my resolve.
“You know,” she began, “you’re surprisingly good at this. I might make a habit of it.”
“Guiding you home after you’ve had too much to drink?” I asked.
“Guiding me, period,” she replied, her eyes locking onto mine.
I swallowed hard, feeling the pull between us. “Careful, Rosalie. I might take you up on that.”
We reached her bedroom door, and she pushed it open with a small nudge and then turned to face me. “What if I want you to?”
My gut warned me to turn away and tell her good night—a rational suggestion, yet my heart seemed to override the caution.
“You’re making it very hard to be a gentleman.”
She laughed softly. “Who said I wanted you to be one in the first place?”
She’d been fighting me before, and now she wanted me? It must’ve been the drink. If I kissed her now, I’d be taking advantage.
“Your rules did—and I intend on keeping my promises, Rosalie. No breaking them.”
Her eyes darkened, and she took a step closer, her body barely an inch from mine. “But bending them, that’s different, right?”
My mind told me to stay away, but my heart wanted to tie a string to hers. Every time I looked at her, it felt like I was stepping on thin ice, just one misstep away from falling into a void of desire that threatened to swallow me whole.
It wasn’t just her physical beauty that enticed me, no matter how undeniably stunning she was. There was something deeper that drew me to her. It could be the way she carried herself with confidence or the way her eyes glimmered. Whatever it was, it was like a magnetic pull I couldn’t resist any longer. I had a breaking point, and I was nearing it.
I pulled back in the smallest way, enough for her to notice. I couldn’t break my resolve. I’d told her I was an honest man. I’d told her I was a patient one too.
Her breathing shallowed, and she bit down on her bottom lip. The same lip I wanted between my teeth. She was going to kill me one day, I knew, but not by plunging a knife into my chest. It would be by the sheer force ofher.
“Are you going to kiss me?” she teased, testing me to see if I’d break.
I wanted to. God, I wanted to kiss her badly. I couldn’t stand her sometimes, punishing me like this. She made me feel like a damn dog. Her trust was hard-earned, and her love was even harder to have.
“No.”
“And why not?”
I’d grown so accustomed to rules that I’d forgotten what it felt like to let my desires win.
