Page 29

“Sure.”
“I think I’ll throw up if you make me drive two hours back to Esperance.”
Fuck. I bowed my head, wrestling with myself. “You can stay at mine. I’ll take you home tomorrow.” I would just keep my hands off her. That’s all there was to it. I was a grown man. I could control myself.
“Thank you.” Reaching across, she covered my hand with her own and I turned it over, linking our fingers.
It was a ten-minute drive home, and I was relieved to see the doorman ring for the valet as soon as he saw me pull up out front. Much easier to bring Esme in from here than the parking garage.
“Thank you, John.” I handed him the key fob and helped Esme from the car.
“Yes, thank you, John.” She waved her finger, trying to point at him and failing. There was the faintest hint of a British accent when she said, “That is alovelysuit.”
He grinned. “Thank you, ma’am.”
Oh, Christ, she was drunker now than when we’d left the club. Taking two steps away from the car, she stumbled against me, catching at my arm to stop herself from falling.Hiccup.
With my arm around her waist, I somehow got her through the revolving doors and into the lobby. She swayed against me and wrapped her fist around my tie to hold herself up. With a giggled, “I don’t think I can feel my feet,” she almost went down again. I gave up. Picking her up, I threw her over my shoulder, grinning when she laughed in shock. “Put me down! At once!”
“Why do you have a British accent suddenly?”
“Because I am averyimportant person, and I do not like to be upside down.”
“It’s a terrible accent. I can’t take you seriously.”
“Tis not.”
Two guys were sitting on a sofa near the bank of elevators. I noticed one of them giving Esme an appreciative once over. I glared at him, my lip curling in a snarl. “Look at her ass again, and I will punch you in the face.”
He looked away hastily.
Esme let out a gusty sigh. “Who says chivalry is dead?”
Thankfully, the lift opened the second after I pressed the button. I stepped inside, hit the button for the eighteenth floor and as the doors closed, lowered Esme gently to her feet. With my hands still around her waist, before I had the chance to pull away, she pushed her fingers into my hair and dragged my head down, crushing her lips to mine. With no time to get my defenses up, fire roared through me. I was kissing her back, skimming a hand down her back to her perfect ass. Groaning when she leaned back against the arm I had wrapped around her waist, pushing her hips against me.
Jesus Christ, the woman could kiss. She was like a fever dream, and I was losing my mind. I could barely catch my breath when she lifted her leg and hooked it over my hip, grinding against me. Maneuvering her so she was against the elevator wall, I pulled away from her lips to pepper hot little kisses across her jaw, nipping at her earlobe. The moan she let out skimmed over my skin, settling in my balls.
There were alarm bells ringing in the back of my mind and although I did my best to ignore them, the dinging of the elevator brought me back to earth with a heavy thud.
I pulled back enough to grab Esme’s wandering hands and hold them against my chest. Over my pounding heart. “Stop,” I said in a low voice, when she tried to pull free.
She didn’t hear me, going up on tiptoe to try to kiss me again.
I dropped my forehead to hers. “Goddamit, Esme.” My voice was guttural. “I’m trying to be honorable here.”
“What if I don’t want you to be honorable?”
Her whisper shivered through me. This had to stop. I stepped back, holding onto her elbow to steady her as we walked into my condo. The beauty parlor had bagged up the clothes she’d worn there and sent them over, and it had been left on the hallstand. Grabbing it, I said, “It doesn’t matter what you want. Firstly, I don’t fuck women when they’re drunk. Secondly…” I led her into the spare bedroom and guided her to the bed.
“What? Secondly, what?”
Kneeling down, I undid the buckles on her shoes and set them neatly next to the bed, doing my best to ignore the silky feel of her skin.You’re way too good for me and I’ll end up disappointing you.“Nothing. I’ll get you a shirt to sleep in.”
“I can’t stay here.”
I stopped in the doorway. Fuck, she was going to make me drive her two hours home at four in the morning. I turned back with a frown on my face at her next words;
“I never sleep by myself.”