Page 8

“Where to, sir?” Carl inquired before I could follow Byron inside.
I frowned at Byron, who was slumped very low in the seat. It was unlikely Carl knew his address, and I wasn’t all that thrilled with the idea of leaving him home alone like this.
“Take me home. He can sleep in one of the guest rooms.” I put my foot in the car and stopped, turning to Carl. “I’m going to tell him I picked him up alone. You were never here.”
“Of course, sir,” Carl agreed with a nod and a completely blank expression.
When Byron sobered up, he’d be embarrassed as hell. Right now, I was hoping to convince him I was the only one who’d seen him like this. He didn’t need to know about Carl and Declan. That would add to his misery.
I slipped into the car and scooted closer to Byron than I normally would, so I could help him sit up. He was one hard stop away from being on the floor.
“Ilooooovethis car,” Byron moaned as he rested his head on my shoulder. “This is the very best car.”
“Really? I didn’t know you were so fond of it.”
This was killing me. Everything out of his mouth was too adorable. I’d had no idea he was this cute. I found him excruciatingly adorable sober, but it was a different kind of adorable. It was like dressing a bunny rabbit in a suit adorable. Drunk Byron was simply the bunny.
“The seats are so soft and comfy,” Byron continued. He ran his left hand along the side of his seat. He turned his face up to me and smiled. “The car also smells like you.”
“It smells like me?” That was not what I’d expected him to say.
Byron nodded, still giving me that charming, crooked smile. “Couple times, you had Carl drive me to run errands. I sat here, and the car still smelled like your cologne. S’ nice.”
A big red warning light flashed in my head, but I smacked that shit as if I were shutting off my morning alarm.
I shifted, so I was facing him better, and bent my head. “You like how I smell?”
“Soooooo much,” Byron agreed. He dropped his voice to a whisper. “You smell so good. And yer sooooo sexy.” Just as my heart skipped at his declaration, a laugh burst out of Byron that ended in a snort. He slapped me on the chest. “But you know yer sexy.”
“The only thing that matters to me is if you think I’m sexy.”
Oh, I was a bad man. Such a bad, bad man.
But I’d been pining and longing for the tiniest hint that he thought of me as more than his boss. I couldn’t let this go.
Byron’s smile softened, and he raised his left hand to cradle my cheek. My pulse soared through the room, but I sat frozen, my eyes locked with his sleepy ones. “Yes, I think yer very sexy.”
He pulled me forward with the slightest pressure, and I went so damn willingly. Our lips brushed lightly at first, a featherlight touch followed by his hot breath dancing across my damp mouth. I went in for a second kiss, loving the happy grunt that left him, the way his fingers slid to the nape of my neck. The kiss was hot and tender. So perfect.
But as quickly as it had started, that hand on my neck went limp and he stopped moving completely.
I lifted my head to find Byron’s head resting against the seat, his eyes closed, and his lips slack. A soft snore rose from him.
“Fuck.”
He’d passed out.
4
BYRON GRAHAM
Oh God,let me die.
My body ached, and my mouth tasted like envelope paste. My head hurt, but not as bad as I was expecting, which meant I could feel my stomach attempting to eat itself.
Why in all that was holy had I drunk so much on an empty stomach?
You would think that after dealing with an alcoholic mother, I wouldn’t want to touch a drop of alcohol, but I’d reached the end of my rope. I’d needed something to get through the next second, and concentrating on work hadn’t been enough. There had been only three options I could think of: drugs, sex, and alcohol.