Page 101 of Protecting Peyton

“Okay,” Serena said, breaking the spell. “While you two negotiate positions, I’m going to go home…alone.” She emphasized the last word.

“Two knocks,” Constance mumbled, whatever that meant.

Zane nodded and took me down the hall. He stopped us at the guest room I’d slept in last night.

“I don’t need anything from here for tonight.” No. I planned on sleeping naked with my man after the fun part, when we got to the sleeping part.

But he turned the knob and opened the door anyway. “Get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.” He pressed a chaste kiss to my forehead.

I wrapped my arms around him and plastered my body to his, tightly enough that I could feel the bulge that said he wanted me the same way I wanted him. The wine gave me the courage to say it plainly, in a way I never had. “I want you.” Fortunately, I spoke the words softly enough that the others couldn’t hear.

He took my shoulders and created space between us. “I won’t take advantage of you when you’re drunk.”

“I’ve only had?—”

He cut off my rant with a finger to my lips. “Listen to me, Angel.”

Tears began to form as I looked up into his eyes. I was damned tempted to bite his finger.

“I want you too, but it’s a rule I won’t break. Do you understand me?”

“No,” I said, pulling back from the finger that had silenced me. “I know what I want and who I want it from, and that’s you. Do I need to put it in writing? I want you to?—”

His lips crashed down on mine before I could get graphic about what I wanted him to do, and I was in a mood to be very graphic.

The kiss grew intense. I closed my eyes and let myself just feel and be taken on the ride he provided. I had no complaints about a hand closing around my breast or the other one squeezing my ass and pulling me against his obvious erection.

Now we were getting somewhere. He tasted like sin personified as I imagined this talented mouth on me in lots of other places.

Then he broke the kiss. “Rules are rules.” He pushed me through the doorway. “When I first have you, you are going to be sober. Goodnight, Angel.”

When the door closed, I had half a mind to storm out and yell at him for being so hardheaded. Did I need to sign a freaking contract? I settled for stomping my feet. The man had strong morals, and that was both infuriating and incredibly attractive.

Damn him.He wasn’t taking advantage of me if I was asking to be taken to bed. That made perfect sense, but it clearly wasn’t an argument I could win tonight. I spun toward the bureau where I stashed my sleep shorts. The room swam again, and I stumbled against the bed, hitting my shin against the wooden frame. “Fuck.”

Holding my injured shin until the pain subsided, I decided I’d give him this one, even if it was stupid. I was drunker than I had been in a while.

When I limped to the bureau, I found my revenge under my stack of panties and pulled out the toy.

If Zane wasn’t going to satisfy me tonight, I’d have to fantasize about how it could have been.

CHAPTER 25

Zane

The next morning,I woke with a start.

The sound of a door creaking came from the hallway. Constance was using the bathroom, most likely.

I checked the time. Four in the morning was earlier than I’d planned to get up, but after confirming that the room was as it should be, I rolled over, landing on a lump. I pulled out the wadded-up T-shirt I’d cleaned myself up with last night.

It was a good thing I didn’t need much sleep. The sleep monster hadn’t claimed me last night until after I gave in to the urge to whack off to mental images of Peyton’s lips on me, then her under me, then riding me, then…

The door creaked again, but this time, it was my door.

Rolling back to face the door, I thought my imagination must be playing tricks on me. The form I saw highlighted against the dim hall light before the door closed again was the same one I’d gone to sleep hoping to have by my side.

She pulled down the covers and slid in next to me. “There’s an alligator under my bed.” Her arm came over my chest, and a leg draped over my thigh.