Page 39 of Arrogant Playboy

Daniel stills and those turquoise eyes find me in the darkness. “Is that why you’ve been ignoring me?”

I don’t answer him.

“Dammit, Rosie, answer me. Is that why you have been distant?”

A tear slides down my cheek. “Yes.” Now I’m angry with myself for letting that stupid tear fall. He doesn’t deserve them.

Daniel moves toward me. “I didn’t kiss her.” I shake my head. I know what I saw. “She kissed me.” Semantics. “She was someone from my past who was a casual hook-up and thought I would still be interested. She didn’t like hearing the word no. If you had stayed, you would have seen me push her away and ask her to leave my event.”

He reaches out and rubs his thumb across my cheek and walks me backward a couple of steps till my back hits the wall. “I didn’t know you had seen that, Rosie.” I hate that I can see the regret on his face and it’s making me feel weak. “If you had talked to me, I would have told you, I would have explained.” Iswallow as another tear falls. “I would never hurt you,” he says as he kisses the tear from my cheek. My legs wobble, but I’m thankful he’s holding me, otherwise, I might be on the floor. “Were you jealous, Rosie?” I refuse to answer him. “Rosie, were you jealous?”

“I don’t feel well,” I say, pulling the drunk card to get out of this conversation.

Daniel stills, his hand falls from my face, and he takes a step away from me letting out a heavy sigh. “Come on then, let’s get you home. You’re going to feel that champagne in the morning,” he says, holding out his arm for me to take, and I do as my legs forget how to walk. Daniel and I walk in silence out of the laneway and down the red carpet to where his car is waiting for him. “I’ll take you home, I don’t trust you being in an Uber like this.”

I’m too tired to argue as he holds the door open for me. I get in and take a seat and he does the same. He tells his driver where we need to go, and we pull out into the London traffic. It's not long till my eyes start to shut from the gentle rocking of the car, and the next thing I know, I’ve fallen asleep, and Daniel is waking me up.

“Rosie, wake up, you’re home,” he says gently as the world spins. He helps me out of his car and walks me to the front door. I hand him my clutch, and he finds my keys and unlocks the front door, then helps me shuffle in and I groan when I see the three flights of stairs I must walk up. “Take your shoes off, I’ll carry you up.”

“No, I can do it,” I mumble.

“It’s going to take you all night or five minutes for me.”

He does have a point, so I kick off my shoes, bend over and pick them up, and seconds later, he is scooping me up into his arms. I let out a heady sigh as I snuggle into his hardness. Hefeels so good. Carrying me up three flights of stairs he hardly breaks a sweat.

“Is Emily here?” he asks.

“Yes.”

“Then I will say goodnight here.” He leans in and kisses my cheek. “We’re going to talk about this at a later date.” Then he turns and walks away from me.

After a couple of tries, I get the key in the door and stumble in.

“Rosie?” Emily calls out.

“Yeah, just me,” I say, throwing my shoes by the door, my clutch and keys follow as I close the door behind me.

“Are you drunk?” Emily chuckles.

“A little. I’m going to go to bed.” I hiccup.

“Night.” Emily chuckles.

I wave and head toward my bedroom and flop onto my bed.

I’m on struggle street.

“Rosie, Mr. DuPont is here to see you,” Adina says, popping her head in.

What! Why the hell is he here “I’m busy,” I tell her, trying to massage my hangover.

Her brows shoot up high at my reply.

“I know she’s not,” Daniel replies behind her. Adina steps out of his way as he barges his way into my office dressed like he’s stepped off the cover of GQ, in a navy suit, with a white shirt, no tie, and his dark hair slicked back with takeout bags in his hand.

Adina closes the office door behind him.

“How’s the hangover?” He chuckles as he places the takeout bags on my desk.

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