Page 45 of Too Late

She holds up her left hand and smiles. “It’s beautiful, by the way,” she says, admiring the ring. “I was a little speechless earlier, so I forgot to tell you how perfect it is.”

I’m either a delusional fuck or she’s the best goddamn liar I’ve ever met. If I’m forced to choose between the two, I choose the former.

I wrap my arms around her waist. “Come downstairs,” I tell her. “I want my eyes on you all night.”

She gives me a peck on the cheek. “I will soon. I want to stare at my ring for a little while before all the girls downstairs start demanding to try it on.” She twists the ring on her finger, admiring it again.

Girls. They’re so easy to please. I should start buying her more fucking jewelry.

I release her and head to the door. “Don’t wait too long, you have a lot of shots to catch up on.” I open the door to walk out, but pause when she calls my name. I turn around and she’s sitting back down on the bed.

“I love you,” she says, her sweet lips curling around those words. It makes me fucking ache to be inside her.

I will be. Later.

“I know you do, baby. You’d be stupid not to.”

I close the door and walk back downstairs. I probably shouldn’t have said that to her, but I’m still a little bitter with the way she made me feel when I caught her staring at Carter. When I cross the room, Kevin is still standing at the table with all the liquor. I grab a shot out of his hand. “One more,” I say, pointing at the bottle and downing the one in my hand. I’ll need about double what I’ve already had to get over the way my blood was boiling at the thought of Carter and Sloan.

Speaking of Carter …

I catch him out of the corner of my eye just as he leans in and whispers in some petite brunette’s ear. She laughs and slaps him in the chest. My eyes follow his hands and they’re gripping her waist, pressing her into the wall behind her.

Sloan is right. I’m being paranoid. If anything were going on between Carter and Sloan, he’d be staring me down or looking around for Sloan. Not sliding his tongue up some girl’s neck like he’s doing right now.

Good for him. Pretty sure that’s the first time I’ve really seen him let loose. Must have been the half-bottle of champagne he downed during his toast.

I take another shot and walk past them on my way toward the back door. I pat Carter on the back, but I don’t think he notices. The chick’s legs are wrapped around his waist now. She has some nice fucking legs.

Lucky bastard.

I lightly trail my fingers across one of her legs as I pass them. Carter still has his mouth buried against her neck, but the girl makes eye contact with me when she feels me touch her. I wink at her and then walk toward the back door.

I give her five minutes before she comes up with an excuse to follow me outside.

I should feel bad about this—about stealing Carter’s girl right out from under him. But the fucker has gotten inside my head more than enough in the last twenty-four hours when it comes to Sloan. If anything, he deserves this.

TWENTY-EIGHT

CARTER

“Is he gone?” I whisper in her ear.

Tillie nods and unwraps her legs from around my waist. “Yep,” she says, wiping at her neck. “I get that you had to make it convincing, but please don’t ever put your tongue on me again. Gross.”

I laugh. She straightens her hair by running her fingers through it. “Now disappear. I have work to do. This might even be easier than I thought.” She slaps her hand against my chest and pushes me aside, heading out the back door in search of her new project.Asa.

Tillie has helped out with a couple of jobs I’ve worked on before, but she’s usually Dalton’s sidekick. I figured having her here tonight would not only come in handy for my own sake, but for the investigation as well. If anyone could take Asa’s eyes off Sloan for any amount of time, it would be Tillie. Not only because of the way she looks, but she’s like a chameleon. She can become whoever she needs to be in order to worm her way into a guy’s psyche, and Asa Jackson is next up on her list.

When she disappears outside, I glance around the room to make sure no one is paying any attention to me. When I’m in the clear, I head straight for the stairs.

Granted, my sneaking up to Sloan’s room is not why Tillie is here. In fact, Dalton ordered me to stay away from Sloan tonight and wait until Sunday to give her any attention—when Asa is far away from both of us.

Luckily, Dalton is outside. So is Asa.

And now, so is Tillie. I’ve got at least a ten-minute window to check on Sloan.

She’s probably confused by the toast I gave downstairs. Hell, I’m still confused as to why Asa asked me to do it in the first place. Either he’s beginning to trust me, or it’s akeep your enemies closerkind of situation.

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