Misguided Vows (Lethal Vows Book 5)

I knocked on her door for a good ten minutes with no answer. It’s past midnight, and she hasn’t come back to the hotel. I know because I’m sitting in the lobby waiting for her.

Maybe she’s with a guy. I did hack the security footage to see her walking out in tight-ass jeans and a tiny shirt.

I consider my options. It’s too easy to track her phone, and the temptation is there.

I’ve become outright fixated on her. I tell myself it’s because I’m stalling in between jobs, but the truth of the matter is, I’m intrigued by her, even though I already know almost everything there is to know about her.

It’s my job to know these things.

And I took great pleasure in learning about her.

It’s the first time I’ve become fixated on a woman since… well, some memories are best left to the past. I seriously just have to get her out of my system.

Just as I pull my phone out to track hers, I hear her laughter flutter through the lobby.

I stand and call her name.

She pauses, and her laugh cuts off when she sees me. The doorman is discreetly checking her out.

I get it; she’s beautiful. In a stunningly classical kind of way.

“You.” Her eyes narrow as she says it, then she lifts her finger and points it at me. “You.” She slurs the word this time.

“How much have you had to drink?” I ask, amused. Because there’s nothing more entertaining than the drunk, unfiltered version of Alina.

She gets in my space and looks down her nose at me. I don’t even know how it’s possible considering she’s so much shorter than me. My nostrils flare with the mixture of her perfume and the alcohol on her breath. She pokes her perfectly manicured nail into my chest and leans in with a sneer.

“Why are you always here?” she asks. “You just poof out of nowhere like a magician.”

I try to contain my laugh.

If I answer her, she’ll just call me a stalker. And, hell, I probably am.

But right now, her hands are on me.

“Do you think… because I let you finger fuck me… that I’ll fall at your feet?” she stammers. The doorman coughs behind her, and he’s quick to step back to his post by the door.

“I was hoping,” I reply. Then we can clear whatever this thing is between us and be done with it.

“Whatever.” She flips her hair over her shoulder and heads to the elevator. I follow her into the car and press the button for my floor. She tries to stand but ends up leaning against the wall for support.

“Do you intend to come to my room?” I ask curiously.

“Oh my God, why would you even say that?”

When the elevator begins to rise, she loses balance and stumbles. I catch her and press her against the wall.

“You didn’t press the button for your floor,” I tell her, and her eyes go wide. The elevator stops, and the doors open to my floor, but I make no move to exit.

She stares up at me through thick eyelashes with those big fuck-me eyes. I raise my hand to rub against her lower lip, smearing lipstick along my thumb. These fuckable lips. Just thinking about them gets me hard.

I could take her now. Taste her and fuck her as I please. But there’s something about how drunk she is that has me reluctant to make a move.

When the fuck am I ever a gentleman?

The energy shifts and she speaks. “Aren’t you going to get out since this is your floor?” She breaks the tension and moves past me to press her floor number. I lean against the wall and wait for the doors to close. She seems confused.

“Aren’t you meant to get off?”

I tuck my hands into my pockets casually. “I’m just making sure you get to your room safely, love.”

The doors open and I hold them for her.

“You aren’t allowed to come to my room,” she says, stumbling off and searching through her purse. I hold the door open, watching her.

“Fuck!” she curses, then looks over her shoulder at me. “I’ve lost my room key.”

This one is more trouble than she realizes; she’s practically asking me to be her knight in shining armor. And now I have to get off the elevator to help her with her door. The temptation just keeps increasing. I push out of the elevator, amused, and approach her room as she stumbles behind me. “We need to go downstairs to get a new key.”

“We?” I ask with raised eyebrows.

“No, not as in we. Shut up. You know what I mean.” She folds her arms across her chest, and my gaze dips to her cleavage.

Too much fucking trouble.

I pull out my card and swipe it. Her door opens, and her jaw unhinges as she stares at it and I place the card back in my pocket.

“How the fuck do you have access to my room?”

“I have access to everyone’s room. I told you. If I need to find people or things, there’s no stopping me. I can gain access to any key for any type of room or treasure.”

She stares at me, her face scrunched up.

“That’s really fucking weird. And don’t ever come into my room without my permission.” I kick up a smile as she pushes past me. “But I really need to pee, so whatever.”

“I believe you owe me a favor for this.” She swings around in shocked horror, and again I try not to laugh.

“For saving me from five minutes and a bill for requesting another room key?”

“In your state, it would’ve been a lot longer than five minutes.”

Her lips curve into a wicked grin as she saunters up to me. I know what she’s doing, and it’s fucking working. She grabs the lapels of my jacket. “And what type of state might I be in, Mr. Blue Eyes?”

My eyebrows shoot up. “Mr. Blue Eyes?” I repeat. My cock twitches as I stare at her lips. Fuck, I want her so badly.

“It’s better than asshole, isn’t it?” she asks innocently, and pouts. My cock jumps again at those beautiful, full lips.

Too fucking temping. When I slowly lean in, she pulls back with a smile. Teasing me. I grab her by the throat, and her grin widens. I want her. Fuck, do I want her. But I want her to come to me. Sober.

“And I thought you so badly needed to pee?” I ask.

It’s as if she’s just remembered as the urgency sparks again, and she flips me the bird over her shoulder. “Whatever. I owe you one.”

I call out behind her, “See you in the morning, milady.”

“Fuck you,” I hear her say, and I chuckle as I close the door.

I’m certain that whatever she drank tonight, she’ll regret it tomorrow. Or more likely, she’ll regret agreeing to owing me a favor.

I step into the elevator and select my floor. It’s not until the doors open and I step off that I go to grab my key. Except, I realize it’s not in my pocket anymore.

I can’t help the smile that spreads over my lips. That conniving little vixen. She pickpocketed my card. A grand little thief who can’t hold back on her own temptations and part of me already has suspicions as to why. But right now, all I can think about and imagine is her self-satisfied smile in her room.