Every Little Promise (Orchid Valley #0.5) - Lexi Ryan Page 0,5

to her. I can’t believe I feel sorry for the spoiled little rich girl.

“My boyfriend broke up with me. At my party.” Her bottom lip trembles. When she meets my eyes, something hits me. She’s pretty underneath that makeup and ridiculous dress. Really fucking pretty. Her dark hair is pinned in curls on top of her head tonight, but I bet it’s long and soft when it’s down, and her blue eyes . . . Well, even full of tears, those eyes are like a sucker punch to the gut. “He said I’m uptight, and he doesn’t want to be with a girl who makes him wait for a kiss when we should already be doing . . . other things.”

Jesus. “What a douchebag.”

“You know what’s funny? I was going to let him kiss me tonight. I’ve been looking forward to it all week, but I don’t think he would have cared if I had.”

I toss my towel on the counter and lift my chin in the direction of the party. “Point him out to me. I’ll teach him a lesson.” Only assholes try to manipulate girls into sex before they’re ready.

Her watery eyes go wide for a beat before she smiles, and damn . . . That smile. She’s more than pretty. She’s take-me-by-the-nuts-and-own-me gorgeous. “You’d beat up Roman Humphries for breaking the heart of some girl you just met?”

She says his name like it’s supposed to mean something to me, but I shrug. “Sounds like someone needs to.”

She looks me over slowly as if she’s seeing me for the first time. The black oxford and matching dress pants Aunt Lori said I had to wear tonight are new and easily the fanciest clothes I’ve ever owned. This girl probably doesn’t wear anything from Target, and she sure as hell doesn’t know what it’s like to live on the streets. I feel my past written on every inch of my skin. Self-consciousness pricks at the back of my neck. “Marston, you said? You’re the boy who moved in with Ms. Lori. You’re on probation or something?”

I lift my chin. “What do you know about it?”

She treats me to another one of those soul-owning smiles, and my stomach hitches. “Only that you’re the most interesting boy in this town. Not that there’s much competition.” Her fluffy tulle skirt sweeps the floor as she closes the distance between us. She doesn’t stop until she’s a foot away, craning her neck to look up at me. She’s close enough that I could wipe the smudges of makeup from her cheeks. Close enough to kiss. “You’re tall.”

I bite back a laugh. “You’re short.” And without realizing it, I’m cupping her face in my hands and wiping away the tear tracks. She gasps in surprise, and I drop my hands. “Sorry. You had . . . makeup or whatever. From crying.”

“Oh. It’s okay.” She gives me a shy, crooked smile.

Really fucking pretty and really fucking off-limits, Marston. “You should get back to your party.”

“Because you need to get back to work?” she asks, looking at me again.

Because I want to kiss you. Because I think you’d let me. Because I have no business kissing a girl who lives in a mansion and has staff.

But I don’t say any of that. Instead, I say, “So you can tell Roman to get the hell out of your house.”

She giggles, and I don’t know if it’s because she’s scandalized by my use of the word “hell” or if she’s maybe feeling the same contact high from being close to me as I’m getting from her. “My parents would kill me. A good hostess takes disappointment with grace,” she says, clearly parroting a lesson she’s been reminded of repeatedly.

“Then don’t kick him out. Go out there and make it clear you don’t need him.”

She skims her fingertips across my knuckles before taking my hand. “Come with me somewhere?”

I should say no. But I couldn’t refuse her, even if I wanted to.

Brinley leads me to the servants’ stairs at the back of the kitchen. The stairwell is so narrow and her skirt is so big that I have to walk up behind her, but she never lets go of my hand.

We’ve climbed two flights when she opens a door and pulls me through it and down a dark, narrow hall.

“Where are we going?” I ask, because I should care. Because I shouldn’t be willing to follow her anywhere.

Turning, she puts her finger to her lips and winks before pushing