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She was an adorable drunk A ridiculously sexy drunk

But still drunk, nonetheless

Up on the hill when they’d beenout, the more she drank, theahead of ti to wreak serious havoc on his self-control, he’d still had to steel hie of her when he’d wanted her so badly

Lord, was he glad he’d been there for her first drinking experience He hated to think about what pretty uy on the planet would have done as her defenses fell one after the other

He hadn’t planned on bringing her back to his bedroootten a whole lot drunker, a whole lot faster than he’d expected, there’d been no way that he could just take her back to her room and leave her there Not when neither of them kne the post-drunk period would treat her If she needed him, he needed to be there for her

Luck remained on their side as he took her up the narrow, empty stairwell His rooot her inside, he let out a breath of relief

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be seen with her--of course he wanted to claim her as his in front of the entire world But since they still hadn’t made an official decision about how public their relationship should be, he didn’t want to ossip spreading throughout ca for weeks what your rooainst hiainst his chest "And I’ve been wondering what it would have been like if I’d coht--especially now that I can guess how good you would have made me feel"

Like he said, she was a sexy-as-hell drunk But he made himself press a kiss to her forehead rather than her lips as she swayed even tighter into him

"Come over here, beautiful"

"It’s different when you say it"

He walked her over to the bed and gently sat her down on it "What’s different?"

"When you call me beautiful" She whispered the last word as if it were a bad one

"Why?" He knelt in front of her, needing so badly to understand what made him different to her "Why is it different when I say it?"

"My face, my body--all they are, all I am, is money to the people I’ve been around my whole life" She licked her lips as if she was afraid she wasn’tfro for theht into his eyes "But when you say it, I believe it ht actually be true And that it isn’t bad That I don’t have to keep wishing it away"

"You are beautiful, Serena So da, not weighing any of his words Just knowing that they needed to be said And heard "All of you, Serena Not just your face Not just your body Everything you are is beautiful"