A TEMPTING ARRANGEMENT

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Archer turned to his wife. He leans back against the counter and crosses his arms. “She does it for free without even getting paid. From what I’ve heard she found out about the video while being interviewed. It was a sight to behold…”

Andrea looks at Archer. “Well Tate will find a way to shut them up. I expect him to call me with an excuse as to why there’s a video of them…” Andrea shrugs her shoulders.

Archer eyes Andrea. “What’s your next move?” he asks.

Andrea rolls her eyes. “I’ll have to pretend I have no idea what’s going on. I’ll defend Tate, I’ll even manipulate the media by finding pictures of Lacy and Tate together. Then the real fun begins.” Andrea says.

She was going to get everything Tate ever took from her. She didn’t care about the gifts but the unpaid loans, the investments.

Investing in the future? What future? She wanted everything back.

Archer turned and went back to making dinner.

“If you’re worried about the money, why don’t you threaten Miss Green with the video of what really happened at the airport, that way she can’t help Mr. Andrews with the blackmail money?” Archer asks.

Andrea takes her phone out of her purse and sees fifteen missed calls from Tate.

Andrea looks up from her phone and looks at Archer again, what was it about Archer being her husband that made him more attractive?

“Why does it feel like you’re about to jump my bones?” Archer asks without turning around.

Andrea scoffed. “Have you spoken to my father yet?” Andrea asks.

Archer nods. “Damien called me this morning; I stopped by him before making my way to the office. God he’s gotten so big…” Archer smiles cutting an onion.

“I thought it was just me. But in few years, he’ll be even taller than me.” Andrea says proudly.

"Your dad is a tall fella so he could take after him…” Archer says in a thoughtful tone.

Andrea picks up on it and her smile is strained. “Yeah… I’m sure he takes after my father. I took after my mother.” Andrea says.

Once the Thai curry Archer was preparing was done, he dished and the two ate in silence.

Andrea’s phone would occasionally ring, but she made no attempt to pick it up. Archer told her about how his secretary would stay behind and take care of the house. The house would be furnished according to Andrea’s wishes. He also told her he wouldn’t be able to come back for another three weeks.

Andrea nods and prepares herself for not being able to see him again.

“Do you need anything while I’m away?” Archer asks.

Andrea shakes her head. “No. I’ve got everything sorted for now…” Her fun was just about to begin she was going to make those two suffer. A worse fate than what she suffered.

Andrea made plans to visit a*****e in the morning to pick up a burner and few other things.

The two spent their night speaking about their plans for the future and what the next year looked like for them.

“I heard one of your artists is retiring?” Andrea asks Archer.

He nods. “Natasha Davidson. She wants to become a designer.” He says.

Andrea frowned. “She’s only twenty years old.”

He nods. “She’s a child model. She never wanted to be a model. It was more her parents forcing her to be one than her finding joy in it like you do…” he explains.

Andrea nods in understanding. “I just can’t imagine if my parents forced me into something I didn’t want, like finance or even worse law…” Andrea shudders.

Archer bursts out laughing. “Law is horrible…” he playfully agrees.

“What time is your flight?” Andrea asks.

“The jet’s set to take off at four…” he says.

Andrea’s eyes widened. “So soon?” she asks.

He nods.

“But…” Andrea sighs. “Should we head to bed so you could get some sleep?” she asks.

Andrea’s phone rang before Archer could say anything. “Answer it…” he tells her.

She rolls her eyes knowing it’s Tate.

She answered the phone.

“Andrea, thank God. You have to listen to me, it’s not true. Andrea where are you?” Tate asks Breathlessly.

“I’m staying at my parents’ estate. Why do you need me?” Andrea asks.

“Did you see the news?” he asks breathless.

Andrea rolls her eyes. “No, I’ve been busy packing up my room and I just had dinner. What’s going on?” Andrea asks.

Archer scoffs.

“Don’t look at it for now, I’m going to sort it out. Once I figure out who is behind this, I’ll make them pay for spreading lies…” Tate goes on and on, but Andrea blocked out what he was saying.

She took out a notebook and a pen from her purse and wrote something on it for Archer.

Archer takes the notebook from her and reads what she wrote down.

How about we play a little game, how will it take Tate to realize I’m not listening to his rants?

Archer’s lips turn up, he looks at Andrea before shaking his head.

He takes the pen from her hands.

Ten minutes.

Andrea laughs. And writes down.

Half an hour.

Andrea places her phone on speaker and places it on the table.

Archer pulls Andrea closer to him. He wraps his arm are her shoulder.

It gave Andrea a sense that he was being possessive. For some reason it warmed her heart. Archer was really one of her best friends.

Andrea leans on Archer’s chest. The day must have caught up with her because she fell asleep in his arms.

It took Tate more than a half an hour to realize Andrea wasn’t speaking or even paying attention to him. When he kept calling out for her, it took another ten minutes before he hung up the phone.

Archer picks up Andrea’s phone and places it on silent so he wouldn’t disturb her.

He threw her phone on the sofa next to them.

He looked down at Andrea in his arms.

Archer picked up his own phone. He dialed a number.

“Sir…” a woman answers softly.

“What are they up to?” he asks.

“Mr. Andrews is in the office trying to get a hold of Mrs. Reed and Miss Green has been trying to call Mr. Andrews so he could sort out the drama. The company has released a statement saying that the two were practicing for a movie Miss Green is interested in acting…”

Archer’s face hardens. “Sort it out. Have the media question the movie angle. I want them pushed into a corner…” he says before hanging up.

So, they plan to get out of this scot-free? In the damn dreams.

They hurt Andrea and he hasn’t made them pay for that yet. He was going to let Andrea play her game, but he was going to make them pay for the pain they’ve caused her.

He remembers the times Tate Andrews used and abused Andrea’s kindness. How he’d used Andrea as a way to get back at him for getting artists he was interested in. Like Andrea was some kind of price.

He wasn’t going to do anything to the man because Andrea loved him, but he was going to get the man back for all the pain he caused Andrea. And for using Andrea. He made her drink herself silly. Andrea hasn’t drunk more than a glass of wine since that incident.

He was going to make the man pay ten times over.

Archer checked the security cameras outside the IC building. It showed Tate leaving.

He sent his assistant a quick text to have a team follow Tate.

"How long was I asleep for?” Andrea asks startling Archer, his features softening as he looks at her.

"Not long…” Archer says softly.

He’d only ever used this tone with Andrea. She was precious to him. He has loved her for as long as he could remember. When she followed him around when they were children. When she would stick her hand out asking for sweets. He’d quickly learnt her favorite candy and would keep at least five in his trouser pocket. How she smiles so sweetly at him when he gave her, her favorite Turkish delight candy. He hated him and would use his own money to buy them for her.

He couldn’t help but smile at the thought of them as kids.

“What are you thinking about?” Andrea asks.

Archer kisses her forehead. “You as a kid missing all your teeth because you’d con me out of my candies…” Archer teases.

Andrea glares at Archer. She pushes off Archer. “That’s not what happened. You gave me those willingly and I didn’t lose all my teeth, I lost two of my front teeth and they grew back.” Andrea denies.

Archer reaches out his hand and grabs a hold of Andrea’s chin. She looked into his eyes, Archer was smiling. “Why lie it’s only the two of us here. You know you conned me…” Archer’s tone was teasing so Andrea knew he was trying to get a rise out of her. but she couldn’t help herself.

"That’s not what happened, and I was five Archer! You gave me those sweets without me even saying a word…” he made her sound like some type of glutton. What if someone heard this, they wouldn’t believe her to be a model watching what she ate.

Archer released her from his grasp and smiled. “Okay, let’s go with what you said, I don’t want to be kicked out of bed…” Archer teases.

Andrea scoffed; this man was infuriating. She sounded like some tyrant. Andrea paused for a second. She realized they sounded exactly how they’ve always been, yet she didn’t want Archer to think of her as a little sister he used to treat her as. Andrea moved closer to Archer, their lips inches apart. “How about dessert?” she whispers.

Archer swallows. “Dessert?” he stutters.

Archer couldn’t take his eyes off her lips.

“Yeah, there’s ice-cream in the freezer…” Andrea says getting up and walking toward the kitchen.

Stunned for a few seconds Archer watches Andrea walking away.

He blinks, he really thought she would kiss him. He really thought she would kiss him… imagining how her lips would feel against his, he can’t think of anything other than heaven.

Archer stands and follows Andrea into the kitchen.

He crosses his arms as he watches her rummaging through the freezer for ice cream. Andrea’s always had a sweet tooth, she rarely ever indulged since she became a model.

Thinking back to the past ten years Andrea’s been through the worst and the last couple of days were heartbreaking for her, yet she didn’t break down, Andrea could never be described as weak.

However, just because she wasn’t weak, it didn’t mean he was going to let the despicable couple walk over his wife. He would never allow those two to drag her down with them. He’ll make sure her plans run smoothly. Making sure she didn’t overwork herself.

Andrea turned and saw Archer was deep in thought behind her. His brows bunched up, his face in a scowl.

She smiled and walked over smoothing his brows. “What’s got you so deep in thought?” she asks.

Archer looks down at Andrea, he slowly smiles. “Just work. I’ve got a busy month ahead…” he says softly.

Not really believing him, Andrea nods anyway. “Come on let’s have our ice-cream before bed…” Andrea says with a smile.

Archer grabs the ice cream from her. “Ice-cream before bed isn’t good for you.” he walks over to the fridge placing the ice-cream back in the freezer…

“Archer!” Andrea scolds.

"Andrea why don’t you eat something else. It’s cold out and eating something so cold you’ll catch a cold..." Archer warns.

She sighs rolling her eyes. She knew he wasn’t going to agree to her eating it. She walks over to the pantry opening it and walking in.

She couldn’t find anything she wanted to eat. There wasn’t much because no one was supposed to be home.

“Come on. There’s nothing here. I’m going to starve to death if I don’t eat the ice-cream Archer…” Andrea whines.

Archer scoffs. Walking into the pantry, finding a chocolate cake, and placing it in her hands.

“Eat this…” he tells her.

“Cake isn’t good for me. It’s going to go and sit on my hips…” she complains.

“And ice-cream won’t?” Archer asks.

Andrea glares at his back.

Archer made his way upstairs ignoring Andrea’s complaints. He enters his old room. When he was a teenager he used to live with the Beckett’s, it wasn’t suitable for Andrea to sleep in the same bedroom as him, but sometimes she’s sneak in and sleep with him when she had a bad dream or she had an argument with whatever boyfriend she had at the time.

Later on, when he was studying, he stayed with them, Andrea was going through a tough time, he’d held her as she slept for almost an entire year.

He couldn’t help but think about how far Andrea’s come.

He walked over to the desk, picking up a picture of him, Andrea, and Damien as a baby. Damien must have been around one at the time. He remembered this day like it was just yesterday, Damien had taken his first steps while he and Andrea were babysitting.

“Oh, I remember this day. I didn’t think you kept this picture…” Andrea says from beside Archer.

Archer looks down at Andrea before nodding. “Damien is like a little brother to me. This was a big day for him. Though he’d be embarrassed by this now. I’d post this picture tagging him just to embarrass him…” Archer teases.

Andrea laughs. “No, you wouldn’t. But would be funny to see him blush.”

Archer places the picture down, he pulls Andrea into his arms and presses his lips onto hers.

Andrea was stunned for a few seconds before regaining her composure. She returned his kiss.

Andrea wrapped her arms around Archer’s neck. Archer pulls away. Looking into Andrea’s eyes, before completely pulling away and rushing off to his ensuite.

Andrea stood stunned in his room.

Her fingers lightly brushed over her lips.

She’d just kissed Archer. She didn’t know how to describe it.

At least it didn’t feel like she was kissing her brother. That’s what she was most afraid of. That marrying Archer was a mistake and that they would have no chemistry. She wouldn’t call their kiss fireworks.

It didn’t work heat down to her core, but it was pleasant.

God, I think that sounds even worse… Andrea thought to herself.

When Tate arrived at Andrea’s parents’ estate, he was told he couldn’t enter because her parents didn’t add him to the list. He called Andrea but she didn’t answer her phone.

He asked the guards to call Andrea, when they tried to call the landline, it wouldn’t connect. So, after waiting for three hours outside the estate Tate had to return home without even seeing Andrea.

He couldn’t sleep a wink, he was worried about Andrea, he wondered if her parents told her to ignore him.

By the next morning, Tate hadn’t gotten any sleep. He took a quick shower and got ready for the day, when he left the apartment, he shared with Andrea Lacy was waiting outside for him.

“What are you doing here?” he asks her. He looked around and making sure no one saw her he dragged her into his car.

“I’ve been calling you all night, but you didn’t answer my calls. I had to come look for you! Why haven’t you done anything?” Lacy asks angrily.

She’d really underestimated Andrea. She knew she must have been behind all of this. That was the only way to explain all of this.

Tate sighed. “I’ve been trying to get a hold of Andrea so she could help us.”

Lacy’s face hardens. “You want Andrea to help? She f*****g caused this and you want her help?” Lacy shouts.

Tate didn’t believe Andrea was behind all of this. If Andrea knew about the affair she would have keyed his car and sent Lacy to the hospital. Andrea was well known for a short temper. Anything could set her off.

“Don’t worry about it. As soon as I contact Andrea, I’ll get her to handle it. All you have to do is stay home and wait…” he says driving to her apartment. He was going to drop her off before heading back to Andrea’s parents’ estate.