Marked

eight-2

“I don’t hook up with hos,” he said, combing his fingers into her hair.

“For a guy who should be groveling, you’re slinging a lot of insults at me.”

“My woman’s not a whore.”

“So we’re back on?” she asked. “All the way? What changed?”

“Everything,” he said. “I don’t know.”

“Fella, don’t let this be one of the times that you keep things from me. I don’t want to just forget the last forty-four days. I want to learn from them.”

“What did you learn?” he asked.

She almost didn’t know where to begin. Nya had learned so much about herself, about Archer, and Tag, about what she wanted from life and what she didn’t. “I learned that psychopaths look just like everyone else.”

His fixation on his hand in her hair switched to her face. “Now who’s slinging insults?”

Smiling, she was happy to be so chilled with him again. “I’m not talking about you,” she said, sliding her thigh higher between his. “Derren said that Woodrow was going to hurt your mom.”

But he wasn’t worried. “We’d never have let that happen. We were keeping an eye on the guy.”

“You sent me to dinner with him and you knew he was dangerous? Maybe there’s a lesson in there for me to learn. Don’t trust the ex-boyfriend who’s trying to get rid of you.”

“I was never trying to get rid of you,” he said, going back to his observation of her locks fluttering through his fingers.

“Really? ‘Cause it seemed that way when you were telling Levi how easy I am.”

“Hmm,” he exhaled a laugh that came with an almost Elvis lip curl, disgust and anger made him squeeze one arm so tight around her waist, she couldn’t breathe for five seconds. “You want to start with that? What the f**k was that?”

“Enough to bring you to your senses,” she said, running her tongue along his lower lip. “The guy came to my door.”

“If guys come to your door and tell you to go places with them, the first door you come to is mine,” he said. “Soon as I open it, you tell me they’re taking liberties and I’ll show him what his insides look like.”

“He wasn’t taking liberties. I met him by accident on the stairs before you came back from Vegas. We spoke for two minutes. Next time I saw him, he was at my door asking to be introduced around. I thought maybe if he got to know people, I wouldn’t be as interesting anymore.”

His hand slid from her hair down her shoulder to cup her breast. “These babies are always interesting,” he said. “That guy didn’t want to know the neighbors, he wanted to get his hands on these.”

Picking up his hand from her breast, she put it back into her hair. “I tried to tell him not to come near your door. I was never trying to sleep with him.”

“Then what was tonight? I walked up those stairs and saw you making out on your doorstep with the guy I threatened to kill if he touched you.”

“He didn’t kiss me. I didn’t lie when I said nothing happened. I was coming in from the club. Tag called, that’s when I left you that voicemail. When Levi came out of his place and offered to take me for a drink, I thought it was the least I could do after what happened on your doorstep. I figured it didn’t matter anyway. I hadn’t seen you since the hallway incident and I was making plans to leave town. I told him straight out that I wasn’t interested in dating him.”

“I heard you. I’m not sure I processed it when all I could see was some guy crowding you against your door.”

“So you thought it was okay to come and murder him?” she asked. “My floor is the nice one in this building. Folks on this floor don’t go around slashing people.”

“I could’ve dragged him up a floor, if it would’ve made you happy,” Archer said. “The guy hits the gym, but he’s from a nice family. He doesn’t know how to fight dirty.”

“And that’s your specialty, I suppose?”

“I can fight clean,” Archer said. “But I wouldn’t if I was protecting you.”

There was something romantic about how far he was willing to go for her. “You didn’t tell me what you learned,” she said. “You were so damn sure that you didn’t want to be with me. But this week’s been different, since you got back from Vegas—”

“I was meeting a guy there,” he said. “I have a couple of contacts I needed to check in with and we went out to this club, a strip club.” Drumming his fingers down her spine, he sent a ticklish flurry through her. Nya snuggled closer to his chest in her body’s attempt to resist the stimulation. He stopped tickling to cup her a*s and pull her close. “So we’re at this club, and we’re talking, and we’re right there by the stage. Up close to the flesh, you know?”

“I don’t think I like this story,” she said, but was intrigued about where it was going.

He didn’t reassure her, just brushed his lips on her as he talked. “One of the guys goes to get more drinks. And I’m sitting there staring into my glass thinking, maybe I overreacted, maybe I was out of line. Maybe Nya was right that I shouldn’t have hit Tag so hard when he was f****d out of his brain. Thinking I should call you and thinking you won’t pick up. Thinking I don’t want to call and get your voicemail ‘cause that makes me f*****g mad, and I’m too far away to jump in my car and come to your door.”

In the past when he’d shared information with her, it tended to be facts about other people or details about himself that were physical, tangible. He didn’t often confess to what was going through his mind.

“I might have picked up.”

“It doesn’t matter now,” he said, kissing her forehead, coming out of the daze he’d slipped into. “I was thinking all that and I realized there were three n***d women on the stage. Hot, f*****g, sexy women. Two redheads were making out and fingering each other and the guys in the club were going nuts.”

Okay, that wasn’t like any strip club she’d ever worked in, but Nya knew those kind of s*x clubs existed. “Nice place,” she muttered. In Vegas, there were all kinds of clubs, and those off the beaten track, where Archer would probably meet contacts, were likely to be even more risqué than the mainstream places.

“But me, Ny,” he said, making eye contact. “I was bored out of my f*****g mind. I didn’t see the t**s and the a*s—and those women were s*x on f*****g legs. I didn’t give a s**t about any of it. All I kept thinking about was how I’d pissed you off. And that word you used, ‘distance’. f*****g distance.” He spat the word like it repulsed him. “You know how to cut a guy.”

“I was going out of my mind, Arch. Every time I saw you, I wanted it to be like it was. I wanted you to want me again like you had.”

“I never stopped wanting you. I didn’t end it because I stopped loving you.”

“You did it to protect me,” she said.

Giving her a*s a squeeze, he grazed his palm over her thigh, and up to her hip. Then taking her elbow, he raised her arm higher to hook it around the back of his neck. “When I came home and Ester said you’d taken a beating because once again you wouldn’t tell a cocksucker where I was… you knew where I f*****g was…”

“What difference would it have made if I’d told him? By the time he got on a plane to chase you, you’d have been on the way back.”

“Which would’ve bought time,” he said. “And Jonno was never getting on a plane; he’d have waited for me. But somebody put their hands on you in anger because my scrappy little Squirm thinks she’s a f*****g giant when she’s standing in front of me.”

He could mock in that passive aggressive way all he wanted, she wouldn’t apologize. “I told you before, I won’t make you any promises about not doing that again. Look at me, Arch, the bruises are fading. It wasn’t even that big a deal.”

“It’s a huge deal,” he said, pulling her closer still. “Ester told me what you said about Damien.”

Nya wriggled, the discomfort making her face fall to his chest. “I guess I didn’t tell her not to.”

“No one should put their hands on you in anger, Ny. I’m sorry that what I do hurts you.”

Her head snapped back and her frown landed on him. “You don’t hurt me. You could never do it. I can watch you work. Tonight, I stood there in that hall, and when I saw you go for your knife, I ran toward it. I got in front of it. I took your blade to my throat, Arch, because you could never hurt me.”

He kissed her slow, massaging her lips with his own for a long time before his tongue probed forward, seeking entry to her mouth. Nya granted him access and allowed her body to be pulled on top of his when he moved onto his back.

For the longest time, they made out without expectation of anything more. He began to kiss down her throat and she knew neither of them would be getting any sleep tonight. “You know something that’s funny?” she asked, brushing her lips over his before she sat up to straddle his belly so she could stroke his chest.

“What’s funny?” he asked, taking his own opportunity to caress her arms, her shoulders, her breasts, her stomach.

“You spit out the word ‘cocksucker’ like it’s an insult.” She smiled. “I like sucking your c**k; I wouldn’t be insulted if you called me that.”

He laughed and pulled her down to kiss her again. “Geez, Nya, how the f**k did I walk away from you?”

That was a question that hadn’t been fully addressed. Archer tossed her onto her back to tease and taste his way down her body. l*****g a n****e, he hummed. “I’ve missed my Cheerios,” he muttered.

Excitement made her almost drum her hands and feet on the mattress, instead, she grinned. “I’ll give you all the time you need to work through the backlog.”

“I’ll make up for every time I missed,” he said, just as he licked her c**t.

Their responsibilities would probably be ignored for the next week or two if she had her way anyway. Ideas for the club could be put on hold and she’d have to talk to Archer about renovations, and Tag—

“Tag!” she exclaimed aloud and her eyes opened.

Archer’s head rose until his chin was level with her bent knee. “What the f**k?”

She sat up. Closing her knees around his ribs, Nya took his face to kiss his lips. “No,” she laughed. “Did you get my message? Did you call him?”

“Just like old times,” he said, but kissed her. “No, I didn’t call him. The fucker can wait. I know what he wants. Gio’s coming back into town.”

“Did you find out about the fifty grand?” she asked.

His eyes narrowed. “Do you want to talk about your buddy’s buddy, or do you want me to eat your p***y?” Stroking his fingers over her c**t, Archer sent a zap of excitement north through her belly.

Hooking her arms around his neck to kiss him with all the love she’d saved over the last forty-four days, she said, “I guess it can wait.”

Nya had her man back and there wasn’t a feeling that could match it. This was the kind of kiss that she wanted to hold onto forever, but Archer pulled back. “That’s not your pussy.”

“You’re eager. Have you missed it?”

“Eating you out? Damn right. Some nights I thought about waiting ‘til you were asleep and sneaking down here. I thought I might crawl up under the covers and have me a midnight snack while you slept. I could just let you think it was some wet dream and you’d be too embarrassed to tell me so I’d never have to lie to you about it.”

That idea was hot. Hot enough to make her shiver as her whole body blushed. “I’ve never been embarrassed to tell you about s*x stuff,” she said. “And if you ever feel like snacking on me, any minute of the day, you’re welcome to.”

“I like that,” he murmured and kissed her again. He pressed her shoulders, putting her on her back so he could hook her thighs.

Instead of her c**t, he went for her opening and suckled it. Dipping his tongue into her, Archer made her moan. Her whining made vibrations rumble in her throat, then another type of vibration rattled against the floor.

The distinct sound of his phone shattered their intimacy.