“Nope. They know.”
Of course they did.
“Coop and I packed you a bag for you yesterday, so you’d have a change of clothes, but I don’t plan on you needing clothes much until we leave.”
A shiver skated right through me, pumping the little bubbles of elation higher. Once out of the car, the colder air brushed my face, but it felt good since I was overheating.
Inside, we didn’t even have to wait that long to get checked in or the key. Excitement and nerves vied for dominance in my stomach as we took the elevator up. We weren’t talking, but every time our gazes clashed, we both grinned.
All the way to the top.
He got a penthouse room.
It was easy to forget Archie was rich until he did things like this and I had to pinch myself. His money wasn’t what I wanted. Once inside, he set our bag down, and I glanced around the sitting area with its fireplace and rich furniture and sumptuous carpet. It looked more like someone’s fancy apartment than a hotel room. There were French doors leading out to a balcony and another set that opened into a darkened bedroom with a huge king-sized bed in the middle.
“How’s your arm?” he asked as he set the room key, his wallet, and phone down on the coffee table before he stripped off his jacket. His dark hair hung over his forehead, a hint of a wave that softened his face. The clean cut of his jaw would be smooth, he’d probably shaved before he’d picked me up, and his dark brown eyes held so many promises and warmth, it heated me as he walked to the entertainment system.
“It aches,” I admitted. “But I’m almost used to it. So not bad.”
“I hate that you’ve gotten used to it,” he said as he flipped on the sound system, then reached over and dimmed the lights. “But I’m glad it’s not bad. Would you dance with me?”
We hadn’t danced since Homecoming. While he didn’t say a word about it, it was written all over his face. This was what I’d been struggling with verbalizing. What happened to me didn’t just happen to me. It happened to them, too. I couldn’t remember, and that gap in my memory sucked. But they remembered all too well, and it colored how they interacted and handled me.
Sometimes they were so careful, it made me want to scream, and at others…at others, it squeezed my heart so tight, I didn’t think I’d ever be able to get over it.
Sliding off my shoes, I met him halfway, and he braced my cast against his shoulder as I slid my left hand against his nape. The slow song barely registered, just the fact that I was dancing with Archie, slowly swaying to the music.
I don’t know how long we danced, but the songs kept playing and we kept moving. We just let it all fall away. Eventually, we shed the clothes, and he was right, I didn’t need them until the next morning.
With my arm in a cast, some of our options were limited, but he made the most of all of them. Sprawled next to him, my arm propped on a pillow while he lay on his side drawing patterns over my skin with his finger, I studied him.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he said. “Everything is great.”
“Then why do you look worried?”
“’Cause I don’t want to get too comfortable. It’s usually when things are at their best that everything goes horribly wrong.”
“Hey,” I murmured, cupping his cheek. “Even if it does go wrong, we’ll deal with it. All of us.”
A smile lifted one side of his mouth. “You’re the best, you know that?”
“Someone keeps telling me that,” I whispered, and he buried his face against my throat, wrapping an arm around me. When he slid his leg over mine, it was like having an Archie blanket. “Someone I love, too.”
He went very still.
I licked my lips as my heart hammered. It had been hard to say that. At his continued silence, apprehension fisted in my chest. “I don’t…”
“Shh,” he said, jerking his head up. “It’s okay. I just needed a moment to process that without getting up and making a fool out of myself by rushing buck-ass naked out to the balcony and shouting that you love me.”
I cracked up at the image. “You wouldn’t…”
I didn’t even get to finish the thought. He rolled off the bed and charged out to the living room and then to the doors.
“Archie…”
They opened before I made it to the bedroom door, and he walked out there and put his hands to the side of his mouth. “Frankie Curtis loves me!”