“You gave me so much grief over the vigilante stuff, Archer! You were ready to break us and toss what we had in the trash. But you still have this double life.”
“I don’t have a double life.” He says this, not defensively, but as though I’m a silly child he’s trying to explain something obvious to. “I come from a seedy world. I was a kid when I left, and I needed a safety net.”
“These passports were issued when you were twenty-five years old,” I growl in response. “They are not the fake shit a teen would acquire.”
“No, but that teen acquired other fake shit. Then about ten years later, when it was all gonna expire, he acquired some more just to make sure his options were open. And guess what? A few years from now, I’m gonna replace them again. I’ll contact,” he opens the book, “Maria. She’ll get me new documents. I’ll toss them into this bag you’ve pawed through, and just for shits and giggles, I’ll have her make you documents too. Because you’re my fucking wife now, and there’s no chance I’m leaving this country without you.Noneof this,” he tosses the book into the bag and grabs my arm instead, “none of it means I’m active in any-fucking-thing. But I’m prepared. I’m able to pivot and keep myself alive if a threat comes too close. But let’s talk about how you went snooping through my shit.”
“I wasn’t snooping! I was at your apartment collecting your slutty cat and getting you fresh clothes to wear, since you’re in my apartment a lot now and I wanted you to be comfortable. I grabbed a bag from your closet, opened it up to put jeans inside, andope, there’s Jenny with the dick-sucking lips.”
“Jenny with the lace thong,” he sniggers. “Not to be confused with Jenna, whose lips…” he considers for a moment, and for everysecondhe dedicates to the job, my temper burns hotter. “Whose lips have never been near, on, or around my dick.” Glancing down his body and smirking that way he does, he adds, “but yours have. I’m kinda hot and bothered thinking about it.”
“Zero chance.” I slip from between him and the counter, then I charge toward the hall. “Not today, Malone. Not this fucking week. Not ever. But maybe give Loose Lucy a call. She sounds fun.”
Archer barks out a taunting laugh. “Jealousy makes you so fucking hot, Mayet.”
I stalk into my bedroom and kick off my shoes. It’s the afternoon, and I’m not leaving again anytime soon.
“Mayet?”
“Fuck you!” I shuck my coat off and toss it to the bed. “And fuck Jenna too.”
“No thanks.”
Like mist at dawn, Archer’s steps are silent, but his hand on my hip, his cock at my back and his breath on my neck… each touch, each sensation, sends bolts of electricity to my fingertips.
“I have never, nor will I ever, fuck Jenna.” He presses a biting kiss to the side of my neck. “It’s bad manners to mix business and pleasure. But you?” Sliding his hand down,downto my core, he cups my pussy and brings my lungs to a standstill. “It’s truly toxic of me, but your jealousy makes me so fucking hot.”
“I won’t share.” I don’t fight his touch. I don’t try to escape. I’m already wet, and he knows how to make me melt. “I will never share you, Archer. So if you want to keep a little black book with other women’s names and sexual prowess, we’re gonna have a problem.”
Nudging my hair aside, he drags his stubbled chin along the back of my neck until goosebumps race all the way to my legs. “Will you break up with me?”
“No.” My throat is dry. My stomach hollow. “I’ll burn the book. Then I’ll make you eat it for dinner.”
He brings his one good arm up and pinches my chin between his thumb and forefinger. Twisting my head, he angles around and takes my lips with his own. His tongue comes out to seduce and his cock presses, demanding, against my back.
“I’m a one-woman kinda guy, Minka. Always have been, and now I’ve got you…” Stepping back, he gives me just enough space to turn until our chests touch. “I’m in this for life. Me and you. No sharing, no pauses, and no fucking way we sleep anywhere but with each other.” Then he sets his hand on my shoulder and pushes down. “Now suck my cock.”
“What?” Like ice water dumped on my head, Archer’s brazen demand tugs me back to reality. “No!” I slip away, but I laugh now too. “Suck your own cock.”
“But I can’t!” He snags my wrist and attempts to tug me back. “Minka, my arm is sore, babe. I need your help.”
“I did help.” I saunter to the doorway and glance back. “I packed you fresh clothes and moved your stupid cat. For my troubles, I learned about Jenna and Sienna and Sailor-fucking-Moon. And Chloe plotted my death. Oh! And I had a family reunion with my brother-in-law. He’s still a douchebag, by the way.”
I step into the bathroom and flip the shower on. My underwear are sticky because my husband talks filth, and my day of dealing with stupidity is officially coming to an end.
Hopefully.
Unbuttoning my blouse, I shake my head when he follows me in and stops on the threshold. “Felix is like a mongrel dog that just won’t go away, Archer. We know he’s dangerous. We know he’s harmed others during his life on the street. But he thinks it’s cute when he acts all flirty and goofy and shit.”
I toss my top to the floor and unsnap the button on my pants. “He’s dangerous. A killer. And he’s trying to lure you and Tim back to a life you swear you’re not a part of—despite,” I shuck my pants down and glance back to find Archer’s eyes plastered on my ass, “the passports and guns and money you keep so handily within reach.”
“You think I’m going back to my father?” Dragging his eyes from me, Archer reaches up and tugs the sling undone so his arm drops. His eyes burn with pain he wasn’t prepared for. But shaking it off, he tosses the sling aside, and goes to work on his shirt, one slow button at a time, while I kick my underwear down and flick them aside. “You think I risked everything to leave New York, to join the force, to become a better man…” he grunts as he flicks a button open.
I could help, I suppose. But I don’t. I leave him to it and step into the shower.
“You think I’ve been gone all this time, taken all those risks, walked away with blood in my piss and a body black and blue from a beating, and now that I finally have you, I’m gonna flip the script and go back to my father’s bullshit?”
“Maybe not your father’s,” I shrug. “He’s dying, isn’t he?”