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As if he could sense someone’s eyes on him, Archer turned to look down the hall, and when he spotted me, the words he was speaking came to a halt. A wave of pleasure spread through me at the obvious effect I had on him, but when he gave a clipped shake of his head, that pleasure turned back to confusion—and a healthy dose of irritation.
The doors at the end of the hall were pushed open again, and several more people entered carrying containers of decorations. As Archer stepped aside and they moved past him, I started up the hall.
Archer’s gaze never left me as I continued in his direction, and when he said something into his phone and ended the call, a shout of triumph echoed inside my head. That was soon squashed, though, when he frowned and pocketed the cell.
He marched toward me, meeting me halfway, and when we were finally standing opposite one another, he said under his breath, “What are you doing, Preston? You need to go back out to your friends.”
I glanced over his shoulder to make sure no one was coming in from outside and, when the coast was clear, peered up at Archer’s troubled face.
“What, I don’t even get a hello today?”
Archer took in a breath as though searching for patience, then let it out and said, “Hello. Now, can you please go back out to your friends?”
“Seriously? That’s all you’re going to say to me?” I wondered where the sexy, easygoing man from the other morning had gone, because he sure as hell wasn’t in front of me right now.
“That’s all Icansay to you.” Archer looked over my shoulder, clearly checking to see no one had followed me into the hall. “There’s too many eyes here. Too many people who could see.”
“And what would they see? You talking to me? Maybe sparing me a fucking smile.”
Archer’s eyes flicked back to mine. “Excuse me?”
Maybe I shouldn’t have said it like that, but…I was annoyed. I’d just spent literally the best night of my life with this man, and the first time I’d seen him since then, he was all but ignoring me.
“I said?—”
“Iknowwhat you said.” Archer’s jaw twitched as he glanced around, and when it appeared we were alone, he grabbed my elbow and hurried me toward a—“Get in there.”—storage closet.
My pulse raced as I stepped inside the small, dimly lit room, and Archer followed. I’d pushed too hard, I knew that, but would it have killed him to acknowledge me?
Archer still had a firm hold of my elbow as he spun me around to face him. Our toes bumped up against one another, and then he grabbed my chin with his other hand and angled my face up to his.
“I didn’t smile at you out there because I can’t look at you and not want you.” He lowered his head until I could feel his warm breath ghosting over my lips. “And God, I fucking want you.”
Hell yes.That was exactly what I’d wanted to hear—that he didn’t regret me, us, what had happened. He just didn’t trust himself to be near me. My cock stiffened, my entire body reacting as though he’d just stroked me—and in a way, he had. Just not with his hand.
“Then take me.”
“Preston… We can’t.”
“Then something else, anything,” I begged, not even caring how desperate I might sound. I wanted him and he wanted me, and there was nothing I wouldn’t do to solidify that before I left this closet.
“Anything?” Archer nipped at my lower lip, and a rush of air left me.
“Anything.”
He raised his head and swiped his thumb along my lower lip.
“Get on your knees.”
NINETEEN
archer
I SHOULD’VE KNOWN I wouldn’t be able to resist temptation. Not when temptation came in the form of someone as irresistible and goddamn sexy as Preston Abernathy.
Even a building full of people who could find out in a heartbeat didn’t stop me from yanking him inside a storage closet to continue the conversation he was so keen to have out in the open. But the minute the door shut, locking us into the cramped space, I no longer felt the need for words.
Except for four:
