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“Archer!”
“You don’t like them, babe.” Sprawling back, he drops one arm behind his head to create a pillow, but he leaves his other hand in my lap. Dangerously close to my core. “You made your wishes clear. So here I am, respecting them.”
“Lies! Youneverrespect my wishes. Give me my surprise.”
He chuckles, which makes us both bounce. “My wife has become a spoiled brat, it seems. Have you reconsidered the diamond prohibition, too?”
“I’ll wear this one.” I look down at the glittering jewel nestled on my finger. “No more.”
“But you want your surprise? Even after you said no?”
“You’re being a pain in my ass.” I place my fist over his navel and make my threat obvious. “Ready to fess up yet?”
“Ready to go back to civilization?” Sighing, he grabs my hand and holds it, like it’s a treasure, and not something I would have hit him with. “Two more days, then this is all over. Back to work. Back to Cato and Felix and Aubs.”
“I miss them.” I never expected to be that person. To move to Copeland City after a life of being a recluse and create a family out of grown misfits. The sister I gained in Aubree, though I never once in my life considered wanting one of those. To the brothers I now get to call mine, all because of Archer. These men, all of them living a life of crime, but their hearts are gold.Their intentions,mostly, pure. I miss Fletch and his easy humor, and of course, I miss Moo, the cutest little four-year-old I ever knew. “I can’t believe I’m admitting this,” I exhale, my eyes widening with how, well, silly I feel. “But I miss Fifi, too. And she’s not even nice to me.”
He barks out a laugh, his hot breath hitting my partially exposed chest. “That’s kind of how all the rest of us think about you. You’re not very nice, Chief. But our lives are better for having you in it.”
“I’m not sad we’re all the way out here.” I glance over my shoulder at the ocean. We’re a long way from the islands, way too far to swim safely. “You’ve brought me to paradise, Archer. I’ll always appreciate that.”
His eyes, green like emeralds, flicker and search mine as I come back around. “But?”
“But I’m a little sad we don’t get to spend our special day with those people. They’ve been with us through it all, ya know? Fletch and Aubs, especially. They’ve been part ofthissince day one. It seems a shame they can’t be in paradise, too.”
“They were at our first wedding.” He massages my thigh, his broad hand wrapping around the muscle easily, making me feel small in all the best ways. “They got to stand up for us that first time.”
“That first time was aI’m walking into the courthouse—join me if you wantkind of wedding,” I drawl. “Plus, Felix, Cato, and Micah didn’t get to go to that. Neither did Fifi.”
“YouwantFelix here? You’re actively welcoming him into your life?”
“Well…” I know warmth fills my cheeks. It’s so dumb, really. So silly. “I don’t hate him nearly as much as I say I do.”
“You’ve gone soft.” Grabbing me with fast hands, he drags me forward and wraps his arms around my torso. “The Ice Queen who loves no one, loves Felix Malone.”
“Hang on.” I push back and meet his eyes. “I didn’t say love. I said I didn’t hate him. There’s a vast distance between those two points.”
“How vast?” Archer’s eyes flicker over my shoulder. Just for a moment. A single beat, before bringing them back to me. “Like, from here to Jamaica, or…?”
“What?”
Thewhomp-whomp-whompof a helicopter’s blades slices through the air and brings me up to sit tall on his lap. Then I twist and search for the sound. For the maker of the noise that dares interrupt my honeymoon.
“You gave me so much shit about the helipad, Mayet, and you didn’t even stop to ask where the helicopter was?”
“Wait… what?” I swing back around. “Stop it.”
“Stop what?” Lifting me off his lap, he places me on my feet and groans as he pulls himself up, too. Throwing his arm over my shoulder and cinching me in until I’m securely under, he points toward the black dot whirring closer. “You asked for this, okay? When he’s annoying the shit out of you, and ruins your wedding day, sexually harasses you, and you’re getting pissy about it, I want you to remember you asked for this.”
“Felix is coming?” I bounce. I don’t bounce! I’m not a bouncer! And yet, irrational excitement makes me act out of character. “Felix is coming to our wedding!?”
“And Christabelle too, I assume.” He presses a noisy kiss to my temple. “I doubt he’s left her behind so soon. Malones are known to get a little obsessive about the women they fall in love with, so…”
“Felix is coming to my wedding!” I spin out of his arm and jump over the lounger that no longer holds a relaxing appeal for me. I whir in the direction of the stairs that lead to the helipad, but the breeze whipping along my legs reminds me I have no pants on. “Archer!”
“Here.” Chuckling, as the helicopter flutters closer, closer, making it difficult to hear, he tosses my shorts so they smack the center of my chest. “Put them on or risk Felix’s incessant bullshit.”
“He’s in a committed relationship now!” And yet, I step into the denim, one foot wrapped in a delicate chain that glitters in the afternoon sun, then the other. “He’s gonna be like a nice, normal, respectable human now, right?”
