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“Whether I’m attracted to you or not does not discount your harassment.”
“Except you want to take back the bit about saying no to my offer.”
Reaching around me, he sets his beer on the bar and instead takes the fork Tim set down with my food. Stabbing it into a thick sweet potato fry, he brings it to my lips and taps oh so gently. “Eat. Collect your wits. Then maybe you’ll reconsider.”
“And your offer…” I snatch the fork from his hand and eat the fry, because I’m starving, and the scent of deep-fried food has already registered in my brain. “Your offer,” I repeat, “is dirty, nasty, syphilis-free sex that lasts five minutes?”
“It can last as long as you want, but I thought I’d appeal to your practical side and take up only a few minutes of your time. If you wanna wait out this storm with me, though, I could accommodate. I have enough rubbers to get us through.”
Screwing up my nose, I ask, “I wonder if you think being crude is appealing to women.”
“It’s appealing to your most basic senses.” He reaches around me again and takes a fry for himself. “Society wants romance and flowers and all that bullshit. But deep inside your busy heart, you know you’re tempted by what I’m suggesting. If you weren’t, you’d have already lifted your knee and crushed my nuts.”
“Still a valid option.” I turn my torso and grab my burger, because I’m desperate, and damn him, but my thighs tremble in response to his words. “What if I call the cops and report sexual harassment?”
“Go ahead.” He nods toward the pool tables, where a crowd of men loiter. “There’re a bunch of cops over there. We’re only a couple blocks from the station, so this bar long ago became a hangout for them. It keeps the crime away and the assholes out.”
Bodes well for my new apartment, I suppose. Not so well for the man who is yet to take no for an answer.
“Cops keep the crime and assholes out of here, and yet, you somehow slipped past their guard?”
He shrugs and pushes my burger-holding hand up toward my face, forcing me to take another bite. “Some of us blend in better than others.” He slides his hand from my shoulder, down to my ribs. “Wanna fuck yet?”
“No.” But damn, damn, damn him, becauseyes. “This isn’t how you pick up women.”
“Isn’t it?”
He drops his hands to my knees and pries them apart with barely more than a touch. I gasp at how easily I open for him, then I hold my breath when he steps between my legs, and his muscled chest leans closer.
“Because you’re still here,” he murmurs. “And, correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m touching you more now than I have at any other point tonight.”
“Sexual harassment.”
He buries his nose against my throat and takes a long, noisy sniff until goosebumps sprint to my toes. “Just sex. No harassment. Your name is Minka?”
“Yours is Arch?”
“Archer. Yours is… Czech?”
“Polish.” I take another bite of my burger and work hard not to drip oil on Archer’s shoulder. This might be the least romantic almost-sex I’ve ever had in my life. And yet… “Where are you from?”
“East coast. A half-dozen generations back. You’re a Yank?”
“How could you tell?”
“Apart from the accent that says…” He pulls back and studies my eyes. “Brooklyn—but cleaner. Sophisticated schooling, maybe.”
Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, I correct in my mind.
“I saw you at the airport,” he continues. “Remember? You arrived with the JFK crowd.”
“And you’renotstalking me?” My heart kicks in my chest as Archer slides the tips of his fingers along my thigh.Too close. Way too close.“You know where I flew in from?”
“I was there to collect someone else who just so happened to be on the same flight. I saw you disembark and thought you were the sexiest woman in the whole airport. Few minutes later, you got in my way and gave me a close-up view.” He drags his bottom lip between his teeth. “Couldn’t help but notice you got off the plane with a suitcase. But you left the restroom empty-handed.”
“It was stolen while I was peeing.”
Frowning now, he dips his chin and comes closer. “Did you report it to the cops?”
