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ARCHER
Silky soft brown hair tickles my jaw and gets caught between the bristles of my stubble. Her lips, bow-shaped and fuller than the other women I know, curve up as I lean in closer. I don’t touch my tongue to her flesh. My lips don’t make contact. But my jaw slides over her neck, and the coarse hairs I never truly shave away bring goosebumps to her delicate skin.
Her name is Tora, and she’s a piss-poor replacement for another.
“Detective Malone.” She purrs my name like she thinks it turns me on, and when it’s Fletch’s turn at the pool table, she wraps her arms over my shoulders and cinches me in closer. She’s a boa constrictor, squeezing, squeezing, squeezing, and fuck me, but I wish she was someone else.
What the hell is wrong with me?
“Incoming, Arch.”
Fletch’s serious voice drags my eyes up and over until they stop at the front entrance to the bar. Tora’s hand slides down to cup my cock, firm enough to get a lot of men over the line, but it’s not until the delicious Minka steps through the door that my dick turns hard.
Her hair is windswept, her nipples peaked beneath her shirt as she drags her coat off at the door. Her lips carry an odd shade of blue; not to say she’s dying or frozen, but maybe she’s afflicted by the cold more than others.
Maybe our climate isn’t the kind she’s used to.
Maybe I’d like to head on over there and warm her up myself.
Tora takes my stiff cock as positive feedback for her actions and hums under her breath in appreciation, but it’s Minka’s eyes I search for. It’s her stare I hunger for.
It’s her disapproving glower that makes my chest hollow and my dick twitch.
When her gaze shoots across the room and stops on mine, my every wish is fulfilled. It’s like she knew exactly where to find me, knew the exact square foot of space I’d be standing in, and when a deep, judgmental line forms between her eyes, my lips quirk into a grin I had no intention of revealing.
Though when her eyes drop to my lips, I can’t say I’m mad about it.
Minka’s fiery gaze searches my face for a moment, categorizing all the ways she hates me, plotting all the ways she wishes to hurt me. But then she zeroes in on Tora’s almost bare back and stops. Because the woman cuddling into my chest wears a top that is a bikini string at best. A short skirt. A hell of a lot of ink along her left ribs, and when she pulls back, the barbells in her nipples become noticeable through the fabric of her top.
Tora Rhoades is most men’s filthy fantasy. But it’s the uptight Doctor Mayet that makes my blood run warmer.
“You okay over there, Arch?”
Fletcher’s playful voice invades my psyche and beckons me to look away from the sexy doctor.
“I’m just thinking…” Because I don’t look his way, Fletch stops by my side, his hands wrapped around a pool cue and his eyes directed straight over Tora’s head to stare back at Minka. “Because it feels to me like maybe she’s murdering you with a look. And as your best friend, it’s my duty—nay,” he dramatically points toward the sky, “myprivilegeto make sure you’re okay.”
“Shut up.”
I allow my head to tilt to the left. My way, I suppose, of changing the angle I see a person from and opening up new features I might not have noticed before. Like the cute little heart tattoo in tiny line-work tucked behind Minka’s ear. I never noticed it in my apartment, and I never noticed it at the George Stanley earlier today. But I see it now, somehow highlighted in a dim bar and from twenty feet away.
“Archer Malone?” Fletch bumps my shoulder with his. “You’re playing a dangerous game, bro.”
“I should meet with her to discuss the case.”
“The case?” Snorting, he shakes his head. “Thecase? You don’t even know which, you just wanna discussanycase.”
“It’s my job.”
Pulling back, I take Tora’s hands from my jeans and cross them in front of her body. Her eyes are a similar shade to Minka’s. A similar shape. But not the same.
Not even close.
“I’ve gotta go.”
She glances over her shoulder to a still-staring Minka, then back to me with lips plumped and pursed enough to express her disapproval. “Just work, right? You’ll come back in a minute?”
“No.”
