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“Will you stop staring at him like that, Sir?” Archie crawled out from under the covers and left the bed, naked as the day he was born, and reached for his clothes.
Greer didn’t respond to that, exactly. “You wanna know one of the reasons we’re not engaging in heavier play with him?” He addressed Archie and acted like I wasn’t in the room. “It’s written across his face. He’s scared.”
Wait, what?
Archie tilted his head at me, confused, and I sat up and smoothed down my bed head, pretty confused myself.
“I’m not scared.” I frowned. “I was just worried I’d caused a problem.”
“Same thing, pet.” Greer totally dismissed what I’d said.
“No, it’s not,” I argued. “There’s a big difference between fretting about being in the way and worrying I’ve caused an issue for people I don’t want to hurt.”
It was comical how Greer and Sloan adopted the same look, with wrinkled foreheads and furrowed brows.
“It’s not because I’m scared!” I exclaimed. “It’s because I care!”
Some tension left Sloan’s shoulders, but Greer didn’t get it—or he wasn’t satisfied with the response.
“Let’s give them a moment, baby.” Sloan tugged on Greer’s hand. “They haven’t done anything wrong.”
Phew.
“Don’t mean it’s right either,” Greer muttered as they walked out. “He’s too fragile. Archie should see that.”
I stuck out my tongue, even though they were halfway to the living room by now.
I hated being treated like I was made of glass.
“He’ll come around.” It wasn’t the first time Archie had said that. With his pajama bottoms and tee back on his body, he leaned over and gave me a quick kiss on my cheek. “I stopped holding back this morning because I decided you’re worth it.” He gripped my chin gently, and I got stuck in his gaze. “When the dust settles from your imminent breakup, if your feelings carry you in a direction away from us, it’s still worth it to have you here and now. You’re amazing, Corey.” He kissed me again, on the lips this time.
I exhaled.
“We can’t walk around worrying about fallouts all the time,” he murmured. “There’s always a risk of things ending badly, isn’t there?”
He was right. And I needed his words of comfort more than I’d realized. “If we discover down the line that we don’t want more with each other, we can still be friends, right?”
“Of course.” He smiled softly and stroked my cheek. “I’m not pretending to know the future. I’m only saying I’m certain I want to explore whatever this could be. I want to play with you. I want to get to know you. I want to have fun.”
I grinned. I wanted that too.
“More than that, I believe you can handle it,” he said. “I get why Greer and Sloan are on the fence. They see it as their responsibility to protect you—but I think you’re strong enough to know who you want to play with.”
Well, yeah, of course I did. Marcus may have screwed me up in some ways, but I wasn’t lying on the floor bawling my eyes out, not knowing what was up and down. There was a giant leap between love and attraction. Love and chemistry. Love and fun.
“Thank you for seeing that.” I felt weirdly shy, but I had to say it. It felt good to know he had faith in me. “But from now on, I’ll back off where those two are concerned. Except for the nonsexual thing with Sloan, cuz I really wanna be little today after the munch.”
Archie grinned faintly and straightened up. “That’s good. That’s how you’ll break Sloan’s resolve.”
I giggled. He was being silly. He couldn’t honestly be serious about us seducing them together. He must’ve said that in the heat of the moment.
I felt like a traitor half an hour later when Archie and I packed a bajillion aftercare kits that had the wrong name printed all over.
Mclean House, Mclean House, Mclean House.
Blah!
Greer had put Archie on speech restrictions, and he had to kneel by the coffee table in the living room where we prepared the kits, so it was a quiet affair. Greer and Sloan were taking it easy on the porch. It looked frigid out there whenever I glanced out the window; I saw their breath misting in the air.
Archie worked fast, with grace and practiced ease. One bookmark, one key ring, one compressed towel, one little bag of tiny chocolates, one container of aftercare balm… And there were mints! Heart-shaped little mints!
Rinse and repeat. Everything went into a toiletry case that, of course, also had Mclean House printed on it.
“I’m guessing this is some high-protocol stuff,” I said, side-eyeing him.
No response. Not even a twitch in his expression. It was as if he was in a trance.
“Can I say funny stuff to make you laugh?” I asked curiously.
I popped a mint into my mouth because I couldn’t help myself. They were so tasty.
