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I mentally thank her and when I peek over at her, she gives me a wink. Hmm. So she’s on to me.
“I think he’s on his way,” Garrett says. “He messaged in the group chat a bit ago saying he was dealing with some things.”
I ignore the pang of jealousy that he never messaged me. As a matter of fact, he hasn’t texted me all day.
We were close to finishing the hiring process. I believed it was another week of work and then we’d present our presentations. So I only had one more week with him. Would he be glad he was done with me?
Acid swirls in my stomach at the up and down of my feelings. I wish I had answers.
We head into the living room, everyone carrying a side dish. We rarely ever did dinner when it was game night, but my brother loved to set up food for everyone to taste. Usually different recipes and things he was trying.
He made our mother proud.
We set our food dishes on the coffee table and someone picks Cards Against Humanity. We all drink and play and eat, laughing at the antics of April and Derek, the two characters of the group. I get a chance to have a nice conversation with Mike who was new to the group and the loft. He turned out to be a great guy who worked in IT downtown and was a big fan of role-playing games. Something he had in common with Chris and Garrett, which made their living together make a lot of sense.
Finally, at half past eight, Archer walks in the door. He’s covered head to toe in dirt and sawdust. I never thought I’d find dirt so damn attractive.
“Hey guys,” he says to the group and his eyes zero in on me. For a moment, he takes a step in my direction, his eyes lighting up at the sight of me. But with the attention of everyone on him, he stops and thinks better of it.
I would love for him to feel like he could march right up to me and kiss the hell out of me.
I flush at the thought, and he gives me a smirk. “I’m dirty.” I sweat at his eye contact. “I’m gonna shower real fast.”
I blink in rapid succession, unsure if that actually just happened.
Did the man of my dreams really just look me in the eyes and say that? In front of the whole group?
He turns and makes his way down the hall to the bathroom and I clear my throat, looking around at the group, Mike, Garrett, and Chris are discussing some of the game cards, laughing over something.
But Derek, Warren, Jane, and April are all looking at me with smirks.
“So, Viv, how was that camping trip?” Derek smiles broadly and waggles his eyebrows.
I roll my eyes and take a sip. “Adventurous.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Sneaking around was fun, but sometimes I wanted to just claim her in front of the world to make it clear that I was hers.” – Archer
ARCHER
I wash the dirt off of me and slick my body with body wash, and run my hands over my abs and lower. The temptation to take it a step further is… overwhelming.
Just the sight of Viv sitting there, looking up at me with hungry eyes and a flush in her cheeks, was enough to make me ready to take her to bed.
But I have to take it slow. Not just for her sake but for mine. I wasn’t going to let the first time Viv and I mase love be anything less than spectacular. At least, I was going to do my damnedest to make it that way.
I hurry through the shower, ignoring the throbbing erection and blast the cold water for a few minutes to calm myself down.
I get out, drying off and tossing on fresh clothes. I take the time for cologne, only because I fully plan on sitting as close to Viv as possible and trying to entice her with smell and proximity.
We still hadn’t had a chance to talk. Work this week had been so freaking crazy for me that I barely made it home at nine every night and passed out the second I was out of the shower. I didn’t even bother with clothes because the effort seemed like too much work.
I’d texted her as much as I could, hoping to keep myself at the forefront of her mind. But I’d been called to the site early this morning.
Devon was pissed we were behind on the project and blamed… well, everyone but himself.
Mason had arrived to do some work, and we weren’t ready for him, and Devon hadn’t bothered to call and let him know we wouldn’t be needing him yet.
