Page 55 of The Love Proposal


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At the door, I fish out the key and try to fit it into the lock while Archie distractingly nibbles at my ear from behind.

“We’re never getting in if you keep doing that,” I say.

Archie gives me a little space, but as soon as the door is unlocked, he lifts me and carries me to the bed with surprising gentleness for a man so big. He climbs on top of me, pinning my arms above my head, and just hovers above me, looking into my eyes for the longest time. A breath catches in my chest. This feels intense, too intense. So, I chicken out and close my eyes, arching my back and moaning to bring the interaction to a sexual plane.

Sex, I can handle.

Emotions, on the other hand, are running out of my control. Have been since the start.

* * *

A knock at the door wakes me up the next morning. “Sammy, it’s me, open up.”

Shoot. Winter. What is she doing outside my room? What time is it? I check the alarm clock on the nightstand: 7.00a.m., pretty early.

Archie groans awake. “What—?”

I place a hand over his mouth. “Shhh. It’s my sister.”

The knocking turns to pounding. “Sammy. Summer.”

Archie picks up the hand covering his mouth, kisses the palm, and lowers it to his chest. “What does she want?” he whispers.

“I don’t know.”

“Aren’t you going to answer?”

“With you here? No way,” I hiss. “Winter will think I’m in the shower or something and leave.”

Sure enough, after a few more minutes, the attack on the door ends and the hall beyond goes quiet.

I drop back onto the pillow, blowing hair away from my face. “That was close.”

I wonder what Winter wanted; I’ll have to check on her as soon as the naked evidence of my transgressions is out of my bed.

“Would it be so bad if she found us together?”

I raise onto my elbows. “With everything she told me about you, the way she worries about me, and it being the day before her wedding? Yeah-ha. She’d go nuts!”

Archie puts a hand over his chest in mock pain. “I feel deeply stereotyped here.”

“Poor you.” I bend over and kiss him on the forehead. “You want some coffee?”

“Sure.”

I slip on my panties and pull the white, long-to-my-knees T-shirt I use as pajamas over my head. The shirt has taken a vacation on this trip so far as I’ve slept mostly naked… Mmm… I let out a contented sigh and get up. The moment I step into the kitchenette, however, my sense of serene satiation evaporates as the pounding on the door resumes.

“Sammy, Sammy, it’s me.”

Oh my gosh, is my sister ever going to give up? She’s going to wake up the entire floor at this rate. I put a finger to my lips in a shush gesture directed at Archie. If we keep quiet, Winter will have to cease and desist, eventually.

But that hope shatters when I hear a key turning in the lock. How does she have a key to my room?

My chest explodes in a panic, and my heartbeat picks up a frenzied tempo and then decelerates when the door opens barely an inch before the inner bolt stops it with a loud thud. Thank goodness I always put the extra lock on by reflex, even if I don’t have a recollection of doing it last night. Apparently old habits can survive even rabid sex exploits.

In a blur, I collect all of Archie’s clothes from where they’re scattered around the bedroom. Jeans, shoes, and socks on the floor. His sweater from the back of a chair, and his T-shirt draped over the bed’s headboard.

“Get up,” I hiss, and frantically scan the room to check if I’ve missed anything.

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