AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Your arse is hanging out.’
Noted, my arseishanging out a bit, but I can wear whatever I want. Not to mention most girls I’ve seen walk around have their arse on display.
‘Don’t you have jeans?’ he asks.
‘It’s boiling outside,’ I point out.
He fixes me with a dark look. ‘I don’t want other men looking at you.’
‘And that’s my fault?’
I cast back to the meal with Archer and his mum. Archer had checked out that waitress right in front of me, and I’d felt invisible and ugly. How is it fair for him to order me not to wear something I feel good and bold in because he’s worried men will stare at me, when he, himself, is one of those men?
I grind my teeth. ‘I’m not wearing a turtleneck and parachute pants just so you can gawk at other women’s arses'.'
‘It’s normal for men to look,’ he says. Okay, now I really want to throw something at him. ‘But you’re with me. You have a boyfriend. Why would you want to dress like a little tart? Because it’s not for me, is it? It’s for all those men out there. You’re just looking for attention.’
I want to tell him it’s for me. I want to tell him I feel confident and attractive and for once, I know I look hot. But all that comes out of my mouth is, ‘You’ve never said you’re my boyfriend.’
He sighs as he wraps his arms around me. ‘I’m saying it now.’
My heart picks up speed. This is what I want to hear, isn’t it? But something tells me this is all it is: Archer telling me what I want to hear. Because his expression is guarded, and something roils beneath the depths of his eyes, something dark and cold waiting to be awakened if I so much as say the wrong thing.
‘I’m sorry I’ve waited so long to say it,’ he continues. ‘I’ve strung you along—I know, and I’m a dick. But you need to understand this is all new to me, too. I’ve never been in a relationship. This is a lot for me to get my head around, but I like you, Frankie. I want to try.’
I would have smiled if not for his next words.
‘And we have to trust each other. I can’t have you wearing shit like this. I can’t have men looking at you and wanting to touch you. It’s a violation, and it makes me feel like shit. Look how easy it is,’ he adds, and he wriggles a finger beneath the hem of my shorts and plunges it inside me.
I gasp and clench around him.
‘Mine,’ he growls, and thrusts his finger.
I arch against him.
He opens his mouth to say more when Cassie chirps from outside, ‘Band’s on in ten. The line for the bar is gonna be huge. We need to go. Twenty minutes ago.’
‘Coming,’ Archer calls, and with one last unreadable look, he pulls out of me and leaves.
Now I’m horny with a massive wedgie.
Wonderful.
I don’t change out of my shorts, because I really don’t want to wear jeans. So, I compromise and shrug on a grey cardigan to cover my arse. Archer doesn’t look particularly thrilled when I emerge from the tent, but he slings an arm around my shoulders nonetheless.
I would have welcomed the protectiveness if he didn’t insist on glaring at the young men whose gazes travel down my bare legs.
I thought it was normal for men to stare, Arch? Or is it only normal when you do it? When it benefits you?
I don’t know what possesses me to do it—maybe it’s too much wine—but as we make our way towards the main stage, I approach a stall selling snapbacks and shirts with weed leaves on them. I purchase a couple bottles of neon blue paint, snickering to myself as I catch up to the group.
I don’t stop giggling when I smear loads of the paint in my palm and slap it on Dave’s bald head. I double over with laughter because it’s the funniest thing ever to happen, and I laugh harder as Dave palms his head and glances up at the sky as if the paint fell from it.
Chase throws his head back and clutches his belly, but Archer looks furious.
He grabs my hand. ‘You’re embarrassing me.’
‘Do you know what you need? Blue paint,’ I say, and smear it on his shirt.
