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I playfully shove against his chest while shaking my head. “I can’t believe I just let you do that to me in public. That isn’t like me.” I blush, realizing what we just did. No one can see that low on our balcony, but Sara could’ve opened the door at any moment.
Archer’s quiet for a few seconds, his eyes traveling over mine. The tiniest of creases appears on his forehead, his lips pressing together in a thin line.
My head cocks to the side. “What is it?”
He reaches for my face, letting his thumb drag across my cheekbone. “There’s something I want to tell you. One last thing I should confess.”
I smile, wondering what more he could possibly have to tell me. “What is it?”
CHAPTER 49
ARCHER
Winnie watches me closely,waiting for me to answer her. I let my fingers wrap around the back of her neck, placing my forehead against hers.
My lips twitch with the beginning of a smile. Pulling away, I keep my fingertips pressed to the base of her neck. “Remember when we were giving Ruby that interview and I brought up the first-time things…” I clear my throat, trying to come up with a way to phrase this. “Well, when I was telling her when things changed for me.”
“Yes, of course I remember. You somehow remembered all these small details about what I was wearing that night when I don’t even remember seeing you.”
I swallow, letting my free hand move over my mouth. “I was there. You know I was there…” I add, my voice breaking a little because I’m suddenly nervous to tell her this.
The opera goes on behind us, now multiple performers on the stage. I don’t pay them any attention, too lost in staring into Winnie’s eyes while trying to gauge every little reaction from her.
“I gathered since you seemed to remember so much of that night. I just somehow missed you.” Her voice is so sweet. She wraps her arms around my back, holding me tight as shestares up at me.
My mind goes back to that night, how absolutely breathtaking she was. I remember exactly where I was when I first saw her walk in. She had a mask on, but it did nothing to hide her beauty. I would’ve been able to pick her out in a crowd of a thousand masked people.
“No,” I begin, taking a deep breath. I’ve thought about telling her this countless times, but I was too nervous to do so. If she knew how long she’s had power over me, I didn’t know if that would scare her away. But now, something about the atmosphere tonight made me finally want to come clean.
“Archer…” she begins, her voice lowering as she searches my face for answers.
“It wasmeyou kissed that night,” I admit, keeping a tight grip on her as I feel the intense need to keep her close. “On that balcony, so similar to this one.”
Her chest hitches as her eyes search mine with confusion. “It was you?” she whispers. I’m comforted by the fact her grip on me doesn’t falter. She continues to hold me close, even if the look on her face is full of questions.
I nod. “It was never my intention for anything to happen between us that night,” I admit, thinking about the hour it took me to work up the confidence to go speak with her. I don’t know what came over me that night, but I knew if there was ever a time where I could pretend to be someone else—someone she wasn’t meant to hate—it was the night where everyone in the room wore masks and pretended to be anyone but themselves.
“It couldn’t have been you.” She looks downward for a moment, like she’s trying to replay the night in her head. “I would’ve known if it was you.”
I smile, lifting her chin so she looks at me again. “It was me. We both had a few too many drinks. The mask I had on was pretty great at hiding my face.”
“We made out. We more than made out—I let you…” Her words trail off, but I know the same memory must be running through her head that’s running through mine.
“You let me feel you come around my fingers?” I finish, not bothering to hide my smirk. “Trust me, I remember it well—too well.”
“Archer Moore. Why was that not the first thing you told me when we got married?” She smacks my chest, but it doesn’t do anything. I let out a sigh of relief at the smile on her face.
“Because I didn’t want to admit to you—or myself—how much I’d thought about that night.” I look at her mouth, trailing my thumb along her painted bottom lip. “I kept telling myself that the night was fuzzy, that I’d had too much to drink and it could’ve been anyone and maybe I was just remembering things wrong.”
“I thought about that night so much after it happened,” she confesses, leaning into my touch.
I laugh. “Same. At times, it was all I could think about. Kissing you—speaking with you that night—made me want things I shouldn’t have wanted. The moment my dad asked me to make you my wife, I almost told him no because I knew how hard it would be to be around you every day…to pretend…when you’d already unknowingly captured my attention.”
“Sothat’swhy you were so grumpy during that meeting.”
“There were a thousand reasons I was grumpy—one of them being I’m just kind of an asshole—but the main reason was I wanted to be as far away from you as possible.” I tuck a piece of hair behind her ear before leaning in and placing a kiss to her forehead. “I had this feeling that if I was around you long enough, you’d change my life. And that’s exactly what you did, Win.”
She laughs, lifting her chin so her lips line up with my mouth. I gladly trap her lips in mine and savor the feeling of her mouth pressed against mine. From the moment I let my guard down enough to kiss her at that gala, I knew that Winnie Bishop held the power to ruin my life.
