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“Minnie—”
“My name is Doctor Mayet,” I snap. Then I calm my voice. Slow it down and make it as cold as Archer manages whenever he’s faced with someone he doesn’t like.Like when he’s standing right in front of me. “I’m not interested in coming back.”
“Not even for me?” David’s begging voice, while likely intended to be convincing, only makes him that much easier to reject. “We could try again and—”
“I’m hanging up now, Doctor May. It was an honor working with you for the years I did. But I will respectfully ask you to keep our relationship professional from here on out.”
“It didn’t feel professional when we were—”
I yank the phone away from my ear and kill the call.
My heart pounds and my fingers shake, because right beside me, Aubree stares and lets her mouth hang wide open.
“Don’t.” Locking my phone, I toss it onto the couch cushion and turn my attention toward the television. “Just don’t.”
“When you werewhat?” she exclaims. “What was he going to say?”
“I said don’t.”
She grabs my arm and shakes me so my drink sloshes over the edge of the glass. “What did you do with that man that was not professional,Minnie?”
“Don’t call me Minnie! Jesus.”
At a knock on my front door, I push up to stand and take my alcohol with me, chugging most of it in the time it takes me to get from the couch to the door.
“Never call me Minnie. We’ve already discussed that. And that man…” I shake my head. “None of your business.”
“Like how you and Arch are none of my business?” She twists on the couch and rests her arms on the back cushions so she can still watch me. “You constantly tell me to mind my business, but I thought we were friends?”
“I want you to mind your business when it comes to things I’m unwilling to discuss with you.”
“And Doctor David May is one of those things?” she quips. “Zero willingness to discuss?”
“Zero.”
I yank the door open and thrust my free hand out to take my food from the delivery driver, but I hit a muscled abdomen instead.
It takes my brain a moment to catch up, then my tequila-soaked consciousness another moment to process. Finally, I bring my vision up to Archer Malone’s nasty glare and his beautiful,beautifulgreen eyes.
“Oh,” I snatch my hand back and wrap it around my drink. “Er…”
“Archer!” Aubree shoves to her knees on the couch and grins. “Your brother is a piece of shit. Also, ask Minka about a dude named David May.”
Enraged, I spin on my friend. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Who is David May?” Archer’s voice is like liquid sex, and tempting enough toalmostmake me fold forward and wrap him in a hug. But when his hand caresses my jaw, when he gently pulls me around and speaks directly to me for the first time in a week, my heart stops in my throat and threatens death.
“Who,” he grits out, “is David May?”
“You don’t—”
“Her ex-boyfriend!” Aubree shouts across the apartment. “He wants her back, Malone.”
“Aubree!” I attempt to turn to her. To maybe end her life. But Archer’s hand remains strong and commanding.
“Minka?” His tone is hard but gentle. Demanding, but soft. “Who the fuck is David May?”
“You don’t get to ignore me for a week.” I try for firm and unrelenting, but my words come out muffled because of the way he holds my face. “You don’t get to put me through that emotional blackmail and then demand answers about other men.”
