Page 42 of Inked Temptation
I held up my hands, knowing this was a powder keg of a conversation now, thanks to my blow-up last time. “It’s good you have them. And that you realize that.”
“Anyway, I’m just working.” Archer leaned forward and rubbed Cora some more.
“She likes you,” I said after a minute.
The other man just smiled. “Looks like.”
And it seemed that I was starting to like him too. That could be a problem.
“I do have a question,” Archer said after a minute, and I blinked.
“Yeah?”
“Did you kiss me just now because you wanted to say that you were sorry? Or to prove that you weren’t?”
I pressed my lips together, then let out a breath. “I kissed you just now because I couldn’t think about not kissing you. And that felt like the right thing to do at the time, even though it doesn’t make any sense.”
“Okay,” Archer said after a minute.
“Yeah. I’m not the most eloquent.”
Archer shook his head. “I think you’re far more eloquent than you think.”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you want to show me the rest of your house?” Archer asked, and I didn’t know if he was leaning in for another kiss or if he was truly interested.
The fact that I didn’t know should worry me, but then again, I was still figuring out exactly what I wanted.
And Archer confused things.
“Yes. I’ll show you.”
“Okay.” Archer swallowed hard, and I tried to ignore the long, lean lines of his neck.
Maybe it’d been too long since I had been with someone. It had been years. And there was just something about Archer.
I needed to turn away, to walk away from him. To hide in my solitude like I had been doing for years.
But this man was making it hard.
And I couldn’t help but remember Penny’s words as she told me to find something worth living for. Even if it was just a moment in time to just breathe.
I showed Archer around my house, and he asked questions.
“Did you find someone to replace the windows?” he asked as we looked over at my boarded-up large bay windows.
“No, I was going to ask you, and then things…just happened.”
Archer smiled. “Things do tend to just happen, don’t they?”
I swallowed hard as my gaze went straight to his lips and told myself I needed to stop that.
“Do you want to help? I mean, give me the information.”
Archer nodded and pulled out his phone. “This is the company that we use. I can get you a discount through Montgomery Builders, though.”
“Why would you do that?”
