by Raine Thomas
He noticed how flustered she looked when she greeted him, adding weight to Nikki’s revelations. There was no mistaking the breathiness in her voice and what that implied. She was definitely attracted to him or acting like she was.
When she walked past him into the room, he glimpsed a change of clothes in her bag. His confusion eased into cool certainty. She obviously intended to change into the more provocative clothes now that they were alone.
Well, why wait to get things started?
He followed her a few steps into the room as she removed her ball cap and tucked it into her bag. The action released her long blonde hair and allowed it to spill down her back in a tempting wave of loose curls. Despite knowing she was deliberately trying to bait him, his fingers itched to get tangled in those curls.
His anger festered as he conceded that Nikki had been right, after all. Sydney really was manipulating him with the reading thing, preying on his flaw to try and get laid.
The contrast between her deceitful ploy and her guileless demeanor darkened his mood beyond where it had even been last night.
She was about to learn a very important lesson.
Sydney paused as she stepped past the bathroom and noticed they were in a standard room with a king-sized bed. “Oh. No seating area here?”
He stopped right behind her. “I assume the bed will work for what you have planned,” he replied without inflection.
She startled and turned, taking a step away from him and bumping awkwardly into the edge of the armoire entertainment unit. Her hand came up to grab the strap of her bag before it slid to the floor.
“Well...sure,” she said.
“Why don’t we get right to it?” he suggested, moving closer to her.
He caught her clean, appealing vanilla-cinnamon scent and decided this wouldn’t be such a chore, teaching her this lesson.
Oh, he wasn’t going to hurt her. Not physically, anyway. What he was going to do was lead her on like she was trying to do with him and leave her hanging like she deserved.
She didn’t budge from her position against the side of the entertainment armoire as he advanced. He kept going until only inches separated them. She blinked and swallowed hard as he gave her a long, thorough scan. He placed a hand beside her on the entertainment unit to brace himself and leaned even closer to her, allowing his gaze to drift down to her full, luscious mouth.
“Um, okay,” she said, her eyes moving to the side...towards the bed.
“Are you ready for that already?” he asked, bringing his other hand to the waistband of her cotton pants.
“W-what?” she asked, reaching up and grasping his forearm.
His body responded instantly to her touch, something he hadn’t anticipated. He realized she was guiding him where she wanted him to touch her.
Her cheeks were flushed with color. It was clear she hadn’t expected him to fall right in line with her scheme. He figured she would be thrilled that her efforts were so effective. The rapid rise and fall of her chest told him she was excited.
“Let’s see how ready you are to ‘teach’ me,” he said, driving his hand inside her pants and under the band of the panties underneath.
She drew in a sharp breath. Her eyes went wide with shock.
He expected to find her hot and ready for him.
She wasn’t.
They stared at each other in silence as he fully comprehended just how badly he had miscalculated. He yanked his hand back and shoved away from her, her alluring scent following him like a specter.
“But I thought...you’re not...” He couldn’t seem to form a clear thought. His brain settled on the only possible answer. “It’s only Archer for you then?”
“I-I—what?” she stammered, now clutching her bag in front her like a shield. “No. I-I’m sorry if I led you to believe this was about...that. I didn’t mean...I’m really sorry.”
He finally looked at her without the preconceived idea of her being a seductress in his head and felt ice form in his gut.
She hadn’t been looking at the bed. She had been looking for an escape.
She hadn’t been encouraging him by grabbing his arm. She had been warding him off.
Jesus, he had just sexually assaulted her.
“Why the hell did you let me touch you like that?” he demanded, suddenly furious with both of them. “Don’t you have any sense?”
She flushed again and said, “Well, I didn’t expect you to...I’m sorry.”
“Stop fucking apologizing,” he snapped.
He stormed into the bathroom and slammed the door, striding over to the sink and washing the scent of her from his hands. Then he just gripped the edge of the sink and tried to get a hold of himself.
He had never gauged a situation so poorly before. Nikki must have been mistaken about it being Sydney who said she wanted to seduce him. He had found it strange but he’d had no reason to doubt Nikki. He’d gone with what she’d said over his own instincts and it had bitten him right in the ass.
And what the hell had Sydney been thinking, letting him get that close to her? Her best defense had been to grab his arm? What the fuck was that?
His anger towards her quickly evaporated. He knew he was just deflecting his own guilt and frustration onto her. He had probably scared the hell out of her.
He wasn’t usually one to form judgments based on what others told him. Yet he had completely disregarded his doubts and chose to interpret everything in a way that said Sydney wanted him. Why had he ignored his own inner voice?
Because you want her.
That unbidden thought had him narrowing his eyes at his reflection in the mirror. He didn’t know where it had come from and he didn’t like it.
Because it wasn’t true, damn it.
He ran a hand through his hair and opened the bathroom door. As uncomfortable as this was going to be, he had to apologize to her.
He figured she had probably fled after what he said and did, so he didn’t expect to find her sitting cross-legged on the bed waiting for him. She looked up when she heard him approach. He saw the wariness in her cornflower blue eyes. It made him more uncomfortable than he cared to admit to know he had put that look there.
His gaze moved down to the number of papers and books spread around her. She reached over and straightened one of the stacks when she saw where his attention had gone.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Getting everything ready for our lesson.”
He was stunned that she fully intended to start tutoring him. The usual defensiveness he felt about his poor literacy skills had him scowling. All thoughts of apologizing fled his mind.
“I don’t need your help,” he said.
“Yes, you do.”
“No, I don’t. I’ve got the basics down. I don’t need some snotty grade school teacher holding my hand through the ABCs.”
She didn’t bat an eye over his name-calling. “You do need my help, Keith. I just think you’re embarrassed about it and you’re worried I’m going to tell other people.”
That was nothing less than the truth. So of course he immediately took offense to it.
Even as he opened his mouth to bite out a reply, she spoke again. “So to get us past that, I thought I’d share three embarrassing stories of my own with you. That way you can rest assured I’m not judging you and I won’t share this with anyone, because if I do, you can just share the stories about me.”
His mouth closed as he considered her offer. A chance to learn some embarrassing details about Little Miss Perfect?
What the hell. Why not?
He sat down on the edge of the bed and crossed his arms over his chest, waving his hand in a “share the dirt” gesture.
“All right,” she said. “But to be sure we’re clear, you need to agree to work with me until you’re comfortable reading Lily’s notes for House of Archer on your own. This isn’t a one-lesson kind of thing. Deal?”
He eyed her extended hand and then found himself countering wit
h, “Three facts now, then one per lesson.”
She tilted her head. “Do they all have to be embarrassing?”
“No.”
“Deal.”
He took her hand to seal their bargain. A brief flash of intimacy passed between them as their eyes met. It was unlike anything he’d ever felt before. It had him frowning again as he retrieved his hand.
“Okay,” she said, taking a deep breath and releasing it. “Embarrassing fact number one. I once went most of the day in junior high with my skirt tucked into my underwear and no one told me. I then got tagged with the nickname Skivvy Sydney and it stuck with me throughout high school.”
His eyebrow lifted. “Skivvy Sydney?”
“Yeah. It was right when Pirates of the Caribbean became popular.”
“Ah.”
“Embarrassing fact number two,” she said, ticking it off on her fingers like a countdown. “I got a failing grade in ninth grade health class because I couldn’t properly apply a condom to a banana. I managed to snap it like a rubber band and hit Dawson Bell, the star quarterback, right in the face.”
His lips twitched over that image. “I hope your skills have improved since then.”
She just gave him a bland look and continued, “And embarrassing fact number three, I went to my senior prom with my cousin after I was turned down flat by my high school crush, who declared that I was too fat in front of the entire school cafeteria.”
His humor faded. “Too fat?”
She shrugged. “I was thirty pounds heavier in high school.”
“Still, the guy was a dick.”
“No doubt,” she agreed easily. “Now you know three of my most humiliating secrets. Do you feel more comfortable about studying with me yet?”
“No,” he admitted, looking at the amount of paperwork sitting between them. “But I guess a deal’s a deal.”
“Cheer up,” she said, reaching behind her and pulling something else out of her bag. “Learning doesn’t have to be painful.”
He might not know how to read very well, but he recognized the iconic cover of a Rolling Stone magazine when he saw one. The pictures alone piqued his interest in the magazine’s content.
He gave her an assessing look. “Pretty slick of you,” he murmured.
“Thanks,” she said with a cheerful smile. “I figure we can begin your lessons by using photos and context to help identify key words you’ll need to know right away. But first we need to review some phonics.”
His eyebrows drew together. “What?”
She got an amused gleam in her eye. “I’m going to hold your hand through the ABCs.”
Chapter Seven
“Do you really want to do this?” Archer asked Lily the next day.
“No,” she replied, “but it needs to be done.”
He wanted to disagree, but it was her decision to make. After all, it was her family.
They were sitting beside each other on the couch in the living area of their hotel suite. Lily held his hand and stared at the cell phone resting on the coffee table in front of her, trying to work up enough enthusiasm to call her younger half-sisters, Caroline and Bridgette.
The two young women had been calling and texting Lily nonstop since the tour began, begging her to get them tickets and backstage passes to at least one of The Void’s L.A. concerts. When Lily had initially ignored them, their mother had hunted her down and let her know with nasty words and an even more vicious slap that she expected Lily to respond to her sisters or there would be hell to pay.
In Archer’s mind, that was even more reason for Lily not to contact her bratty siblings. If she thought it would make her life easier to do so, however, he would support her. He had already arranged for the tickets and passes. They were Lily’s to do with what she pleased.
Still, her decision to make the call on speakerphone in the hotel room where there were cameras and microphones was an added stress he didn’t want on her. She had argued with him for a solid thirty minutes about it the night before. She was sure this would result in some good content for the show, she had said. They needed all of the airable content they could generate. It was an opportunity they couldn’t afford to pass up.
He had finally relented...as long as she agreed that he could listen in.
“I guess I’m ready now,” she said, easing her hold on his hand.
“Okay.” He got to his feet. “I’ll be standing right over there.”
“Just remember they’re bound to say things you won’t like. You can’t come barging in here at the first rude thing they say or it will ruin the scene.”
“I’ll do my best to restrain myself.”
He said it with a smile to try and ease her worry. Her tightly grasped hands and failure to return his smile told him he hadn’t succeeded. He decided that if she was this upset about it, he was going to put his foot down and keep her from making the call.
She seemed to sense the change in him. Grabbing the phone, she pulled up the home screen and waved at him to get him to move out of sight.
Giving her a wary look, he stepped just beyond the bedroom threshold where Trey had told him the camera didn’t reach. He could see Lily’s left side if he stood at just the right angle. He saw her take a deep breath and place a hand to her stomach before she hit the speakerphone icon and dialed the number.
“‘Bout time you called me back, Lily,” Caroline answered after two rings. “I know you can’t be all that busy hanging out with The Void. Hang on, let me get Bridgette. She’s in her room.”
Lily didn’t have a chance to respond. Archer heard Caroline shouting for Bridgette and an answering, “What?” in the distance. He watched Lily brace her elbow on her knee and place her chin in her hand as though she had expected this wait.
“Get your ass in here!” Caroline yelled. “Lily finally called and if we don’t talk to her now, we’ll probably never hear from her again.”
Bridgette got louder as though she was getting closer to the phone. “Did she get the tickets? Did she get backstage passes?”
“She hasn’t said yet,” Caroline said.
Because you haven’t let her talk, Archer thought.
“Put her on speaker,” Bridgette insisted.
“Okay, Lily,” Caroline said, sounding slightly tinnier. “You’re on speaker.”
There was a pause where Lily seemed to register it was finally her turn to talk. “Hi,” she said. “I’ve got you on speaker, too.”
Archer nodded to himself. He knew notifying them about being on speaker was important to the producers. They would request signed releases from Caroline and Bridgette but it helped to have consent during the actual call.
“Yeah, yeah. Did you get the tickets?”
“Yes, I got the tickets,” Lily said. She paused as her sisters’ excited shrieks filled the room before adding, “I was able to get you tickets to two of the shows.”
“With backstage passes?” Bridgette pressed.
“Yes.”
More squealing.
“Oh, my God!” Bridgette cried. “Who are we going to invite, Caro?”
Archer saw Lily stiffen. “Wait—”
“How about Jo and Mina?” Caroline said. “They’ll literally die when they hear.”
“But Jo would totally try and jump Archer if she saw him. That would be beyond embarrassing.”
“Oh, God. You’re right. What about Jen?”
“I didn’t—” Lily tried again.
“Maybe one show with them,” Bridgette agreed. “But not both. They’d get all—”
“Hey,” Lily said loudly. “Listen. I was only able to get you two tickets.”
Caroline and Bridgette both erupted in objections before Lily could explain. Their words were largely indecipherable. Lily waited until they paused for breath before speaking again.
“All of the L.A. concerts are completely sold out,” she said. “They have been for months. It was hard enough to secure you both tickets and passes to these two shows.�
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“You have got to be kidding me,” Caroline fumed. “We both totally know you’re screwing Archer.”
Archer’s back teeth clenched. He barely stopped himself from interfering. The only thing keeping him in place was the knowledge that Lily would be peeved otherwise.
“We saw the trailer and it’s been all over the news,” Caroline was saying. “You can’t tell me he wouldn’t give you anything you wanted.”
Lily rubbed her temples as she replied, “That’s neither here nor there. He can’t magically make more tickets appear. The venues only hold so many people. Just be glad I was able to get you the tickets you’re getting.”
“So that confirms it,” Bridgette said. “You and Archer are doing the nasty.”
“No wonder he didn’t want us sticking around when we met up with him in the hotel,” Caroline said to Bridgette. “He and Lily were getting it on.”
Archer’s eyes widened. That hadn’t sounded good. Caroline was referring to when she and Bridgette snuck into the band’s L.A. hotel about two weeks ago, right before the tour kicked off. They had encountered him in the hallway. Only a few words had been exchanged before Trey ushered them out. Caroline was making it sound like something far more lewd had happened.
He saw Lily’s shoulders go back and knew she was wondering what Caroline was talking about. He also knew this wasn’t going to be the end of it.
“I can’t believe she managed to land Archer,” Bridgette said, continuing to speak as though Lily wasn’t on the line.
“Well she said it herself in the House of Archer trailer,” Caroline pointed out. “She’s an incredible lay.”
Archer crossed his arms over his chest in an effort to hold himself in place. He had told Lily he wouldn’t interrupt but he hadn’t been prepared for how her sisters were going to treat her. His temper, typically a slow burn, was dangerously close to igniting.
“We need to make plans for me to get you the tickets and passes while I’m in L.A.,” Lily said, sidestepping her sisters’ rude implication.
This, too, was something Lily had insisted on. Archer could easily have had the tickets and passes couriered to her sisters. She said that the in-person meeting would be good for more show content.