She frowns and glances into the bag.
“I haven’t had one since the last time you…” She swallows, shakes off the rest of the thought, and looks back up at me. “You left.”
“No, you kicked me out. There’s a difference. You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.” I wink and lean on the counter that she’s standing behind. “I bought a house. I think you’re going to like it. I hope so, anyway.”
“You bought—?” Her mouth opens and then closes again. “What in the hell, Arch?”
“We can talk about it all later.” I tap the counter with my palm and step back. “I shouldn’t hold you up. Enjoy your breakfast. I’ll pick you up at six.”
“For what?”
“Dinner, of course.”
I turn and whistle as I step out of the building.
I wasn’t lying the other day. She used to make a hell of a spaghetti. But she always loved it when I made tacos. So, for tonight, that’s precisely what I’m going to make her. It works out well because I can prepare the majority of it early, then go pick her up and finish it up when we get back to the house—after I’ve given her a proper tour of the place.
With all the veggies chopped and ready, the cheese shredded, and the pico and guac made and in the fridge, I grab my keys and hurry out to my car, ready to drive across town to Ally’s house to bring her home with me. I’m craving her company. Bandon is a small town, but I can’t get to her fast enough. After I park and take a deep breath, I walk up and knock on the door.
There’s no answer.
I frown and knock again, then walk over to look in a window.
No movement inside.
I head around the house, and there she is, sitting on her deck with her feet up on the rail and a glass of wine in her hand.
“There you are.”
“Go away, Archer.”
“No way.”
She rolls her eyes. “Is the fact that I don’t want you here really that big of a hit to your fragile male ego?”
I know what she’s attempting to do. She’s trying to piss me off and push me away.
It’s not going to work.
“I’ve told you for days, I’m not going anywhere. You don’t want me to stay here, and that’s totally fine with me. I would prefer to be able to hold you at night, but I can respect your wishes.”
“Obviously, you can’t, because I told you to go home.”
“Well, technically, I live here now.”
“Tell me you didn’t actually buy a house.”
“I did. You’re going to love it.”
“Archer.”
“Ally.”
She stumbles over the next words and frowns. “You called me Ally.”
“That’s your name, remember?”
She blinks quickly, the way she does when she’s surprised.
“Listen, I don’t care what your name is, as long as I get to be with you. So, yes, I bought a house, and I’m here to get to know you better. To get to know you again.”
“This is a very expensive courtship,” she says, swirling the wine in her glass.
“You’re worth it,” I counter. “Now, are you going to come let me feed you, or what? I have everything ready for you.”
“I shouldn’t,” she says. “I should demand that you respect my wishes and go.”
“No, you should come and see this killer house and eat my tacos.”
“Tacos?” Her eyes fly to mine, and she swallows hard, tries to seem unimpressed. “I don’t even like tacos.”
I step to her, and without touching her, lean in to brush my nose over hers. “Liar.”
“Tastes change.”
“Not when it comes to tacos, sweetheart.”
“Did you buy a house on the beach?”
“Yup.”
“Tacos and an ocean view?”
I simply smile at her.
“Fine.”
Chapter 7
~Elena~
Until I rode in Archer’s car the other day, I didn’t realize how much I missed heated seats. Yes, it’s a first-world thing, and I’m not proud of it, but it’s true. My backside just sinks into the warmth of the leather, and I could live right here, for a long time.
He drives us along the beach and pulls into a driveway that ends at a three-car garage.
“Are you telling me that you just bought a seven-figure house because you want to date me?”
Seeing him walk into my job today was a shock to my system, almost as bad as the day he came to my door. I’d been so sad, so lost since he left the other night. I was sure I’d never lay eyes on him again, and I was in the process of grieving not only my grandmother but also the loss of Archer all over again.
And then I walked into that room and saw him standing there, and it was as if everything in my world snapped back into place.
Which is crazy.
“Among other things.”
I blink, confused. “Excuse me?”
“I bought the house because I want to date you, along with some other things.” He unclips our seatbelts as the garage door lowers behind us. “Come on, I want to show you the place. And I’m hungry.”
“You’re always hungry.”
He grins and pushes out of the car, hurrying around the hood to open my door before I can do it myself. He was always the type to open doors for me, and it seems that hasn’t changed.
“It’s better to walk through the front door,” he says, opening the side garage door. “We’ll just walk out this way.”
“I’m sure it’s fine through the mudroom.”
“Next time. I want you to get the full effect this first time.”
He takes my hand, linking his fingers with mine as if it’s just second nature and not a conscious decision. The heat travels from my palm, up my arm, and settles in my shoulder, making me shiver in delight.
“Are you cold?”
I shake my head no and smile as he unlocks the door and leads me inside.
The view is incredible. I can see the rocky shoreline, the calm water beyond, and it takes me a second to catch my breath.
“Wow.”
“I know,” he murmurs, standing back with his hands tucked into his pockets as he waits for me to soak it all in. The view out the windows is beautiful, but the man before me is a complete shock to the system. He always was, even as a young man. But Archer in his early thirties? Holy shit. He’s tall with broad shoulders and muscles in all the right places.
Sinew for days.
His hips are lean. And his abs? Well, let’s just say if it were a hundred years ago, a girl could wash her clothes on his stomach.
“Keep looking at me like that, and my manners will fly right out that window, and I’ll take you here on the kitchen counter, Elena.”
Elena.
I quirk a brow.
“It’s just the two of us, and I’m smart enough to never put you at risk out there.” He gestures with a nod of his head in the direction of town. “But when it’s you and me, you’re Elena. I’ll be damned if I’ll say another woman’s name when I’m being intimate with you.”
“I never agreed to anything intimate.” I lick my lips and will the damn butterflies in my stomach to get lost. “I agreed to tacos and a view.”
“You’ll get both.” He reaches up and drags his thumb down my cheek. “And that’s all. For now. Let me show you the rest of the house.”
He leads me through bedrooms, bathrooms, and an office with a desk that’s empty aside from his laptop. The house is big, much too big for one person, but it’s comfortable.
“It’s a lot of house.”
“It’s ridiculous,” he agrees. “And the smallest one available with these views. So, I snatched it up.”
“In one day?”
“I got lucky.”
I give him a look that says right.
“I really did. The former owners moved out of state, and this was all staging furniture. So, I just bought it all.”
“Just like that.”
He walks behind the island in the kitchen and starts pulling bowls out of the fridge.
“Like I said, I got lucky.” He sets a skillet on the gas stovetop and turns on the burner, then dumps some ground beef into the pan and starts to stir. “Not to mention, money talks, sweetheart. I made a pitcher of margaritas if you want one. I also bought that wine you like, if you’d rather have that.”
I sit on a stool and stare at him. Am I dreaming? Archer is in Bandon. He bought a house and is making me tacos.
What alternate universe am I living in?
Whatever it is, I don’t want to leave.
“I’ll have a margarita. I wouldn’t want them to go to waste.”
“Good idea.” He fills two glasses and clinks his to mine. “Cheers.”
“Cheers.”
He takes a platter out of a cupboard. Who knew serving implements would be part of the staging items included in the house? As he begins to pile stuff on it, the smells coming at me are amazing and make my stomach growl. I didn’t realize I was so hungry.
“Let’s take this all out onto the deck and watch the sunset while we gorge ourselves on guacamole,” he suggests.
I haven’t had a better offer in years. I hop up and help him gather all of the food and our drinks, and we make our way onto the deck, where a small table and chairs are set up, just big enough for dinner for two.
“I admit, this is pretty great,” I say as I dip a chip in the guac and shove it into my face as I look out to the sea that’s as calm as it gets tonight.
“The view or the food?”
“Both.” I watch him as he chews and swallows, his Adam’s apple bobbing with the motion. “You’re stubborn, you know that?”
“Hi pot, I’m kettle.”
“Archer, you bought a house. And not just any home. You bought this insanely big house. You could have stayed at the resort for a hell of a lot less.”
“I’m more comfortable here,” he says with a shrug. “Besides, I’ve lived in a lot of hotels lately, traveling all over the country, trying to track you down. I’d rather have a home base for a while. And, after I’m done here, I can lease this place out and make some money. Flip it when the value goes up.”
“How long did it take you to find me?”
“A few months.”
I feel my eyes go wide.
“I couldn’t just look for you every minute of every day. I had to go back to Seattle for blocks of time so I could work, be with my family, that sort of thing. But when I could get away, I returned to the search.”
“Why now?”
“Because Anastasia screwed up and let it slip that she hears from you now and then. I didn’t want to talk about it. But then she messed up more by admitting that she knew why you ghosted me after we got married. After that, I became a man obsessed. I had to find you. I mean, I took one night to get stinking drunk and sing bad Irish songs in Kane’s brother’s bar, but then I got down to business.”
“You sang Irish songs?”
His lips twitch. “Not well.”
“I wish there was a video of that.”
“No, you don’t. Trust me.”
“I still can’t believe that after all this time, you came to find me.”
“You married me,” he says, his voice suddenly heavy with impatience. “I vowed to love you for better or worse. And you up and broke it off so suddenly that you made my head spin. And you wouldn’t talk to me. We were together for two years, attached at the hip, and then one day, you were just gone.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
He growls, and I reach over to lay my hand on his arm.
“Listen to me. You don’t understand because I never talked about it much. I just wanted to be a normal girl with you. I didn’t want to be the princess. Different. Being with you, with your family, was the most incredible experience of my life.”
“So you left me?”
“You’re not listening.” I want to smack him. “I never told my family I was with you. Not after I tried, and my father told me to break it off. I knew it was too risky.”
“Elena.” He sits back and stares at me in surprise.
“You weren’t from the right pedigree. You certainly weren’t who my father would have chosen for me. So, I had to keep it all a secret. I stupidly thought that if we got married, if I went to them and said it was already done, there wouldn’t be anything they could do about it. I figured they’d just have to get used to it.”
He pinches the bridge of his nose. “Christ.”
“My father was insanely pissed,” I continue, flinching at the memory of my father’s face when I told him. “I’d seen him angry before, of course. He was a scary man, especially when he was mad. But I’d never seen him like that.” I shudder at the memory of those days. Of the beating, the whipping.
The branding.
“What did your mother think?” he asks, pulling me out of the horrible memories.
I frown. “It didn’t matter what she thought. My father was the boss. And not just of the household, Archer, he was a mob boss. An insanely powerful man. If he wanted you dead, he would have done it in a heartbeat and wouldn’t have lost a moment of sleep over it.”
He finishes his fifth taco and pushes his plate away, then takes a sip of his drink.
“Did he still punish you?”
You have no idea.
I shrug a shoulder and look out at the water. Gulls fly overhead, and the bottom of the sun is just starting to kiss the top of the horizon. The sky is a riot of color, like a fresh bruise. Like the ones I wore around my eyes for days.
“Did he punish you?” he asks again.
I take a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Making me lose you was the worst of it.”
Emotional pain is always worse than physical.
“What else did that fucker do?”
His voice is hard now. I glance back at him and let my eyes roam over his face, his eyes and nose, full mouth. Yes, losing Archer was the worst thing that ever happened to me in my life.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It does to me.”
I stand and walk to the railing and watch people walking on the sand below. Archer joins me. He’s close but doesn’t touch me.
“There’s a code in the family. They don’t physically hurt women. Punishments are psychological, and there were plenty of those over the years. I was usually a good girl, so the punishments were always small. But this was a pretty big deal, and I pushed him past his patience.”
“What did he do?”
“Archer, it was a long time ago.” And something I don’t like to think about. Because when I do, I can feel the whip. I can smell my dad’s cologne. I remember the helplessness I felt as I hung by my hands, and the despair when I realized that my relationship with Archer was over.
But that was long ago, and I have no plans to rehash it.
He takes my shoulders in his hands and nudges my chin up to look me in the eyes. I don’t want to tell him. It’ll make him feel guilty and hurt all over again.
“I don’t want to talk about it right now.”
“Will you ever want to talk about it?” He steps back and shakes his head in disappointment. “We can’t build a relationship on lies.”
He tosses my own words from the beach the other day back at me.
“I’m not lying to you. I’m telling you, point-blank, that I don’t want to talk about the shitty past. Can’t we just enjoy this sunset and each other’s company for a while? Can’t we simply live in the here and now?”
He sighs, and his eyes soften. “For now. But not forever, Elena. I deserve the answers to my questions.”
Despite the frustrating conversation earlier, the evening has been wonderful. An incredible sunset and even better conversation made the time fly.
If he asks me to stay tonight, I don’t know if I’ll be able to say no.
It feels too good being with him like this, in this ama
zing house. I could almost let myself daydream for a moment that this is our house. That we’re married and living our life like ordinary people. The way it should be. The way it was supposed to be.
But that’s silly, and I learned long ago that such daydreams are a waste of time and energy.
“What are you thinking about?” Archer asks after slipping the last dish into the dishwasher and snapping it shut.
“That I’m glad I came here tonight,” I reply.
“I am, too. You look good, sitting here in my kitchen.”
“You don’t look so bad yourself.”
His impossibly blue eyes narrow, the way they always did when he was feeling particularly sexy. I don’t have to be a mind reader to know he wants me. The feeling is entirely mutual.
Maybe staying isn’t such a bad idea.
“I should probably get you home,” he says, surprising me.
“Oh. Right. Yeah, I should go.”
He rounds the island and wraps one arm around my waist. His lips are inches from mine as he leans in.
“I want you to stay,” he whispers. “Make no mistake, I want it more than I’ve wanted anything in my life. But it’s too soon, and you have to work early tomorrow. When I have you, I don’t want time constraints, and I don’t want secrets between us.”
Well, then.
I lick my lips and nod, watching his mouth as it pulls up in that cocky grin that always puts a knot in my stomach.
Archer reluctantly pulls away, and we make our way to his car in the garage.
The drive to my cottage is quick and silent, as both of us are lost in our thoughts. I’m suddenly bone tired. I feel like I could sleep for a week.
What is it about this man that exhausts me? And he hasn’t even kissed me! Not really, anyway. The brushes of lips over breakfast and before he left don’t exactly count.
“I like these seats,” I murmur as I shimmy down into the warmth of the leather. “So comfortable.”
“Don’t fall asleep on me, sweetheart. We’re almost there.”
I smile and close my eyes, enjoying the warmth, darkness, and the sounds around me.
I feel him turn down my road, and then into my driveway.
You Belong With Me Page 7