by James Tate
His hands shoved the short skirt of my dress up, finding the micro thong I had on and tearing it off me like it was made of paper. His fingers found my wet heat, and I groaned with encouragement.
Bang!
The door at the far end of the dining room slammed open, spilling two giggling drunk girls in as they clutched red Solo cups of alcohol.
Archer growled a scary noise but quickly released me, and I tugged my dress back down over my bare ass. Talk about timing.
"Come on," he snapped, shooting the drunk girls a death glare and grabbing me by the hand.
I stumbled only a little bit as he yanked me out of the dining room again, and I wanted to state for the record that it was due to my thin stiletto heels and not because my knees were like jelly and my pussy throbbed with indignation.
I was also very big on lying to myself.
Archer hadn't let go of my hand, and I was pretty confident I knew where his head was at. He wanted an empty room, any room, just somewhere we could hate-fuck the hell out of each other so we could break the choking tension.
"Upstairs," I suggested. He paused, glancing over his shoulder at me with a curious frown, so I just shrugged and held his eyes confidently. "Guest rooms are upstairs."
He stared at me a second longer, then seemed to double his speed, practically dragging me through the party on his mission to reach the stairs.
Just as we reached the foyer, he stopped so abruptly I almost ran into the back of him.
"Uh, yo, Terminator," I joked, poking him in the back, "you just forget what we were about to do?"
He turned and gave me an almost amused look. Maybe I'd smoked more weed than I'd realized because that seemed totally out of character for Archer D'Ath.
"I doubt I could ever forget," he said, mostly under his breath, then gave a frustrated sigh. "But I just spotted someone who shouldn't be here. I need to find Kody and Steele to warn them."
I was annoyed, no question, but the tight set to Archer's shoulders gave me a clue that this someone could cause big trouble. So I tried really hard not to pout as I shrugged and separated my hand from his. "No worries, go do your thing. Bree is right there anyway."
He scowled, looking like he wanted to argue, but I was already weaving my way through the tightly packed dance floor—also known as Bree's parents’ living room—to where my fun-loving friend was writhing to the music. I grabbed her hands, dancing with her a moment before she spun around and grabbed my face between her hands.
"MK, you minx," she purred, her eyes glazed with alcohol. "You've been making out with someone."
I cringed, touching my fingertips to my swollen lips. "That obvious?"
She cracked up, then nodded and gave me a knowing smile. "Come on; I've got some seriously kick-ass concealer in my room."
We pushed our way back through the people, then ducked across the silent pool area to Bree's room. It dimly occurred to me that Archer was busy looking for Steele and Kody, so no one was watching me. If my stalker was at the party looking for an opportunity... I'd just handed it to him on a platter.
Maybe I was as stupid as my father thought, after all.
29
To my intense relief, Bree made quick work of fixing my face, totally erasing the evidence of my heated, frantic make out with Archer, and we made it safely back into the main house without anyone turning me into a skin suit.
Small wins.
We found all three guys in the kitchen, talking in low voices with their serious faces on. If anything, those faces only got more serious when I joined them.
"Wow, you guys sure look like you're having fun," Bree commented, the sarcasm piled on thick. "I'm going back to dance. You coming, MK?" She held a hand out to me in invitation. But I was getting a seriously weird vibe from the guys, so I shook my head.
"Nah, you go," I told her. "I'll be in soon."
She shrugged and disappeared back into the crowd of party people. I folded my arms and eyed all three of the guys suspiciously.
"What's going on?" I looked to Archer first, but his gaze was cold and flat. Unemotional. It was almost a shock to see that expression back on his face so soon, as if nothing had just happened between us.
Bitter disappointment curdled all the fuzzy, sexed-up feelings inside me like sour milk, and I hardened my own eyes.
No one answered me.
"Of course, silly me for expecting to be kept in the loop when I'm the one with a deranged stalker." Anger colored my words, and Steele gave me a concerned look, reaching out to touch my arm. I flinched away before his hand made contact with my skin, though. These three assholes totally short-circuited my better judgment, and I'd just about had enough.
He frowned, seeming hurt at my flinch, but tucked his hands in the back pockets of his jeans. "This has nothing to do with your stalker, Madison Kate."
It was stupid and petty, but hearing him call me by my name instead of "Hellcat" made my heart hurt. Not in a good way.
I jerked my attention across to Kody, who was giving exactly nothing away as he stared at me with unnerving intensity. Archer... well, I wasn't wasting my time or my pride by paying him any attention.
"Fine. Suit yourselves. I might go find Dallas and his little friends. They seem like fun boys to party with." I started to leave the kitchen, but Archer grabbed my wrist in his vice-like grip.
"Don't fucking test me right now, Princess Danvers. You have no idea what's going on here." His voice was low and menacing, but there was a note I hadn't heard before. Deep, buried under layers of irritation, he was almost pleading.
"Incoming," Steele announced, and Archer's attention shifted past me.
He cursed under his breath and dropped my wrist. That in itself made me curious enough to see who, exactly, was "incoming."
I turned my head to look in the direction of Archer's stare and groaned.
"Great, Kody's girlfriend is here," I muttered, sounding a whole lot more nasty than I'd meant to... out loud, anyway.
Archer gave me a sharp look. "Jealous?" he whispered, his lips barely moving. Before I could deny it, though, he turned his furious glare on his blond friend. "Get rid of her, bro. You know the score."
Kody just gave a pained grimace, taking a gulp of his drink. "What do you want me to do? Drag her out of here by her hair?"
Archer rumbled, and even I knew he was practically at breaking point. "I don't fucking care what you do, Kody. Just get rid of her. Now. Before I'm forced to do something we'll all regret in the morning." He stepped back, leaning his bulk against the cabinets. Apparently he was content to let Kody handle this on his own, but something about that whole exchange sat strangely with me.
"Better think fast, dude," Steele murmured. He was sitting on the island, his long fingers looped casually around the neck of a glass beer bottle. "She's spotted you."
Kody cursed, then held a hand out to me. "MK, I need your help."
My brows shot up. "Fuck no. Last time I helped you, that bitch slapped me."
Steele covered a laugh with his beer bottle, but I shot him a quick glare anyway. Kody just gave an exasperated sigh, wriggling his fingers to try and hurry me up.
"I promise she won't slap you this time," he said in a rush, his eyes darting past me—tracking Drew's progress across the party, no doubt.
I folded my arms. "What's in it for me?"
This time, I could have sworn Archer cracked a grin, but he rubbed a palm over his lower face so I couldn't know for sure.
"Anything," Kody replied quickly. "Seriously. Anything you want. No parameters."
Well, that was a deal just too good to pass up. I placed my hand in his, accepting the offer, and his fingers closed around mine.
"Thank you," he whispered, then tugged me hard enough that I stumbled into his chest. His arms slipped around me just a fraction of a second before I heard an outraged female shriek.
"What the actual fuck, Kody?" Drew snarled. I couldn't see her face—my back was to her thanks to my front being press
ed to Kody's body—but I could imagine the bratty-girl, hands-on-hips stance. "You're with the goat again? I thought you were done with her. Did last week mean nothing to you?"
There was a malicious edge in her voice, like she was trying to hurt me by implying a whole lot more had happened between them. She had no idea I'd seen them kissing near Nadia's Cakes, but clearly wanted me to know.
"Drew," Kody replied, his voice bored. He took one hand from my waist to grab his drink from the counter. It allowed me enough space to turn slightly and see the girl's reaction. "You're talking about last Tuesday when you kissed me in the street, and I pushed you away?" His remaining hand tightened on my hip, making it clear he was reinforcing these details for my benefit. "I told you then, plain as day, I'm not interested. Go home before you get yourself in deeper trouble than you counted on tonight." I caught a small, pointed head dip in Archer's direction, and Drew's eyes widened a bit. She seemed... scared of Archer. Why? He'd already told me he wouldn’t beat anyone up just for the sake of it. He wouldn't risk his MMA career like that.
But if his power didn't come from physical violence... what else did he have going on? I seriously doubted he was one to use his brother’s position at leader of the Reapers to his advantage. They hardly seemed close.
Still, Drew was a sassy thing and forged ahead. "You're just playing hard to get," she told Kody, like she really believed that herself. "I bet you're not even fucking the goat. She's just here for show."
Now she was just pissing me off. I couldn't quite work out if it was the implication that Kody and I wouldn't sleep together or the consistent use of "goat" or just the fact that she was talking about me like I wasn't standing right freaking there, but regardless, I was getting annoyed.
Reaching up, I stroked my hand down the side of Kody's face. My fingers applied a bit of pressure to his chin, tilting his face down to me. I'd intended to just get his attention so I could say something, tell him the air in here was getting too desperate and we should leave. Maybe cap it off with a cutesy nickname, then leave the kitchen holding hands.
That's what I'd intended to do.
That's not what happened.
Kody's green gaze caught mine, and the next thing I knew our lips were locked together in a passionate, starving kiss. I gasped against his mouth, my lips parting, and he pressed the advantage to deepen our kiss. Or maybe I did that.
My hands slid up his body, grasping the back of his strong neck and holding tightly, demanding more.
Glass clunked against the countertop—Kody dropping his beer, I guessed—then his arms were banding around my waist. He spun us around, then hoisted me up to sit on the edge of the counter. Not that it was such a stretch to kiss me standing up, thanks to my four-inch heels, but there was something insanely sexy about this dynamic shift. It allowed him to crush in tight to my body, forcing my knees apart so that his hard length, encased in denim jeans, could grind against my core. My—oh shit—totally naked core, thanks to my missing thong.
Drew was railing on about something, but her shrill voice faded to a blur of noise as Kody kissed me like I was the last woman on earth.
This kiss. This was the kiss I'd been craving from him since the night we’d met almost a year ago--since he’d teased my neck with those feather-light kisses in the dark of the fun house.
My breath hitched in a small moan as his hands ran all over my body, and it took every ounce of willpower I had to remember we were still in public. We were on Bree's parents’ kitchen counter, for fuck’s sake. People were watching.
People like...
My eyes shot open, looking past Kody and catching straight on Archer's furious glare. Beside him Steele's brow was furrowed and his jaw clenched tightly in anger.
Fuck. What had I gotten myself into?
"Fuck this!" Drew snarled—finally. She grabbed a Solo cup full of beer, then chucked it at Kody's back.
The cold splash of beer made him pull away from me, but only an inch. His shoulders tightened, and his eyes—so close to mine—glittered with fury, but he didn't pay her any attention.
Me? I was just glad it was Kody who wore the beer and not me.
"She's gone," I told him in a soft voice as Drew stormed out of the kitchen. A teasing smile played over my lips, and nothing I could do would make it go away.
The tension dropped from Kody's body in perceptible waves, and he gave me a mischievous grin. "Thanks, MK. I owe you one."
"Literally," I replied, then swiped my tongue across my lower lip. My mouth was tingling and hot, and I was going to have one hell of a time trying to forget the feeling of kissing Kody. Or Archer, for that matter.
Steele's kiss had been firmly placed in a lockbox inside my mind labeled "betrayals, never to be forgotten."
"What makes you think she'll actually leave?" I asked, clearing my throat as I peeled my beer-splashed hands away from Kody's neck. I really, badly didn't want to let him go. I wanted him to pick me up and carry me to a guest room so he could follow through on the promises his body had just been making. But logically I understood he’d just been getting rid of a clingy ex. Or that's what it’d seemed.
Kody took a beat to reply, his gaze caught on my mouth for a moment, like he was considering kissing me again. He still hadn't stepped away, remaining situated between my spread thighs, and thank fuck too or everyone would get one hell of a view of my laser hair removal.
"She will." Steele was the one who replied, but he still looked all kinds of pissed off and tense. "Drew's pride won't let her hang around to watch you and Kody basically fuck on the kitchen counter all night."
Kody's fingers tightened on my hips, hard enough to probably leave bruises tomorrow, and his chuckle was pure evil. "Doesn't have to be just on the kitchen counter. I'm adept at fucking on all kinds of surfaces."
I snorted a laugh, pushing him away and quickly yanking my skirt down to cover my cunt. "I'm sure you are, man-whore. Excuse me for not wanting to be the next notch in your bedpost."
I don't know why I had such an unflattering opinion of Kody. Aside from Drew, I hadn't seen him with any girls in the three weeks I'd cohabited with him. Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen any of the guys with women. Aside from that first day at SGU when Archer made a show of flirting with juice-girl, none of them seemed to whore around much at all.
Then again, three weeks wasn't long, and boys that attractive with that much arrogance and charisma? Yeah, something told me they weren't exactly saints.
"Can we go home now?" I asked as I slid down off the counter. Kudos to me that my knees didn't wobble as my high-heeled shoes touched down on the floor.
Archer looked annoyed—or frustrated—and shook his head. "Not quite yet." He rubbed his palm across the dark stubble on his chin. "We have something to deal with first."
Steele's brows shot up. "We're bringing Madison Kate with us?"
It was pretty clear that wherever they were going, Archer did not want to take me along. But he gave me a considering look and sighed heavily before turning back to Steele. "You got any better ideas?"
Steele grimaced, running a hand over his short hair. "Not really."
"No, that's cool, guys," I commented with supreme sarcasm, "just talk about me like I'm not here. Seriously, keep going. I love it. It's my favorite thing in the whole world."
Stupid me, I should have known Archer of all fucking people would conveniently miss the sarcasm and take me at my word.
"Hey, what do you guys think about giving Princess Danvers a curfew from now on?" he asked his friends, totally deadpan. "Or maybe a tracking device?"
Scowling, I stalked over to him. "Don't you fucking dare, Archer D'Ath." I punched him solidly in the upper arm, but he just grabbed my fist and pulled me closer to him.
He bent down until his lips brushed my ear. "Don't push me, Madison Kate," he replied in a husky whisper. "You have no idea what I'm capable of."
When he released my hand and stepped away, his eyes were as glacial and intense as ever,
but there was something more there. Something fucking terrifying.
He stalked away, and I rolled my shoulders, shaking off the heady mixture of fear and arousal that marched across my skin like a thousand army ants.
"Come on, gorgeous." Kody draped his arm around my shoulders, aiming for casual nonchalance and falling just a fraction short. "This is turning out to be a hell of a night."
Steele sighed and followed along behind us as we headed in the direction Archer had gone. "Just don't hate us for what happens next," he said so quietly I wasn't totally sure I was meant to hear. I did, though, and so did Kody, if the stiffness in his body was anything to go by.
The question was, though... what the fuck were they about to do?
And why was I so damn excited to find out?
30
Lots of party-goers had spilled out into the front yard of Bree's mansion, standing around drinking and laughing. Some girls danced to the loud music pouring from the open windows, and several couples were making out in the grass.
That's where we found our target.
Archer made a beeline for a couple making out under one of the big willow trees, and Steele grabbed hold of my hand, holding me back.
"Trust us, okay, Hellcat?" he said quickly, quiet enough for only me to hear. "Don't freak out."
I startled, giving him a double take, but there was no time for me to question his strange comment. Archer reached down and grabbed the guy by the back of his neck, forcefully lifting him off the moaning girl and throwing him across the lawn.
That's when I realized I'd been a little off the mark assuming they'd just been making out. His dick was out, and the girl screamed as she covered herself up with her short dress.
"Take him," Archer ordered, and both Kody and Steele stepped toward the tattooed guy who was trying to stuff his cock away again. When he saw the boys descending on him, his eyes widened, and he took off running.
