Leaving Jada to gape, Nya strutted up the bar and came to a stop opposite Archer. The music was loud so she didn’t bother with a traditional hello. Slapping her forearm on the bar, she leapt up and grabbed his jacket to pull him down for a kiss.
When he gifted her his tongue, she smiled at the instant carnal reaction in her core. But kissing wasn’t why she’d phoned him. “When I said call me if you need anything,” he shouted over the bass of the music that wasn’t as loud at this end of the bar. “This isn’t what I meant.”
“I know,” she said. “There’s a guy standing two-thirds of the way down the bar.” Tracing her finger down Archer’s sternum, she batted her eyes like they were flirting so as not to raise suspicion.
“Did he touch you?”
Shaking her head, she turned her cheek into his hand when he caressed her face. “No.”
“You called me to cut a guy who flirted with you?” he asked, but didn’t hesitate. “I’m on it.”
Without questioning her any further, Archer was on his way to hurt the guy. Except she couldn’t let him until she explained herself. Catching his arm to hold his hand on her face, Nya stopped him from leaving, and twisted her wrist, silently asking him to kiss her brand, which he did.
“Fella,” she mouthed, drugged by the cloud of their attraction.
Archer wasn’t as distracted by their connection. “I’m curious, what the fuck did he say? I say all kinds of nasty shit to you and you never get offended. He must be a real pro.”
His almost impressed gaze began to wander toward the guy she’d described, but she boosted up to steal his mouth again before it could get far. “He’s wearing your mark and he’s asking questions.”
Fixating on her, he snatched her chin. His interest became more acute. “You’ve got skills, Squirm. What’s he asking?”
“If you’ll be in. He heard you’d been seen here,” she said.
“Does he know who you are?”
“To you?” she asked. The guy had to know she was the manager, but Archer nodded indicating he didn’t mean her position at the club, but her position in his life. “If he saw us kissing, he does now.”
His gaze fell to her mouth. “That’s why you should learn to keep those lips to yourself until you clue me in. Still so much to teach you.”
“You mean you wouldn’t have kissed me if I’d talked first?” she asked, pushing out her breasts.
His brief moment of admiration cooled and he reached over to fasten another button on her shirt. “Those are for private viewing only.”
“These babies pay Mama’s bills,” she said, unbuttoning it again.
He lunged over the bar and seized a handful of her shirt to yank her against her side of the bar. “That’s what Daddy is for, baby, and those belong to him.”
A mean-looking security guard, Robbo, stepped into a pool of light at the corner of the bar to check out who had a hold of her. Once he registered the details of the scene, and exchanged a nod with Archer, he melted away.
Archer did up two of her shirt buttons this time. Tucking her hair behind her ears, Nya didn’t fight him. “Letting you handle Sizzle security gave you ownership of the place,” she said, but wasn’t really complaining; the place had never been safer. But because Archer hired all of her new security guys, they were more loyal to her boyfriend than they were to her. “I have more résumés in the office for you to filter.”
Running his hands over her breasts, he took a look at the patron who’d been asking about him. “Let me deal with him first.”
Taking his hand, she held him back. “Don’t get hurt… I might need your body later.”
Kissing her brand once more, he wandered off without reassuring her or pandering. Taking a deep breath, she tried to be subtle about observing first contact. No punches were thrown, no knives bared, so she relaxed and went about serving her customers.
It was almost closing time, so Archer probably wouldn’t start a fight when there were drunk idiots ready to brawl in such large numbers all around him. As often as their schedules allowed, her man would take her home at the end of a shift. Given that he was here anyway, she imagined he’d hang around and give her a ride. Nya would get the skinny then… if he was forthcoming. With Archer, that was often hit and miss.
Though he could be secretive, he did have some uses. A new security system had been installed and they were recruiting security guards with the aim of hiring three times as many as they’d had before.
Archer had handled all of it. She’d known he would from the moment he’d sat in her office chair, picked up the first stack of résumés she’d received, and began to scoff and discard them one by one. The man knew something about almost everyone. Those who weren’t on his radar weren’t immune from his scrutiny and he quickly gathered whole life histories on those he didn’t know.
It hadn’t been planned for Sizzle to become his base, he’d never had a regular one before, but now that word was seeping out about their relationship and he’d been spotted here so much, people expected to find him at her club and often asked for him.
Most of the time, she played dumb, but this guy wore Archer’s mark, telling her that the two men had history. Good or bad, she had to tell Archer that he was here. If the stranger wanted help, Archer could decide whether or not he wanted to give it. If the visitor wanted to hurt her lover, Archer would handle that in his usual swift and final way.
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THE KINDRED SERIES
RAVEN
SWALLOW
CUCKOO
SWIFT
FALCON
FINCH
THE EXPLICIT SERIES
EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION
EXPLICIT DETAIL
EXPLICIT MEMORY
RISQUE SERIES
TAKE A RISK
RISK IT ALL
GAME OF RISK
HARROW DUET
FIGHTING FATE
FIGHTING BACK
MISTAKE DUET
MISTAKE ME NOT
SLEIGHT MISTAKE
Branded Page 27
