Page 65 of My Darling Mayhem

He was about to leave without a shirt, which jolted me up. “Do you want the shirt? You have nothing to walk back home in.”

His gaze narrowed. “No. It’s yours. I’ll be back in a few after I go shower.”

I watched his muscles shift as he slipped out my back door. One of my neighbors was definitely going to see him and speculate that he was doing the walk of shame, but I couldn’t find it in me to care. Let them see him. Let them know he’s mine.

My stomach flipped at the idea of truly belonging to him and, likewise, him to me.

Perfect.

Two seconds later, someone tried to turn my doorknob. I slid out of bed and pulled on a pair of sleep shorts before flipping the lock. Right as I swung the door open, I yelled, “Boo.”

Cruz and Kane both brought their hands up to their mouths in a giggle fest. I walked past the two of them toward the kitchen, trying to shake the feeling that I’d slept with a man last night but truly just slept. There was something infinitely more intimate about just being held by someone all night than just fucking.

“How did you boys sleep?” My hands moved independently, grabbing a flat pan and a large mixing bowl.

Cruz slid onto the stool first. “Good.”

Kane followed his lead to the second stool. “I had a dream about a magical toilet.”

Cruz laughed, and the two started a whole conversation about what a real magical toilet could do while I mixed ingredients for pancakes.

I cracked an egg into the bowl when Kane tilted his head at me. “Hey, my big brother has that same shirt.”

Oh shit. Archer had been wearing this shirt at dinner last night.

“Oh really?” I moved away and grabbed the melted butter, adding it in.

Kane’s keen eyes continued to inspect me.

“Yeah…it even says his name, just like his shirt.”

My face was on fire because how on earth had I missed that his T-shirt had his name on it. I was too nervous to look down, but after a second, I just gave in and pulled the shirt away from my chest, inspecting it.

It was black with white lettering and carried the club insignia for Mayhem Riot. A few other symbols and words made no sense to me, but along the rib cage, in white ink, was printed “Archer.”

There was no way of getting out of this, but I would try.

“I think I got this as a gift from the club when they broke the fence…maybe they made several with his name on it?”

Kane merely shrugged and spun on his stool to watch the cartoon Cruz had picked out.

My heart felt like it was in my throat from the lie, which only brought back the reality that this thing between my neighbor was getting out of hand. Twenty minutes later, Archer came to the door, lightly knocking. Kane asked if he could open it, and when I gave him the okay, he excitedly greeted his brother.

Archer’s gaze was down, listening to Kane until he walked in, and blue eyes landed on me. The pancakes were done, and we were about to eat, but he looked at me, standing in his shirt as if I were the meal.

“Hi.” His smile stretched along his handsome face as he drew closer. He had showered, and seeing his wet hair was doing things to me.

“Hi.”

He slid out one of the stools and sat while nodding toward my chest. “Crazy, I have that same shirt.”

Kane smacked his forehead like his brother had misspoke. “I already told her that.”

“Is that right?”

I brought the dish towel up to hide my laugh while Archer watched me, shaking his head with a full smile.

SIXTEEN

---