Page 64 of Sunrise Arrows

“Thank you.”

“Come sit with me,” he says, holding out a hand.

I step to him, and the moment he can reach me, his fingers are in mine, tugging me down to sit on his thigh making me giggle.

Archer brushes his lips along my shoulder, sweeping my hair out of his way as he chastly kisses a path to the curve of my neck. When he reaches his destination, I rest the side of my head on top of his, my fingers playing with his as Will’s voice fills the speakers letting us know to take our seats as we’re about to land.

“This isn’t something you’re normally seen wearing,” Archer softly comments, his other hand brushing along the outside of my thigh.

“That’s because for the past nine years it was easier to keep the part of me that loved you tucked away. The label had been pushin’—pushing—to give me a makeover, especially as I started rising out of Landon's capital and garnering my own; we had to establish my brand in the industry. When I saw…” I trail off and close my eyes against the emotion building in my throat only for them to fly back open as I see the moment that shattered me play out. With a gentle cough to clear everything away, I skip over it completely. “Afterward, it was easy to give in and become whatever they wanted me to be. I wanted a fresh start without you and they wanted to strike while my star was rising and catapult me into the stratosphere. It was an easy match.”

“And now?”

“Now, I just want to be the woman you love. I’m happiest when I’m with you and in Berry Falls with a little mud on my boots and your hat on my head, and I refuse to let that part of myself get lost again.”

Proving my point, I grab the ivory hat I commandeered the night I wore this dress and pop it on my head.

Archer flicks the brim of it so he can see my face without obstruction and smiles. But when the plane begins its descent, his hand snaps back into place at my thigh and grabs hold of me. Through his strained teeth, he tries to remain distracted and asks, “And me? Am I gonna be enough for your fancy life?”

“As long as you’re happy here, yeah, Archer, you will be. If you’re ever not though, tell me and we’ll make a new plan. L.A. is my job.Youare my home.”

Feeling his heartbeat begin to pick up, I end our conversation by kissing him until my strawberry pink lipstick is smeared and we’ve taxied across the tarmac.

Lipstick fixed and the plane’s door opening, I lace our hands together and look up and back at Archer, asking him, “You ready?” knowing the paparazzi have already gathered in wait of my arrival.

He places his hand on my throat to stretch me further back as he bends down and once again ruins my lipstick with his kiss. “Now I’m ready,” he smirks, wiping the pink color from his own lips.

As the door opens, I put on a smile and make sure I’m squarely in front of Archer, acting like a small shield between them and him.

“Here we go.”

CHAPTER21

Archer

When Briar saidTinsley is never alone, I thought she was speaking in hyperbole. Turns out, she undersold it.

Sonya, her majordomo who cooks for her—something that baffles the hell out of me because of how much Tinsley loves being in the kitchen back home—comes in three days a week to oversee the house’s staff and prepare the meals on Tinsley’s diet plan. Her, I like; she reminds me of a young Miss Lucy and is always stashing secret treats around the kitchen for Tinsley to cheat with.

Six days a week there’s Jullian. Him, I don’t like. In fact, the third day he was here, I fantasized about drowning him in the pool when he told Tinsley that Tennessee had made her lazy and pudgy. She rotates through the cardio equipment in her gym four days a week singing her entire setlist, plus trains with him six days a week, and has choreography rehearsals five days a week. Lazy she is not, and if he says she’s putting onpudgeone more time, I’ll be calling Mikey and John to help me dispose of his body.

Now Mikey and John, I do like. Even if one, if not both of them, isalwaysaround. When we’re home, sitting on the couch in the living room with my feet propped on the coffee table and Tinsley’s head in my lap as we read to each other, one of them is there. Wading in the pool with her wrapped around me, they’re there. When she slipped from my lap and sucked me off under my desk, they’re there. Maybe not literally—and thank fuck for that—but it’s hard to forget that there are cameras all over her house. Her bedroom and bathroom are the only two spaces in the 10,000 square foot mansion that don’t have the eyes of Doctor T.J. Ecklebury watching us. She’s literallyneverwithout one of them. They work in shifts even when she’s home, one of them stayingacross the hallfrom where we sleep, often naked and with my dick still inside her.

Of course, there’s also Briar, who comes by everyday so they can work; more security at the gate to Tinsley’s mansion and milling about the property; gardeners and landscapers several days a week; and the guy who comes to do the routine maintenance on her pool.

Tinsley is, in fact,neveralone and by extension,I’mnever alone which has been a massive, glacial-like progression to adjust to.

Having people always around me is taxing, even in Berry Falls where I’ve grown up and know everyone in town, and even on my family’s ranch. I don’t like people in my space 24/7 as I’ve learned they are here. The interruptions in my concentration from people passing by the windows and down the halls. The exhaustion of making pleasantries and socializing because I don’t want to make Tinsley look bad or embarrass her, even though by lunchtime I’m ready to sequester myself in the office she gave me with the door locked and silencing headphones on. Not that it helps because I know I'm being watched from at least a half dozen different angles.

Days here in L.A. are longer and more exhausting than any I’ve ever spent on the ranch.

At the end of each one, my mind is a blank void of overstimulation and my skin crawls with agitation, and the only place I can find peace is in our bathroom. I sit on the stool of her vanity in there for almost an hour every day just listening to the sound of running water, my hands shaking and leg jiggling as I fight the urge to scream my frustration free and snap at anyone who speaks to me.

And all of this is what happens within the pretty iron gates of Tinsley’s property. Outside of them is a whole other story. One that, after experiencing it first hand, has me wishing I could kidnap her back to Berry Falls where I know she’s safe and free to move about as an actual human being and not a commodity for the world to consume and feed off of.

One week in L.A. and Hunter’s words ring louder and louder inside my head.

…you’re not cut out for her life… You weren’t then and you aren’t now.

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