Page 31 of Sinful Promise
“Not that I can tell.” Slowly, he brings his attention back to me and allows a long, sexy smirk to roll across his lips. “She actually smacks them down. Doesn’t care that she’s in a bar filled with cops. If one slaps her ass, she’ll lay him out and teach him a lesson.”
“And youlether?” I question in shock. “You let her hit your customers?”
“You’d rather I let my customers hit her?”
“Well…” I frown. “No. Of course not. But… are they complaining?”
He chokes out a laugh and grabs a fresh glass and starts pouring. No one asks him for a drink, but he pours anyway.
But then I smell that aftershave.Thataftershave, the one I love so much.
“Hey there, Minnnnka.” Broad hands wrap around my hips a mere second before Archer’s lush lips press to my neck and bring me all the way home after an excruciatingly long day.
From a late night, to an early morning. From one case I declined, to another that chose us before we could have breakfast.
“Your posture is still bad, Mayet.” So he plasters his chest to my back and takes the majority of my weight. “Have you eaten?”
“Bread.” I toss another piece of crust into my mouth before twisting my torso and meeting my husband’s eyes.
I mean, Tim’s are pretty… such a lovely shade of green. But of five brothers and a piece of shit father who sired them each with a new woman, Archer’s emerald-green is the very best of them all.
“Hey.” A soft smile works across my lips as I arch higher and wait for him to meet me halfway. He kisses me—just lips, no tongue—and it’s the best ‘we’re done with today’ I could hope for. “I was waiting for you to arrive before placing my order.”
“Mmm. And I’m starving.” He glances toward his oldest brother.
That’s it. No words necessary, before Tim nods and sets a beer down on the bar.
“I already put the order in,” he grumbles. Smirking for me, he wanders toward the kitchen, only to return a minute later with two fresh burgers with steaming sweet potato fries on the side. “She’s pale,” he says to his brother. “Make sure she eats. Then take her home to rest.”
“Doing my best. It’s infusion night, so she’s a little tired.”
“And I’m a grown woman who doesn’t appreciate my medical history being discussed in front of, or behind, my back.” But I pick up my burger and take a bite anyway. “Starving.”
As Arch picks up a fry andhss-hss-hsses around the boiling heat, I twist in my seat and study his broad shoulders. His boyish grin, and the way he watches me.
His stare is just so… other. So perfect. So protective.
“Is Fletch coming?” I ask. “He’s really freaking about Jada’s return, huh?”
“Mm-mm.” Eyeing the stool beside mine, vacant but for my bag, he circles around and picks it up by the strap, plops his butt down, then hooks the strap over his knee so it doesn’t touch the filthy floor. Settling in, he beams when I turn his way and continue eating like a cow. “I don’t think he’s coming. He and Moo have a movie date tonight, and Miss Penny has a hair appointment.”
“For what reason? She has, like…” I reach up and circle my head. “There’s hardly anything there.”
He double-fists his burger and takes a mouthful. “Dunno. But it makes her happy, so Fletch is staying in so she can treat herself. Aubs?”
“She said she would drop by after she’d had a shower. She felt a bitick.” I look down at my clean blouse, but grit my teeth. “She forgot to wear an apron for a minute there today with Patterson. Messed up her clothes.”
As predicted, his cheeks turn a sweaty shade of green. “She got himonher? Gross.”
Tim, of course, listens to every word we speak. So when Aubree’s name comes up, he raises a brow and makes no attempt to pretend otherwise.
“A little bowel,” I tell them both. “We take the sack during autopsy, and send it down for tes—”
“Nope.” Arch drops his burger to his plate and trades it for beer. “I’m good. You don’t have to explain.”
Laughter bubbles along my throat. “You’re soft.” But I keep eating. “You’re supposed to be this big, bad, mafia kid who grew up doing unspeakable things. But the one time I invite you in on an autopsy, you lose your lunch and every shred of badass I thought you possessed.”
“I left my family when I wassixteen.” Growling, he reaches across to cup the back of my head to pull me forward. “I wasn’t fully integrated into the ‘let’s scoop gray matter out to make mudpies’ just yet.”
