Page 53 of Sinful Promise
He steps across the threshold, preceding Cato by a second, as the youngest Malone wanders to the fridge with lipstick on his collar and a swagger to his step that makes my stomach turn heavy.
He’s a child.
He’s a fucking teenager!
He’s ababy. But he hooked up with a strange woman today.
“Archer?” I stand and step around Micah’s broad thighs. Then storming into the kitchen, I grab my husband’s hand, and scowl when Cato turns from the fridge with a smirk on his lips.
“Hi.” I press a kiss to Archer’s jaw, but I hold on to his sleeve with an iron-like strength. “I’d like to speak with you.”
His eyes search mine for a beat. Enquiring. Probing.
Then I tug him along. “In private.”
“Wow.” Cato leans to the side and watches us move into the hall. “That’s what married life is like?”
“Shut the fuck up, Cato.” Archer changes our grip so our fingers twine together. Though he opens our bedroom door and lets me walk through, he stands on the threshold and glares along the hall. “Go check on Micah and do your fuckin’ job. You were supposed to be taking care of him today.”
“He’s alive, ain’t he? The doctor was seeing to him just now.”
“Stop talking about me like I’m not here,” Micah moans. “Jesus.”
“Archer!” I storm in his direction and yank him through the door. Then I slam it at his back and reach up to fist my hair.
Frustration. Worry. Fear. Anger. It all coalesces in my blood until I feel I might explode.
“What?” His aftershave works hard to bring me calm. His strong palms, as he steps closer, sliding along my arms. His sweet breath on my tongue helps me breathe, and his broad chest pressed to mine is his superpower. Because although not one single other man could feel like home to me,thisman, this one soul, is somehow my touchstone. “Baby? What’s wrong?”
“You said you hadn’t seen your brothers since you were sixteen years old.” I pull oxygen deep into my lungs until they expand and fill my chest. Then I breathe out again and search his eyes. “You said you hadn’t been home since you were a kid.”
“What?” He frowns. “I hadn’t.”
“Micah said you were in New York in October! He said—”
His emerald stare bounces between mine with surprise. “I hadn’t gone home to see them. I didn’t…” He shakes his head. “I didn’t tell anyone I was in the city.”
“Oh god.” My breath comes out on an exhale that leaves me weak. “You were in New York in October?”
“Yes, I…” He brings his hands up to cup my face. “We hadn’t even met yet, Minka. No way you can get mad about not knowing.”
“Micah thinks you’re the vigilante” I hiss. I grip his hands to hold him close, but my stomach whooshes with a violence that almost makes my knees quiver. “He’s connected that one guy in New York, plus Dowel,plusFentone, since he died on the same night you arrived back in Copeland. He’s convincedyou’rethe one killing these people, Archer. And even if we put those accusations aside, since we know he won’t snitch you out to the cops, what the hell does he want with that information anyway?”
“Well…” He stands tall over me, enveloping in all the best ways. Licking his lips while he thinks, seconds feel like hours as he considers. “I mean, I guess that assumption could be made, since I was in both places at the times the vigilante killed men.”
“But he’s wrong!”
“Better he be wrong about me than be right about you.” Holding my face and bringing me up to the tips of my toes, he presses a chaste kiss to my lips, and lingers for the world’s longest, sweetest beat. “Whatever is going on in his head, whatever the fuck he thinks he knows, it’s better he assumes it’s me and not you.”
“But it’s not you! And if he’s connected all that, then what’s stopping someone else from making the same assumption?”
“All the more reason to lead people my way, not yours.”
“So you become my shield? To what end, Archer? Where do we draw the line and make sure you’re not being fingered for crimes you had nothing to do with?”
“To the very end.”
He pulls me higher and brushes his lips over mine a second time. His tongue comes out to tap mine, then his lips open wide and hold me captive until the dread in my stomach makes way for something else entirely.
