Page 6 of Sinful Promise
“Fuck.” I fall forward, breathless and weak. But Archer catches me. He cradles me against his chest and twists until I land on my back.
Lifting my legs so my knees rest against his pecs, he grabs on to my hips and charges forward until a cry tears along my throat, and I know this is where I want to be.
Always.
For the rest of my life.
“I love you.” He shoves forward so I slide along the bed. Then pulling back, he does the same again. “I love you so fucking much, Minka.”
“Forever?” I pull my lip between my teeth and bite until it hurts. But the pain only accentuates my pleasure. The fire, only adding to the blaze in my blood. “Forever, Archer?”
“Yeah.” He slams deep inside me. “I promise.”
ARCHER
Iwake to the sound of my front door opening. It’s quiet in the early morning dawn, so that creak is enough to prepare me for an intruder. However, it takes only a moment for footsteps to register on our tile, and a second longer for my cop brain to know who they belong to.
I remain in bed, relaxed and too satiated to get up. I really should put my pants on. Make myself decent. But Minka sleeps draped across my chest, too warm, too perfect, for me to move.
Still, I press a kiss to her temple and whisper, “Wake up.” Then I give her a small nudge, because I know she dislikes being woken, but she loathes being caught unaware more. “Babe.” I use my chin to bump her. “Quick.”
“What?” Alert, her eyes snap open and search the early morning light filtering into our room. “What’s going—”
“Incoming.”
I paste on my most innocent smile and shove a spare pillow behind my head, then half a beat later, Doctor Aubree Emeri, Assistant Medical Examiner, stops in our doorway and peeks in.
“Oh, hey.” With pink and purple streaked hair, but blonde underneath that, Aubree is small-built and compact enough for me to want to put her in my pocket—though my affections are nothing on the way my oldest brother feels about the snarky doctor.
She keeps her words low, despite two sets of eyes staring back at her. “You’re both awake. Great.”
“Iwassleeping.” Minka scowls along the bed and registers what I already knew: she’s as naked as the day she was born. And of the two of us, she’s far more uptight about outsiders being in our private space. “I’m not dressed, Emeri! Jesus.” She fists the sheet in her hand and yanks it higher to make certain she’s covered. “Why are you here?”
Casual, carefree, and lacking any boundaries, Aubree cradles a single coffee in her hands and wanders in to sit on the end of our bed. “You’ve both been away this past week, and I missed you.” She brings her coffee up and sips to hide her smile. “So I came to you.” Too perky for this time of the morning, she studies her boss with a wild grin. “What time are we heading to the office?”
“I don’t know! Later.” Minka glowers. “What’s the time?”
“Uh…” Twisting, I tap my phone screen and close one eye to read it upside down. “Six-fifty-three.”
“A.M.?” She surges up in bed, clutching to her sheet and revealing enough of my chest to send Aubree’s brows high.
Lightning-fast, Minka steals the other woman’s coffee and drops back again. “I suggest you update your resume, Doctor Emeri. If you go quietly, I won’t tell your potential new employer that you’re a boundaryless pain in my ass.”
Snarling, she brings the cup up and takes a sip of coffee, only to hiss at the taste and shove it away again. “Who the hell buys Vanilla-Triple Sugar-Chocolate-Surprise? What’s wrong with just regular caffeine?”
Thrusting the cup to the bedside table, Minka twists so her foot touches the floor.
But the sound of our front door opening once more has her pausing.
Her body tenses. Angrily, her eyes swing around to me as the door closes again, and the snick of a lock echoes along the hall.
My wife is a sweetheart beneath the anger, I swear. Her shoulders, delicious and soft on my tongue, as opposed to the rigid tightness they carry now.
A heavy set of boots stomp-thud along the hall, then Detective Charlie Fletcher stops at the doorway and peers in like this is a party. His eyes meet mine for half a beat, but hungrily, bravely, they come to Minka’s and glitter with menace. “Why did no one invite me to the orgy?”
Shaking my head, I lean across and snatch Aubree’s discarded coffee. Then I flop back in bed so the sheet covers only my hips and down. That’s all my wife leaves for me, but at this point in my life, pre-seven o’clock, I fail to give a shit.
“Turn your ass around,” I tell Fletch. My partner. My best friend. “Get your eyes off my wife. Then throw yourself down the stairs and wait for me at the bottom.”
