Accidentally on Purpose (Heartbreaker Bay #3)(48)

Morgan closed her eyes and when she opened them, there were tears of regret. “What do you want from me, Elle? I’d say I’m sorry for every shitty thing I’ve done but we’d be here all day, and in the end I’m not sure you’d believe me anyway.” She paused and sighed. “But I am, you know. Sorry. I was such a shit and I hate that and I wish I could take it all back, I really do.”

“Just tell me what you really want.”

Morgan made a low sound of frustration. “Is it so hard to believe I might have really changed this time? Have you lived your own life so perfectly that you can really look down your nose on me? You don’t have anything you’re ashamed of?”

Of course she hadn’t lived her life perfectly. She’d made more mistakes than she cared to admit. But as for being ashamed of anything . . . No. She couldn’t say she was.

Except for maybe this—she wasn’t willing to believe that Morgan had changed her stripes. She couldn’t, because if she did, then she also had to admit she gave up on a sibling when she shouldn’t have.

“Look,” Morgan said quietly. “I can tell you one thing I didn’t come here to do, and that’s fight with you.”

“Why were you at Archer’s?”

“Because you shut me out and I need help.”

Guilt niggled at her. But so did anger. “You shouldn’t have gone to him. We’ve cost him enough.”

“Maybe,” Morgan said. “But go figure—the big, tough, hard badass has quite the heart beneath that broad, sexy chest of his.”

When Morgan had walked out of the courtyard, through the wrought-iron gate, and vanished onto the street, Elle tried to talk herself off the ledge. She was going to go upstairs and bury herself in work until all murderous urges faded. She even passed the elevator, deciding that taking the stairs might expel some of her temper.

But nope. At the top of the stairs, she was breathing heavily and her toes hurt . . . but she was still mad as hell. Enough to forget her Archer embargo and head into his office instead of her own.

Mollie smiled at her from behind the reception counter. “Hey, you. Great dress and pretty little crop sweater to go with. But aren’t you cold?”

Elle looked down at her sleeveless baby blue wrap dress and the lacy sweater that wasn’t really a sweater so much as something that was too pretty to leave hanging in her closet. “Freezing, actually,” she admitted, “but I bought some summer stuff on sale and this one didn’t feel like waiting for a season change.”

Mollie laughed. “What’s a little discomfort to looking good, right?”

Exactly Elle’s thinking.

“So what’s up?” Morgan asked. “What can I do for you?”

“I just need a moment with your boss to strangle him—er, talk to him.”

“Oh, do go for the first,” Mollie said. “I could really use the rest of the day off.”

Elle smiled grimly and headed back. Archer’s office door was closed but she didn’t let that stop her. He was in the middle of a meeting with Joe, Max, and Trev, the four of them bent over a set of plans. Carl was sprawled across the middle of the floor, taking up nearly all of it, snoring. The big Doberman lifted his head, eyeballed her, and leapt to his feet, eyes hopeful and on the lookout for a treat.

Elle patted him on the head. Archer had been listening to something Joe had been saying but his eyes cut to hers and held, making her heart kick hard as the previous Friday night came flooding back to her, the sexy erotic memories doing a number on her temper.

The message in Archer’s eyes said he might be thinking about that night too, which didn’t help.

“Clear the room,” he said.

“Aw, man,” Max said. “Just when it’s going to get good.”

Trev smacked him upside the back of his head.

Joe rolled up the plans on the desk, and as he turned to follow Trev out, he smiled at Elle. “Who ate your bowl of sunshine this morning, thundercloud?”

“Bite me, Joe.”

He winked at her. “I would but boss man would object.”

“Out,” Archer repeated in a voice that had Joe hopping to attention.

Max snapped his fingers at Carl, who’d gone back to snoring on the floor. The dog stretched, farted, and then, his work clearly done, trotted happily to the door.

“Sorry,” Max said, waving the air. “He ate Mollie’s Egg McMuffin and it didn’t agree with him.”

“No shit.” Joe coughed and choked. “Literally.”

Elle wrinkled her nose. “Is he a dog or an elephant?”

Max just grinned and walked out.

This left Archer and Elle alone, which wasn’t going to be good for his health, a fact he seemed blithely unconcerned with. In fact as she moved toward him, he came around his desk and then leaned back on it, legs casually crossed, body language deceptively relaxed and calm.

The leopard at rest.

He wore faded jeans that fit him in all the right places and a soft-looking black T-shirt that stretched across his chest like it was made for him. He stood close enough now that she felt that intangible thing happening again, the old and undeniable pull of his personal force field. It was a combination of the intensity of his personality, the power of his will, and the focus of his attention. And it all added up, binding her by her own attraction to him. She took a step back to try to break the spell before she threw her arms around his neck and it wouldn’t be to strangle him.