Accidentally on Purpose (Heartbreaker Bay #3)(64)

“You’re crazy.”

“I know,” he said. “Now say it. Say that you’re going to let me help you.”

She blew out a sigh. “I’m going to let you help me. Dammit.”

He smiled. “Are you angry? Because we do some of our best naked work when you’re angry.”

She pointed at him.

He smiled.

She rolled her eyes and slid out from between him and the door. “And don’t think I didn’t notice how you managed to get me and Morgan to both stay with you,” she said. “Which puts her and me under the same roof for the first time in a very long time. You’re going to owe me for that.”

“Sex or chocolate?” he asked, and to his surprise, she appeared to give it serious thought.

“What kind of chocolate?” she asked.

He smiled. “Shouldn’t you ask what kind of sex?”

She grabbed the front of his shirt. “Maybe I want both.” Then she shocked the hell out of him by kissing him hard and quick, and then she was gone.

Trev came back into the room. “You bribe your woman with chocolate?”

“And sex,” Archer said seriously. “Don’t forget the sex.”





Chapter 20





#HaveItYourWay



Back at Archer’s that night, Elle tossed Morgan a blanket and watched as she settled herself onto one long length of Archer’s huge L-shaped couch.

“He’s really quite a catch, you know,” Morgan said. “You two could probably make it work if you wanted.”

“How do you know either of us wants to?”

Morgan gave her a get-real look. “I have eyes in my head, don’t I? That man wants you, bad.”

“There’s more to a relationship than sex,” Elle said.

“I suppose,” Morgan said, not overly impressed. “But if a guy looked at me like he looks at you, I’d go for it. You’re lucky, you know that?”

Elle didn’t know how to respond to this.

Morgan rolled her eyes. “Oh come on. If you were able to believe in Santa Claus for like, what, eight years, you can believe in yourself for like five seconds. You got this, Elle.”

“Hey,” Elle said. “I’d have believed in Santa a lot longer if you hadn’t made me stay up that year to watch Mom con our poor clueless neighbor out of his presents to his daughters, which she then put beneath our tree—and, by the way, our tree was a marijuana plant.”

Morgan laughed. “See? I protected you from some stuff.”

“I’m going to make tea,” Elle said. Instead of fight with you . . .

“You and your tea.”

“Do you want some or not?”

Morgan smiled. She’d always been amused by the little habits of comfort Elle had treasured. Tea. The same blanket she’d dragged to every place they’d ever stayed. The book of poems that had supposedly belonged to her father. Elle had no idea if that was actually true or not but her mom had always sworn to it and Elle had decided she had to believe in something.

“Fine,” Morgan said. “I’d love some tea. Really,” she added at Elle’s disbelieving look. “And, Elle?”

“Yeah?”

Morgan’s smile faded. “Thanks for not hating me.”

Elle sighed. “I don’t hate you, Morgan. And I don’t want anything to happen to you.” She paused. “Well, maybe something little and annoying, like every time you make toast it burns.”

Morgan laughed but sobered quickly enough. “I’m sorry I keep messing up your life.”

A stab of guilt settled in Elle’s gut. “You haven’t.”

“Oh don’t be nice now. We both know I’ve done exactly that. And I keep messing up my own life too. I’m having trouble with my Plan A.”

“Hey, at least there’s a lot more letters after A.”

“Yeah,” Morgan said and then hesitated.

“What?”

“It’s kinda nice not to be alone in this anymore.”

Elle had been doing her damnedest to hold on to her distance, but it was getting harder and harder because she was starting to understand just how alone her sister had really been. Elle had always thought of herself as being alone too, but that wasn’t really true. She had Spence and Willa and Pru and the others at her back.

And despite his deceptions, she was beginning to realize she also had Archer. And although she knew he was trying to back off and let her be her own strong capable self, the truth was that no one was better at watching her back than him.

“Think we’ll ever get this sister gig down?” Morgan asked.

When Elle didn’t say anything, Morgan’s smile faded. “Oh. Right. We’re not really sisters anymore.”

“Maybe that’s something we can change,” Elle said softly, surprised to find that she actually meant it.

Morgan stared at her, clearly shocked. “Yeah?”

Elle nodded. “Yeah.”

Morgan’s smile was tentative but utterly genuine, and it made Elle’s stomach hurt. Turning away to give herself a minute, she moved into the kitchen to get the tea.

Archer was in his shower. She could hear the water running. She could also feel the low-level hum of awareness skittering through her veins at the thought, which left her nipples hard and achy against the silk of her bra. They hadn’t gotten the message that nothing was happening tonight.