Accidentally on Purpose (Heartbreaker Bay #3)(65)

She’d gone through her adult life appreciating great sex when it came her way, but always being able to walk away and move on without too much trouble. Except she was having trouble walking away from Archer. Her problem was that she’d let him in her bed. Or more accurately, in her body and, she feared, her heart. And that was the problem. Because everything she thought she wanted was now sideways and she couldn’t figure out which way was up.

She filled three mugs with tea. She left one on Archer’s nightstand for him, glancing at the big bed tempting her to climb in. Instead she moved back to the living room, turning off lights as she went, before taking the other side of the couch from Morgan, who was already snoring softly. Apparently nothing disturbed her sleep.

A few minutes later Elle’s nipples did their happy dance again and she opened her eyes to find Archer looking down at her in the dark.

She hadn’t heard him coming.

He crouched at her side and set a hand low on her belly. “Why are you warming my couch and not my bed?” he murmured, his mouth at her ear, his warm breath giving her an all-over body shiver, the very best kind.

And there in the dark she felt him smile.

He knew exactly how he affected her.

“I’m not getting into your bed with my sister here,” she whispered.

“But you can’t sleep out here, remember? You end up needing my body. Bad.”

He thought this was funny. “I’ll manage,” she informed him stiffly.

But then he brushed his mouth across hers and her bones melted. Bad, bad bones.

“I’ll be waiting for you, Elle.”

“I’m not coming!”

His soft, sexy laugh ghosted against her lips. “I can promise you otherwise,” he murmured.

Incorrigible.

Impossible.

She flipped over, giving him her back with a huff that only made him laugh again as he left.

“Oh for God’s sake,” came Morgan’s sleepy voice, disembodied in the dark. “Go after the hot guy, would you?”

“The peanut gallery needs to shut up,” Elle muttered into the cushion.

“Just sayin’,” Morgan said. “I’d leave you alone out here in a hot minute to go have sex if I had the chance.”

“I’m not going to go have sex while you’re out here knowing I’m having sex!”

“Your loss,” Morgan said.

“Oh my God,” Elle said. “Stop talking!”

The couch was comfortable but she couldn’t find her zone. The room was a good temperature but she was at turns hot and then cold. Her pillow wasn’t working.

Morgan had started snoring again in less than two minutes and Elle forced herself to relax. She wasn’t sure exactly when her fantasies became dreams, dreams of how Archer’s hands had felt skimming over her body, the touch of his mouth on her skin. The way he’d murmured hot, sexy things while he’d stroked and kissed her . . .

She woke up and blinked blearily at the low light of dawn peeking in the bedroom windows. Wait—What? She sat straight up and stared down at Archer. His eyes were closed and he looked quite relaxed and comfortable.

And shirtless.

She peeked under the covers and found him in knit boxers.

“If you wanted to look at me, all you had to do was say so,” came his sleep roughened voice.

“Why am I in your bed? How am I in your bed?” she demanded.

“You were tossing and turning and muttering and getting no real sleep. Which means I was getting no sleep either, so I brought you in here.”

Where clearly she’d proceeded to sleep like the living dead.

“And that wasn’t me rescuing you,” he was quick to point out. “Or butting in on your life either. It was me doing Morgan a favor because you were keeping her up too.”

She met his gaze, which wasn’t amused. Wasn’t sardonic. Wasn’t anything but dark, warm, and concerned. For her. Because she was probably having a mental breakdown and also maybe pregnant . . .

“You okay?” he asked softly.

“Yes.” It was her ready-made answer but she paused and drew a deep breath. “Maybe.” She paused again. “Archer?”

“Yeah?”

“If I admit I’m not okay, just this once, you’ve got me, right?”

“Yeah, babe. I’ve got you.” He tugged her into him and she snuggled close, closing her eyes as his arms closed around her.

“What is it with us?” she murmured.

He laughed softly.

“How is that a funny question?”

“Because I try very hard to always know what I’m doing,” he said. “But I’m winging it here, Elle. I have no idea what we’re doing but one thing I’m sure as hell not doing is walking away from you. Not ever again.”

She waited for her heart to hit her toes but it didn’t happen. There was no panic. No anxiety. In fact, she felt . . . warm. Safe.

Secure. “This is just another of those temporary breaks from you staying the hell away from me,” she said. “Don’t forget.”

“I wouldn’t think of it.”



Archer loved waking up with Elle in his arms. It was the second night that he’d held her close with an intimacy born of something far deeper than physical wanting and he thought he wouldn’t mind sharing his space with her every single day of his life.