Liar (Madison Kate #2)(77)

"No." Steele groaned and buried his face in the pillow beside my face. "I don't want to go. It's so warm in bed this morning." His arm curved around the small of my back, pulling me closer to demonstrate what he meant.

"Who's Lorraine?" I asked, curious. "And why does that mean Steele has to go with you?"

"She's one of my older clients," Kody replied, pulling his boxer briefs on and hunting for his shirt. "Her elderly mother, Greta, lives with her and has quite advanced-stage Alzheimer's. Steele came with me one day that we had a photo shoot straight after the session, and Greta thought he was her husband, who died about twenty years ago."

"So now Kody volunteers me to come along once a month to sit with Greta and pretend to be her dead husband for an hour." Steele grimaced but climbed out of bed anyway. "Do you want to come with us?"

I rolled over and pulled the sheets up over my body. "Nah, I'm good. I need to call Bree and Dallas anyway, make sure they got home okay."

Kody gave me a small, worried frown as Steele went to his dresser to find clothes. "Are you going to be okay here with Arch? He's gonna be in one hell of a mood this morning."

An evil grin pulled my lips. "I can handle Archer," I assured him. "In fact, it gives me a chance to fuck with his head a bit more. I owe him for trying to constantly cunt-block me with you guys."

Kody's brow arched, and Steele turned to face me with a thoughtful look on his face. "Actually, I think we owe him for that," Kody mused aloud. "You just relax today, babe; we'll handle the pranks this time." He and Steele did one of those bro-nods, like they were totally on the same page, and my smile spread wider.

"Yep, we've got this, Hellcat," Steele agreed, tucking his pile of clean clothes under his arm and making no moves to cover his dick. Which, fair enough, after the night the three of us had just spent together. "You just rest up." His wink said it all. Rest up because they were going to want a repeat performance again when they got back.

Shit yeah.

"Alright," I agreed with a shrug. "I don't know how you'll top my steroids in the protein powder trick, though."

Steele just laughed and left the bedroom, ducking across the hall to the bathroom before Kody could get there first.

"Uh, yeah, I don't think we'll try for anything so drastic," Kody replied with a short laugh, "because we still have to live with the prick and he doesn't want to fuck us, so forgiveness will be a whole lot harder to come by."

I rolled my eyes. "Archer doesn't want to fuck me," I muttered, "he just can't handle not having chicks fall at his feet with their legs spread. I'm threatening his ego, that's all."

Kody cracked up. "Uh-huh, sure, babe. And the sky isn't blue." He disappeared out of the room before I could deny it any more. Not that I had any strong arguments for the contrary... I was pretty sure Archer did want to fuck me. He just wouldn't, for some reason. But even if he did, it'd be a one-and-done deal. Just getting me out of his system like he’d accused Steele of doing after our first time together.

I sighed and rolled back over in Steele's bed, burying my face in the pillows and inhaling the combined scents of both boys. My whole body ached with fingerprint bruises and stubble rash. Not to mention, my pussy was warm and swollen from the morning’s activities and my ass tender from the double up last night. But it was that delicious sort of pain that made me smile into the pillows with satisfaction.

Given that I had nowhere to be and nothing to do, I let myself drift back to sleep in Steele's warm bed. When I woke again, the clock on his bedside table showed a few hours had passed, and chances were the guys would be back soon.

Stretching and yawning, I reluctantly climbed out of bed and returned to my own bedroom to shower and dress for what was left of the day.

I was just padding around the kitchen making my coffee in a pair of thigh-high woolen socks—teamed with a pair of comfy shorts and one of Kody's sweatshirts—when I heard the first signs of life of anyone else in the house.

A loud, enraged roar came from the direction of the gym, and I paused what I was doing. When no other sounds immediately came, I continued to place my cup on the drip tray of my machine and pressed the button to pour a double shot of espresso.

Heavy footsteps thumped down the corridor, though, and a second later Archer appeared in the kitchen with three distinctive splats of paint decorating the chest of his T-shirt and a look on his face that would put Medusa to shame.

"Seriously, Madison Kate?" he demanded in a bear-like roar. "We're still playing these stupid fucking pranks?"

I cocked one brow at him, inspecting the paint and tilting my head to the side. "To answer your question, Archer, yes, we most certainly are still playing these stupid pranks because you're an arrogant son of a bitch who needs to learn some humility and quit being such an insufferable asshole. But this? Wasn't me."

His glare darkened, and that vein over his temple ticked like the clock of a time bomb. "Oh, so now we have invisible fairies waiting outside the gym with paintball guns, huh?"

I took my coffee and sipped the straight espresso, licking my lips to savor the taste before I replied. "Sounds like someone rigged up a booby trap," I commented, impressed. "Maybe you should ask yourself whether you've pissed anyone else off lately."