Liar (Madison Kate #2)(85)

"I'll make this quick," I told Archer, cutting to the chase before I could lose my nerve. "You and Kody are having fighter-trainer issues because it's driving you completely insane that he's doing unspeakable things to me and rubbing it in your face. You're jealous as fuck, and it's consuming your brain when you should be focusing on this fight."

His brow twitched, and his eyes narrowed at me. "Is that a question or a statement, Princess?"

"Statement," I snapped back. "So here's how it's going to go. You lose this fight, and I'm going to force you to watch while I suck Kody's dick at the after party."

Archer's brows shot right up, and he let out a small laugh. "How are you going to force me to do anything, Princess?"

I let a cruel smile pull my lips. "I have my ways, sunshine. Wanna test them?"

His eyes narrowed again, and he swiped his thumb over his lower lip. "Alright, and what if I win?"

I shrugged. "Win the fight and find out." Over the speakers the commentator boomed out Archer's intro, and I gave him a challenging grin. "Sounds like you're up, big guy." I clapped him on the shoulder and gave his muscles a squeeze because I couldn't help myself. "I better go touch up my lipstick because it's probably going to end up smeared all around the base of Kody's cock later. Loser."

The vein over Archer's temple throbbed, and I turned away from him before I cracked up. Of course, Steele and Kody got the full force of my grin, and that only seemed to confuse the fuck out of them.

When Archer stepped up into the octagon, though, and Kody went over to take his hoodie and give him one last pep talk, Archer was all business. When the fight started, he was a lethal machine, and my heart leapt into my throat as I watched his fists fly.

"What the fuck did you say to him?" Steele asked in my ear as we watched Archer catch his opponent with a swift right hook, making blood splatter the floor of the cage.

I didn't bother holding back my feral smile. "I just offered some incentive not to fucking lose," I commented with a short laugh. I technically hadn't promised anything if he won, but I think we both understood there was an implied offer. Shit. Was I actually going to go through with that? More to the point... would he? After all, I wasn't the one who'd ended our last couple of hookups.

"Well, whatever you said, it worked," Steele replied with a laugh of his own. Kody was right up there beside the cage shouting his advice and encouragement, but turned around at some point to shoot us a thumbs up. Apparently he was also impressed at the turnaround in Archer's concentration.

Still, despite how good Archer was, his opponent had experience under his belt, and it showed in how evenly matched they were. It was hands down a much better fight than the one I'd seen on Riot Night. The night that had started all of this.

Somewhere in the third round, the other guy got the upper hand, taking Archer down to the mat with a heavy crash and grappling for a full mount. The crowd roared to deafening levels, and at some stage Archer caught my eye through the cage.

I licked my lips.

Fists flew, blood sprayed, the crowd went mental, and all of a sudden his opponent was tapping out from a vicious arm-triangle choke hold.

Just like that, Archer D'Ath won.

Steele and Kody whooped with excitement, Kody crashing into the cage to grab his friend in one of those manly bro hugs and slap him on the back repeatedly while the crowd went nuts cheering and screaming for their victor.

"Well, now you've got me curious," Steele yelled to me over all the noise.

I just shook my head. It had all been fun and games when I was just taunting him over his insane level of sexual frustration, but now? Now, I was so screwed.

Maybe literally.





31





After the fight was over, Archer—as the victor—was pulled into a series of interviews with sports reporters, so Steele and I sat on the hood of the Impala to wait for them to get out. The after party was in a shitty sports bar across town, but after so long cooped up in the house with just the three guys, I was more than ready for any party.

Of course, this one would be celebrating Archer's win, so I'd have to suffer through his ginormous ego all night. But so long as there was booze we should be good.

"Fucking finally," Steele shouted out, seeing Kody and Archer emerge from the sports center. "We thought you'd gotten lost or something." He hopped off the hood and popped his driver’s side door open as the boys approached with wide grins pasted across their faces.

That in itself was enough to give me pause. Archer smiling... genuinely smiling... it wasn't something I saw often. Not when it was so free of malice and discontentment.

Kody went for the backseat but Archer stopped directly in front of where I sat frozen on the hood of the car, his smile wide and his blue eyes dancing with excitement. Like he'd been fucking body-snatched or something.

"Congrats," I told him, sliding down the hood to get off, but he didn't move. Instead, his hands fell to my bare thighs—thanks to my short dress—and he pulled me an inch closer to him.

His head bent down, his lips brushing my ear as he spoke. "I won. So now what do I get, Kate?"

Fuck me. The husky way those words rolled off his tongue went straight to my pussy and exploded like fireworks.