Toe the Line(4)

Then I opened the door to my bathroom and froze at the sight of him.

“What the fuck?” he growled, running a hand through his thick, golden-brown hair.

My heart pounded in my chest. Archie stood before me, his sizeable dick hanging freely in the air.

Mortified, I stepped back out of the bathroom and closed the door behind me, my heart still hammering. Okay. What a difference a few years made. Not the Archie I remembered. That was a grown-ass man in there. A total Adonis. Rippled muscles. Tattoo on his arm—when did he get that? And a huge cock from what I’d gathered in the millisecond I saw it.

“Have you ever heard of knocking?” he finally called from behind the door.

Seriously? His attitude pissed me off. “Knock? It’s my bathroom!”

“Your bathroom? Then why does it connect to my room, too?”

Ahhh… I hadn’t bothered to actually open that other door. I’d only hung my robe on the back of it. “I thought that other door was a linen closet,” I answered after a moment.

Throwing a T-shirt over myself, I sat on the edge of my bed and bounced my knees. As the shock started to wear off, it hit me that Archie had also seen me naked. Seems he’d put that together, too.

“You look different than I remembered,” he said from behind the door. “Can’t put my finger on it.” He paused. “Oh, that’s right. The last time I saw you, you were wearing clothes.”

“Jerk.” I laughed. “And your…” Dick wasn’t on display. “…hair wasn’t that long.”

“You’re pretty funny-looking when you’re shocked.” After a few-second pause, his voice softened. “I’ll be right out so you can come in and do your thing.”

“Okay,” I breathed.

I suspected my “thing” would consist of replaying the past couple of minutes repeatedly under the shower—half mortified, half turned on by what had just happened.





CHAPTER 3


NOELLE


PAST



ARCHIE WAS THE last to stroll into the dining room that night for dinner. A piece of his longish hair fell over his eyes as he plopped down into his seat. I was seated between my parents on the other side of the table.

Nora turned to me. “Did you and Archie have a chance to say hello to each other yet?”

Archie looked up at me with a mischievous grin. “We sure did,” he said. “We were hanging out.” He lowered his voice. “Everything was hanging out.”

I cleared my throat, wishing the floor would somehow magically open under me so I could disappear.

My mom placed her hand on my arm. “Are you okay, honey?”

“Yeah, of course,” I lied. I was probably red as a beet.

Once we dug into the pot of steamed shellfish and corn on the cob, I was able to focus my attention on the food and avoid making eye contact with Archie.

At one point, Nora turned to her husband and whispered, “Are you gonna tell him?”

“Tell me what?” Archie mumbled, sounding annoyed.

Archer straightened in his seat. “The alumni association is granting me its distinguished alumni award. As is tradition with alumni who have children attending the college, they’ve asked that you be the one to present it to me.”

Rumor had it Archer had pulled some strings to get Archie into his alma mater, Ford University, which was located on the outskirts of San Francisco.

“What does that entail?” Archie poked at his food.

“It entails you writing something poignant and articulate.”

Archie dropped his fork. “I’m supposed to write a speech about you?”

“That’s what I said, yes. Just a few kind words about your dear old dad.” Archer smiled tauntingly. “Surely, you can handle that, can’t you? It’ll be good practice for you—writing instead of those foolish doodles you do in your free time.”

“Yeah,” Archie muttered. “Sure.”

He did not look happy. He actually seemed very on edge.

After another tense moment, Nora interrupted his silence. “How was your flight, Archie?”

“It was fine.”

“Do you have plans tonight?” she asked.

“Not sure yet,” he murmured. Then he looked up from his plate, making eye contact with her for the first time in a while. “How are you feeling, Mom?”

Nora seemed to force a smile. “Good, honey. I’m great.”

“Good.” He reached over and squeezed her hand, a surprisingly tender gesture.

The dynamic between Archie and his mother was certainly different than the one he seemed to have with his dad.

I kept waiting for Archie to say something—anything—to me during dinner, but he never did. After his initial joke about our encounter, I’d ceased to exist to him. Things were just as I’d always remembered them to be.

Just when the tension from earlier seemed to have dissipated, Mr. Remington reignited it.

“I was talking to Rodney Erickson the other day, Archie. He says he can get you in for a law internship at his practice here on the island this summer.”

Archie sighed. “Can’t I just enjoy my summer in peace?”

His father glared. “It’s a great opportunity and will look good on your law school applications. Now is not the time to be burying your head in the sand. I’ve already discussed it with him. You can’t embarrass me by not showing up.”