Chapter 48
48
ARCHER
S omething is off .
Normally, Layla and I have a good time working together at the hardware store. Heck, it hardly even feels like work, being able to spend the day together side by side. It’s just me, getting to hang out with the person I care about most, while getting a thing or two accomplished in between. It’s pretty awesome.
Well, that’s how it usually feels.
Today? Not so much.
I keep trying to be playful with Layla any chance we get alone. I sneak up behind her and tickle her sides when she reaches up to grab something off of a tall shelf.I make jokes, ones she normally laughs at, but now, they all fall flat. I even swat her on the ass when she bends over right in front of me to grab a shopping bag from under the counter, but I hardly get a reaction.
Layla’s just been distant . All day long.And it’s driving me crazy.
All I get from her are short answers and weak smiles. Ones that don’t reach her big brown eyes.
I’ve been racking my brain, trying to figure out what’s bothering her. I’m reliving yesterday. I’m replaying conversations. I’m overthinking the whole day. But I’ve got nothing.
And to be honest, it’s kind of freaking me out.
Fortunately, tonight’s Layla’s night to work late with me, so as soon as I’ve locked up the store, I go in search of her. I find her in the brightly-lit storage room.
She doesn’t look up when I enter, and it just confirms my suspicion that something is on her mind. I want to touch her but I decide against it. Instead, I lean against the doorway. “Okay. What’s going on? Are you upset?”
She frowns, pressing her lips together.
“Come on. Talk to me,” I push. Why does she look like she’s about to run? “Did I do something wrong?”
“No. But…well…” Her words linger in the air, as a worried look crosses her face.
“But, what?” I question.
“I…This is going to sound dumb,” Layla hedges, letting out a long exhale. “It’s just that Sky is getting really attached to you.”
I lift a shoulder. “Sky is attached to me. I think that’s a good thing.”
She sighs. “No, it’s not, Archer.”
I shake my head in confusion. “I’m not following.”
“Well, you and I? We know that this is all fake and that soon, it’s going to end and we’ll go our separate ways. But Sky doesn’t know that,” she whispers, her voice shaking. “He doesn’t know what’s happening here, and well, I can’t let my little boy get hurt.”
I fold my arms across my chest when it starts to ache. Fuck. What is she suggesting? I can’t love her less. I can’t love Sky less. They already have my heart.What is she trying to do here?
“So, I’ve been thinking,” she carries on. “I know we agreed on three months, but I think we’ll go stay with one of my friends for a while. It’s best that Sky and I move out next week, as soon as the wedding is over. Before this gets more confusing for him.”
My chest cracks. The very idea of them leaving pains me. “What if I don’t want you to leave?”
I’m supposed to have 44 days left with her, dammit. Forty-four more days to convince her to give me forever.
Layla sighs, and I know she’s so exhausted from carrying the world around on her shoulders. “You don’t have to say that. I know you do nice things for me because you feel sorry for me and the mess I’m in. But it’s a bit much. I’ve saved up a bit of money and it’s time for me to get serious about looking for rentals and figuring out how to get back on my feet.”
The fuck? “Feel sorry for you? You don’t get it at all, do you?”
I’m in love with her, dammit. And I can’t stand to hear her talking like this.
Tell her that , the voice in my head says. Tell her you love her and Sky. Make it clear that you can’t see your life without her.
I think I’ve done a pretty good job of showing her how I feel about her. But being direct about my feelings is like putting my heart on the butcher’s block. It makes me want to run, too.
I push off from the doorway, stalking toward Layla where she’s standing in the middle of the storage room. “You think I invited you to live with me because I feel sorry for you?”
“Well, yes…” Fiddling with the string of her apron, she digs the toe of her sneaker into the concrete floor.
I give my head a vigorous shake. “No, Layla. I invited you into my home because I…because I need you close to me.”
She looks like she’s not quite sure.
“I…need…you…close,” I repeat slowly. “That’s the reason I drop whatever I’m doing to come to you whenever you need help. That’s the reason I show up wherever you are before you even have to call. I can’t not be near you, Layla. The only fucking reason I even bought this hardware store was so I could be near you every day,” I confess.
“What…?” She says, her voice low and hoarse.
I go on. “I bought this store so I could spend my days with you. It made me feel better, knowing I could make sure you wouldn’t have to worry about whether your job is safe. I might as well hand you the keys and put your name on the bank accounts because this whole place is practically yours. ”
All of me is practically yours.
“Everything I do for you is because of how good it makes me feel. It makes me happy to make you happy.”
I sound like a fucking stalker. I expect her to turn on her heels and bolt for the door any second now.
Instead, she takes a tiny step closer. “You bought this hardware store for…” She loses her words inside her throat.
“For you,” I finish her sentence. “I didn’t want the store. I wanted you.”
I’m shaking as I admit all this to her. I never thought I’d see the day. But here we are.
“What I’m saying is, nothing is too much when it comes to you. Don’t you see that?”
She trembles, shaking her head. “Archer…I can’t bring you into my mess. That’s not fair to you.”
“I’m already a part of your mess,” I rasp out. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Her eyes blink down at the floor. “Why would a man like you, who could have any woman, choose to be with me? I can’t force myself on someone who’ll eventually end up resenting me because of all the problems that come along with me. Because that’s what will happen, Archer.”
“I could never resent you.”
She scoffs bitterly. “This is all fun now, but eventually, you’ll grow to resent me. Like my dad resented my mom and me. Razor was right. I’m just…I’m ruined, Archer. ”
“Ruined? You are the most beautiful, most perfect woman I know, Belle.”
She just shakes her head, stubbornly refusing to believe how much I like her, value her, need her.
“All I do is make your life complicated,” she croaks out as tears fill her eyes. “Why would you go to all this trouble for me?
“Because I’m the best version of myself when I’m standing next to you, when I’m taking care of you, when I’m…loving you.”
Eyes widening in shock, she whimpers my name. “Archer…”
I reach out to her and she reaches out to me.
“Come here,” I growl, taking her hand. “Let me ruin you.”
We lock our arms around each other as our lips crash in a needy kiss.
Layla groans, her fingers slipping into my hair and pulling. Meanwhile, my greedy hands grab her ass, smoothing down her thighs and wrapping her legs around my waist.
By the time she starts rubbing her core against my growing erection, my mind is already half-gone. I move blindly around the storage room, looking for the closest flat surface.
We crash into a metal shelving unit and I wedge her onto a shelf, tubs of wood filler and spackling paste crashing around my feet.
Layla is too busy tugging at the fly of my jeans to notice. So I get busy pulling her own jeans off. Once she’s naked, I hook her knee higher around my waist, angling the head of my cock at her entrance.
“Please, Archer,” she mumbles against my lips one second before I push into her tight, wet cunt.
I fuck her. Fast. Rough. Deep. Making the shelving unit shake.
Layla works her hips and clings to my shoulders and cries out my name.
My climax is approaching quickly. I bury my face in her neck, sucking on her throat as I reach between her legs and find her clit.
“Oh my god, Archer. I’m coming.” Her walls clamp down so hard it makes my head go light.
Her head falls backward right as her spine arches sharply and she starts falling apart for me. I don’t last a second longer, emptying inside her with a long, helpless groan.
When we’re both past the peak, Layla wriggles out of my arms, slipping out from beneath me. I drop my head to the metal shelf and take a minute to catch my breath.
I’m sweating and still struggling to pull up my pants, when Layla clears her throat from behind me. I turn around with a sated grin on my face. Somehow, she’s already fully dressed.But her hair is a mess, her apron is askew and she has fresh hickies on her chest.
“Now, you’re ruined,” I joke. “Freshly-fucked and beautifully ruined. Just the way I like you.”
But she doesn’t smile back. “I’m sorry, Archer. What we’re doing is fun. Truly. But I’m not able to open up in the way you need me to. I’m so sorry. I just think…at this point, it’s becoming dangerous. We’re going to get hurt. Sky’s going to get hurt. I’m afraid we need to just…stop.”
I swallow. “ Stop…? ”
“We had rules before, and we didn’t like them.” She chews on her bottom lip. “But I’m realizing now that you were right. The rules were keeping us safe. They were protecting us.”
“The rules were bullshit,” I protest.
She takes a step back. “We need to bring back the boundaries between us. If only for Sky’s sake. I’m sorry, Archer.”
I’m fucking stunned silent. I open my mouth to argue, but Layla walks away before my brain can form a single word.
Well, fuck.