Chapter 9
Archer
“You get coffee and a kiss.” Eve woke me before anyone entered the big house with her sassy as fuck lips on mine.
“Hell, girl. If that’s what you’re offering, maybe I should be getting down on one knee.” The comment slipped out and froze us both.
Eve stared down at me, her bed mussed curls dangling over her shoulders to pool on my chest. One slim, denim covered thigh straddled either side of my waist. “Easy, Ranger. Someone’s going to think you’re in love.” Her fingers trailed across my collar bone and lower.
I sucked in a tight breath as she reached my belt. “Maybe I am.”
Her slap to my torso elicited an ooff. “Maybe you’re thinking of something else.”
My hands closed on her waist, squeezing gently. I let her see my smile before I rolled us, pinning her beneath me. She cussed me out until my mouth found hers, then her feral words turned into softer sounds that went straight to my cock.
“Rhys, the boys. They’ll be here soon.” Eve pushed at my shoulders, straining around me.
“Good. then maybe they’ll get the point and back the fuck up,” I grated, finding her mouth again. I kissed her until she moaned, her legs wrapping tight around my hips, her body rising to meet my grinds against her.
“Rhys, please. I need—” Eve scrabbled at my belt, her need rising with mine.
The door rattled. I caught her wrist, squeezing a brief warning as the door swung open.
“Jesus Christ. Can’t you two go upstairs to fuck around?” Jude groused to himself as he crossed the open living space to the kitchen. “Count to twenty.”
“Why?” Eve didn’t move from her hiding spot beneath me, her hands tangled in my open shirt.
“Because that’s how long it's going to take for Will’s crew to get in here.”
“Shit.” Eve scrambled out from under me, taking the blanket with her.
I laughed, catching her chin and drawing her in for a hard kiss before she dashed away to hide in the pantry.
I was left on the sofa with a cold ass, bare chested and no girl but laughing all the same.
My shirt was buttoned—mostly—by the time Will and Odin walked into the big house.
Apparently they’d made up overnight, though by the curious look Odin cast in my direction, we weren’t on the same grounds.
I shot him a hard smile as I raked my hands through my hair as Eve appeared with a giant thermos of coffee, her hair twisted into a messy knot on top of her head.
“Aren’t you wearing—” Will started.
Jude clapped the younger man on the back of the head. “Keep your eyes on the ground,” he barked gruffly.
“My mistake.” Will coughed, his face red, though whether that was from being reprimanded or for catching Eve out, I couldn't be sure. He studied the bar as the house filled with raucous chatter.
I took the thermos from Eve’s trembling hands that hid nothing, pouring the coffee she’d made into the smaller travel mugs that Jude provided.
Eve shot me a panicked glance and turned to cooking.
Sweet maple bacon scents drifted across my taste buds and left my mouth watering but that wasn’t what I craved this morning.
I watched her for a long moment, knowing I wasn’t the only one with my eyes on her, waiting until I was sure we had a full house.
Then, as Eve passed me, I slid an arm around her waist, turned her to face me and covered her mouth with mine. My girl tasted as sweet as Christmas morning but nowhere near as innocent. And somehow, that made the treat all the better.
The kitchen erupted in cheers as I drew back an inch, letting her breathe.
“Rhys?” Uncertainty crossed her face, though her gaze never broke from mine as she steadfastly ignored the crowd and focused on just us.
That had always been her rule: never let anyone see us together. The unspoken ranch rules.
No affection at the table.
No kissing in front of her brother.
No ranch hands upstairs.
I never had been sure which of those were her rules or just house rules that developed over time but in the last year I’d broken all of them for her.
“It’s easier if they know, honey,” I said softly, loud enough for her to hear me, but no one else.
Eve pressed against me. A tremor rippled through her. “Alright,” she whispered back, tipping her head back.
Uncertainty still swam in her eyes, something else there too.
A plea.
Don’t leave me again.
And hell, there was no way I’d abandoned my girl ever again.
I claimed her mouth in a deep kiss I couldn't break, crushing her against me. Eve folded into my chest, her curves fitting into all the right places.
“Hell, girl,” I managed when we broke apart, panting. “I think there’s work to be done for the day.”
“Maybe?” she looked doubtfully at the mess the ranch hands had made of her kitchen, the open doors and the empty yard beyond. “Or maybe it’s just us for the day?”
I tightened my hold on her. “I can do that.”
“This changes things.” A shiver rippled through her as she pushed away from me, her hands trembling as she straightened her shirt. “I’ve never—”
I trailed my hands over her shoulders. “One job at a time,” I directed. “What do you want to get done today?”
She stopped. “Really? You want to do chores with me?”
I huffed out a laugh. “Honey, I’ll spend every damn day with you for the rest of your life, if you’ll let me.”
Eve leaned back into my embrace as I inhaled her scent. “That sounds like a proposal, Ranger.”
I pressed kisses to the slope of her neck until the tension washed from her body. “List, Evie. I know you can’t spend a day in bed.”
“Fussy Ranger,” she cussed me, fixing more coffee as I cleaned up again.
“Firecracker,” I countered, nipping the lobe of her ear.
She yelped and darted away. “I will not feed you if you start biting me.”
“Biting is out. Noted.”
Eve shook her head. “Texans. I fucking swear…”
She didn’t have anything against Texans from her previous trip to my birth state from what I could tell.
Maybe it was just me. I laughed, folding my arms as I leaned back against the bench and watched her fuss about, building a lunch pack for us that looked a whole lot healthier than the food she spoiled the ranch hands with.
I swore she should have a whole lot more workers than she did. The thought that she’d been sabotaged from the inside, or at least nearby, still irritated the shit out of me.
“You’ve got some issues around the ranch. You know that, right?” I caught her wrist as she darted by me, halting her panicked flight.
“I need to—” she sent me a shuttered glance, pulling away from me.
I refused to let her go so easily. “Evie?”
“For someone who just earned his way back into my good graces and who’s on real thin standing, you’ve got a funny way of making yourself a good place, Rhys Archer.” Eve worked her hand free, glaring at me beneath her lashes.
“I do? By protecting what you love most?” I held her stare. “Someone is damaging your property, honey. I’m trying to work out the who and why for you.”
“Or take over.” She whirled around, darting off in another direction.
“What?” I sidestepped, catching her on her return journey.
“Fuck.” Eve tossed her hair to the side when it fell out of its messy bun.
“You think I’m trying to steal your place out from under you? I demanded. “Is that what being around Black hill Boy has done to my girl?”
She shook her head, then nodded, tugging at her hair.
I caught her wrists, drawing her hands down. Eve looked up at me, sucking her bottom lip into her mouth as I let her go.
“Maybe?”
“Maybe, huh?” And you let that fucker into your house, tried to comfort him?
I tracked the motion with my eyes, swallowing hard as her waves tumbled free and wild across her shoulders.
I forced the need to find Pierce and tear her neighbor apart aside.
“That’s a pretty look, Eve. But you don’t get to distract me like that. ”
“It was an accident,” she hissed through clenched teeth.
“Yeah?” I plucked the absent hairband from around her wrist, not calling her out on distracting me a second time, or her utter bullshit as she shook her hair forward to hide from me, looking at me through her lashes.
Fuck. Me. I’m screwed. Blood roared to my cock.
I dangled the hair band in front of her eyes. “This is the culprit, right?”
Eve continued to glare at me, kitten like. “Okay, so, fine. The ranch has issues. My neighbor is an asshole. Tell me something I don’t know, Archer. It’s not like I’ve had a whole lot of help.” She huffed at me, blowing a small puff of her hair out of the way. “I have people who are fixing it.”
“Or making it worse.” I wound her silken hair around my fist, drawing her closer. “Did you know that when Pierce loaned you his recommendations, or were you just figuring it out when I arrived?”
Fucking Black Hill Boy.
The range of emotions that crossed her face would have been comical in any other situation.
Right now though, no one was laughing. Finally, Eve blew out a breath.
“He needs help. You’re right, okay? You’re always fucking right, Archer.
Jude and Travis used to keep him in line when they were here And I— It’s gotten…
” she trailed off, spots of color rising in her cheeks.
I drew her into my space, leaving little air between us. “It’s gotten what, Eve?”
She licked her lips. “I’ve had to turn him down a few times,” she admitted. “He keeps asking."
I frowned. “Asking to take you out?"
Dating opportunities were thin on the ground locally, for sure. I got that. Eve was beautiful. It was one of the reasons that every male nearby insisted on eye fucking my girl, and why I kissed her in the kitchen this morning.
“Maybe asking to stay the night?" She winced.
I squeezed her waist. “And you let him in, firecracker?”
Eve closed her eyes. “Yes?”
“Did you fuck him?” The air evacuated from my lungs.
I fully expected that slap now. I had no right to ask when I hadn’t been here in the first place.
She tipped her head back. “No.”