27. Preston #2
Before he could elaborate on that, our meals arrived, bursting the private bubble we’d been in. Archer unhooked his foot from mine but kept us touching as he cut into his duck.
I tried to behave myself, tried to stop squirming in my chair from the clear picture of us I’d been building in my mind. Since this was a date, that moved us past the realm of just fucking, and there were things I’d always been curious about but had never gotten a chance to ask him.
“Do you enjoy all these things you do?” I asked.
“Such as?”
“Your job. Running the Elysium. Are they things you enjoy, or did you get forced into them?”
Archer topped his duck off with a bit of the potatoes and took a bite.
“I don’t think I’d work so much if I didn’t enjoy it.
It was always my goal to own my own company.
I just wasn’t sure what form it would take until college.
I got a job at a talent agency, worked my way up, realized it was something I could see myself doing in the long run. ”
“How did you know you’d be good at it?”
“I didn’t. Sometimes you don’t know what you’re good at until you try everything.”
His words struck a chord inside me that had my questions faltering.
I’d never really had a choice to try anything.
My path had been set my entire life, and like the good son I was, I’d never questioned it.
Why would I? It was the easy road, the one already laid out for me to take and succeed my father.
But did I really want to be stuck doing something I hated when there was a chance I could find something I loved instead?
God, I didn’t want to think about that right now, because it would require asking myself hard questions I didn’t want to know the answers to yet.
I cut into my schnitzel and dipped a corner in the cream sauce. “And the Elysium?”
“That one I kind of fell into because I knew I was the best choice.” When I looked up, he winked. “Who else could corral a bunch of elitists and get them to part with their money? My contacts make it easier than most.”
“It’s not your contacts that get people to drop money at your feet.” When Archer lifted a brow in question, I said, “You also happen to be gorgeous. You think anyone can say no to you?”
He bit back a grin and shrugged. “It’s not a word I hear very often. I doubt it’s one you’re entirely familiar with either.”
“Ha, nice try, but we’re not talking about me.”
“That doesn’t seem fair.”
“Maybe not, but I’ve wondered about you far longer than you’ve wondered about me.”
Archer brought his napkin up to his lips, a curious look in his eyes. “You can ask me anything.”
I knew some of the details of how Serena had been born, that her mom and Archer had been young and it was a one-night kind of thing. What I didn’t know was if he’d ever been with other women.
“Are you gay?” I asked before I fully thought through how I wanted to ask him, and the look of disbelief on his face was comical. “Okay, let me rephrase: are you bi or gay or…?”
Amusement had one side of his mouth curving up as he swirled his wine. “Very, very gay. Do I have to guess why you’re asking?”
“No, that answer pretty much sums it up.”
He took a sip of his drink, and as he set it down, his fingers grazed mine. “Serena was quite the surprise. For both her mom and me.”
“One you regret?”
“No.” He shook his head adamantly. “God, no. She’s the best thing about me.”
It made my heart clench the way he talked about her, the way he obviously felt about her, because I knew in my gut that my parents didn’t feel the same way about me.
Sure, they loved me the way they’d been brought up to know how, but it wasn’t the same.
I’d already heard from Serena the way Archer had done everything in his power to help her when she went through a destructive phase in her teen years.
At that point she’d been commuting between her parents for years, her mom on the West Coast and Archer in New York.
From what she’d told me, she’d gotten a little too good at keeping secrets, falling into the wrong crowd when her mom had to travel so much for work.
It was Archer who’d put a stop to the back-and-forth, to create the consistency and routine she needed by living full-time with him.
Being such an amazing father only made him that much more attractive in my eyes.
Like I needed a longer list.
“So her mom was the only woman you were ever…with?”
“You know when I said sometimes you don’t know what you’re good at until you try? Well, same thing goes for not knowing what you like until you try.” He grinned, his eyes crinkling at the edges before he mouthed, “Very gay.”
“That’s good to know. And just so you know…” I pointed at myself. “Also very gay.”
His gaze moved to the entrance briefly, and then he reached for my hand, turning it face up so he could trail his fingers up and down my palm. “Do you have any other questions for me?”
How was I supposed to do anything but breathe with him touching me? In public, no less.
“Preston…?”
I tried to clear the lust-filled fog infiltrating my brain, but it was impossible. “I’m sure I have more, but I can’t seem to think when you’re doing that.”
“Oh? Feeling distracted?”
My cock throbbed, and I shifted on my chair. “Incredibly.”
“This is how you make me feel,” he said, his voice husky. “All the fucking time.”
Oh my God. Forget the questions. Forget the food, the other diners.
All that existed in that moment was Archer, his sexy-as-sin voice, and those dark eyes that were staring into mine like he could see inside my soul.
It made me weak in the knees, and I had to open my mouth twice before I could get the words out.
“Want to get that to-go box yet?”
That smoldering stare only intensified, sending a wave of goosebumps all over my body.
“Fuck yes.”