Chapter 15 — Wanted Most #3
"No, let me finish before I get smart again.
" Her fingers tightened against my jaw. "Casino Night is coming.
My parents. Their friends. The whole Archer orbit.
And I'm supposed to bring you there and act like your family friend Luke.
Safe Luke. The man everyone trusts." She breathed in, hard.
"But I'm already imagining you in a tux in my parents' house, and I know I'm going to want to touch you.
I know I'm going to want to lean into you, look at you, keep my hand on you.
I know my mother will notice. My father might not, because he misses things when cards are involved, but my mother will. And I don't know if I can stop myself."
She was shaking now. Not much. Enough.
"That's why I waited," she said. "Not because I wanted you least. Because I wanted you most, and I knew once I started, I wouldn't want to stop."
There were things a man could say in a moment like that. Smart things. Clean things. Careful things that would make the scene easier to manage.
I had no interest in any of them.
I kissed her.
Not to shut her up. Not to dodge the truth.
Because she had handed me the most vulnerable part of herself while straddling me on a float in the middle of the lake, and I needed her to feel my answer before I tried to make words hold it.
She melted for half a second, then came apart against my mouth.
Her hands slid into my hair. Her body lowered until there was no gap left between us, and the kiss went deep and hot and hungry again.
I could feel how badly she wanted more. I could feel it in the way her hips rolled, the way her thighs tightened, the way she made a small frustrated sound when I caught her waist and held her still.
"Baby," I said against her mouth.
Her eyes opened.
"I'm not scared of clingy Eden."
She stared at me like the words had hit somewhere under the ribs.
"I'm not scared of possessive Eden either," I said. "Or loud Eden. Or the version of you that forgets how to be careful because she loves me too much to hide it cleanly."
Her breath shook.
"I want all of you," I said. "Not only the part that can manage the room."
The look on her face broke something open in me.
"That's a dangerously sweet answer," she whispered.
"It's also true."
"I'm going to be so annoying."
"You've been annoying for years."
She laughed, and it came out wet and bright and almost too much.
"I mean worse," she said.
"Good."
"Possibly possessive."
"Good."
"Possibly on your lap when I shouldn't be."
"Great."
"Possibly unable to behave around my own family."
I brushed my thumb over her cheek, water and warmth under my hand. "We'll handle your family. But don't stand at the edge of this forever because you're afraid of wanting me where people can see."
She closed her eyes.
For a second, she looked younger. Not childish. Never that. Just stripped of the polished timing, the social strategy, the party-girl ease. Eden Archer without the room in her hand. Eden with her body wrapped around mine and the truth finally out.
"I love you," she said.
Quiet.
No performance at all.
I felt it everywhere.
"I love you too," I said.
She made one small sound, then kissed me so hard the float lurched sideways and dumped us both halfway into the lake.
We came up laughing, gasping, still holding each other. Eden's hair was in her face. I pushed it back, and she caught my wrist and kissed my palm, quick and fierce.
"No full victory yet," she said, breathless.
"No?"
"If we finish this here, Shay will give commentary."
"That's your only concern?"
"No." Her smile turned sharp through the vulnerability. "My other concern is that when you finally fuck me, I want a bed, a locked door, and enough time to become a public safety hazard."
My body reacted so hard I had to close my eyes.
Eden noticed. Of course she did.
She leaned close, lips brushing my ear. "Casino night."
Then she wrapped herself around me again, tucked her face into my neck, and stayed there while the float drifted.
***
By the time the others swam back over, Eden had not let go of me for longer than six consecutive seconds.
Shay arrived first on an inner tube, chin propped on her folded arms, eyes bright with trouble. "I see we have achieved float-based emotional progress."
"Do not make me regret trusting your maturity," Eden said without lifting her head from my shoulder.
"Too late. My maturity was a temporary rental."
Tatum came up behind Shay and splashed her, which started an immediate war.
Kiki appeared with towels before anyone drowned, because Kiki existed to turn chaos into something with snacks and a cleanup plan.
Penny climbed onto the swim platform in a slow, elegant motion that made my brain register her body before remembering I was currently wrapped around Eden.
Reese followed, beaming, and the look she gave Eden was so gentle that Eden went still against me.
Reese hugged her.
Wet, quick, warm. No speech. No big moment. Just Reese's arms around Eden and Eden's face briefly tucked against her shoulder.
That one mattered.
I could tell by the way Eden exhaled afterward.
Kiki handed her a bottle of water. "About time."
Eden took it. "I was busy."
"Planning?"
"Failing to plan."
Kiki smiled. "Good."
Penny squeezed Eden's shoulder as she passed. "You look happy."
"That's rude."
"It's accurate."
"Still rude."
Tatum leaned over the platform, dripping onto both of them. "I'm proud of you, E. Also jealous of the float. It got prime Luke real estate and didn't appreciate the responsibility."
"The float served honorably," Shay said.
"The float nearly died," I said.
"Heroic sacrifice," Shay said solemnly.
No one was jealous. No one pulled back. The teasing made room for Eden instead of making a spotlight out of her. They let the moment be warm and ridiculous and normal, which was probably the kindest possible response to something that had not felt normal at all.
We packed up as the light started turning gold.
Towels over shoulders. Cooler latched. Rope swing abandoned to whatever future lake kid wanted to risk a concussion.
Kiki counted water bottles. Penny found her phone and immediately looked like she had a list. Tatum tried to climb into the storage compartment for reasons that weren't adequately explained.
Shay encouraged it until Reese talked both of them out of it.
Eden stole my shirt from the back of the captain's chair.
I watched her pull it over her wet swimsuit. The hem fell to mid-thigh. My shirt clung at her breasts and darkened where the water soaked through. She shoved her damp hair out from under the collar, looked at me, and lifted one brow.
"Problem?"
"No."
"Good."
She came to me after that instead of the bench, one hand braced on my shoulder, the other sliding under the back of my replacement shirt for one hot second like she needed skin before she could make herself sit down.
Her palm flattened between my shoulder blades.
Her mouth brushed the shell of my ear, quick and quiet.
"Still here," she said.
"I noticed."
"No," she said, and her fingers pressed once, possessive enough to make my breath catch. "You noticed the polite version."
Then she sat beside me at the helm on the way back. Not in my lap this time, but close enough that her thigh pressed mine from the moment I started the engine until the dock came into view. Her fingers rested beside mine on the seat. Every time the boat hit a small wave, our hands touched.
The first few times, it was almost accidental.
After that, she laced her fingers through mine and left them there.
The others let it happen. Kiki with a smile she hid behind a water bottle.
Shay pretending not to see and failing because Shay had never successfully pretended anything in her life.
Tatum humming some dramatic wedding march under her breath until Penny elbowed her.
Reese sitting opposite us, eyes soft, like she understood better than anyone what it felt like to finally stop waiting.
The boat eased into my dock with the sun low behind the trees. I tied off while Kiki and Reese handled bags, Shay and Tatum carried towels, and Penny took the cooler inventory as seriously as a court filing.
One by one, they moved up toward the house.
Kiki looked back once. "We're starting showers before Shay turns this into a debate."