MINKA
“Ipromise to love you always. To protect you always. To be your strength when you need it, and your gentle embrace when you’re weary.” Emotion makes Aubree’s voice shaky. It makes her smile tremble and her eyes glitter. But she holds Tim’s hands in front of a hundred or so wedding guests, in a dress more beautiful than the one she already destroyed, and she stares into his handsome green eyes.
Almost the same green as Archer’s.
“I promise to be your shelter when life is chaotic. Your confidante, your secret keeper, your most trusted adviser.” She pauses with fiery cheeks and peeks my way. “I’ll probably tell Minka, though.”
On cue, her audience—the extensive family she was born into, friends, cops, an entire building’s worth of doctors, and a smattering of mafiosos attempting to blend in—chuckle.
“But I’ll only tell her the juicy stuff. Not the truly private stuff.”
Pursing his lips, Tim follows his bride’s gaze and looks me up and down like I’m the reason he’s already exhausted. “Mmhm.”
“You’re sweating.” Archer slides his pinky finger around mine, our hands partially hidden amongst the elaborate silks and fabric of my gown, while his chest warms my back. “And shaking.”
“Everyone’s looking at us.” I speak with unmoving lips, dropping my gaze if only to hide the color warming my face. “I don’t like that everyone is staring.”
“Pretty sure they’re looking at Aubree and Tim.”
Our conversation is basically silent, our stances unmoving. It’s Aubree’s day, after all. Not ours.
“You look fantastic, by the way.” Archer’s other hand, the one hidden behind my back, splays across my ass. Not at all church-appropriate. “This gown makes your tits look amazing, Minnnka.”
“Shh.” I inch forward to escape his touch. “Don’t say tits in church.”
“I like how it cinches you in at the waist, but makes your hips flare wide.” He takes a half-step forward, plastering his chest to my back once more. “Kinda wanna take you out the back and disrespect you a little.”
“Archer.” I twist his finger backwards. “Stop. Talking.”
“I don’t wanna stop talking.” He tilts his head closer, the tip of his nose brushing the shell of my ear. “I wanna make you wet with my words. See how much I can get away with before anyone notices you’re hot and bothered.”
“I will hurt you,” I growl.
I promise to be your lighthouse in a storm… or something like that.To remain faithful. To yada yada yada.
Aubree and Tim are technically already married, so it’s hardly necessary for me to pay attention to the details this second time around.
Archer only chuckles, whisper-quiet, and pecks the side of my neck. “You wanna fuck inside a church, Mayet? Wait for all these people to clear out so I can have you on the pulpit. Eat you in the chancel. Make you scream in confession.”
“You’re being exceptionally disrespectful right now.” I release his hand—I’m not hurting him anyway—and reaffirm my grip on my bouquet of dahlias and ranunculuses. I cast my gaze back out to the rapt crowd, seven eager Emeri siblings, Emeri parents, doctors overly enthused to see me outside of a white lab coat, cops—just a few—an FBI agent—does he realize how many criminals sit so near him?—and a little girl beaming brighter than all the rest combined. “This is God’s house, Archer, and you risk him smiting you down.”
“God likes sex.” He massages the globe of my ass, teasing and—horrifyingly—turning the anxiety weighing heavily in my belly into something else entirely. Damn him, he makes me kind of want to fuck on the pulpit. “God likes it when married folks bang. It’s in the bible.”
“You’re trying to distract me from watchful eyes.”
He nips at my earlobe. “Mmhm.”
“But you choose obnoxiousness instead of… literally anything else.”
“Uh-huh.” He pulls me back with a gentle hand on my hip, crushingme against his rock-hard cock. “Working with what I’ve got. Sorry, I can’t break out my clown makeup and balloon animals.”
I promise to remain true to you. To adore you. To nurse you when you’re unwell, and not to murder your brothers when they talk through our wedding vows.
I snap my lips closed and shoot a look Aubree’s way.
“Busted,” Archer snickers, ever-so-quietly. But does he stop?No. “When I started this, it was just a distraction because I knew you were freaking out. But now I kinda wanna fuck. I got myself worked up a little, and in a minute or two, they’ll be announced as husband and wife.”
Again.
