“Oh my God, are youkiddingme?” I demanded, before my blood suddenly ran cold. “Don’t youwanta next time?” Somehow, it came out sounding plaintive.
I hadn’t realised there was strain in his body until it disappeared at my words. He nuzzled against my neck, trailing his lips over my skin until my cock tried valiantly to rise to the occasion. “I do,” he said.
I determinedly told myself that hadn’t been a marriage vow, and I wriggled under his attentions as he rolled one of my sensitised nipples with his fingers. Archer was going to destroyme, and I’d love every second of it.
Chapter Twenty
ARCHER
I wasn’t sure what happened next, what Ollie wanted. I didn’t like being unsure. Evidently, he was more than willing to keep having sex, but I didn’t know if he wanted anything more. And the problem was, I did.
At least he didn’t seem to have any intention of leaving, even though the sex was over.
“You have a four-poster bed!” he exclaimed, as if I hadn’t noticed. “Do you get spiders falling off the curtains onto you in the night?”
I turned onto my back and stared up at the canopy. That possibility had never occurred to me, and I’d have been happier to have remained in ignorance. “I think spiders cling on better than that,” I told him.
Ollie snuggled against me again, sliding his arm across my chest. Everything was soeasyfor him. It had been the way he’d told me to shut up that had finally let me give in and do what I’d wanted to. No one had shown me such open disrespect in years, and it had put to rest my doubts that Ollie was only doing this because I was the head of a family. When he’d said it, I’d been Archer again, someone I hadn’t been for so long that I sometimes wasn’t sure who he was.
“You’re quiet,” he said. “Is something wrong?”
I licked my dry lips and put my arm around him, holding him close but not too tightly, so he could move away easily if he wanted. “No.”
Except for the fact I had no idea what he wanted.
“You’re not Mia,” he said out of nowhere.
“Full marks for observation.”
“No, I mean—” he propped himself up on my chest and looked into my face. “It was Mia I messaged to come and help me out of the maze. How did you know I was stuck?”
“She forwarded them to me.” A few things clicked into place. “I have a feeling she’s been trying to get us together.”
Ollie beamed at me, his widest smile yet. “Who’s going to tell her that her plan succeeded? Actually, no, we shouldn’t tell her. If she keeps making excuses for pushing the two of us together, we’ll get time together, she’ll be happy that her plan is working, and everyone wins.”
He wanted to spend time with me. He wanted us to be together, whatever that meant in Ollie-speak. Able to breathe a little more easily, I decided to tackle the subject almost head-on and find out what this was between us.
“Purely in the interests of making Mia happy, would you like to go out for a meal tonight?” I asked him.
“You mean like a date?”
“Yes.”
His relaxed happiness vanished, and I could have kicked myself. At least I had my answer.
“Forget it,” I said, and rolled over to get out of bed and go somewhere the sting of humiliation wouldn’t be so strong. Because why would Olliewant to be with an old grump like me? Of course he wouldn’t.
OLLIE
Oh, God. What should I do? I could keep him more than happy in bed, I could entertain him with my chatter, but if he took me on adate,he’d find out I was the good-time guy, not the relationship guy. Get past the physical talents and the laughter, and there wasn’t anything more to Ollie Shaw. At least, that waswhat everyone said, and somewhere along the way, I’d begun to believe it. Yet, for Archer, Iwantedto be the relationship guy.
He was leaving. I had to say something.
“Yes, okay, we can do that,” I said.
When he swung round, his expression wasn’t anything I’d expected. It looked like anxiety.
“But I’m not very good at dates,” I added.
