He wanted this thing between us to continue, that was clear. My mind jumped ahead to what would happen whenhe returned to Tunbridge Wells, and I carefully returned my attention to Ollie, sitting across from me and having issues with the vinegar bottle. I should take a leaf from his book and try living in the moment.
Easier said than done.
OLLIE
As we ate, Archer asked about my life at home. I told him about Jack and the rest of my mates, and how we were pretty tight-knit as a family.
“We mix mostly with the Phipps and the Mansfields, though honestly, I have no idea why. They’re really stuck-up.” I chased my last mouthful with a swig of beer. “I would have expected you and Mia and Tim to be like that, living where you do, but you seem perfectly normal.”
“No point in acting stuck-up when you haven’t got the money to back it up.”
“But you—” I caught myself. “Sorry, that’swayout of line.”
“Ask me. I won’t answer if I don’t want to.”
“I mean, you obviously have enough money to keep the place going. It must cost a fortune.”
“We’ve got what’s left of Dad’s treasure set aside for that. Thank God none of us inherited his taste for palladium. My forge covers the regular bills and just about meets Tim’s uni costs, though I’m not sure how we’ll manage when Mia goes.”
“Maybe she won’t want to,” I said.
“She has to have the choice.” His tone was stern and uncompromising, but I was coming to know him and could see softness in his eyes.
He was being so forthcoming that I took the opportunity to ask something that had been bugging me. “Do you mind if I ask you about Tim? I mean, he’s so nice and reasonable when I’m onmy own with him, but whenever he’s around you, he turns into a raging arsehole.”
That was a great way to break the comfortable atmosphere. Archer’s eyes grew dark, his brows drawing down. I wasn’t sure if it was anger or sadness. The safest thing to do was sit silently and wait for him to introduce another topic of conversation. Or for him to say this date was over and he was taking me home, never to speak to me again.
“He wanted some of the friends he’d made at uni to come and stay over the Christmas holidays,” Archer said at last. “Mia’s too young.”
Being in public, he had to be careful what he said, but I could fill in the gaps. There was a blanket ban on dragons mixing with humans until they were eighteen, due to puberty hormones possibly causing unexpected revelations of the dragon in us. “He argued that she’s seventeen and damn mature for her age, so there was no problem.”
“But if you made an exception for one person…”
“Exactly. If I said yes to him, I’d have to say yes to everyone else, and what happens when it’s a sixteen-year-old who has a compelling reason? Either it’s a rule or it’s not.”
“Tim didn’t take it well?” I ventured. That was obvious, but I wanted to keep Archer talking.
“He’d invited them before asking me, so when I said no, I embarrassed him in front of his new friends. Some of them decided he was lying about living where he does because he couldn’t tell themwhythey couldn’t come, other than his brother was a dick and wouldn’t let them. But I think some sort of blow-up with me had been brewing for a while,” Archer confessed. “He’s growing up, and having lived away from home for a couple of terms, he thinks he’s an adult. Heisan adult,” he corrected himself swiftly. “But I have duties and responsibilities to more than him, and he doesn’t understand that.”
I leaned forward and lowered my voice. “But as he’s next in line to be head, shouldn’t he be groomed to take over?” I managed at the last second to put my sentence in the passive voice because otherwise I’d have been criticising Archer, and that was the last thing I wanted to do. I’d seen the expression on his face when he talked about the blow-up with Tim. It hurt him, little though he showed it in front of Tim—which was perhaps half of the problem.
“I don’t want him burdened with this when he’s so young. There’ll be time enough when he’s older.”
There was no denying Archer’s sincerity. He clearly found being head a weight to carry.
“Couldn’t Mia go to a member of the family for a few days while Tim has his friends to stay?” It was the obvious solution, so I must be missing something important.
Archer stared at me as if I’d grown two heads. Then he closed his eyes and shook his head. “How thehelldidn’t I think of that?”
“Because the fight stopped being about what Tim wanted and became about him refusing to respect your perspective?” It spilled out of me before I could think. “Sorry. Sorry. Shit, forget I said anything.”
“No.” Archer slid his hand across the table and took mine. His was warm and large, rough with the reminder of what he did for a living. “You’re right, embarrassing though it is to hear it.” He squeezed my hand. “And if that apology was because of my status, when I’m with you, I’m Archer. Nothing more.”
“And nothing less,” I murmured, lifting his hand to press a kiss on it. Because the head of the Talbot family was impressive, but Archer was all that and so much more.
My lips lingered on his skin, and as our eyes met, I changed my mind about having dessert. At least, not from the pub.
Chapter Twenty-one
