“Ok, you were right,” Levi said as they walked back into their building.

The bar was as awful as she remembered from the one time Archer had taken her in there. He’d gone in to pick up a message, and they were only there for a few minutes. But it was a few minutes longer than she’d wanted to be there.

In The Tavern, a woman stuck out like a Christmas tree wrapped in neon lights in July, but it had been fun all the same. She and Levi spent some time talking about how awful the place was, they commented on the décor, and what they might, or might not, adopt for their building.

That conversation took them onto her upcoming renovations at Sizzle. Levi was impressed that she owned a club; she didn’t explain how it had happened.

She was used to Archer walking her home, so when Levi bypassed his place and started up the stairs with her, she assumed he was doing the same thing. Her files were lying on her dining table and she thought about how long it would take to get through them as she pulled her keys out of her pocket.

Unlocking the door, she turned and was startled to find him standing so close. “Uh, I had a good time,” she said.

He got even closer, putting a hand on the doorframe to lean in to her. “Dinner next time?” he asked.

Putting a hand on his chest, she maintained some pressure to stop him getting any closer. “I was being neighborly, Levi. I felt bad for the other day. I’m not interested in… you know, dating you.”

Great, she’d hoped to apologize for the other day and now she was insulting him again.

“You’re not interested or you’re worried about what our neighbor might do if he finds out we’re seeing each other?”

“We’re not seeing each other,” she said, pushing harder when he tried to lean down. “Archer’s a man of his word, you don’t want to push him.”

Levi’s swagger wasn’t affected. “I’m not afraid of him.”

“You should be.”

The deep growl behind Levi came a fraction of a second before he was hauled off and tossed to the opposite wall. “Archer!” Nya didn’t even need to register the identity of the attacker; she could smell his possessive rage.

Archer pinned Levi to the wall with a forearm on his chest. Levi grabbed hold and tried to pull it down, but he couldn’t budge it.

“You had your fucking warning,” Archer snarled.

When his hand twisted to the back of his waistband, she leaped forward to grab his wrist after he unsheathed his knife. Clinging onto him, she pulled back with all her weight to stop him taking the blade to Levi.

“No! You can’t kill him! Nothing happened!”

“You can’t tell her who to date!” Levi called out and she wanted to snap at him to shut up. Her arms were aching at the amount of strength she exerted holding Archer’s arm back from what it wanted to do. “Who do you think you are?”

“I’m the boyfriend, you fucker,” Archer barked.

“Ex! You’re the ex-boyfriend!” Levi spat back.

Archer surged forward, pressing more of his weight into his victim. “Not anymore.”

Nya’s shock made her relax, giving the knife a chance to move. Panicked by that sight, Nya’s muscles clenched and she swung herself around into the inside crook of Archer’s elbow. The force of her sweeping turn made her hit both Levi and Archer where their bodies connected.

While Archer didn’t take his eyes from his victim, she could see him. Archer’s tense expression was fierce and angry, he wanted to kill this guy, wanted to inflict pain, and he was capable. But she wasn’t sure if he knew what he’d said, let alone if he meant it. Just like when he told her that he loved her for the first time, he spoke before his mind kicked in.

“Don’t talk shit. You’re not together,” Levi said.

Nya was still gazing at Archer, waiting for some clarification. “Archer?”

Though his eyes dropped onto hers, his fury was still hot. “Doing my job, protecting my turf. Get your ass inside.”

“Gimme the knife,” she said, curling her hand around his on the handle. “Please, baby, just give it to me.”

She couldn’t let him kill Levi when nothing had happened between her and the neighbor. Out here in the hallway, clean up would be tough, and as soon as Reyes heard the commotion he’d be out to pass judgement.

Slanting toward her, Archer got in her face without letting Levi move. “You’re gonna get it fucking good tonight, baby. We’ve got forty-four days to catch up on.”

So she wasn’t the only one who’d been counting the days after all. Pure anticipation speared her heart and a bolt of pleasure fired outward. Struggling to focus on the consequences of what might happen out here while her mind considered what might happen inside the apartment, she swallowed.

“If you hurt him…”

Swooping down, Archer kissed her fast. “You still my girl?”

“You know I am,” she whispered, bringing his knife-wielding hand to the curve of her neck, she nestled the danger close.

“Then trust me. Get your pussy into that apartment, take off your clothes, and wait for me in bed.”

She didn’t know if he was serious, but she read hunger in his eyes and it made her belly tighten. When she moved away, she felt Levi try to move at her back, but Archer thrust him to the wall.

Levi said her name.

Archer had asked her to trust him, and following his instructions was the best way to help Levi out, so she ignored their neighbor and kept going. If Archer wanted to have a word and warn the guy off, Nya wasn’t going to make a scene.

Going inside, she took off her jacket and shoes, but didn’t go so far as to take off her clothes because she still didn’t know if Archer had meant what he said or if he was making a show for Levi. Nya wasn’t going to embarrass herself by being an eager beaver. A couple of weeks ago, sure, but not any more.

Eventually, Archer’s hand smacked the door open, he grabbed it and threw it into the frame and marched up close, so close that his body hit hers.

“You’re not naked,” he grunted.

“You’re not sane.”

“Give me shit later, Ny. My cock is gasping.”

Seizing the back of her head, he raised her up onto the tips of her toes and opened his mouth over hers. Bending his knees, he scooped his arm around her pelvis, and hoisted her from the floor. He took two steps forward and began to lower her onto the dining table.

“Mm, no,” she said, struggling to free her mouth from his that was so amorous and desperate to devour her that it fought to keep consuming her. “Not here.”

Impatient, Archer kept trying to kiss her. “It’s not our first time,” he said fast like he was pissed off she was delaying their joining.

“It won’t hold,” she said, grabbing his hair to kiss him again.

If he put her on that feeble surface, it would buckle beneath their passion. It was little more than a bistro table that wouldn’t give them much room to maneuver.

Archer didn’t let her complaint slow him down. His long legs ate up the floor and before she had a chance to open her eyes, he was putting her on her back on her bed. “I told you to be fucking naked,” he said, kneeling over her to rip off his own tee shirt and jeans.

Opening her hands on his corrugated abs, Nya whispered her delight and stroked them up to his hard chest as he doubled over her to drive his tongue into her mouth again. He groped over her clothes, shoved her top over her breasts and bowed to kiss them through her bra. Frustrated that it was in his way, he grabbed the cups and tore them from each other, uncovering the responsive mounds he ached to feast on.

“Oh, Fella,” she said. “Yes, fuck me.”

Her whole body was tingling. Her thighs to her core were so sensitized that she could feel every thread of cotton rubbing against them. When she parted her legs wide to curl them around his body, she was delighted to feel the hot, naked girth of his cock probing her inner thigh, stimulating itself as his hips began to mimic the love-making she’d craved since the last time they’d been in this bed together.

Though it went against every screaming, fervent atom in her body, she pushed at him. “I have to get my clothes off,” she said.

His mouth ascended from her breasts to kiss her again, he sucked her tongue so hard that her throat hurt. But she wanted him like this; wild, unable to contain himself, no barriers or rules. He needed her. His hot hands roamed her form, squeezing and teasing the flesh he’d neglected for weeks.

“Fuck that,” he said, shoving her underwear aside to stick two fingers into her as he licked and nibbled at her neck.

“I don’t need that, Arch, fuck me,” she said and his thumb massaged her clit.

“Cheerios?” he mumbled into her ear.

Nya shook her head so hard her cheekbone bumped on his. “No Cheerios, cock, I need your cock.”

In almost the same moment his fingers slid out of her body, his dick took their place. “Delivered,” he called out in time with her scream.

It had been so long that she wasn’t as accustomed to him as she used to be and she squirmed beneath the stinging of her tight tissue.

He pumped in and out, fast. “Oh, Squirm, baby, I can’t stop.”

“Don’t stop!” she screamed because there was something arousing about her body being forced to accept his.

Nya needed him in every way. Archer was claiming her now, marking her from the inside, forging a route so deep that she could feel him pounding against her limit.

“Arch!” Her voice was getting louder. “Archer!”

“Oh, fuck, yeah, baby, scream. I’ve missed that scream,” he said, pushing his sealed lips down onto hers. “Let me hear it!” His forehead landed on hers as their hips worked to drive them nearer to their bliss. “Make my ears fucking bleed, horny one, come on!”

With fistfuls of the blanket beneath them, she boosted her hips high, tilting them to allow the head of his dick to rub and stroke each crevice within her. “Archer!”

“You’ve got it, baby, you get anything you want.”

One of his hands landed on her face and stroked. When he clutched a handful of her hair, she turned toward his fist, digging her teeth into the bulge of flesh at the base of his thumb. He swore and she growled, grabbing his head, she made him kiss her again.

“Oh, you bastard!” she screamed, her pelvis rising and lowering in time with his. “You bastard!”

“I know, Squirm. You’ve got me. I’m going nowhere.”

And that was it; those were the words that pushed her into the blissful haze of orgasm. The clamp of her inner muscles around his cock gripped him so tight that his volume almost matched hers as he poured himself into her. Thick and warm and exactly what she’d been missing, his seed made her whole.

Stars flickered in front of her eyes and for a minute, she couldn’t bring him into focus. Nya realized that his forehead was on hers and he was too close. “Archer,” she whispered, but he stole her words with another kiss before he rolled to his side, taking her with him so that they were face to face.

Their bodies were still engaged for a few blissful seconds before his softening member slipped from her. He helped her strip off her clothes, then gathered her into his arms again.

Stroking her hair on her cheek, Archer kissed her forehead, her eyes, the end of her nose and then her mouth once again before he tipped his head back. “Ok, Squirm. Now you can let me have it.”

“You didn’t leave Levi bruised and bloody in the hallway, did you?” she asked, brushing her fingers down his upper arm.

“Your first question’s about your new boyfriend?”

Pinching his bicep, she was tempted to bite his lip because she could. Lying in his arms, with their limbs entwined, they were naked in their intimacy.

Nya couldn’t think of a more incredible way to end her day. “Don’t start that shit; unless you’re gonna tell me this was a one-time deal?”

“I don’t hook up with hos,” he said, combing his fingers into her hair.

“For a guy who should be groveling, you’re slinging a lot of insults at me.”

“My woman’s not a whore.”

“So we’re back on?” she asked. “All the way? What changed?”

“Everything,” he said. “I don’t know.”

“Fella, don’t let this be one of the times that you keep things from me. I don’t want to just forget the last forty-four days. I want to learn from them.”

“What did you learn?” he asked.

She almost didn’t know where to begin. Nya had learned so much about herself, about Archer, and Tag, about what she wanted from life and what she didn’t. “I learned that psychopaths look just like everyone else.”

His fixation on his hand in her hair switched to her face. “Now who’s slinging insults?”

Smiling, she was happy to be so chilled with him again. “I’m not talking about you,” she said, sliding her thigh higher between his. “Derren said that Woodrow was going to hurt your mom.”

But he wasn’t worried. “We’d never have let that happen. We were keeping an eye on the guy.”

“You sent me to dinner with him and you knew he was dangerous? Maybe there’s a lesson in there for me to learn. Don’t trust the ex-boyfriend who’s trying to get rid of you.”

“I was never trying to get rid of you,” he said, going back to his observation of her locks fluttering through his fingers.

“Really? ‘Cause it seemed that way when you were telling Levi how easy I was.”

“Hmm,” he exhaled a laugh that came with an almost Elvis lip curl, disgust and anger made him squeeze one arm so tight around her waist, she couldn’t breathe for five seconds. “You want to start with that? What the fuck was that?”

“Enough to bring you to your senses,” she said, running her tongue along his lower lip. “The guy came to my door.”

“If guys come to your door and tell you to go places with them, the first door you come to is mine,” he said. “Soon as I open it, you tell me they’re taking liberties and I’ll show him what his insides look like.”

“He wasn’t taking liberties. I met him by accident on the stairs before you came back from Vegas. We spoke for two minutes. Next time I saw him, he was at my door asking to be introduced around. I thought maybe if he got to know people, I wouldn’t be as interesting anymore.”

His hand slid from her hair down her shoulder to cup her breast. “These babies are always interesting,” he said. “That guy didn’t want to know the neighbors, he wanted to get his hands on these.”

Picking up his hand from her breast, she put it back into her hair. “I tried to tell him not to come near your door. I was never trying to sleep with him.”

“Then what was tonight? I walked up those stairs and saw you making out on your doorstep with the guy I threatened to kill if he touched you.”

“He didn’t kiss me. I didn’t lie when I said nothing happened. I was coming in from the club. Tag called, that’s when I left you that voicemail. When Levi came out of his place and offered to take me for a drink, I thought it was the least I could do after what happened on your doorstep. I figured it didn’t matter anyway. I hadn’t seen you since the hallway incident and I was making plans to leave town. I told him straight out that I wasn’t interested in dating him.”

“I heard you. I’m not sure I processed it when all I could see was some guy crowding you against your door.”

“So you thought it was ok to come and murder him?” she asked. “My floor is the nice one in this building. Folks on this floor don’t go around slashing people.”

“I could’ve dragged him up a floor, if it would’ve made you happy,” Archer said. “The guy hits the gym, but he’s from a nice family. He doesn’t know how to fight dirty.”

“And that’s your specialty, I suppose?”

“I can fight clean,” Archer said. “But I wouldn’t if I was protecting you.”

There was something romantic about how far he was willing to go for her. “You didn’t tell me what you learned,” she said. “You were so damn sure that you didn’t want to be with me. But this week’s been different, since you got back from Vegas—”

“I was meeting a guy there,” he said. “I have a couple of contacts I needed to check in with and we went out to this club, a strip club.” Drumming his fingers down her spine, he sent a ticklish flurry through her. Nya snuggled closer to his chest in her body’s attempt to resist the stimulation. He stopped tickling to cup her ass and pull her close. “So we’re at this club, and we’re talking, and we’re right there by the stage. Up close to the flesh, you know?”

“I don’t think I like this story,” she said, but was intrigued about where it was going.

He didn’t reassure her, just brushed his lips on her as he talked. “One of the guys goes to get more drinks. And I’m sitting there staring into my glass thinking, maybe I overreacted, maybe I was out of line. Maybe Nya was right that I shouldn’t have hit Tag so hard when he was fucked out of his brain. Thinking I should call you and thinking you won’t pick up. Thinking I don’t want to call and get your voicemail ‘cause that makes me fucking mad, and I’m too far away to jump in my car and come to your door.”

In the past when he’d shared information with her, it tended to be facts about other people or details about himself that were physical, tangible. He didn’t often confess to what was going through his mind.

“I might have picked up.”

“It doesn’t matter now,” he said, kissing her forehead, coming out of the daze he’d slipped into. “I was thinking all that and I realized there were three naked women on the stage. Hot, fucking, sexy women. Two redheads were making out and fingering each other and the guy’s in the club were going nuts.”

Ok, that wasn’t like any strip club she’d ever worked in, but Nya knew those kind of sex clubs existed. “Nice place,” she muttered. In Vegas, there were all kinds of clubs, and those off the beaten track, where Archer would probably meet contacts, were likely to be even more risqué than the mainstream places.

“But me, Ny,” he said, making eye contact. “I was bored out of my fucking mind. I didn’t see the tits and the ass—and those women were sex on fucking legs. I didn’t give a shit about any of it. All I kept thinking about was how I’d pissed you off. And that word you used, ‘distance’. Fucking distance.” He spat the word like it repulsed him. “You know how to cut a guy.”

“I was going out of my mind, Arch. Every time I saw you, I wanted it to be like it was. I wanted you to want me again like you had.”

“I never stopped wanting you. I didn’t end it because I stopped loving you.”

“You did it to protect me,” she said.

Giving her ass a squeeze, he grazed his palm over her thigh, and up to her hip. Then taking her elbow, he raised her arm higher to hook it around the back of his neck. “When I came home and Ester said you’d taken a beating because once again you wouldn’t tell a cocksucker where I was… you knew where I fucking was…”

“What difference would it have made if I’d told him? By the time he got on a plane to chase you, you’d have been on the way back.”

“Which would’ve bought time,” he said. “And Jonno was never getting on a plane; he’d have waited for me. But somebody put their hands on you in anger because my scrappy little Squirm thinks she’s a fucking giant when she’s standing in front of me.”

He could mock in that passive aggressive way all he wanted, she wouldn’t apologize. “I told you before, I won’t make you any promises about not doing that again. Look at me, Arch, the bruises are fading. It wasn’t even that big a deal.”

“It’s a huge deal,” he said, pulling her closer still. “Ester told me what you said about Damien.”

Nya wriggled, the discomfort making her face fall to his chest. “I guess I didn’t tell her not to.”

“No one should put their hands on you in anger, Ny. I’m sorry that what I do hurts you.”

Her head snapped back and her frown landed on him. “You don’t hurt me. You could never do it. I can watch you work. Tonight, I stood there in that hall, and when I saw you go for your knife, I ran toward it. I got in front of it. I took your blade to my throat, Arch, because you could never hurt me.”

He kissed her slow, massaging her lips with his own for a long time before his tongue probed forward, seeking entry to her mouth. Nya granted him access and allowed her body to be pulled on top of his when he moved onto his back.

For the longest time, they made out without expectation of anything more. He began to kiss down her throat and she knew neither of them would be getting any sleep tonight. “You know something that’s funny?” she asked, brushing her lips over his before she sat up to straddle his belly so she could stroke his chest.

“What’s funny?” he asked, taking his own opportunity to caress her arms, her shoulders, her breasts, her stomach.

“You spit out the word ‘cocksucker’ like it’s an insult.” She smiled. “I like sucking your cock; I wouldn’t be insulted if you called me that.”

He laughed and pulled her down to kiss her again. “Jeez, Nya, how the fuck did I walk away from you?”

That was a question that hadn’t been fully addressed. Archer tossed her onto her back to tease and taste his way down her body. Licking a nipple, he hummed. “I’ve missed my Cheerios,” he muttered.

Excitement made her almost drum her hands and feet on the mattress, instead, she grinned. “I’ll give you all the time you need to work through the backlog.”

“I’ll make up for every time I missed,” he said, just as he licked her clit.

Their responsibilities would probably be ignored for the next week or two if she had her way anyway. Ideas for the club could be put on hold and she’d have to talk to Archer about renovations, and Tag—

“Tag!” she exclaimed aloud and her eyes opened.

Archer’s head rose until his chin was level with her bent knee. “What the fuck?”

She sat up. Closing her knees around his ribs, Nya took his face to kiss his lips. “No,” she laughed. “Did you get my message? Did you call him?”

“Just like old times,” he said, but kissed her. “No, I didn’t call him. The fucker can wait. I know what he wants. Gio’s coming back into town.”

“Did you find out about the fifty grand?” she asked.

His eyes narrowed. “Do you want to talk about your buddy’s buddy, or do you want me to eat your pussy?” Stroking his fingers over her clit, Archer sent a zap of excitement north through her belly.

Hooking her arms around his neck to kiss him with all the love she’d saved over the last forty-four days, she said, “I guess it can wait.”

Nya had her man back and there wasn’t a feeling that could match it. This was the kind of kiss that she wanted to hold onto forever, but Archer pulled back. “That’s not your pussy.”

“You’re eager. Have you missed it?”

“Eating you out? Damn right. Some nights I thought about waiting ‘til you were asleep and sneaking down here. I thought I might crawl up under the covers and have me a midnight snack while you slept. I could just let you think it was some wet dream and you’d be too embarrassed to tell me so I’d never have to lie to you about it.”

That idea was hot. Hot enough to make her shiver as her whole body blushed. “I’ve never been embarrassed to tell you about sex stuff,” she said. “And if you ever feel like snacking on me, any minute of the day, you’re welcome to.”

“I like that,” he murmured and kissed her again. He pressed her shoulders, putting her on her back so he could hook her thighs.

Instead of her clit, he went for her opening and suckled it. Dipping his tongue into her, Archer made her moan. Her whining made vibrations rumble in her throat, then another type of vibration rattled against the floor.

The distinct sound of his phone shattered their intimacy.