down in front of me.
“Okay,” my brow furrowed slightly. I was worried he was about to tell me that he thought what we shared before my testing was a mistake.
Archer took a breath and smiled as he tucked my hair behind one ear. “I want you to be mine.”
“What?” I asked, not sure I had heard him right. He did not just say what I think he said.
He chuckled and tried again. “I want you to be mine, Skye. I would ask you to be my girlfriend, but that word is so trivial. It doesn’t even begin to convey what you mean to me. You would be much more than a girlfriend to me; you would be my life partner. I want to share everything with you; my bed, my home, my heart.”
I gasped softly as the full weight of his words sank in.
Archer gently took my hand again and stared up into my eyes. “I have waited centuries for you, Skye Morrison. Will you be mine?”
A wide smile slowly spread across my face and I leaned forward to interlock my fingers behind his head. “Yes,” I whispered happily. “Of course I will.”
Archer’s eyes lit up and he smiled as he stood up and lifted me with him. He captured my mouth with his and I wrapped my legs around his waist and held on as he kissed me until both of us were breathless.
“You’ve got no idea how happy I am,” Archer whispered as he rested his forehead against mine, his hands gripping my ass.
“Oh,” I purred, wiggling against his hardness, “I think I have a pretty good idea.”
“Shall I show you now?” he growled as he circled his hips against me.
“I’m not sure we have time,” I breathed against his mouth and wrapped my legs tighter around him.
“You’re right. It will have to wait until tonight. It’s going to take hours for what I’ve got planned for you,” Archer growled sexily. “I’m going to enjoy making you scream my name, Skye.”
My lower abdomen tightened with need and I moaned with excited anticipation as I brought my mouth to his again. “I have a feeling I’m going to enjoy it too.”
Someone cleared their throat and Archer politely set me down again so that my underwear wasn’t on full display. “You’ve got a call, sir,” Pádraig said quickly.
“Thank you, Pádraig,” Archer said as he adjusted his shirt cuffs.
I watched Pádraig leave and turned back to Archer. “Duty calls?”
“Unfortunately,” he sighed but then smirked sexily. “See you in a bit, love?”
I nodded my head and kissed him once more before he left.
Archer and I are official. I smiled widely and tried to suppress a gleeful squeal as I grabbed my messenger bag and sat on my bed. I started taking out the needless junk that had accumulated in it, when the chime of my BlackBerry stopped me cold. I looked around the room and under pillows trying to find where I had put it. I hadn’t checked my messages in eight days, at least. (When the bout of depression claimed me, before I was made a vampire, I put down my phone and hadn’t thought about it again until now. I found out that I had been in the coffin for two of those eight days. Turns out, my rebirth was anything but normal and took twice as long as it should have.)
Chapter Sixteen
I found my phone in the bottom drawer of my nightstand and pulled it out. The battery was almost dead so I plugged it into the charger as I perused my missed calls list. Four missed calls from my mother, sixteen from Jameson, one from Dean, and two from Nikki. I sighed when I saw how many times Jameson had tried to call me. Jameson. I missed him and wished he was here so I could apologize to him for the way I acted the last time I saw him. His last memories of me as a human were of my trying to attack him after he flirted with Courtney, one of the club’s cage dancers. I desperately wanted to tell him what happened to me, what I had been through these last twenty-four hours, but Archer forbade it.
I stared at the small screen and debated calling my mother. I knew she would ask if I had quit my job yet and I didn’t want to get into a fight with her tonight, so I told myself I’d call her later. I would have to face her someday