Her thumb had just brushed against mine, trailing down to the inside of my palm. My whole body was focused on that one area. What had she just said? Something about my hands?
“Must be all the baseball,” she added a second later.
“Yeah,” I said gruffly.
Her thumb was now doing these intoxicating little circles on my skin. They were driving me slowly insane, but I never wanted her to stop. Seeming to realize what she was doing, her hand slipped from mine a moment later. Honor walked over to the desk and sat in the chair there—even though I noticed her eyes kept going to the bed. Each time this happened, her face flushed a bit more.
Interesting.
I closed the door and leaned my back against it.
“So friend,” I prompted, “picking up where we left off. The party? Why exactly were you there?”
“I told you. I was there to…” she trailed off, her cheeks flaming.
I decided to help her out. “Get laid, hookup, have sex?”
Rolling her eyes at herself, she said, “Yes. I was trying to be wild and sexy for once which I’m terrible at if you didn’t notice.”
“I don’t know about that,” I said, remembering the way the movements of her thumb had made me feel a second ago.
“Oh come on, Archer,” she said. “All I wanted was a fling, and it ended horribly.”
My eyebrows went up at that. “If I remember correctly, it wasn’t all bad.”
Honor’s lips twitched. “I guess not,” she said, and I knew by the way her eyes dropped to my lips before jerking back up to meet mine that she meant it.
“So, why Baylor?” I asked.
“Do we really have to go there?”
“Please, humor me. I’ve been thinking about this a lot”—only like every day since it happened—”and it’s the thing that really bothers me. I have to know. Why did you choose him?”
She wouldn’t meet my eyes. “I don’t know. I’d heard some rumors, knew he was a player, and I guess I just wanted to experience what it was like.”
Tension roiled in the pit of my stomach, but I had to ask. “Being with Baylor?”
“Not him,” she said, and I felt my shoulders relax, “it could’ve been anybody really. And please know, I feel like a total douchenozzle for ever having thought about using your brother like that.”
“He would’ve gladly let you do it.” The mere thought of them together made my teeth clench. “Baylor isn’t real selective. And even if he was, I can’t see him turning you down.”
“I just wanted to know what it feels like,” Honor said. “To be wanted, to be desired like that. My romantic knowledge and experience is sorely lacking. I wanted something light with no strings attached before I left college.”
“Do you still want that?” I asked.
She looked to me, must’ve read something in my expression that wasn’t there, because she covered her face a moment later. “Oh my God, that sounds awful, doesn’t it? You probably think I’m a terrible person. Heck, even I think that.”
Actually, I thought she was pretty great, but we’d come back to that later.
Walking to the desk, I bent down and pulled her hands away, so I could see her eyes.
“Do you still want that?” I repeated and then waited for her answer.
Because it mattered, because she mattered, and because this could change everything.
My heart was pounding.
And all Archer was doing was holding my hand.
Gah. It wasn’t even a sexy place on the body to be touched. In my head, I knew this, but the reality was more complex. The feeling of his thumb as it swept against my pulse point sent a shiver straight through me. It felt like there was some kind of magic tether between his hand and mine, one that ran to the center of my being, making it feel like he had a direct line to my heart.
Who knew such an innocent touch could light me up like this?
It was a sign, I thought.
A sign that I should be running for the hills, away from the room and away from him as fast I could. Self-preservation was a real thing. I should get out now while I had the chance.
The problem was I didn’t actually want to do any of that.
Especially not with Archer looking at me this way. His gray eyes were intense yet warm as he waited for my answer.
Do you still want that? he’d asked.
“Yes,” I said then swallowed. “I still want it.”
Archer’s eyes were on me. “With Baylor?”
I shook my head. “No,