Big Dick Energy - Cindi Madsen Page 0,30

kitchen and found a bag of frozen peas.

I took them over to the couch, sat next to her, and gestured for her foot.

“Oh, I’ve been wearing shoes without socks all day and—”

“Is anything ever simple with you?” I snagged her leg, propped her foot on my thigh, and gently rested the bag of peas on her swollen ankle. She pulled a face, and I asked, “Is that from the pain or the cold?”

“Yes,” she said.

Since I had a few minutes to kill, I took in her small foot and bright pink toenails. Then I turned my head to check on her, only to find her staring at me.

“No,” she said, and I searched for what she meant, lost on what question I’d last posed.

“I’m lost. No to what?”

She sucked her lower lip into her mouth, biting it for a second before slowly releasing it, the move so memorizing I was losing my train of thought all over again. “You asked if anything with me was ever simple. It’s not. And considering we’re going to spend a lot of time together the next few weeks, I just thought you should know that.”

11

Penny

“Oh-kay,” Archer said, and I wiggled my toes again. I should yank my foot off his lap, as it edged to the very brink of what could be considered proper for coworkers or even friends. But watching him ice my injury soothed something deeper inside of me than my broken capillaries.

“Anything I should know about you?”

One side of his mouth kicked up. “I’m competitive to a fault. My personal motto is either win or learn from it, never quit and never lose.”

“Noted. Also, not really a newsflash.”

My heart quickened as he opened his mouth to spill more about himself. I awaited the crumbs of information like a needy little bird that hadn’t been fed. Hop, hop, hop, closer to the person who might feed me or hurt me.

Then he closed his mouth, shutting away his secrets, and I wasn’t bold enough to pry. A twinge of disappointment tightened my lungs, but then he shifted to fully face me. “How long were you with that Ron guy?”

“A while,” I said, nearly snorting after I realized the words came out sounding like I was Edward Cullen and Bella had just asked how old I was. I doubted Archer would get the vampire joke, so I snagged the pillow next to me, placed it on my lap, and picked at a stray thread. “It’s such bullshit, him dating yet another woman in the office and no one caring. Although he claims they don’t know, but I know him, and he’s not subtle.”

Even as my brain warned me not to overshare, my mouth was a runaway train. “He could date every female in the fifteen-story building, and everyone would call him ‘the man’ and high-five him for his sexual prowess.” I pressed my lips together, a couple seconds too late. “Pretend I didn’t say s-e-x-u-a-l.”

Amusement danced along the curve of Archer’s mouth, and if he wouldn’t take it as flirting, I’d smack him upside the head with the pillow in my hands. What could I say? I was feeling violent today.

“Anyway, if I did the same, the rumor will would churn like crazy—it did plenty when Ron and I first started dating. Half of the reason I pushed for an official relationship was so that it felt more legitimate, but it didn’t help. All that paperwork and a year of dating, all so he could…” I shook my head again.

Archer nodded, seemingly soaking it all in. “So he was the one who ended it.”

Offense pinched my gut. “No. I gave him an ultimatum. I just…” A tight band formed around my chest, slowly squeezing the oxygen from me. “I thought he’d choose differently.”

I thought he’d choose me. Old wounds reopened, and this was why I couldn’t trust myself around handsome men, even if they were arrogant, brash, and a pinch rude. Then again, no guy had ever carried me around like some Knight in Shining Armani and then iced my ankle.

And how had I responded? By talking about my ex-boyfriend. Good job, Penny. Way to bring out your C material for the hottest guy who’d been inside your apartment in…well, ever.

“I hope I’m not giving you the wrong idea. I’m not hung up on him, and I don’t care that he’s already in a full-blown relationship with someone else he works with. Ron’s all about minimum effort and letting his partner do all the