Big Dick Energy - Cindi Madsen Page 0,31
work, in his jobs and in his relationships.”
“Hmm.”
“Hmm? All you have to say is hmm?” An icy stream of water ran down my skin and puddled beneath my foot, and I shivered.
Archer lifted the bag of peas off my ankle. “Better?”
Was he seriously just going to ignore my need for clarification? “Yeah. At least it’s nice and numb, anyway.” The instant I lifted my foot off his thigh, I immediately wanted it there again, which meant I should most definitely not give in to temptation. With a grimace, I lowered it to the ground, bending to rub at the spot above the purple bruise. “This morning, I was so determined to carpe the diem and then the day carped me instead.”
Archer’s shoulders shook with his huff of laughter. “You’ll seize it tomorrow.”
“But I had a plan. Part of the reason I even wore those particular shoes was because I wanted to feel like a badass. So much for that.”
Why was I admitting this? This was why my friends told me I needed to toughen up. If I lowered my guard, I’d turn into the sweet girl who just wanted to be liked and revealed too much, including all the chinks in my armor.
“Are you kidding me?” Archer asked, and I frowned, this close to lifting my fists and threatening him with another fat lip, and he held up his hands as if I might attack, which okay, fair. “Relax, bruiser. All I was going to say is that you are clearly a badass. You did an amazing job presenting your ideas for the soccer complex, and only a badass would dare to wear those shoes. Keeping them on after you sprained your ankle might cross into lunatic territory, but as an intimidation tactic, it’s solid—it scared the hell out of me.”
“Really?” I asked in a tiny voice that didn’t do my street cred any favors.
Archer leaned over, the material of his suit coat stretching across his broad chest and shoulders, and I was so caught up in ogling him it took me a moment to register his long fingers wrapping around my upper calf. With more tenderness than I would’ve guessed him capable of, he lifted my leg and returned it to his thigh. “You’ve got to elevate it. Trust me; I sprained mine in high school.”
“Let me guess. Playing soccer.”
“Yeah, and I’m gonna venture I wasn’t the only one who played sports Miss there’s-no-I-in-team.”
“I dabbled. Basketball and soccer, but only on the intermural teams. I played in junior high but got cut from the high school soccer team. I think it broke my dad’s heart more than it did mine.”
“Now that, I get.” Archer dragged his thumb across the skin of my calf as his gaze drifted to sometime in the past.
Since it was more of an idle gesture, I didn’t need to mention it, did I? The resulting tingles could go lemming their way off a cliff, too. At this rate, I feared I might follow, too weak to stop now that I was this close to the edge.
“Did you want me to hold the bag of soggy peas to your lip?” I leaned forward and studied his mouth, fighting the temptation to touch his lower lip again.
“That offer sounds so appetizing it’s hard to refuse,” he said, his warm breath skating down my wrist, “but I’m fine. I don’t even think anyone in the meeting even noticed the cut. Certainly not the way Steve and Mario noticed you pulling up your hair in slow motion.”
“That wasn’t slow motion. It’s called ensuring I don’t have any bumps.”
“And that’s called bullshit.”
My pulse skittered and my muscles tightened, the clashing sensations shorting my circuits. Did he purposely use that word since I’d used it against Ron? Was he pointing out my hypocrisy? Because I’d already experienced guilt over it.
Time ground to a halt as Archer reached up and tugged the end of my ponytail. “You’ve got a mirror. Don’t tell me you don’t recognize how beautiful you are.”
In spite of telling myself not to take the compliment and run with it, heat bloomed in my cheeks. “Men are just simple, which is probably why they just love telling me how complicated I am.”
Archer opened his mouth, and this time I did press my finger to his lips. I had a point to make, but the instant the pad of my finger hit his surprisingly soft lips, it turned hazy. Didn’t I deserve to forget about shoulds and shouldn’ts and make