sensation when I was already so full of guilt and fear.
Archer's lips found the sensitive patch of skin behind my ear, and he laid a soft kiss there, his breathing loud. Still, I made no move to pull away. In fact, I found it calming, so I just leaned into his touch further.
He seemed to sense my inability to make words happen, and it didn't bother him. Apparently he had enough to say for both of us.
"Bree getting hurt was not your fault, Kate, you need to know that," he said in a soft, emphatic whisper. "You need to accept that because if we're going to find whoever is responsible, then I need you full of that incredible fire, not drowning in guilt. You're so damn strong, Princess, and we will make someone pay. That I promise you." He pressed another kiss behind my ear, and I let out a sigh.
He was right. He was always fucking right.
"I know," I replied in a small voice. "But it's not so easy to let go of that feeling of responsibility. Bree's collateral damage here. She did nothing to deserve this, and what if—" Panic was starting to get the better of me again, and I swallowed my words, cutting them off. The world didn't turn on what-ifs. Quite the opposite. If I wallowed in fear of what might have been, we would get utterly nowhere.
"Bree is going to be okay," Archer reassured me in his low, calm voice as his hand stroked gently down my back. "Her baby is going to be okay. The best thing you can do for her now is to keep surviving. She loves you, Kate. She wouldn't want you blaming yourself for this, not when it's not your fault."
I nodded. Even if I didn't fully believe that statement, I knew he was right about Bree. She'd be horrified if she saw me crying and self-pitying.
I drew a deep breath, counting to five in my head and forcing the toxic guilt and fear out of my mind. Or as much as I could on my own.
"I need a distraction," I confessed to Archer in a small voice. "Help me take my mind off everything so I can refocus on what's important. I need to concentrate on the positives, right?"
He hummed a sound that might have been agreement, kissing my neck again... harder this time and with a teasing scrape of teeth. "Distraction, you say?"
I groaned. "Of course that's where your mind went."
His lips curved against my neck, and his breath fanned my skin with a silent chuckle, even as his hand found the waistband of my jeans and popped the top button open. "Say no and walk away now, Kate. I won't be offended."
I rolled my eyes. "No? You'll just make me beg next time as punishment."
His fingers dragged my zipper down, opening the front of my jeans right there on the park bench in front of the hospital.
"You love to beg," he countered, nipping my neck with his teeth playfully. "You especially like it when I smack your ass in punishment or when I shove you to your knees and fill your throat with my hard cock."
His hand slipped into the front of my jeans, his fingers working their way underneath my panties when I made no move to stop him.
I groaned, my hips rolling against his touch before I remembered where we were. How public we were.
"Archer," I protested weakly. Really weakly. "Anyone could see us. If my stalker—"
"If Scott were watching right now, I think he'd probably snap and show his hand, don't you? We have guys out all over the city looking for him. They'll catch him, I have every confidence. It's just a matter of days, not weeks." His fingertip dipped inside my pussy, and I shuddered. "Besides, it's dark out here. No one is watching, Princess. Just let me take your mind off things for a moment."
He pushed his finger further into me as his thumb found my clit and stroked a teasing circle around it. My hips rocked again, pushing my cunt into his hand. I was helpless to refuse an offer like that, and he knew it.
My response was to bring my lips to his in a gasping, heated kiss. My tongue danced with his, our lips moving in unison as his fingers sank into me fully. We didn't speak again as he got me off, our kiss not ending until my cunt clenched around his fingers and my whole