and I couldn't decide if I wanted it to work or not.
Steele kissed the side of my head with a quick side hug. "You're the best, Hellcat."
We'd see about that. Moving over to where Kody was speaking to Archer with all sorts of violent gestures, I slipped my arm around his back.
"Babe," he said, looking down at me with a tight, frustrated expression, "now isn't the best time."
I wrinkled my nose. "Clearly. Can I have a second with Archer?"
Kody's expression shifted from frustrated to confused and... concerned. "Why?"
I raised my brows and fixed him with a level stare. "Because I asked nicely, Kodiak Jones. Now fuck off, I need to speak with The Archer alone." I gave a sarcastic eye roll at his dumb fucking nickname that was really his real name. That level of hiding-in-plain-sight bullshit was so typically Archer it hurt.
Kody's brow furrowed and he looked like he might argue. But Archer gave him one of those dude head-nod things, silently indicating he do what I said, and Kody sighed.
"Fine, just hurry the fuck up. They're announcing you in one minute." He gave me and Archer both a hard glare, then tugged his ball cap back on and retreated to where Steele stood with his arms folded.
"I'll make this quick," I told Archer, cutting to the chase before I could lose my nerve. "You and Kody are having fighter-trainer issues because it's driving you completely insane that he's doing unspeakable things to me and rubbing it in your face. You're jealous as fuck, and it's consuming your brain when you should be focusing on this fight."
His brow twitched, and his eyes narrowed at me. "Is that a question or a statement, Princess?"
"Statement," I snapped back. "So here's how it's going to go. You lose this fight, and I'm going to force you to watch while I suck Kody's dick at the after party."
Archer's brows shot right up, and he let out a small laugh. "How are you going to force me to do anything, Princess?"
I let a cruel smile pull my lips. "I have my ways, sunshine. Wanna test them?"
His eyes narrowed again, and he swiped his thumb over his lower lip. "Alright, and what if I win?"
I shrugged. "Win the fight and find out." Over the speakers the commentator boomed out Archer's intro, and I gave him a challenging grin. "Sounds like you're up, big guy." I clapped him on the shoulder and gave his muscles a squeeze because I couldn't help myself. "I better go touch up my lipstick because it's probably going to end up smeared all around the base of Kody's cock later. Loser."
The vein over Archer's temple throbbed, and I turned away from him before I cracked up. Of course, Steele and Kody got the full force of my grin, and that only seemed to confuse the fuck out of them.
When Archer stepped up into the octagon, though, and Kody went over to take his hoodie and give him one last pep talk, Archer was all business. When the fight started, he was a lethal machine, and my heart leapt into my throat as I watched his fists fly.
"What the fuck did you say to him?" Steele asked in my ear as we watched Archer catch his opponent with a swift right hook, making blood splatter the floor of the cage.
I didn't bother holding back my feral smile. "I just offered some incentive not to fucking lose," I commented with a short laugh. I technically hadn't promised anything if he won, but I think we both understood there was an implied offer. Shit. Was I actually going to go through with that? More to the point... would he? After all, I wasn't the one who'd ended our last couple of hookups.
"Well, whatever you said, it worked," Steele replied with a laugh of his own. Kody was right up there beside the cage shouting his advice and encouragement, but turned around at some point to shoot us a thumbs up. Apparently he was also impressed at the turnaround in Archer's concentration.
Still, despite how good Archer was, his opponent had experience under his belt, and it showed in how evenly matched they were. It was hands down a much better fight than the one I'd seen on Riot Night. The night that had started all of this.
Somewhere in the third round, the other guy got the upper hand, taking Archer down to the mat with a heavy crash and grappling for a full mount. The