voice. "Or you could just man up and stay with me yourself," I muttered, mostly under my breath.
He didn't reply for a moment, then shifted his position to peer down at me with a frown. "Would you want that?"
My voice dried up, and I felt like someone had just turned a spotlight on me. Crap. But still, it shouldn't have been a hard question. Not after everything we'd just gone through.
"Lie down or don't, D'Ath," I snapped instead. "Just quit hovering. You're making me anxious."
He huffed a short laugh, and I expected him to leave my room and get Steele to come in and cuddle me, holding me tight and reassuring me that I was safe with them.
But to my surprise, he just kicked off his jeans and crawled under my blankets in nothing but his boxer briefs and black T-shirt.
Oh shit. I'm naked under here!
He shifted around, beating one of my spare pillows into the shape he wanted, before eventually getting comfortable on his side facing me.
"Happy?" he asked, his voice a rough growl of frustration and amusement.
I couldn't help the smug-as-fuck smile spreading over my face. "Calm down, sunshine. You're just lying in bed with me. I'm not forcefully prying that bad-boy bullshit out of your personality with pliers."
"May as well be," he grumbled, but even in the darkness of my room, I could see the small smile playing across his lips. "Now shut up and sleep if that's what we're doing."
I let the subject drop, closing my eyes and trying really hard to let sleep reclaim me. But... it just wasn't so easy to fall back asleep after already sleeping for fifteen hours. Especially when there was someone else in the bed that I was all kinds of hyperaware of.
"Princess," Archer groaned when I shifted my position for about the thousandth time. "Stop fucking wriggling around." He reached out, hooking one of those big hands of his around my waist, and hauled me backward against his body.
We both fucking froze this time.
"Are you—"
"Yup," I replied, my voice a tense squeak. "Naked. Yep, sure am."
I expected him to drop his grip on me like I was made of liquid magma, but he didn't—and that in itself shocked me more than anything else he'd done so far. Instead, his fingers flexed against my bare stomach, and his leg shifted to cover mine.
"Well, still," he muttered, "go to sleep."
I bit my lip, staring into the darkness of my bedroom and trying not to shiver every time his breath exhaled over my bare shoulder. But fuck me, I was only human, and the sexual tension between us had been building for way too freaking long.
It sure as shit didn't help that my naked ass was pressed right against his crotch, so there was no ignoring the way he was growing affected by my nakedness. I couldn't help myself; I wriggled my ass against his hardening cock.
"Kate," he growled in warning, "stop it. It's hard enough being in bed with you naked; don't start that shit."
I snickered a short laugh. "It sure is."
Archer released a sigh in a heavy exhale, his breath warming my skin just moments before his lips touched my neck. He kissed me once, gently, then gave me a sharp nip with his teeth. "Fucking behave, Kate. You just went through a majorly traumatic event, and you need to rest."
My breath caught in my throat and heat rushed to my pussy. "I rested all day," I replied, my voice just this side of a feline purr. "I don't want to behave anymore, and I don't think you want me to either." Reaching a hand behind me, I grabbed onto his hip, pulling him closer and clearing up any confusion over what I meant.
Archer let out a groan, then grabbed my hand and removed it from his hip. He placed it back in front of me, then used his arm to pin me tight to his body. "Go to fucking sleep, Kate."
I made a sound of frustration, turning my head just enough to see his face from the corner of my eye. "I can tell you one surefire way to get me sleepy," I told him in a breathy whisper. I was starting to feel all kinds of desperate due to the number of times I'd been rejected by him... but I knew he wanted me just as much. He was just caught up on some imagined drama and denying this thing between us as a result. Well, I was