the tension grew too thick for my liking.
He curved a cold smile at me, his thumb rubbing lazily across his lower lip as he stared me down, unblinking. It shouldn't have been a sexy gesture. It shouldn't. But my body had grown a mind of her own and reacted like he'd just opened his pants and—
"What makes you think there's an ulterior motive, Princess Danvers?" he taunted me, interrupting my train of thought before I could do something embarrassing. Like drool.
I rolled my eyes and shifted in my seat, taking Archer out of my direct line of vision and replacing him with Kody. Much better.
"As if there's not," I muttered my reply. "If you wanted a nice visit with your grandmother, you wouldn't have brought me along. This is too personal for us."
Archer grunted a sound that seemed almost surprised. Or agreeing. But either way, he just sipped his drink and stared into the fireplace. I knew because, despite taking him out of my direct vision, he was still in the peripheral. Always, permanently in my peripheral like some kind of nasty addiction I couldn't seem to shake.
Kody arched a brow at me, though, and I tilted my head at him in question. I sucked at interpreting his silent speech.
He rolled his eyes with a small smile and reached over to whack Steele on the arm. "Hey, bro. Want to go see if Connie still has that '62 Ferrari GTO in her garage?"
Steele let out a panicked sound. "That's a fifty-million-dollar car, Connie would never get rid of it."
Kody just shrugged. "That's what you said about the '57 Spider, too, but didn't she donate it to some charity auction?"
Steele paled to the point of ill and shot me a worried look. "You want to come check out some cars, Hellcat?"
I opened my mouth to accept, but Archer got there first.
"No," he snapped. "Madison Kate and I have business to discuss."
Steele blanched further— even Kody looked a bit uneasy—but Archer just gave them a flat stare back. "About Phillip's knives," he elaborated, and the tension dropping out of his two friends was unmistakable. Which made me wonder what other business they'd just panicked about.
"Okay, well..." Kody stood up and stretched his arms over his head. "Try not to kill each other while we're gone. And let’s all keep our fingers crossed that Connie hasn't off-loaded Steele's dream car to a charitable cause again."
Steele scowled, following Kody out of the room and muttering about negative thoughts.
Archer made no move to get up after they were gone, still staring into the fire with his fingers linked under his chin, and I gave an exasperated sigh.
"Come on, D'Ath," I groaned. "I'm not in the mood for more bullshit. Did you actually have anything to show me? Or were you just worried I'd somehow talk Kody and Steele into a three-way in the back of your grandmother's Rolls Royce?"
A short huff escaped Archer, like a laugh he was trying not to let out, and he slowly swung his gaze back to me. "I highly doubt it'd take much to talk them into that, Madison Kate."
I sighed and folded my arms under my breasts. "Okay, so, good to know you're a major cunt-blocker."
Archer's lips curled up in a smile, like he found me amusing. I liked that. Then I hated myself for liking it.
"What do you want from me, D'Ath?" I asked in an exhausted voice.
That was exactly the wrong phrasing to use, though. He slid out of his seat with fluid grace, and the next thing I knew, I was flat on my back against the velvet couch I'd been sitting on. His huge frame hovered over me, the hard planes of his body pressed along the length of my body and his lips a fraction above mine.
"I want all kinds of things from you, Kate. Ask me again, and I'll fucking show you." His voice was a husky promise of pure hedonism, and my body responded like a well-trained puppy. Thankfully, he stood up again before I could take him up on his vaguely threatening offer. "Don't say you weren't warned. Now, come on. I need to show you something."
He stalked out of the sitting room, but I didn't miss the way his hand dropped to his crotch to adjust his cock. Apparently my body wasn't the only one affected.
I took a second to suck in a couple of calming breaths, then hurried after him. As badly as I hated chasing him down, my