I bobbed onto my toes and kissed him, the two of us traded much slower, longer kisses.
I finally pulled away from him, my cheeks flushing. My heart was pounding. The most important thing to this man in front of me was his ‘brothers’ as they’d called themselves since they met at the orphanage. He could be on a yacht somewhere, but he’d come here for them. And things between me and each one of those guys was…complicated. I couldn’t ruin things for Archer with them.
I always made a mess of things, in tiger or human form.
His face was so handsome that it pulled me toward him, and I bobbed onto my toes to press a quick kiss to his rounded cheekbone. I couldn’t resist him.
“Goodnight, Archer,” I said, before I rushed into the house.
He stood on the sidewalk, watching me go. I could feel his confusion, but he didn’t chase me.
I didn’t know why they were chasing me anyway, but I was going to die when they realized they didn’t want me after all.
I closed the door behind me, my heart still pounding. Thankfully my grandfather was in bed. My lips still stung from the heat of those kisses, and my throat felt hoarse from singing. I was out of practice.
I remembered the feel of being up on the stage, and how Archer had given that rush to me when I was scared to go up again.
And I didn’t know whether I wanted to cry or smile as I headed up the stairs.
16
I dreaded how the next day at work might be weird, but it didn’t feel strange at all. Archer smiled at me when I walked in, but he was quiet as usual. Blake gave him a suspicious look, but wisely didn’t press.
Dylan leaned on the reception desk. “You went out on a date with my brother.”
Oh no. This was exactly what I’d feared. I didn’t want to come between the three of them.
“So,” Dylan flashed me a grin. “Does that mean you’d consider going to dinner with me?”
“I just had lunch with you,” I reminded him. “Yesterday.”
“Are you limited to one meal per day?” he asked. “Are you secretly a snake shifter?”
“I just…” I glanced at Blake, who crossed his arms. “I don’t want to cause any trouble.”
“You don’t have to worry about that,” Dylan promised me.
But later that day, I went to carry the trash from the lobby and restroom out of the lobby to the dumpster, and I heard the guys talking through the open bay door.
“Just so you know, I don’t approve.” Blake told Dylan.
Dylan clapped him on the shoulder. “Good thing I don’t care. I’d like to remind you, you started this.”
“I wanted her gainfully employed—”
“You’ve had a crush on her for the past twenty years!” Dylan exploded. “Don’t even start with me. We know each other too well.”
My heart jumped into my throat.
Blake had a crush on me for twenty years?
I accidentally dropped the trash bag. Something heavy in it clinked against the cement. I grabbed the top of the bag again, trying to look casual.
Blake turned, then went wide-eyed as he realized I was standing there. I shrugged at him and headed for the dumpster.
I went into the bathroom and washed my hands, and when I stepped out again, Blake waited in the lobby for me. The sight of his brown eyes and big, muscular body still made me catch my breath.
He looked at me as if he were searching for words. His confused look was still pretty damn cute. But I had something to say too, before he kept talking himself out of dating me.
“You could stop being weird and go out with me,” I said. “Boss man.”
I didn’t know where that teasing tone in my voice came from.
Blake gave me a long, searching look. He closed the distance between us until he was on the opposite side of the counter from me. Then he said, “Fine. I’ll take you out Sunday.”
Well, that was easy. I stared at him, and he quirked an eyebrow at me, crossing his arms. He leaned slowly onto the counter between us. His forearms were broad and corded. He was wearing a t-shirt, the t-shirt he wore under his coveralls and the basketball shorts he threw on when he wasn’t working on a car.
There was a line of a tattoo peeking out from under the sleeve of his shirt as it rode up his powerful bicep, and part of me was tempted to pull up the