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“Owen?”
My name again, but this time a question.
I scrubbed a hand down my face and huffed. My knees were unsteady, but I didn’t know if it was from the orgasm or from seeing Archer again after so many years.
“What do you want, Archer?”
He chuckled, like the selfish asshole he always had been.
“To start with, I want to know why you said my name when you came down Val’s throat, but I’ll start with asking why you’re here.”
Val.
I hadn’t even bothered to ask his name. I hadn’t needed to ask, either. Names were a currency I rarely traded in and even though it was my first time at Rapture, I didn’t think it was entirely necessary. He’d offered, I’d accepted, we’d agreed.
“I didn’t know you were the King of Los Angeles.” I leaned against the bricks so I didn’t fall over. “Approving entry to everyone who’s passing through? Should I have come to pay my respects?”
Archer muttered something under his breath that I didn’t catch, then took a couple steps closer. He stopped under the wash of the security light, giving me my first real look at him in ten years. Like the bastard he was, he looked better than I remembered. He’d grown into his shoulders, his height, his face. The t-shirt he wore spread across his chest like it was ready to split down the center, and he had on tight pants that might have been leather but looked soft as silk. With black boots, unlaced and loose around his ankles to complete his look, Archer appeared every inch the threat I knew him to be.
“Did you want to answer the other question?” he asked.
“I don’t owe you anything,” I spat.
“Do you always think about me when you come?” He took another step closer, stride strong and confident. I was thankful for the wall behind me because if it hadn’t been there, I would have taken a step back and I didn’t want him to see the nervousness his appearance had caused.
“Do you always watch other men get their dicks sucked?”
“At Rapture?” He glanced up toward the towering facade beside us. “More often than not. But I never expected it would be your dick getting sucked, Owen.”
“Stop saying my name.”
“Owen.”
I pushed off the wall as he closed the space between us, moving quicker than me and walking my shoulders right back against the bricks. Glaring up at him, I balled my hands into fists, working my jaw to stop from grinding my teeth.
“You used to like when I said your name,” he whispered.
“I used to like a lot of things.”
“Do you still?” Archer dipped his chin down, bringing his nose closer to my neck. The heat of his breath burned like a fire, and I squeezed my eyes closed, no longer sure if I could hold my own against him. I’d never really been able to hold myself against him, at least not in the ways I’d wanted.
When Archer had gotten involved with Mandy, I’d been on board with the idea, but as their relationship developed, so had my jealousy. It wouldn’t have taken a rocket scientist to determine that, at some point, I’d fallen in love with my best friend, and it was that love which drove us past the point of no return. With ten years between us and that night, I couldn’t help but wonder if Archer’s abandonment had been a blessing. If he’d stayed, what would we have done?
It was hard enough for me to face Mandy while I carried the guilt of Archer’s and my secret. Would I have been able to survive it with him still in our lives? Would he have stayed with her? Would he have been with me? A thousand questions and could-have-beens raced through my head, clouding what minimal judgement I had left. There was too much blood left in my cock for me to give him the answer he deserved, so I bit my lips to keep them closed.
“Your silence sounds like a yes,” Archer murmured.
“Silence is rarely a yes.”
“Is it a no, then?” His body went still, and I knew he was asking something more than the four minuscule words let on. “Are you telling me no?”
His lips were warm and wet, grazing over my pulse like butterfly wings.
“No,” I rasped.
I hadn’t even finished getting my pants up before I’d turned into the alley, and Archer made quick work of my fly. He shoved his hand down my pants and fisted my cock like his fingers were made for my thickness, and when he curled them all the way around me, he smiled against my neck.
“I didn’t realize that I missed the way you feel,” he whispered.
