Page 69 of The Sounds of Her

Archer wraps one arm around my shoulder and hands me my vodka when we get back to the table. He keeps eyeing me as we get involved with the group. I try to focus, but the talk with Jenna has got me thinking about what is waiting for me when I get back to New York.

I shouldn’t have run without confronting them. I’ve only made this harder.

Chapter Sixteen

As I’m answering questions from Kitty, a hot blonde interviewing us for her magazine, I watch Brooke. She’s remained close, listening to us for a while, but now she is with her friends. Usually, I’d be flirting up a storm with someone like Kitty, winking and making her blush with no actual intent behind it. It is the way I naturally react to gorgeous women.

Not today. If anything, I’m barely paying any attention, answering the questions on automatic pilot. It helps Kitty isn’t asking me anything I’ve not heard before, so my brain can come up with an answer without too much thought.

The women are with us today because we’re doing an interview with a few photos, on a closed set. When I told her she was coming along, Brooke got excited, even if she tried not to show it. It makes me happy to see her smiling, a genuine smile, not one she puts on trying to sell this relationship.

I’ve not been able to get my mind off what happened at the club last night. It amused me when she came stalking over to get rid of the groupie. I said nothing, waiting to see how she handled it, and she didn’t let me down.

Sliding my hand around her and pulling her in to me seemed like a good idea. Her brief intake of breath, the momentary tensing of her body, then the way she melted into me, lit a fuse.

I’d kept myself in check until that point, especially after first laying eyes on her in that fucking dress. Then she staked her claim. No amount of telling myself it’s for show changes how I felt when I kissed her. Jesus Christ, my whole body lit up. She took some loosening up, but once she let go… Fuck.

And since that first kiss, and the many that followed last night, it’s been torture. Especially knowing how soft the skin around her upper thigh feels beneath my fingers and how firm and full her tits are when they press against my body. And her mouth.

Torture, pure fucking torture, especially when she slipped into the bedroom, closing the door behind her, leaving me on that fucking couch. I was disappointed as hell, but we don’t have an audience in the hotel room.

She went for a jog before I woke up, so I was alone in the room, worried until I found a note letting me know DiMarco was with her.

Whenever she is anywhere near me, I seek her out. Like right now, my eyes follow her, taking her in. Brooke is wearing a pale pink summer dress. With no bra.

I wonder if she is thinking about the same thing, because every time I glance at her, she’s looking right back.

She takes a long drink from her water bottle, but it tips out too fast. Water spills over her lips and even though she brings up a hand, she doesn’t catch it all. It runs down her chin and drops onto her chest.

My eyes trace the line of that water droplet as it disappears beneath the fabric of her dress, running over those bare tits. She pats at her dress, her cheeks flush with embarrassment as she turns away.

She doesn’t need to be embarrassed. That was fucking hot. I want nothing more than to get out of this chair, go over and pull her dress down, licking the path that water followed.

Jesus Christ.

“Archer?”

I snap my attention back to Kitty. She looks irritated. My fucking pulse is pounding in my neck and all the blood in my body is rushing south. Shit, I clasp my hands in my lap, trying to hide the evidence of what Brooke is doing to me.

I can’t help another sneaky look at her. She’s turned away from me, looking at her phone. She has no clue my dick is trying to break through the zipper on my pants.

Not for the first time, I wonder how she will respond if I suggest we fuck. I mean, for the sake of being authentic.

“How long have you been dating?”

Again, I have to shake my head out of the indecent thoughts. It’s hard, in more ways than one, to not picture Brooke’s naked tits underneath my palms.

“Sorry, what?”

“You and your girlfriend?” Kitty asks, her voice tilting higher at the end of her sentence.

“Two months,” I say. “But we’ve been friends for a while.”

“She’s best friends with Aidan’s girlfriend, is that right?” she asks, using Adam's stage name.

So people have been digging. I nod. I’m not here to talk about our relationship. Even though the whole point of this charade with Brooke is to get it out in the open we’re dating, I kind of don’t want to discuss her. There is a fine line between us playing up to it and making sure her privacy is protected.

“Would you say it’s serious?”

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