Page 39 of Mine for a Moment

I smile at her and shake my head. “And make you give up your hard-earned passenger princess privileges? I wouldn’t dare.”

She chuckles, her head falling back just slightly, and fuck if it isn’t a gorgeous sight. “I appreciate that more than you realize.”

“Then show me your appreciation,” I murmur, my tone flirtatious. Fuck it. If she’ll only give me a few moments, I’ll make them last.

Her eyes widen, and she looks over her shoulder at Ezra, who’s still snoring. “Show you how?”

I reach for her and entwine our fingers before lifting our joined hands to my lips to kiss her knuckles. “I’m sure you can come up with something. We’ll be at your parents’ house all weekend. We’ll find some time to sneak away.”

“Archer,” she says, her tone admonishing.

I smirk and place our joined hands in my lap. It’s odd, because I’ve never enjoyed holding hands with anyone, but I like touching Serenity in any way I can. “Don’t pretend you don’t want to.”

She throws me a shy look and pulls her hand out of mine to mess with my phone, skipping through songs endlessly, unable to make up her mind. If Ezra were awake, he’d already have snapped at her. He hates it when she does that, but personally I couldn’t care less. Eventually, she settles on an album she likes, and I grin when she lip-syncs one song after another, making sure not to wake Ezra.

“You never actually told me how your ice cream date with Theo went,” I say as I take the exit that leads to her hometown, the journey having flown by thanks to the mostly empty roads. We drive pastThe Ballerina, but this time, I see it in a new light. It’s a gorgeous work ofart and a true testament to The Muse’s skills, but it doesn’t evoke the same emotions it used to.

She throws me a glare. “It wasn’t a date, and you know it.”

“Sure,” I murmur, unable to keep from being petty.

“If you must know, we didn’t even get any ice cream. Every store we went to was closed, so we just ended up walking around for a bit before heading home.”

I smirk, entirely too fucking pleased with myself for buying every single ice cream parlor in a five-mile radius so I could close them all for the day and shut that tradition of theirs down. It’s clear having ice cream with him was going to mess with her emotions, and it wasn’t going to happen on my watch. “Should’ve come home to me,” I murmur. “I’d have given you all the ice cream you could’ve possibly wanted.”

“I thought about it,” she whispers, her gaze heated.

“Then why didn’t you come over? I was waiting for you.”

She glances at Ezra again. “You know why.”

I grumble in dissatisfaction, and she sighs as she places her hand on my thigh. My cock hardens instantly, and her breath hitches when she notices. “Do you have any idea how many times I looked at that photo you sent me?” she whispers.

My gaze cuts to hers, and my mind instantly runs wild with thoughts of her in her bed, her phone in her hand. “Yeah?” I murmur, straightening as I refocus on the road, even as her hand begins to wander.

“Yeah,” she says, her index finger caressing my cock over my slacks. “I missed you, Archer. Missed the way you kiss me, the way you refuse to let me go at night, and the way you hold me in your sleep.”

I pause at the stoplight and turn to look at her, drinking her in. I know I shouldn’t, not with Ezra sitting in the back seat, but fuck, I can’t help myself.

Her gaze darkens when I lean in and place my index finger underneath her chin before leaning in to steal a kiss. She makes the softest, sexiest sound in the back of her throat, and it takes all of me to pull away.

“I want you in my bed tonight,” I whisper, my heart racing as I follow the familiar road to her house. “I’m losing my mind, Serenity. I’m fucking desperate for you.”

She nods as I pull up in front of her house, her breathing erratic. “I’ll try,” she promises.

We both startle when Ezra yawns just as I’ve parked the car, and she shoots me a panicked look. I turn to look at Ezra, and he looks back at me, seemingly disoriented. “We’re here?”

My shoulders sag in relief, and I nod as I get out of the car, my heart beating wildly. Serenity is worth it, but fuck, I’m not made for sneaking around.

Thirty-Three

Archer

“Having all my kids home is the best birthday present I could’ve asked for,” Malti, Ezra and Serenity’s mother, says, her arm wrapping around my shoulders.

Ezra pauses in the middle of the kitchen, a stack of plates in his hands. “You might as well just come out and say it, Mom. Archer is your favorite child, and he isn’t even yours.”

He throws me a withering glare, and I smirk back at him as I lean into Malti, reveling in the love I’m always showered with in this house. “He’s just jealous,” I tell her, and she squeezes my arm in response.

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