Page 51 of Mine for a Moment

He looks over my shoulder, at my canvas, and this time, his expression turns into pure despair. “More than that, I’m worried about the girl he’s seeing and what it’ll do to her to realize she’ll never have all of him. Unless he lets Tyra go, he can’t be the man she deserves.”

My heart stutters when he smiles at me with pure sorrow in his eyes.

He knows.

Forty-Two

Serenity

I tap my pen against my desk absent-mindedly as I think back to the conversation I had with Ezra, my mind replaying what he said about Tyra over and over again, each echo cutting deeper than the one before it.

He loves her fiercely, and he always will.

I knew it going in, so why does it hurt as much as it does? It’s not like I ever thought we could have something real. It was never meant to be more than sex, and what we have isn’t built to last. I know that, but it still kills me to know he’ll never love me the way he loved her. I’ll always be someone that filled a void but never closed it, and I knew it going in.

It’s what I wanted, isn’t it? I wanted us to move on from each other easily, so we could still be around each other once we part ways, entirely unaffected. Except…I don’t think that’s what I want anymore. I don’t want to go back to a time when we didn’t talk every day, where I wouldn’t look up at him to find him already staring at me, his eyes shimmering with hidden secrets that only I know. I promised myself I’d never try to replace Tyra, yet now it’s her place in his heart I want.

I’m snapped out of my thoughts when the company’s internal messaging system chimes, and my heart begins to beat a little faster when I see Archer’s name.

Archer Harrison

are you free for coffee?

I raise a brow, surprised by his message. We’re trying our best to keep things professional at work, but truthfully, I missed him so much last weekend that I’ve been thinking about sneaking into his office just so I could kiss him and reassure my aching heart.

Serenity Adesina

I’m free now!

Archer Harrison

meet me at that little coffee shop you like, a few blocks down.

I smile to myself as I grab my purse and head out as stealthily as I can, scared someone will want to join me if I tell them I’m headed out for coffee. Theo, especially, has taken to accompanying me for lunch and coffee breaks lately, and it’s made it that much harder to even have a private conversation with Archer.

My stomach flutters as I walk into the near-empty coffee shop, finding Archer sitting in the back. He smiles up at me as he rises from his seat, and my heart overflows with happiness.

“Hey,” he murmurs, reaching for me.

I gasp when he pulls me into his arms, one hand wrapping around the back of my neck, the other cupping my face. I know I shouldremind him that we’re in a public place very close to work and that we shouldn’t be doing this, but instead, I rise to my tiptoes, my lips brushing against his.

He groans, his hand sliding into my hair as he kisses me softly, slowly, his tongue brushing along the seam of my lips, silently demanding I open up for him. I lose myself in him, in this moment that feels so heartbreakingly real.

“I missed you,” he whispers against my mouth the moment I pull away, both of us breathing hard. Archer looks at me like he can’t get enough of me, and I drink him in, my heart aching for reasons I can’t quite fathom.

“I missed you too,” I admit, my voice soft, vulnerability shining through. He has no idea how badly I needed to see him today, how desperately I wanted his lips on mine, showing me it’smehe wants.

Archer pulls out a chair for me, and I glance around, relieved the place is still empty. “It’s never this quiet around this time,” I tell him as I take a seat. “We’re lucky.”

He smiles in a somewhat secretive way as he sits down next to me, his arm wrapping around me, and I raise a brow, instantly deciphering that expression of his. “Oh God,” I whisper. “It’s not a coincidence that it’s empty in here, is it?”

He pinches my chin between his thumb and index finger. “My answer will depend entirely on whether or not you’ll be mad at me if I tell you that I bought this place because you like the coffee here.”

I love you.

The thought comes suddenly, the words sitting on the tip of my tongue, begging to leave my lips. I swallow them down, hiding the feelings I shouldn’t have. “I could never be mad at you,” I say instead.

God, I’ve never felt this way before. I thought I knew what it waslike to be in love, but I didn’t. I had no idea how raw it felt, how real, howpainful.

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