Page 49 of Reckless Kiss

“All right, all right, stop buttering me up. I can’t handle it,” he said, mouthing the wordmoreat the screen.

“What else is there?”

“Nothing worth knowing. You’re busy as all hell once your three months are up. I’ve pushed everything you had in the third month out, so you have a clear run until you become Mrs, Mrs what?”

“Turner.”

“Erica Turner. Nice. From one iconic actress surname to another.”

Erica chatted to Yanny for another hour, going through her schedule for the next six months. She acted casually, but she took her schedule seriously, even though she was late wherever she went. The afternoon raced by after she hung up from Yanny. She read through her lines andresearched more about the actress she would be playing. It made her sad working through Esther’s life in the 1950s Hollywood and how they were treated. She didn’t think the industry had moved on enough, but at least she had more rights than Esther had.

A breeze coming from somewhere in the house caused her to bring the shawl from the back of the sofa over her shoulders as she hunched over, looking at the laptop on the coffee table.

“Hey.”

Erica jumped out of her skin at the voice. Knowing it was Archer but getting her body to catch up took a few seconds as she flapped her arms and slammed the laptop’s lid down. She was on her feet, walking towards Archer, who stood on the threshold of the living room and the small corridor to the kitchen.

“I’m sorry, am I running late?” she asked as she stood before him.

“It’s just after seven,” he answered and leaned in to kiss her.

The kiss lingered for a few moments, and she relished his soft lips on hers. To anyone else, it was a loving kiss. To her, she felt it down to her toes.

“I promise I’ll be five minutes. Change of clothes, and I’ll be back down,” Erica said.

“You look perfect as you are,” he replied, grasping her hand to stop her from moving.

“I’ve been in these clothes all afternoon working. I want to change, discard the day to enjoy this evening.”

The clothes she wore were supposed to be her dinner date attire but one look at Archer in his deliciousness made her want to change. He wore a shirt open at the neck with dark blue jeans.

“I get that. I’ll dish up dinner in the dining room.”

“Okay, I won’t be long. There’s white wine and beer in the fridge. I’ll have abeer.”

Chapter 25

Archer

When he arrived at Erica’s cottage, it was in darkness. His heart thundered, thinking she’d changed her mind. For someone who didn’t want to go into town, the only other place he could think she’d gone was to bed early. He tried the back door, and it was open. Undecided about walking in unannounced, he dithered on the doorstep. The food wafting up gave him purpose to enter her temporary home. Walking through the kitchen, he placed the food on the countertop and followed the noise of nails on a keyboard. He found Erica staring at her laptop screen in the semi-darkness, huddled under a blanket. Just the sight of her made his heart pound. Could he really go through with proposing to this woman when she was only doing it as a favour?

He flipped on the light in the kitchen, thinking he’d do anything to kiss her every day. She promised she’d only be five minutes, so he set about getting plates and cutlery fortheir dinner. Maggie had made them beef wellington with mashed potatoes and vegetables. The gravy was in a flask.

Unwrapping everything, Archer ferried the food to the dining room, found matches to light the candle, and dimmed the lights.

“The food smells fantastic,” Erica said as she entered the dining room.

She wore another loose-fitting dress to the ground, this one off the shoulder in navy blue. Her hair was loose around her shoulders and down her back. The whole looked screamed 1970s, right down to the lack of bra. Trying his best not to look at her other underwear to see if she was wearing any, he pulled out the chair in front of him.

“Dinner is served,” he announced with a deep bow.

She walked around the table, holding her skirts as she approached him. Before taking her seat, she stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. “Thank you for dinner.”

“You haven’t tasted it yet. However, I have never eaten anything awful Maggie has made. So I can’t take credit.”

“It doesn’t matter. You saved me the trouble of making dinner.”

Archer hurried to the other side seat, which was adjacent to hers. Archer sat at the head of the table, and she sat to his left. The dining table could seat ten people, but he’d positioned them at one end together. Their knees touched when they sat down, and he had no intention of moving. When Erica didn’t shift either, he relaxed.

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