Page 8 of Grumpy Billionaire Bad Boy

Only, he doesn't go straight to the room, he goes to the bathroom first, a few curse words muttered from his lips when he enters the door.

My gaze skims his place but it's too dark to make much of anything out aside from the rough features of furniture and walls. The weight of my eyelids deepens, and I give in to the urge to return to a horizontal position, not even covering myself before I close my eyes and get drawn under into what I can only hope is a restful sleep.

Except it's nothing of the sort, because when I wake, my body is lined with sweat, my throat raw, and Archer is kneeling beside me, his sleepy face racked with panic, his hair tousled over his forehead.

Chapter 4

Archer

"London, you're fine, you're safe," I mutter to this complete fucking stranger.

Her bright green eyes flutter open, scanning frantically before settling on me. She sits up, her chest heaving as she catches her breath. "I was…I'm…"

I sit on my ass and lean against the table in my living room. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I…" London rubs at her neck, and her face, and then adjusts the shirt of mine that she's wearing.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I ask her, unsure of what I'm supposed to do in this situation. We don't know each other, but I can't exactly pretend like she wasn't just screaming like someone was trying to murder her.

"No," she says, stiff and a bit too sudden.

But I don't press it, because it's not my place. I am no one to her other than a person to crash at their place. Or more like come in like a tornado and destroy it.

After London insisted that she wanted to sleep on the couch, I thought I'd get ready for bed myself, but upon stepping foot in the bathroom, I had to first spend twenty minutes pickingup after her. Once I gathered all her clothes, threw them in the wash, disinfected everything that they touched, and put everything back where it belonged, London was snoring on the couch. It was obvious she was exhausted from the journey getting here.

I tossed and turned for an hour, my mind unable to shut down enough to let me fall asleep, partly because I was waiting for the clothes to finish in the washer and partly because a random woman was sleeping on my couch. Stealing a quick peek at her, I switched the laundry over and returned to bed, only to stare at my ceiling for the next few hours. I managed to sneak out of my apartment without waking her and return half an hour later with her still fast asleep. Finally, my body shut down enough to pull me under, but it wasn't long until London's cries woke me from a dead sleep.

"I'm fine, really," she says, dragging me from my recollection of the night.

I scratch my chin and check the time on my watch. Nearly a quarter after six in the morning. "Do you want some coffee?" I rise from my spot next to her, everything about her becoming tinier once I'm standing fully.

She clears her throat, her voice hoarse. "Yeah, thanks." It's then that she seems to look at me, and I mean really look at me. Her gaze floats from my face to my bare chest, down my entire body. "Sorry, I didn't realize you weren't wearing a shirt." Her cheeks flush but I can't tell if it's from the nightmare or not.

"Yeah, I run hot." I leave her behind to go straight to my room and grab the neatly folded t-shirt off my dresser and throw it over my head. I return a second later, calling out to her as I make my way to the kitchen. "How do you take your coffee?"

London yawns and stretches before rising to her feet. "What do you have?" Her face crinkles and she smacks her lips. "Do you have an extra toothbrush?"

I reach into the cabinet and pull a bag of coffee grounds out. "On the counter in the bathroom. Although I'm surprised you didn't find it when you were snooping."

"I was not," she lies.

I make the coffee, not daring to question her, because it's not like she'd tell me the truth anyway.

London joins me in the kitchen a moment later, opening the refrigerator like she's lived here her whole life. "Uh, that's weird."

She stares inside the fridge, and I grab two mugs from their home tucked away, ignoring her declaration.

"Archer." She glances over her shoulder at me. "Am I still asleep?"

"What?" I shoot her a quick look but grab the small container of sugar and a spoon.

"Cheese. Bagels. Fruit. Tofu."

I disregard her still.

"Archer," she says a bit louder. "Why do you have this stuff?"

Rolling my eyes, I sigh. "I went out and got them."

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