Page 44 of Lost Kingdom

Another bite. “No take backs.”

“Aubree, it’s time—” Minka steamrolls into the room and folds her lips inwards, her cheeks flaming and her eyes dancing when I spasm in Tim’s arms. Because she’s seen enough. Too much.

And then Archer stops behind her. “Uh…”

“Mind your business,” Tim rumbles. So calm. So casual. “Turn around and leave.”

“Yeah, no.” She fists Archer’s tie and drags him across the threshold, then she closes the door until it rattles in the frame. “So here we are.” She flicks her wrist in my direction, up and down as though to swat a mosquito away. “We’re doing this?”

I drop my face to Tim’s chest and cling to the lapels of his suit. “Please go away before I die of humiliation.”

“No dying allowed,” he growls by my ear. But he abandons my ass, at least, and sets his palms on my back. “Leave, Archer. Take your wife with you.”

The younger Malone chuckles, antagonistic and taunting. “I feel you’re overestimating the power I possess right now. If she doesn’t wanna move…”

“There’s a dude out there asking for you,” Minka explains in monotone. “Tall. Bulky.” She lifts her hand, as though to illustrate his height. “Kinda handsome, if you’re into that pro football player kinda build.”

And just like that, Tim drags me off his chest and sets me aside. On my shelf, so to speak. “I’ll go talk to him.”

“No!” I bound from my spot and grab on to his arm. I look ridiculous, digging my heels into the floor and still, being dragged along as he moves. “Tim!”

“I just wanna meet him.” He glances down and smiles at me. Angelic, and so full of shit it’s almost pouring out of his nostrils. “No body, no murder.”

“Stop it!” I’m caught between humor for this insane situation, and humiliation, because my lipstick is destroyed and my eyes are wild. “You’re not talking to him unless I’m standing right beside you.”

“It’s cute you think that, considering you’re not talking to him at all.”

Minka hisses, extra noisy just to be obnoxious. “Controlling who she can talk to right out of the gate? And isolating her from old friends? That’s two strikes, Malone. Third one comes with a painful punishment that starts and ends with my lucky scalpel.”

Tim desperately looks at Archer. “Can you deal with her? Please?”

“Not typically.” But he wraps his arm over her shoulder and tugs her in to press a kiss to her temple. “Don’t worry so much. We like them wild. It’s exhausting, for sure. And will probably be the reason we die. But tamed and domesticated isn’t really our thing.”

“Why are you here, anyway?” I search my boss’ eyes and lift a brow of impatience. “You knew I was in here. You even knew who I was with. Yet you barged in. Dead body?”

“At your brother’s wedding? I would hope not. But you have two minutes to be at the double opening doors. The music is starting.”

I cast a look at the clock on the wall. “Two minutes?”

“Yeah. But that was two minutes ago.” She breaks away from Archer and snags my hand just as the bells above us chime. Spinning on her heels, she jerks me across the room and into the hall with no time to check my lipstick. “Get Tim,” she calls back. “He needs to be out here, too. You look all flustered and sexed up, Doctor Emeri. Weddings are supposed to be about purity, aren’t they? Promises made and the expectations a groom might have of his bride.”

“Oh, hush.” I yank my hand free and stop when I find a mirror perched in a golden lillied frame. “This is a gay wedding, for starters. There are no brides.” I fix my makeup, wiping the smudges Tim’s lips created and smoothing the color back between the lines. “And I’m not sexed up. Though I might’ve liked to continue exploring that stuff we’d started.”

“Being sexed by a Malone is an experience to behold. But not,” she offers a tissue over my shoulder. “For the first time, when you only have thirty seconds to start and finish, while you’re preparing to attend your brother’swedding. Save it for the honeymoon. Come on.” She grabs me again, tearing me off balance and catching me when I stumble. “Those bells mean you’re late, and Eli is probably gonna tear your eyelashes off your face in punishment. Nice necklace, by the way. Sex favor?”

“Shut up.” My heart tumbles as I trust my best friend to lead the way and instead, I glance down at the shining promise Tim placed square on my chest. “He told me the Malone story.”

“You knew the story already.”

“I know. But he told me a slightly different story. It’s ours, and it’s still Malone, but it’s Emeri, too. And he said he’s in.”

“In?”

“In! Like, with us. He’s in, and he’s going to be with me, and tomorrow, things will still be okay, because he’s not going to keep stayingoutanymore.”

“Sounds like a cheesy porno.” She forces us to a stop by a set of doors and brings me around until we’re toe to toe. “He’s in now, because he wants to be in. And he’s not gonna be out, because being out sucks.” She drags the very edge of her nail beneath my bottom lip. “In and out, Aubs. You’re a dirty girl.”

“You’re making it weird.”

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