Page 37 of Sinful Reality

“For fuck’s sake.” He bounds off the bed, his smile dropping away as he chases me into the hall. He wraps his arm around my hips and flicks the taps on before I have a chance to truly process the fact he ran faster than my brain can… brain. “Estimate for me, please, Doctor Mayet, how many times you’ve waterboarded yourself because you were sick and alone and passed out in the heat?”

“Two or three times, maybe.” I want to puke. I want to die. I want tomake this feeling go away, but all I manage is to step into the shower and burn my skin all over while Archer fusses with the temperature. “I don’t get sick often.”

“Only two or three times,” he growls. “No big deal.”

“This isn’t real sick, anyway.” I walk straight to the wall and press my forehead against the cold tile. “This is ‘stayed out too late and got a little chilled’ sick. Coffee and a decent breakfast will get me back to normal.”

“Uh-huh. You fucking liar.” I startle when he steps in behind me, his chest warming my back and his cock nestled by my ass.

I guess he undressed faster than my brain could brain, too.

“If you think you’re about to drop, can you give me a warning? I’m gonna do my best to predict this shit, but a little help wouldn’t go astray.”

“You’re overthinking it.” But I close my eyes and groan when his soapy hands work along my back. “I’ve lived twenty-nine years and haven’t split my head open or died in the shower. It’s not as scary as you’re making it out to be.”

“Sure,” he grumbles. “But since you’re so clever and intuitive and shit, you’ll have no problem telling me you’re about to drop.” He presses a rough kiss on the back of my neck. “Do you feel nauseous?”

“Nauseated,” I correct him. “Not nauseous. Andno.” It’s hardly a lie if he knows I’m lying. “I’m fine.”

“Throw up in the shower. It’s not like you’ve eaten in a whole fucking day anyway, so whatever comes up will go down the drain easily.”

“You’re kinda cranky, considering you’re supposed to be here to comfort me.”

“I’m cranky because you scare the shit out of me. Cranky is my default. Turn.” He doesn’t wait for me tobrain. He grabs my hip and spins me long before his command reaches my thoughts, and then he pushes me to the cold, hard tile. “I’m sorry I’m cranky.” His words are hard, but his eyes swim with sorrow. With desperation. “I’ve been dealing with some stuff lately, and that stuff all revolves around the debilitating fear of losing you.” He pumps soap into his palm and rubs it over my belly. “Whether I lose you to sickness, or another guy, or because of my own fucking behavior, the outcome remains the same.And it’s the outcome that makes me feel like I’m losing my mind. It’s exhausting holding all of me in when I want so badly to explode and make everyone else pay for the shitty things I’m feeling.”

“Timothy The Second would explode.” I drag my eyes up and search his, even as pain radiates throughout my stomach in waves of stabbing agony. “He would take his temper out on everyone else, no matter who they were or how they didn’t deserve it. Micah, too,” I ponder aloud. “Probably. He carries a hairline trigger he works hard to keep under wraps. Felix, as well. Though he’s more able to hide his behind humor.”

“Minka…”

“You’ve come a long way from where you began.” I bring my hand up and swipe the snot leaking from my nose.Sexy, I know. “We’re not destined to follow in our parents’ footsteps, no matter how hopeless it all seems sometimes.”

He pulls back, tilting his head and searching my eyes. His lips opening, then closing. Opening again, as though to speak, only to close once more when he can’t find the words he wants to offer.

But then he gulps, his jaw firming and flexing. “I’m sorry I made you feel like you’d done something wrong yesterday. We both messed up because neither of us was brave enough to just fucking talk. But you didn’t cheat, Minka. You didn’t even come close to it. But I made you feel as though you had. That was wrong of me.”

Tears sting my eyes and steal what little strength I possess. But I nod and try with everything I have in me to stop my jaw from trembling. “And you have a history of men destroying the things you love. Your mom, from the very moment you came into this world. And Jill, because your dad wanted to hurt you. We each brought baggage into this relationship, and now we’re the idiots left holding it all and hoping not to make things worse.”

“No one’s taking you away from me.” He slides his soapy hand up my torso, stopping at my throat. “I’m scared of it, every fucking day. Accident. Illness. Your own medical fragility terrifies me. And that doesn’t even touch on the men who think they could step in and try their luck wooing you.”

“But we choose each other.” I drop my head back, pain radiating through my skull when it hits the tile with a thud. But I drape my armsover his shoulders and blink away the sleepiness attempting to put me on the floor. “As long as we do that, everything will be fine.”

“Right.” He draws a long breath until his chest expands and touches mine, then exhales so I get my coffee fix second-hand. “I can help you medicate and keep you safe. As your husband, those are my jobs.”

“Archer—”

“And as a Malone, I’ll slit the fucking throat of any man who tries to step between us.” He flashes a taunting smile and captures my yucky, snotty lip with his. “My penguin.”

I sigh and take a micro-nap against the wall. But I mumble the words we both need. “My rock.”

“Are you gonna pass out?”

“Nuh-uh.” I roll my head from side to side. “Just sleeping.”

ARCHER

My wife is the most tenacious woman I’ve ever known, and modern medicine can only do so much to keep a person on their feet, even when they really shouldn’t be. But an hour after our shower and a box full of tissues later, Minka insists on dressing and heading to the George Stanley.

Because those areherbones, that’shercase, and she’ll be damned before she allows someone else to reconstruct the skeleton she spent eighteen hours digging out of the frozen ground.

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