Page 50 of Zone Protection

We all laugh then and continue to eat and chat. They ask him about his game, and Mia mentions a hit he took near the end of the it.

I turn around to look at him over my shoulder. “Did you get hurt and not tell me?”

He kisses my forehead. “I’m good, baby. Just took a hit in the last play. Guy got me on my blind side.”

“Did you get one of those gnarly bruises?” Peyton asks him.

“We always get a little bruised and battered in the games, but nothing I can’t handle. I’ll go see the trainer this week, and she’ll get me feeling ready for the next game.”

“I wish you had said something. I felt bad enough, missing the game on TV.”

He laughs. “I’m fine, I promise. I’ll let you examine it later.” He kisses my lips.

“I can’t decide if that’s hot or kind of gross,” Livi says.

“Well, she did say she wanted me to feed her?—”

I cover his mouth with my hand.

“Don’t you dare!” I remove my hand from his mouth and kiss him quiet instead.

“While you guys are cute and all, I am trying to eat. Can you put your tongues away for a few so we can finish?” Mia asks.

I pull away from his mouth and laugh. Then I turn around and eat a few more bites of my food.

My stomach is beginning to feel full, and I’ve noticed when I start to feel this way, it’s best to stop eating to avoid getting sick. So, I hold it toward Archie to feed him a bite.

He takes the bite from my hand and practically swallows it whole.

As he finishes chewing, he stands with me in his arms. “Grab the waters, Em.”

I lean over and grab the water bottles, and then he carries me down the hall to my room.

Over his shoulder, he yells out, “Night, ladies.”

We hear them laughing as he closes the door to my room with his elbow.

He sets me on my feet, then moves over to the other side of the bed and toes off his shoes, removes his hat, then starts to take off his shirt.

“Arch, does it bother you that we’re always at my place and not yours?”

He pauses for a second, then continues to toss his shirt on the nightstand. “Honestly, yeah, a little because my friends are like family. However, if I introduce you to my friends, I’m gonna want to introduce you as more than the girl I’m seeing. I want to show you off as the mother of my child, and until you’re ready to go all in with the news, I’m okay with waiting.”

I smile. “I know I should tell all of my roommates, but I kind of like living in our little bubble right now. This relationship is so new that it’s inevitable people will have their opinions.”

“And the only ones that count are ours. I’ll protect our bubble and I won’t let anyone fuck around with what we have here.”

“Have I ever told you how attracted I am to your assertive nature?”

“I thought you liked my dirty mouth?” he says with a wink.

“Well, yeah, that too.”

His eyes gleam a midnight shade of want and need.

“Sit on the bed, darlin’,” he instructs, and I do as he asks.

He walks around the bed to me. “You feel okay?”

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