Page 35 of Turning Tides
He greeted me with a cocky smile and a hungry gaze. His eyes lit up when he saw the tray of drinks and the bag of food.
“Oh, you’re a life saver. My coffee machine didn’t survive storage.”
I stepped into the apartment and Archer shut the door for me. I set our breakfast on the counter. “I didn’t know how you take your coffee, so it’s black. And I didn’t know if you preferred sausage or bacon breakfast sandwiches, so I got both.”
Archer stepped into my space and rose up onto his toes to brush a kiss against my mouth. He lingered for a moment. “Something smells amazing, and it’s not breakfast. Why do you smell so good?”
“Brodie sent me cologne.” I tried to pass it off like it was no big deal. Wearing cologne and bringing breakfast, but Archer’s approval made me feel like I was walking on air.
He gave me a final onceover. “I like it,” he said before grabbing the black coffee and dumping two creams and two sugars into it.
I unbagged the breakfast sandwiches and Archer grabbed one of each.
“I’ve yet to meet a meat I didn’t like.” He unwrapped the sausage one first and took a bite.
We ate standing up in his kitchen. I hadn’t eaten since dinner the night before and I’d been starving. I should have had a snack after our activities downstairs, but I hadn’t thought of it. My mind had been consumed by him. It still was.
Once we finished eating, I finally looked around the space. More art hung on the walls and his tattoo station was set up on the other side of the room. Archer had stacked binders of his past work on his coffee table.
“It looks great in here.”
“Thanks. I have my first clients next week.”
“Really? That’s awesome.”
“It’s nothing huge, just a pair of sisters wanting small matching tattoos, but it’ll be good to be working again.” Archer motioned to the couch. “Have a seat and let’s talk tattoo.”
When I sat down, it didn’t escape my attention that he sat at the other end of the couch from me. That was fine. This was a professional appointment, after all. So what if he kissed me, and sniffed me, and told me I smelled good? That didn’t mean he wanted to climb into my lap to show me his ideas.
Archer cleared his throat and set his coffee down on the table. “First, I want to assure you that I don’t plan to hold you to the agreement from last night.”
“You could if you wanted. It’s just a tattoo.” It was more than a tattoo to me now, but I didn’t want to admit that out loud. Or otherwise. “I trust you, but if it makes you feel better, we can agree on some rules.”
He bit his lip, then nodded. “I think that would be best.”
“Okay, so no names, nothing derogatory, and I don’t care where you want to put it, but I draw the line at having my dick tattooed.”
“A temporary tattoo could be fun for a dick tattoo, though.” He shot me a grin to let me know he was kidding and unstacked the binders on the table. “I have a ton of flash. The time away from the chair was put to good use at least. I have so many pieces that I can’t wait to do. Have a look at these and see if you like my style. There’s pictures of finished pieces in the red binder.”
“I’m okay with you choosing what you want on me. And where.”
Archer gave me a pointed look and I opened the binder.
His work was good. Better than good. But I knew that already from the pieces he’d hung on the walls in the space. He liked line work and had a great eye for detail. His shading was good and I loved the way he worked with color.
“I’m glad you’re choosing what to put on me because I have no idea what I’d pick. You’re really talented.”
“Thanks. But I’m still going to run the final design by you.”
“That’s okay by me.” I closed the binder and set it back on the table. “Where did you want to put it?”
Archer grinned at me and I could tell he wasn’t thinking about tattoos. “Well, I have some ideas about that.”
Chapter 18
Archer
“Shirt off.” I notedthe way his eyes flashed when I told him what to do. “Don’t get ahead of yourself. I just want to see my canvas. I have to know what I’m working with.”
