Page 14 of Summoned by the CEO (Curvy for Keeps)

“Don’t TVs have USB ports anymore?” he grumbles, finally turning to me and holding up the little stick that looks about as outdated as the two of us are.

“Honey, they aren’t even called TVs anymore.” I look over towards the shelves in the corner. “Here. I think there’s an old computer that has a jack on it. There we go. Plug it in right there.”

“That’s whatshesaid,” Archer says with a wicked grin, the lines on his face reminding me of the places we’ve been together, the placeshe’sbeen . . .

“What is that, anyway?” I say, giggling at his lame joke and then squinting at the computer screen.

Archer doesn’t reply. Instead he walks over and draws the thick black curtains of the alcove, giving us some privacy from the rest of our brood. He’s still got that look in his eyes, and when the computer screen lights up with an image that takes me back forty years, I almost die from shock.

“You didnotkeep this video,” I say as my face goes red with both shame and excitement when my younger self walks into Aran Archer’s office, shaking like a leaf, shivering like a schoolgirl, yet steady like someone who knew that she was stepping towards her forever.

“Told you I’d pull it out when we were old and gray,” Archer says. He glances at his erection and winks at me. “The video, I mean.”

“OK, your dick jokes are getting worse and worse,” I say, shaking my head and giggling as I settle in on the big leather couch that was just the scene of a wholesome family viewing party and is very shortly going to be a very different scene. “And you also said you’d put it on with all our kids and pets in the room.”

“I can wake them up,” he whispers. “I got no shame in showing the kids how Daddy claims Mommy, how Grandpa shows Grandma who’s in charge, who’s the king, who’s the goddamn boss.”

“No,” I whisper as I watch myself and Archer meet for the first time, watch myself from above, get taken back to that dark awakening that pulled me kicking and screaming to a future that’s full of light.

“No,” I say again as I feel that beautiful darkness descend upon us like it’s always been there, always will be there, is a part of us. “This is just for us, Archer. Just the two of us. Just like it was forty years ago. Just like it still is. Just like it’ll always be.”

Just the two of us.

Always and forever.

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