No accusation lay in Rhys’ eyes, only concern. “Why hadn’t you mentioned that?”
Archer hesitated. “I didn’t feel the need. We haven’t set anything in stone. We’ve just been letting things fall where they may.”
“Well,” Rhys stated with a frown. “They fell with her heart breaking in front of me this morning.”
“Shit,” Archer said.
“You got some mending to do.” Rhys rose, moving to the door and then turned back. “She’s hurt. Go fix that.”
The thought rattled in Archer’s head. He’d upset her, and he knew why. He’d given her a reason to doubt him. All her warranted fear and trust issues that had faded away had rebounded harder than ever.
Archer didn’t wait around to fix this. He called; she ignored that. He texted her; she didn’t respond. Desperate to correct his mistake, he hopped in a cab and went to her office. The security guard, Keith, who knew him well enough by now, let Archer breeze into the elevator, declaring that Elise was in her office. He found her sitting behind her desk. He didn’t knock to give her the chance to shut him out; he opened the door. She lifted her head, and the hurt in her eyes nearly had him sinking to his knees. “You didn’t answer my text or my call,” he said, shutting the door behind him.
“Usually, that means a person wants to be left alone,” she said, head bowed to her paperwork.
The ground felt unsteady beneath his feet as he approached her. “You’re upset.”
Her head lifted, as did her chin, and in a way so familiar to him, she said, “No, I’m not.”
The shields in her eyes slammed up, forcing him out. “You don’t look fine.”
A beat passed.
Then came her long sigh before she hit him with the force of her stare. “You don’t want me to do this.”
“Do what?”
“Hear the emotional things about to come out of my mouth. I don’t even want to say them. But that’s where we are, and there is no changing that.” She rose and headed for her door.
He stopped her by grabbing her arm. “Elise, talk to me.”
She visibly swallowed, then met him with a gaze far away from there. “This isn’t real, Archer.”
“What isn’t real?”
“Us. This. Whatever we’ve been doing here.”
“It’s real for me.”
“Is it? Truly?” A coldness spread across him as she continued, “Because I remember when all this started, you said that you didn’t want serious.”
“I can’t change my mind?”
The veil on her face fell, exposing the hurt. The pain he’d caused. “You never told Rhys about me, about us. About how things had changed. Not one single word about me to your friends?” Her voice blistered. “What am I? Your dirty little secret?”
“Absolutely not,” he said, a tremble in his voice he’d never heard before.
“What about Hunt, Kieran? Have you told them?”
“Elise, it’s not like—”
“I’ll take that as you haven’t told them.” She drew in a long deep breath and blew it out slowly, shaking her head. “You’re not fulfilled with me, and we’ve been lying to ourselves to think otherwise. This whole time, you were waiting for Phoenix to reopen, and you assumed I’d want to come with you, which I made perfectly clear I don’t want.”
Shit, he had no idea how to backpedal out of this conversation. Because he couldn’t give her an answer for why he hadn’t shouted to the world how amazing she was and how amazing they were together. Why the fuck hadn’t he?
“It’s all right, Archer, I’ll let you off the hook,” she said in his silence, and he saw any emotion she once had for him was gone. “We had fun. Lots of fun.”
He saw the ending. He wanted to stop it. He parted his lips…
“But like we said from the very beginning, we had chemistry. We explored that. But neither of us was looking for anything serious.” She smiled the fakest smile he’d ever seen in his life. “We’re okay. Truly.” She tried to hide the shake in her voice, but he heard it loud and clear. “Friends, all right?”
Friends. Fuck, friends.
“Elise,” was the only damn thing he could say.
She tore her emotion-packed eyes off him and kissed his cheek. “I’ll be in touch when, and if, the case develops further.”
“Wait,” he called.
She froze right as his cell phone beeped in his pocket.
“Fuck,” he growled, reaching for his phone. Hawke texted: Trouble at the club. Get here ASAP.
He responded: Be there in 10.
Shoving his cell back into his pocket, he went to Elise, who had not moved, which only told him she wanted to know his thoughts. “Elise, look at me,” he said to her back.
Slowly, she turned, and tears welled in her eyes. He cupped her face, holding her tight. “We’re not just friends. Won’t ever be just friends, and we both fucking know that. But I’m needed at the club.”
“Then go,” she said hoarsely.
“Can I come to you later so we can talk?”
She looked so damn tired. “What’s the point? Where can this possibly go?”
His head felt foggy, and he didn’t have the answers to fix this with her, so he did the only thing he could think to do. He grabbed her and kissed her with all the passion and emotion lacing his veins. When he broke the kiss, he added, “We’ll talk later, all right?”
She nodded, but he saw in her eyes she was already distant.
They’d spiraled so deep he didn’t even realize they’d gotten so lost in each other. He’d taken too much from her without offering her a safe place to land.
What he’d done wasn’t right, and he hated himself for it.
Chapter 14
Elise stared at the door Archer strode out of, feeling like her world was breaking apart, and she had no idea how to pull the pieces together again. She’d been happy, so damn happy with Archer. Why couldn’t happiness last?
Minutes turned into an hour. Until she realized she wasn’t alone in her office anymore. Zoey and Hazel rushed in, arms wrapping around Elise, and it was exactly what she needed right now. She sunk into their hold and did what she hadn’t done for a very long time. She cried.
Only when her tears stopped flowing and she felt in control of her emotions did she lean away. “Thanks for coming all the way here,” she said, wiping at her eyes. To Hazel, she added, “Thanks for worrying.”
“You don’t need to thank us for being good friends,” Hazel said. “Of course, we’d be here.”
Elise wiped another tear off her face. “How did you know I needed you?”
“Archer called a little bit ago,” Zoey said. “He said he couldn’t get away and thought you needed us.”
How he could be so sweet and so clueless at the same time only made Elise’s head throb harder. “What happened at the club that was so urgent?”
“A reporter broke into one of the tunnels that led to the club. Archer and Hawke are dealing with her and the police, having her arrested for breaking and entering and clearing all that up.”