Archer seemed in no hurry to fill the silence with conversation, so we just chilled while waiting for our food. I watched the storm, and he... watched me. Yet it didn't make me uncomfortable. It just allowed me some breathing room to assess the shift in his personality and in our dynamic.
I'd pinpointed it perfectly in the shower. Archer's whole mood shift had occurred after I’d found out about the marriage contract. It was like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, and he was no longer punishing me for the secrets he kept.
"Steele has probably already told you this story," Archer commented shortly after our massive plates of pancakes arrived, "but I knew you before all of this... mess."
My mouth was full, so I took the time to chew and swallow before responding. "He mentioned it, yes. I don't remember, though."
Archer just nodded, his gaze dropping to his plate. For a while, we ate in silence, and I grudgingly admitted he'd chosen well. It was exactly what I wanted for breakfast, even though I hadn't known it in my hangry state.
"Try the coffee, Princess," Archer muttered at some stage, hiding a smile with his own mug.
I peered at the pitch-black liquid and wrinkled my nose. "No, thanks. I enjoy the full use of my taste buds."
"You're such a snob," he commented with an edge of laughter. "Here, your highness, let me fix it for you." He added a heavy splash of cream to my coffee, then gave it a quick stir before pushing it towards me. "Just try it. I promise it's not laced with rat poison."
Rolling my eyes, I picked up the mug and took a cautious sip.
Shockingly, it didn't make my taste buds all howl like they'd been doused in battery acid. It was actually... not that bad. Still a long shot off the coffee at Nadia's Cakes, but it was drinkable. I'd give it that much credit.
"See, sometimes you just have to trust me, Princess." Archer's eyes flashed with a deeper meaning, and I shifted my gaze back to the rain that was now lashing at the window. For all my plans of pumping him for more information over breakfast, I found myself shying away from that conversation.
Weirdly, I just wanted to enjoy my breakfast... with him.
Archer had smashed my walls to dust with his drunken honesty, and now all I had left was a cardboard facade. He'd see through it in no time, if he hadn't already. But if he thought this new phase of our relationship would be nothing but rainbows and roses, he was severely mistaken.
After all, it was a fine line between love and hate, and our line was officially all tangled up in barbed wire.
32
After our surprisingly pleasant meal, Archer led me to where he'd left his car the night before. It was just around the corner from where we'd had breakfast, directly in front of a seedy-looking, underground pub, but I had to use my coat as an umbrella as we dashed through the pouring rain.
I chose not to comment on his choice of drinking establishments and slipped into the passenger seat when he popped the door open for me.
"Seeing as you're in such a sharing mood this weekend," I said, tossing my wet coat behind my seat and buckling my seat belt. "Why don't you tell me what Kody and Steele were really doing last night."
Archer shot me a quick glance, turning his engine on and pulling out into the street before answering.
"What did they tell you they were doing?" he asked, sounding cagey as fuck. Goddamn it, maybe he needed that coffee spiked with whiskey to maintain the honesty.
I blew out a sigh. "Kody had some urgent meeting with Jase, and Steele was supposedly working on security."
"What makes you think that's not what they were doing?" Archer pushed, and my temper sparked to life. He was deliberately making me question the guys at their word... even though I was already.
Gritting my teeth, I played his game. "Kody knew he would have gotten laid last night if he came over, so I find it hard to believe he took a meeting with Jase instead of telling him to get fucked."
Archer snorted a laugh. "Maybe you're shit in bed, Princess."
I glared at the side of his head. "You know that's not true, Sunshine."
The lightning fast glance he shot at me was full of heat and lust, and it made my thighs tense. "Fine. Jase needed me to sign off on some samples as a matter of urgency. If it hadn’t been done last night, we'd have missed the production deadline from the manufacturers."
I frowned, not making the connection. "So, why'd Kody have to go?"
He shrugged, driving at his normal speed through Shadow Grove, despite the bucketing rain that his windshield wipers could barely keep up with. "Because I was doing shots of whiskey at the Wreck And Ruin and not answering my phone. I imagine Jase called Kody to get the papers signed instead."
Huh. Okay. Kody had been telling the truth then. I was relieved, even though I hadn‘t truly thought he'd be throwing lies around again so soon. Not when he and Steele were working so hard to gain my trust back.
"What about Steele?" I asked, still curious about what security measures he'd been working on that had taken so much time.
Archer shot me another glance, this time pensive. "He was working on security, like he said." There was a cagey, secretive edge to his tone, though.
Dread pooled in my belly. "Elaborate on that."
"Ask him. I thought you guys were all anti-secrets these days, anyway. I'm sure he'll tell you if you just ask." There was a note of bitterness or contempt in his tone that made my temper flare.
Come to think of it, that raised another question I had. "Tell me something, husband dearest," I drawled, propping my elbow on the door and leaning my head on my palm. "If you went to all these difficult, dangerous, and expensive lengths to keep me safe..."
He grunted a sound of annoyance. "I did," he snapped. "I thought we'd cleared that up already."
I gave a small shrug, like I didn't totally buy his reasons. I mean, yes, I did. But I also knew it would drive him nuts if he thought I was still doubting him.
"Well, okay, for argument’s sake, you did do it all for my benefit—"
"It was," he cut me off, shooting a scowl at me. Whatever he saw on my face must have clued him into the fact that I was just antagonizing him, though, because the tension visibly dropped from his shoulders as his gaze returned to the road.
"Uh-huh," I continued, enjoying how easy he was to provoke when he was hungover. It made me think I wanted to get him drunk more often. Did that make me a bad person? I mean, at least I wasn't thinking about stabbing him in the eye with a fork, so we'd made some definite progress in the past twenty-four hours.
"So, if you went to all these lengths to help me... and if what you told me last night was the truth and not some fucked up D'Ath manipulation technique"—Yeah, I was pushing all his buttons now if the rumble of a growl in his throat was any indication—"then I have one very important question."
I paused for dramatic effect—and also to work up the nerve to ask what was on my mind. But fuck it. I'd recently killed a man; I could suck up enough courage to ask a pretty boy a personal question.
"Spit it out, Madison Kate," Archer ordered, clearly dreading whatever I might be about to ask. His knuckles paled on the steering wheel as he gripped it tighter, and I smiled.