"If you care so much, why did you stand back and let both your best friends fuck me? You don't strike me as the kind of guy who likes to share his possessions, and yet..." I waved a hand, and he knew what I meant.
He drew a deep breath, his chest swelling as he seemed to debate his response to my question. I had to hand it to him; I’d expected that to be a sore spot, a reflexive snap back. But instead, he took his time to consider his answer.
"Because," he finally said, his voice calm but threaded with tension, "Kody and Steele mean more to me than any family could. I owe them everything, and I'd never stand in the way of something they wanted. Even if..."
"Even if what they want is your wife, who doesn't know she's your wife? The same girl you're secretly in love with, but can't find the balls to make a move for yourself? That's some real tight fucking friendship, Sunshine." My tone was scathing and hurt, and I had no idea why. I felt very strongly for both Kody and Steele, and I was glad Archer hadn't stood in the way of them making a move. So why the fuck was I suddenly feeling stabby?
Archer shot me a perplexed look. "I never said I was in love with you, Princess." He all but spat the words like they tasted bad, and it only fanned the flames of my irrational anger.
"Oh no? I seem to remember you telling me that you didn't hate me, but you hated yourself for loving me. Your words, not mine." I folded my arms under my breasts, giving him an indignant glare, despite the fact that his eyes were still on the road.
He scoffed. He legitimately scoffed. "You must have been dreaming, Princess. I never said that. But it's cute to know that's what you were hoping to hear from me. Sorry to disappoint."
Stunned outrage rippled through me. It was my own fucking fault for bringing up our conversation from the night before, but for him to just straight up deny he said it? That one single confession from him had been the turning point for me. The straw that crumbled my defenses to dust. And he was going to sit there and deny he ever said it?
"Stop the car," I said, my voice cold and hard.
Archer did a double take, like he thought he'd misheard me.
My fists balled in my lap, and my whole fucking body vibrated with ice-cold fury. "Archer. Stop the fucking car now!"
I thought he would argue with me, maybe just straight up refuse, but he didn't. His jaw flexed and the vein over his temple throbbed, but he pulled sharply into the grassy strip beside the road. We were on a deserted stretch of road on the outskirts of Shadow Grove, in the total opposite direction to where we were meant to be going. But on the upside, it meant there were no bystanders around to witness when I cut Archer's lying fucking tongue from his mouth with his own damn knife.
The second his car slowed, I unbuckled my seat belt and threw my door open.
"Kate, what the fuck?" Archer exclaimed as I stepped out before the car had even fully stopped. Whatever, it was slow enough.
The rain was utterly bucketing down, and within seconds I was soaked straight to the core. But I barely even noticed. I was too mad. Too hurt. I just folded my arms around myself and started walking away from Archer's car.
"Madison Kate!" he bellowed after me, his voice dulled by the sound of the pouring rain. "Where are you going?"
I didn't answer other than to flip him off. Fuck that. Fuck him. Fuck this bullshit, paper-thin truce we'd been building. Seriously. Fuck it all straight to hell and then fuck it some more with a cactus up the ass.
Let him go back to his big, old, empty mansion alone and explain to Kody and Steele that he couldn't put his pigheaded pride aside for five minutes to repair things between us. If they truly had kicked him out until he could sort his shit out, they wouldn't be happy with that result.
The rush of falling rain dampened Archer's footsteps until he was too close to dodge. His huge hand locked around my upper arm and spun me around so fast my heels wobbled in the mud. I kept my balance, partly due to the iron grip he held me in, and raised my chin in stubborn anger.
"Take your hands off me, D'Ath," I hissed, my voice full of venom and hate.
"Get back in the car, Madison Kate," he ordered in a low, threatening growl.
It only made me want to fight back harder. "Or what?" I sneered. "You plan on spanking me for my disobedience?" It was simply a figure of speech, a taunt at best, yet with the way Archer's eyes flared with interest, I knew I'd just given him ideas.
Goddamn it all to hell. Again.
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" he replied in a dark murmur, his eyes heating. "I've heard the way you scream and moan when Steele slaps your ass during sex. Damaged little girls like you always love it rough."
Fury and indignation spiked in my chest, and I shoved him away from me, able to detach his grip on my arm purely because he hadn't expected me to do that.
"You sound like an expert on the matter," I countered, my disgust carrying on every word. "Don't tell me I'm not the only girl you've purchased before. Just like your great-grandfather, huh?"
His face twisted in rage, but I wasn't afraid of him. Only a truly weak man fought his battles against women with brute strength. For all Archer's failings, he was not weak. Not even close.
"You have no fucking clue what you're talking about, Madison Kate," he told me with a harsh hand gesture, like he was swiping those ugly accusations from the record. "Get back in the damn car."
I planted my hands on my hips, clenching my jaw to prevent my teeth from chattering. "No."
Archer's eyes narrowed to slits like he hadn't actually expected me to argue with him. "Get in the car, or I will make you get in the car." He took a threatening step toward me, and I backed up on reflex.
"Touch me again and I'll punch you straight in the balls, Archer. How many hits can a guy's testicles take before they're considered defective anyway?" I had no idea if that was a real thing or not, but Dallas once told me that if you took enough knocks to the balls, it'd damage sperm production or some shit. I didn't know the hard science behind my insults; I just threw them out and hoped one might stick.
Archer just laughed at my threat, and I got the distinct impression I might be in some real trouble.
His hand shot out quicker than I could even track, his arm banding around my waist and jerking me hard against his body. In seconds, he'd pinned me in such a way that not only was I totally incapable of freeing myself, I also couldn't follow through on my threat to reintroduce his junk to my kneecap.
"Let me go," I demanded, frustration coloring my voice with a small scream. "Archer, let me fucking go!"
He lowered his face until our lips were just an inch apart. Water poured down his face and dripped to mine, like we were a Renaissance-era fountain. The tragic, star-crossed lovers, doomed to kill each other before ever admitting their true feelings.
We were pathetic.
"Never," he replied with dark promise. "I'm never letting you go, Kate. No matter what you do, how hard you push, kick, scream, and fight, I'm never, ever letting you go."
His mouth came down on mine in a hard crush, but I wasn't having a bar of it. Not now. Not after those cutting barbs he's just so casually tossed in my direction.