Unable to resist, I leaned over and kissed the slope of his shoulder, then the notch at the base of his throat, where his delicious scent was concentrated. I dragged my nose over the skin there, my hands wandering down the tight muscles of his stomach until I found the trail of hair that I was looking for. I didn’t move on just yet, tickling the skin with light brushes of my fingers.
Archer groaned low in his throat, his eyes still closed. “You’re gonna kill me, woman.”
I kissed his chest. “No, I won’t.”
His hands traveled along my waist and my back, coasting up and down my spine as I shifted over him and tugged the sheet down, dragging kisses along his sleep-warm skin as I did.
“Coach is gonna ask me why I’m slow as shit, and I’ll have to explain that you literally fucked me into a coma.”
I chuckled against his stomach, placing gentle sucking kisses between his abs. I loved his body. Hard, chiseled muscles for my own personal playground. Created for strength and speed, but I’d be the giddy recipient of all his other talents too.
Archer wound his fingers through my hair in a firm but gentle grip, tilting my face so that I looked up at him with my chin set on his stomach. I expected to find thinly veiled desire, with pupils blown wide, but what I found was something entirely different.
The way he looked at me was akin to adoration, almost worshipful. It wasn’t sex in his bright-blue eyes, the heated looks that used to make me squirm. It was love.
I spread my hand over his chest, splaying my fingers wide over the firm, steady beat of his heart, and soaked up the charged intimacy of the moment. He dragged his thumb over my bottom lip, smiling faintly when I sighed.
“I’m going to be so pissed if I wake up and this isn’t real,” he murmured.
My heart gave a warm, contented beat before a smile ever formed on my lips. “I bet if this was a dream, my hair would be perfect and you would’ve woken up with my mouth on your—”
He growled slightly, pressing his thumb against my lips to cut me off. “No.”
I raised an eyebrow, nipping at his thumb as he pulled it away. “No?”
Archer shook his head. “I don’t want the fantasy of you, Remi. I want the real thing.”
Wasn’t the idea of reality the thing I’d donned like a shield? That the combination of his and mine was fundamentally incompatible, or so I’d told myself over and over. Remembering how thoroughly I’d believed that lie conjured a band of tension tight around my ribs, and as it snapped in place, I kept my gaze locked on his. What I saw there made it easier to breathe, and the tightness dissolved in the space of a heartbeat.
We could do this.
It wouldn’t be easy, and we’d stumble more than once, but it wasn’t impossible. How sweet it felt to believe that with every ounce of my being.
“Even when we hardly see each other because of work?” I whispered.
He nodded.
“And when Gavin gets sick and I can’t come here on your day off?”
“I’ll come over and help take care of you both.”
My eyes fluttered shut as he traced a finger down my spine. “O-or when we have something planned and I need to go pick up a dog?”
“Dates in the car are sexy, didn’t you know?”
I pried my eyes open, and he was watching me with a content smile tugging at the edge of his lips. “Are they?”
“So I hear,” he answered easily.
Slowly, I shifted higher on the bed so his mouth was within kissing distance. Just in case.
“I could give you a hundred examples like this,” I told him, tracing the edges of his lips with my fingertip. “Even if I did, we’ll figure it out, won’t we?”
His voice was rough. “Even then.” His hand settled, big and warm, on the back of my neck. “Even when I’m exhausted and beat up and grumpy because we lose, and I’m still working twelve hours a day during the season.”
I adopted a serious expression. “You won’t lose now. I’m your good luck charm.”
“That so?” He dipped his chin and gave me a lingering kiss, humming as he pulled back. “I’ll let Coach know he’s got nothing to worry about.”