Sworn to Be His ( The Archer Family 3)

"What, like you would?" He shot back a little too quickly, and she was silent as they rolled into the parking lot in front of the station.

"You know this makes sense," he said and she studied him for a long moment, her blue eyes clear and shrewd as she surveyed him.

"I know that you're jealous. What else it is, I don't know. Maybe you're trying to make me feel like this isn't my fault like you did before."

"You think I told you all that because..."

"I don't know why you do anything, but I'm not buying it." She sniffed and he gripped the steering wheel harder as she opened the passenger side door.

Everything. He'd told her everything about his past, his secrets, and what had she done? Ignored it.

He gritted his teeth, and when the door had closed behind her, he backed out again and sped back onto the street.

Chapter 9

"I'm an idiot." Jade stared down at her cat, not bothering to scold the tabby for jumping up onto the table for the third time that evening.

At this point, she was just glad to have someone to commiserate with. Someone who, based on their indifference, knew exactly how colossally she'd fucked up today. After everything Derrick had shared with her, why couldn't she just put everything aside and tell him the one thing that still hung between them, unspoken?

That it was him she wanted. That nobody mattered but him.

That she...cared for him.

She stirred her coffee lazily with her spoon and then took a long sip. She'd have to come up with some way to make this up to Derrick. And she would. Just as soon as she worked up the courage to see him again.

She glanced out the window, studying the droplets of rain careening down her window panes. It was the perfect night for a good cup of coffee and some well-deserved sleep. Maybe if she went to bed now, things would seem slightly less fucked up in the morning.

Maybe—

The doorbell clanged in the front of the house and she got up from the dining room table and shuffled into the adjacent room, careful not the look at the spot where she'd made love to Derrick on her living room floor.

Again the doorbell rang and she sprinted the last few feet before swinging the door open.

Then there he was, rain dripping down his nose and making his dark grey shirt cling to his muscles. Derrick, his dark hair soaked through.

"Can I come in?" He asked, and she stepped aside wordlessly.

"I was just thinking about you. I—"

"No. You need to know something." He cut her off.

"Derrick," she said.

"Jade, I'm not jealous. I've never been a jealous man and I have to tell you and I'm still not."

"I—"

He held up a hand to silence her, then took another step toward her until his wet clothes began to dampen her own. "I can't be jealous because I know you're mine and I can have you whenever I want you. I know that you want me."

He cupped her chin in one hand and lifted her face to his. "I know you want me right now."

She couldn't deny it was the truth. The second he stepped into the room, her heart had beat fast and her mouth had gone dry. She wanted to lick the rain from his neck, to taste it on his lips. To feel his chilled skin against her own warm flesh.

"I shouldn't have said you were jealous. And I shouldn't have—"

"I don't care about that, I don't regret telling you anything. I want you to know all there is to know about me."

"Then, what do you want? Why did you come here?"