Imperfect Harmony (House of Archer #1)

  She either didn’t consider those things or didn’t care. Instead of stopping him, she deepened the kiss, running the tip of her tongue along the seam of his lips until he parted them to allow her access. Their tongues met and stroked against each other leisurely... achingly slowly. Lily tasted delectable, like sweet nectar. He wanted to get drunk on her like a bee sipping at the heart of a flower.

  His hand started beside her face, gently caressing her cheek and jaw. Then it traveled down to the sensitive curve where her neck met her shoulders. When she gave him a little moan, he broke away from her delicious mouth and brushed his lips along her jaw, dipping his head so he could reach her neck. She gasped softly as his mouth slid along the line of her pulse, tracing it with his tongue. He felt the throb of her heartbeat all the way to his groin.

  This time, he was the one who moaned.

  He kissed the soft skin of her neck and the slender line of her collarbone, allowing both of his hands to roam lower while he did so. Her breathing grew more uneven as his fingers splayed along her ribcage and then rose to cup her breasts through her shirt. He felt the subtle pattern in the fabric of her bra beneath her shirt and determined that it was made of lace. The mental image of that had him wanting to peel off her top to access the lace and skin beneath, but he wasn’t about to go that far.

  Lily had other ideas. She shocked the hell out of him by lifting the hem of her shirt and urging his hands beneath it.

  He most certainly wasn’t going to argue. She brought his lips back to hers as his hands slid fully under her top and brushed against her waist. The feel of her petal-soft skin against his callused fingers was absolutely incredible.

  He lightly circled her navel with his thumb, deliberately allowing his touch to drift towards the waistband of her shorts several times. That had her shifting in her seat to give him even better access. Rather than indulge her by dipping down, his fingers slowly rose to brush along the bottom of her lacy bra while his tongue met the rhythmic thrusts of hers. He denied them both by caressing only the bottoms and sides of her breasts, avoiding the provocative peaks that so clearly wanted his touch.

  The sexy sounds she made as he teased her conveyed her impatience. If he hadn’t been hard as granite himself, he might have felt smug about that.

  Breaking away from her kiss a minute later, he said, “Transfer station.”

  The words sounded tense and abrupt. Small wonder considering he was heaving for breath like a marathon runner. Beside him, Lily tugged her shirt into place and plastered a polite smile on her face as they glided through the covered station at the other end of the park. The ride operators in the station smiled and waved at them, nudging each other when they recognized Archer. Giving them an awkward return wave, he silently prayed his raging erection was hidden enough by his T-shirt.

  By the time they swung back out of the other side of the station, Archer’s breathing had nearly returned to normal. He couldn’t make his lower body cooperate, though. He had to keep his hands off Lily if he wanted that to happen.

  Once again, she ruined his plans by waiting just long enough to be out of sight of the ride operators before straddling him and kissing him again. He didn’t have the will to refuse her. Hell, he could kiss her all day.

  This kiss wasn’t slow and leisurely. It was intense and a little desperate...and impossibly arousing.

  Briefly parting from his lips, Lily said, “I need your hands on me, Dane. Please.”

  Every part of him responded to the urgency he sensed in her. His fingers once again slid under her top. She moaned as the warmth of his hands brushed along her waist and up to the line of her bra.

  This time he didn’t tease. He tormented them both.

  Lily’s lower body writhed against his more and more with every touch, driving him out of his mind. Their tongues mated as his hands moved along her body, dipping from the edge of her bra down to her backside before eventually returning to her breasts. When he finally allowed the backs of his fingers to rub against her hard nipples, Lily made a keening sound low in her throat.

  “Please,” she gasped.

  He held her gaze as his hand drifted down between them. He watched the pupils of her beautiful eyes dilate as he unfastened the single button of her shorts and tugged the zipper down. He watched their color deepen to violet as his fingers slipped beneath the delicate band of lace and found her hot and wet for him.

  “Dane.”

  It was all she managed as his fingers slid over her. He knew they didn’t have much time, so he didn’t draw it out like he really wanted to. Instead, he used one hand to drag her down to kiss her again while his other hand stroked her to climax.

  The sensation and sound of her achieving orgasm nearly had him toppling over the edge himself. He had never experienced such an excruciating blend of pleasure and pain in his entire life. He had to get some distance between them immediately. Yanking his hand from her shorts as though she had scorched him, he shoved himself across the car to the other seat.

  “God, Lily,” he panted. “Oh my God.”

  She was equally short of breath. “Are you okay?” she asked as she started straightening her appearance.

  Just the sight of her erect nipples pressing against her shirt had lust blasting through him. “You know I’m not okay, you seductive siren,” he responded, tearing his gaze from her and looking at the water ride they were passing in search of a distraction. “I’m about to come right here on the Delta Flyer.”

  She snorted at that. “Would that be so bad? As you could probably tell, I’m ready to go all the way with you right here, right now.”

  He closed his eyes and groaned. There wasn’t a chance in hell he wouldn’t be sporting some serious wood for the rest of the day.

  “Why didn’t you?” she asked in a softer voice. “You know...with me?”

  His eyes opened and met hers. He wasn’t oblivious to the uncertainty he read in her gaze. That was the last thing he wanted.

  “I don’t want to rush things with you, Lily.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Of course, seriously. Things are different with you. You know I’ve never been in a relationship before. I want to do this right. You deserve that.”

  She mulled that over as the ride neared its conclusion. “Dane, I appreciate that. Really. But I have to warn you that just because you want to take things slow doesn’t necessarily mean I’m going to let you.”

  His eyebrows shot up. There was no mistaking the look of feminine challenge in her gaze. He watched wordlessly as Lily followed him across the car and sat beside him, sliding her arm around his waist. When her other hand landed on his upper thigh, he stopped breathing.

  Lord help him.

  It took him a moment to register the troubled expression that had crossed her face. He wondered what was wrong. Was she having second thoughts?

  Then he realized she had touched the battery pack of the wireless mic he was wearing.

  “It’s fine,” he hurried to assure her. “There’s no video, so nothing to air.”

  The tension in her shoulders relaxed a fraction. “That’s why you made the camera operator wait for us, right?”

  “Yep.”

  He tried to keep his tone light, but he knew Lily was still concerned about who might end up listening to their intimate encounter. Guilt crept up on him, making him wish he had reminded her about the mic before things progressed. The truth was that he was used to wearing microphones and having only marginal privacy. It hadn’t even crossed his mind. Hopefully Lily wasn’t too upset about it.

  They returned to the Delta Flyer departure station less than a minute later. The House of Archer camera operator stood ready and waiting for them as they exited their car.

  “Anything exciting happen in those seven minutes?” the guy asked with his camera focused on them.

  Before Archer could respond, Lily walked past the camera and said, “You’d be amazed.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “Where
have you been?” Aria demanded when Lily and Dane walked into the American Café for lunch that afternoon.

  “Uh, riding the rides?” Lily responded with a verbal question mark, perplexed by her friend’s urgent tone. She looked from Aria to Sydney, who stood nearby carefully ignoring Dane. “Why? Is something wrong?”

  “I’ve been calling your phone for the past forty-five minutes,” Aria said, waving towards the dining room off to the right. “Just look.”

  Lily started forward only to be halted by Dane. She gave him a baffled look, watching as he moved ahead of her towards the dining room where numerous voices rose and fell in a discordant symphony. He held up a hand to keep her back, increasing her wariness. The small hairs on the back of her neck prickled uncomfortably.

  She noticed Sydney observing Dane’s actions. Sydney looked a little less disapproving than she had all day, which Lily supposed was something.

  “What in the world is going on?” Lily asked, advancing despite Dane’s caution.

  She paused at Dane’s elbow, not foolish enough to push past him in case there really was some kind of danger ahead. Her eyes widened when she saw the devastation beyond.

  “Is that blood?” she asked, her voice an octave higher than usual.

  Dane turned and grasped her shoulders, urging her to face him. Even in her gathering shock, Lily was all too aware of her body’s response to his touch. The memory of what they had done earlier amplified every contact between them.

  “Lily, I want you to stay here with Aria and Sydney, okay?”

  Her investigative nature took exception to his request. She wanted to know what was happening, for goodness’ sake. It had to be huge based on Aria’s behavior and the glimpse she had gotten of the dining room.

  Even as Lily opened her mouth to argue, Dane said in a lower voice, “For me?”

  Her breath left her in a defeated growl. “Fine.”

  He bent to place a quick kiss on her forehead, letting her know he understood what she was conceding for him. Then he hurried off into the dining room.

  Lily couldn’t battle her curiosity enough not to follow his progress as far as she could see from her current position in the entryway. Food, various liquids, plastic baskets, and cutlery were scattered all over the floor, tables, and chairs, some of which were overturned. The smears she thought looked suspiciously like blood darkened the edge of one of the tables closest to her. After a minute of observing, she whirled towards Aria.

  “Spill it,” Lily said.

  Aria stood with her legs braced apart and her arms crossed over her chest, her gaze steady on Lily’s face. “You had sex,” she returned. “You spill it.”

  Ignoring Sydney’s slack jaw, Lily verified that the camera operator had moved into the dining room and then stepped closer to Aria. “Only sort of,” she said in a low voice. “That’s for another time. What the hell happened?”

  After running her tongue consideringly along her teeth, Aria adjusted her stance so her hands were planted on her hips. “Long story short, the idiots from Suddenly Something started a food fight that got out of hand and ended with Malcolm O’Dell threatening to stab Brandon with a damn plastic fork, of all things.”

  Lily’s expectations for a juicy story collapsed like a popped tire. “That’s it? A freaking food fight?”

  “Well, Mal really seemed to mean it when he threatened Brandon,” Sydney said. “And they make shivs in prison from plastic things all the time.”

  Struggling to follow the conversation, Lily said, “Are you telling me that Malcolm O’Dell has been in prison?”

  “I have no idea,” Sydney replied.

  “What—how—? Never mind,” Lily said, rubbing her forehead with her palm to try and ease the tension building there. “Is that blood I see over there?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Sydney replied. “Corey Gauthier from Brewer Street slipped in some spilled mayonnaise and knocked himself unconscious on the edge of the table. It bled all over the place. He’s been taken off to the hospital. Didn’t you hear the sirens?”

  Lily could hardly admit that she hadn’t absorbed much of anything since her encounter with Dane on the Delta Flyers...that all she could think about was how she felt when he touched her, that she had never felt so wild, sexy, and unbelievably aroused in her life, or that she wanted to jump him every second of every minute of every hour.

  “We must have been on a ride when the ambulance came through,” she mumbled.

  “What about when the cops arrived to question everyone?” Aria asked.

  “Well, we’ve been on a lot of rides,” Lily finished lamely. She was sure her face was neon pink. “Is Corey okay?”

  “He regained consciousness,” Aria said. “The EMTs wanted to make sure he didn’t have a concussion or any fracturing of his skull.”

  “Wow.”

  Lily wondered if they should go to the hospital to see Corey. The poor guy. Would he be okay to perform on the tour? Could she work this into the piece she had yet to submit to entertainment publishers?

  She turned to look for Dane, intending to ask him if he thought they should go to the hospital. He wasn’t anywhere in sight. Considering the relative lack of drama behind the events that had taken place, she couldn’t imagine what was keeping him.

  Before she could check on him, Sydney asked, “How’s the video doing?”

  Lily gave her a blank look. “Video?”

  “Yeah. Of you and Archer on the Xtreme Skyflyer.”

  Lily realized she hadn’t given it a thought since she uploaded it while she and Dane walked to the Delta Flyers. “Let me check,” she said, reaching into her pocket for her cell phone.

  Ignoring the look exchanged by her friends, Lily used her thumbprint to unlock her phone and quickly pulled up the video. When she saw the number of likes, she simply stared.

  “Uh...t-ten thousand,” she said.

  “That’s great!” Sydney enthused. “Isn’t it?”

  “Yeah,” Lily replied, still staring at the number as if it would magically morph into something with less zeroes. “It’s...well, it’s friggin’ amazing.”

  She scrolled through some of the comments. Many of them made fun of her, which she had expected. She would have made fun of herself if she had seen the video rather than lived through it. Others were surprisingly supportive, telling her how brave she was for seeing it through. Still others offered up creative hashtag ideas, like #ohmygodarcher and #dontyoudare.

  Had she actually said those things?

  Weirdest, though, were the posts from commenters saying how hot they thought she was. More than one commenter asked if she was single. One even proposed marriage.

  She wasn’t sure what to say or do about those comments. It had never occurred to her that she might draw that kind of attention, especially as a mere employee of The Void. She was supposed to be enticing people to follow and support the band, not herself. Maybe the Xtreme Skyflyer video had been a misstep.

  But then ten thousand likes in just a matter of hours was pretty damn impressive.

  “Hey, ladies,” Dane said, making her jump and stuff her phone back in her pocket. “We’re all going to head out now.”

  “Where is everyone else?” Lily asked, not arguing when he took her arm and guided her to the door.

  “None of The Void members were here when this happened,” he replied, holding the door for her, Sydney, and Aria. “Thank God, since it looks like charges are being filed. That’s the last thing we need.”

  Lily spotted Regina striding towards the restaurant in her usual suit and icepick heels. Although her expression was unreadable, Lily figured Suddenly Something’s manager had to be pretty pissed to have been called out to talk to the police.

  Then it occurred to her that none of the House of Archer camera operators had followed Dane. They were obviously much more interested in capturing footage of the wrecked restaurant and interviews with the investigators. It didn’t take a background in television production for Lily to realize
that it probably would have been better for The Void to be involved in what had happened so the camera crew could gather some interesting content for the show. Instead, the other acts and backstage people were getting all of the exposure.

  As Regina reached the door to the restaurant, she pinned Lily with a sharp look and cunning smile. Lily walked away feeling as though everything was happening just as the manager wanted it.

  What was Regina up to?

  * * *

  Regina walked into the American Café and headed right into the dining room, stepping over the food and debris in her path. The blood on the table near the entryway didn’t even earn a curious glance.

  A quick scan of the room had her noting the presence of four uniformed police officers, two males wearing Great America polo shirts and khakis, all of the members of Suddenly Something, two members of Brewer Street, a handful of other people she recognized as backstage staff on the tour, and two camera operators.

  Although the cameras made her want to smile, she contained herself. When this footage aired, she wanted the world to see her as calm, cool, and professional.

  She knew Elijah was communicating with his crew via cell phone because he had to attend a couple of meetings about the show that morning. Since learning about House of Archer, Regina had made it her business to know everything about Elijah Long, especially his schedule.

  All the better to manipulate things to benefit her and Suddenly Something.

  She was sure the producer was having an aneurysm over the fact that he couldn’t be there in person to direct his crew and make notes about how to present the footage on the show. Perhaps she should have given him a heads up so he could reschedule his meetings.

  Ah, well. She, too, was figuring this out as she went along.

  At least the show would have exclusive footage not aired on the news. All of the local news stations had been stopped at the park entrance for the time being. Regina had already given them a statement and assured them that Suddenly Something would be available for comments soon. Now she just had to get them out of this wonderful little tangle.