Slow Burn (The Archer Brothers) Read online

  “I believe you remember Sparrow,” my brother says, bringing me out of my trance.

  Dear God, I hope neither one of them saw me checking Declan out. I’d never be able to live it down, and my freaking brother would kill me.

  Everything seems to slow to a snail’s pace as Declan’s hand reaches up, slowly sliding his aviator sunglasses down his aristocratic nose. A nose that’s almost unnoticeably crooked from getting broken in school. A fight he went into because someone was making fun of my too thick hips and ass.

  His eyes meet mine over the rim of his glasses, brightening, as a slow, panty-melting smile spreads across his stupidly gorgeous face.

  I hate him. God, do I hate him. But it seems my body and my mind aren’t on the same page. It doesn’t know this is the asshole who thinks he’s a know it all. It doesn’t register this is the asshole who pretended like I was more precious to him than air, then dropped me before I could gain my balance. It doesn’t know this is the asshole I crawled into bed with.

  It only knows this is the man who stole my heart and dominated my body before he ran away to chase a lavish lifestyle.

  Chapter Four

  Declan

  She. Is. Fucking. Fine! The years really blessed Sparrow with a set of curves and tits any woman would kill for. I’m so getting all up in that before this week is over with. It’s been far too long and just seeing her makes me jones for a taste. There’s no way I’ll be able to control myself, and there’s no way my little bird will be able to object—not if the last time we saw each other is any consolation.

  “Little bird,” I say, my smile etching across my face.

  I expect her to run into my arms for a long, overdue hug, and possibly an ass grab on my part. But, instead, I get the look of death as steam practically unfurls from her ears. She looks like a raging bull, and I have to admit, I shouldn’t find that hot, but I do. I’ve always liked a challenge.

  “Dick,” she says in greeting, crossing her arms over her chest.

  “Something wrong?”

  “Yeah,” she scoffs. “You’re here.” I watch as she turns around, walking back the way she came. It doesn’t matter if her greeting is that of a frigid ice queen, my eyes immediately drop down, watching her plump, juicy ass sway back and forth under her skin-tight jeans as she beats feet away.

  A throat clearing pulls my attention away from Sparrow as I glance back over at Derrick, seeing his eyes narrow in warning. I shrug innocently, but I know he doesn’t buy that for a second. There’s nothing innocent about me. Not back then, and especially not now. Ten years may change people, but if anything, the last decade did nothing but turned me into a hard-ass ballbuster that does anything to get what he wants.

  “Don’t even think about it, Declan.”

  “I didn’t say anything,” I reply, smirking.

  “You didn’t have to,” he says, huffing. “I know a dog cocking his leg when I see one. She’s my sister, you’re my friend—nothing’s going to happen.” Keep telling yourself that, D. As long as it helps you sleep at night.

  “You make me sound as if I’m a dog that marks his territory.” His assumption isn’t too far off. But, seriously, that kind of shit is disgusting. I’d much rather own a woman with my cock instead of urinating on them. Dogs have it so wrong. I shudder at the thought.

  “Jesus, you’re thinking about dogs pissing now, aren’t you?” he asks.

  “Maybe. What can I say? When I’m around you I revert back to a juvenile little asshole.”

  “As long as that reverting doesn’t bring you near my sister, I don’t care,” he quips, pausing. “It’s nice to have you home.”

  Genuinely smiling for the first time in years, I reply, “It’s good to be back.”

  For years, the only thing I’ve had to keep me company are the women I pay for sex. Hey, don’t judge. If I pay them, that means I don’t have to put up with them for the long haul—because let’s face it, I’m not the “long haul” type of guy. I like to fuck, then chuck. If that makes me an asshole then so be it. At least all the women know my preferences before we tangle the sheets. I lead no one on, and I give them no hope for a future with us besides me sticking my cock in them and both of us getting off.

  Plus, it’s not like I’m an outward asshole. People around me will tell you I’m a pretty standup guy, albeit a little intense, arrogant, and twisted if you get on my bad side, but a good guy when you don’t fuck with me nonetheless. I just don’t do the relationship bullshit that society believes all women and men should succumb to in order to be happy. Show me one couple who’s happy one hundred percent of the time, and I’ll gladly kiss your ass and call you Daddy.

  That’s the reason I don’t do them. It’s not because I was in this terrible relationship and the woman cheated on me and broke my heart—blah, blah, blah. Because let’s face it, no woman would cheat if they had this steak at home.

  The reason I don’t do the relationship thing is because I, myself, want to be happy and free to do what I please. I don’t want to worry about someone else. I don’t want the added responsibility of pleasing someone. I want to live my life for me. Plus, the shit I do for a living doesn’t have room for anyone else in it other than myself. The shit I do and people I get involved with would chew any little innocent thing I’m attracted to up, then spit her out.

  If you get into a relationship with someone, you’ll lose yourself and won’t even realize it until it’s too late. That almost happened to me, and I wasn’t even in a relationship with the broad. When I realized what was happening, I got the hell out of Dodge before she could sink her claws in too deep and pushed my scheduled departure up a year.

  Yes, if you haven’t guessed, the little hellcat that almost tamed me was my little bird. It’s not that she isn’t a terrific girl, because she is. She was down-to-earth, loyal to a fault, and could make any person crack a smile with her antics. She didn’t put up with anyone’s shit and always did what she thought was right.

  She’s the perfect woman, and some man is going to be very lucky to call her his when she decides to settle down. Alas, that man isn’t going to be me.

  I couldn’t drag her into the hell that is my life and still expect her to keep the light that shines brightly inside of her. I couldn’t expect her to drop everything and move two thousand miles away. I couldn’t expect her to turn the other cheek when I have business I need to settle.

  I can’t use her as a stepping stone when she deserves to be on a pedestal for all to see. She deserves the goddamn world and being with me would have turned her into a shell of her former self. I’ve seen it happen before with couples all around the world, and it would have been a waiting game until it happened to her, too.

  Picking up my luggage, I forcibly swallow the lump in my throat. This is no time to hash out anything. It’s a time to celebrate, not mourn what could have been. “Where am I bunking for the week?”

  “Sorry, man. Jacob and Caleb got here just before you did. Little fuckers decided that since they were adults now that they needed to have their separate spaces, and as you know, Mom and Dad only want us on the west wing.”

  “And that means what for me?” I ask, confused.

  “You got the room next to Sparrow.” Please, let it be the room with the connecting bath.

  I can’t stop the giddiness tingling through my body. If it’s the room I’m thinking about, it’s the same room I took little bird’s innocence in when we were younger. It may not be the same sheets, comforter, or possibly a bed, but just the thought has my blood rushing south.

  Because that’s the room where my little bird straddled me, throwing all caution to the wind. It’s where she was finally set free from the shackles that caged her, allowing her to fly free for the first time in her life. It’s the room where the walls soaked up our cries of passion as if they couldn’t get enough and yearned for more.

  The same room I pushed inside her tight little cavern, swallowing her soft, sweet cries of pain as I stripped h
er of her virginity, the same time she stripped me bare for all to see.

  It’s the first and last place I ever made love to anyone.

  “Which room?”

  He groans. “It’s the same one you used to sleep in when we were younger—the one with the connected bath.”

  Fucking score!

  Chapter Five

  Sparrow

  “Are you kidding me right now?” I fume, crossing my arms as I glare daggers at my brother. Raising my eyes over his shoulder, I stare at the man with the cocky, know-it-all smirk resting on his handsome face. I’d love to slap that look right off him.

  “Just go with it, Sparrow. Do you seriously have to be such a bitch about everything?” Derrick says, pinching the bridge of his nose.

  A bitch? Me? The only reason I am one is because of that fucker standing just behind him. If it weren’t for Declan, I’d still be the innocent little Sparrow my family knew and loved. I wouldn’t be this hardened bitch, expecting everyone and everything to be out to get me. I’d still be able to smile without my family asking me what medication I’m on. I’d still be able to cut up, joke around, and play tricks on my siblings without them asking me if I was high or drunk.

  He did this, and my brother blames the whole thing on me. It isn’t fair. I know life isn’t fair, but damn, can’t a girl catch a break? I’ve already been through enough. No person, for that matter, should have to ever go through what I went through.

  “Just go with it, little bird,” Declan taunts.

  I want to punch him in the face so much right now. Just ball my fist up, rear back, and let it fly right into that smug face. He knows the very reason I don’t want him sleeping in this room. Not for the fact he’d be right next door because I can handle my own. It’s the fact that this room—it just holds too many painful memories. If I could, I’d cut this room out of the house and just forget it even existed.

  Narrowing my eyes, I glare at him. “You don’t get to call me that. You don’t get to call me anything anymore.”

  Declan’s eyes thin to tiny slits as he stares at me in silence. He hates, loathes, being told what to do, and I just committed a cardinal sin. The thing is? I don’t care. I couldn’t care less if I piss him off. He didn’t care about my feelings when he tossed me to the side like I meant nothing all those years ago.

  Besides, it’s kind of fun ruffling his feathers. Even though, at this moment, I can’t retain any of the giddiness from it because of their assholery.

  My blood pressure steadily rises the longer I’m around them, and I fear any moment I’m about to go all bat-shit crazy lady on their asses. It’s never good when I’m alone with Derrick, but now that he has Declan, it’s even worse. Hell, everything is worse if Declan is nearby.

  Sighing, Derrick regards both of our heated stares. “Is anyone going to tell me what happened between you all?”

  “No,” Declan and I say in unison.

  By the way Declan said it just as urgently as me, piques my interest a little bit. Being the big man he is, you’d think he wasn’t scared of my brother. But upon looking closer, he looks a little pale.

  Maybe I should out him to everyone. Tell all the people that will lend an ear just what he did to me that night, then what he did the next morning. It’ll probably backlash and knock me on my ass in the end, but the look on his face would be freaking sweet.

  “Well, now that I—”

  “Don’t even think about it, little bird,” Declan growls between clenched teeth.

  “Jesus Christ!” Derrick yells. “I’m going to need a sedative to deal with both of you for the next seven days.”

  Scoffing, I retort, “Send him packing, and instead of a sedative, we can get drunk.”

  “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Declan barks, crossing his arms. “That way you wouldn’t have to come to the terms that I …”

  “That. You. What?” I ask, smirking.

  Growling, menace rolls off in waves as Declan pushes past Derrick, heading straight for me. I don’t back down, even though his size is intimidating. I learned growing up with three brothers not to show fear because they would have eaten me alive if I had. And I’m definitely not going to show fear when it comes to Declan Archer.

  Plus, no matter how upset he is with me, I know deep down he would never physically hurt me. It’s kind of contradicting if you think about it. He has no problem emotionally shredding me, but physically, where people can see the scars, that’s something he has a problem with. Go figure.

  Walking past me, Declan whispers so only we two can hear, and what he says knocks me for a loop for the second time today. “Keep taunting me, little bird. You’re going to push too hard one of these times, and I’m going to forget—again—you’re off limits and fuck you ragged.”

  Why the hell did my ovaries just shudder? They’re supposed to be on my side: anti-Declan.

  Hesitantly bringing my eyes to his, my breath catches in my throat as my heart stalls. His eyes, darkened with fury and … arousal? I think that’s arousal, at least—blaze down at me with so much heat, it feels like I’m burning alive. The swirl of emotions pulls me in until I feel nothing but light-headedness as I start tipping forward on my feet, swaying toward him.

  At the last possible second, he rips himself away from me and continues to the other side of the room. His back now to me, I see the rigid set in his shoulders. The old me would go to him, see if I can make things better. But the new me has to watch her guard. She has to be the cold and callous bitch Declan forced her to become. She has to show he didn’t get to her, even though his words still swirl around inside her head.

  Quietly, I glance from him back to Derrick, seeing a face full of confusion as he glances between the two of us. I know it’s eating him up inside not knowing what happened that made Declan and me hate each other so much, but it’s best he doesn’t get in the middle of it. As much as I loathe Declan, he’s the most loyal friend my brother’s ever had. He hasn’t wronged him in any way. He never stole, cheated, or bad-mouthed. He’s an upstanding person, except when it comes to me.

  “I’m just going to go,” I whisper, clearing my throat of emotion. “My door will stay locked. If you want any help, don’t come to me. You’re Derrick’s problem.”

  Derrick makes like he’s going to stop me, but I hold my hand up, quickly glancing over at Declan, before bringing my eyes back to him, shaking my head softly. If Declan and I spend any more time around each other, at least one of us is going to be six feet under. It should be illegal to have two people that loathe each other as much as we do within the same vicinity and expect us not to kill one another.

  He has to hate me just as much as I hate him because he wouldn’t have run off as fast as he did otherwise. Yes, we all knew what his aspirations were when we were growing up. It wasn’t big news within our group, but we didn’t expect him to move across the country to get what he wanted. None of us expected him to break the mold of the Archer legacy and leave Georgia to pursue something so unreachable as being a successful entrepreneur in Hollywood.

  Declan was supposed to stay here, join in the family business, and live his life out with a good woman by his side. Live in a two-story cape cod house with matching shutters and a basketball hoop in the backyard, as he watched his children and grandchildren run amuck through the backyard on a hot summer day.

  He wasn’t supposed to go galivanting around Hollywood, rubbing elbows with some of the world’s most elite celebrities.

  He was supposed to stay here, where he belongs.

  He was supposed to save me when no one else could!

  Chapter Six

  Declan

  I take back everything from before. There’s no way I’m going to touch her, even if someone gave me a ten-foot pole.

  Out of all the damn years I’ve been gone, she’s still the only woman that makes me absolutely crazy to where I see red. It’s her stubbornness, lack of conviction on what we were to each other that pisses me off the most.
<
br />   Sparrow is the only woman that can bring me, Declan Maverick Archer, to my knees with little more than an innocent smile tossed my way. She had no idea how much power she held over me when we were in school. No idea at all. I didn’t get into the amount of fights I did for my health. I got into them because someone was doing my little bird wrong, and I saw it as my duty to protect her.

  Only, I didn’t know at the time Sparrow was slowly reeling me in, trapping me like a spider does a fly in her web of innocence and seduction. The night I took her virginity, it all clicked. It was like reality smacked me in the face and said, “This is what you’ll become if you stay on this road,” and I freaked. Everything I’d been pushing back rushed to the surface, almost drowning me.

  Without my knowledge, agreement—or hell, my approval—I found myself falling for my best friend’s little sister.

  “Sorry about her,” Derrick says as I hear the door to her room close softly with a click. “She’s always like this when she visits, which is seldom. And I hate to say it because I love her, but I’m thankful.”

  Sighing, I turn to face him with a strained smile resting on my face. God, I feel so old right now, when just a few minutes before I felt like a teenager again. “What the hell happened to her? Was she always like this and we just had blinders on?”

  Chuckling softly, he replies, “Actually, no. Not until you left did she change into this hateful she-beast. We got a reprieve when she moved away and went to college at the University of Kentucky.” Running fingers through his hair, he gives me a sad smile before continuing. “I think she caught onto the fact we couldn’t stand her anymore when none of us visited her. It’s not the fact we don’t love her, because we do; we just couldn’t handle her anymore. Only Mom went to visit her, and she said Sparrow would only give her a few hours before she made her leave.”