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I glanced at the back of Michelle’s head as we stood near the doorway, not wanting to cross the room while the music was playing. Then I felt Michelle moving to the music beside me. Oh god. There better not be any dancing.

I picked out a few familiar faces in the glow of candles at various tables. While this wasn’t Barkley Falls, where I knew everyone, I knew a lot of people in this town too. One woman, who I recognized as a staffer at Millerville City Hall—thank Christ not the one who’d been sidling up to me at the symposium last time—gave me a curious look and a wave.

Shit. Rumors hadn’t been on my mind when I suggested joining Michelle on this outing. But now that I stood here next to her, I knew the Millerville city staffer could easily light one up in Barkley Falls if she wanted to. I shifted to hide my face—even though I knew I couldn’t just hide all night. I’d have to ask Sheila on Monday if she’d heard anything. Actually, I wouldn’t have to ask—I’d know by whatever look she gave me. Thankfully, as president of the Barkley Falls Rumor Mill, Sheila was also very good at correcting their course too, when I asked her. Of course, usually, I only asked her to help when the mayor had said something ridiculous that needed downplaying.

I’d have to keep things very clearly not-date-like tonight while we had an audience and make things doubly clear with Sheila when I was back in the office.

Not that it would be hard—Michelle was pissed off enough that anyone who thought wewereon a date would likely assume we were in some kind of lovers spat.

Which we couldn’t be because we weren’t lovers.

Something hot spread in my lower half when I thought of the wordloverswith Michelle next to me.

Really, Archer?

I tried to keep at least a few inches of space between us as we stood there waiting for the band to finish their song, but when a couple had come in behind us, we had to squish together to make room for them. I took off my coat and folded it over my arm like a shield between us.

“Kind of crowded in here,” I said after the song had ended and the band announced they were taking a break. I’d had to bend down next to her for her to hear me over the sound of people talking and laughing, still buzzing from the music. The scent of her shampoo—or just her—had almost made me lose my words. It was a warm vanilla-honey kind of smell.

I closed my eyes, willing my olfactory senses to turn themselves off.

“There’s a spot right there,” she said stiffly, pointing to a small, plush, velvet loveseat in the corner. The two people who’d been occupying it were standing up and pulling on their coats.

My throat went dry at the thought of cozying up to Michelle. “It’s kind of small, isn’t it?”

But she was already heading over there. “We’re going to lose it!” she said, giving the people next to us a look as if we were competing in some kind of amazing race.

We won, thanks to Michelle darting through the crowd like a slip of silk. I followed clumsily behind her, apologizing as I stepped on toes and nearly knocked a drink out of a woman’s hand.

Michelle was already on the sofa when I got there. I wasn’t quite sure how I was supposed to fit next to her, especially when I wasn’t sure what would happen when we actually touched.

I hedged. “I’ll go get us a couple drinks?”

“Or we could let the server do that,” Michelle said, pointing her chin over my shoulder.

A woman in a black apron carrying a round tray was taking an order from a table on the other side of the room.

I frowned, wondering if it would be weird if I sat down on the arm of the couch. But Michelle had moved over, making room next to her. There was nothing to do but sit down.

Except when I did, the couch turned out to be much softer and significantly deeper than I’d anticipated. I sunk so low, Michelle rolled directly into me so her front was pressed up against my side.

“Oh!” she exclaimed.

For a split second, I was too stunned to move. Too intoxicated by the feel of her against me. Heat swirled in my gut. She was as soft and pliant as I knew she would be. Her scent filled the air around me, her hair against my cheek and neck. Was this what I had wanted? This very arrangement of our limbs, this closeness?

“Hey,” I said, trying to shift so she could get off me.

“You’re making this impossible!” she said.

“Me!?” I shifted over to my side of the loveseat, but that only made her roll further. The next thing I knew, her soft, ample breasts were pressed up against my tensed arm.

Heat shot through me, making my crotch jump.

No. Not the time, not atallthe time.

“You need to stay over here,” Michelle said and pressed her hand against my chest. “While I—” her face was scrunched in anger at me for some reason, as if I meant to be this big and meant for this couch to be so goddamned plush. But when she looked up, pinning me with her narrowed eyes, something hot ran through me. It was sharper than the desire already thrumming through my veins.

It sliced at the very core of me.