Page 67 of Shots Fired

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

DARCY

Wait.

Did I just hear that right?

I shake my head, convinced the hallucinations are back. Or maybe I’m just going mad because with the day I’ve had, anything is possible.

“I’m sorry. You’re going to have to say what you just said again because I think I heard you?—”

“Tell me you’re having my baby.” Archer smooths his smiling lips across mine. “I can say it again if you need.”

I pull back, still straddling his lap. The ambient lighting in his Mercedes glows on his face, high cheekbones drenched in light blue.

God, he’s so beautiful.

“We’ve been exclusive, haven’t we?” he continues, an ounce of worry creeping into his features when I don’t speak straightaway.

“We have. It can only be yours. I haven’t slept with anyone else since Liam, and that was a long time ago.” I immediately reply, never more certain of anything in my life.

I’m ready to launch into a long explanation about how the timeline stacks up for the baby to be his when a large palm wraps around the back of my head, bringing our mouths closer.

He pauses for a second, the faint noise of traffic passing between us while he studies my face. I’m not sure what for, but it’s intense, and I feel the weight of his emotion as it settles inside me.

Perhaps he can sense my worry. After all, this isn’t what either of us planned or even wanted.

Is it?

“I want you to know something, Darcy.”

My eyes blur. I can tell by whatever he’s about to say that this isn’t easy for him, but he’s the kind of person—a kind of man I never thought him to be—who would do and sacrifice anything for the people he cares about the most.

“I want you to know,” he repeats, voice heavy and thick, “that this is the best fucking news of my life. Nothing compares to this moment.” He takes one of my palms and rests it in the center of his chest. Through his shirt, I can feel the fast and heavy beat of his heart. “Not when I got drafted, not when I made my NHL debut. The only moment in my life when my heart has raced this fast was when I first laid eyes on you and then when I finally got the chance to carry you to my bed.”

“But …” I look around the car. It feels like I’m having an out-of-body experience. None of this can be real. At some point, I’m going to wake up,in my bed, and realize this was all one crazy dream.

“But what, Darcy?” Archer coaxes, only care in his voice and steady eye contact as he starts twisting my braid around his finger. “Tell me what’s going on.”

“But you don’t want any of this. With me, with anyone.” My own heart races as the little composure I had remaining unravels before him. “You’ve never had a girlfriend before, and I just told you I’m having your baby. Do you know how huge that is?”

Maybe he’s just as delusional as me.

“I heard everything you said.” Archer’s voice is as even as the ice he plays on. “And I’m not scared.”

The second those words leave his mouth, I see a flicker of unease, and he shifts his weight beneath me.

“Do you want this, with me?” he asks.

I drop my face into his chest, my entire body deflating against him. “I can’t even think straight anymore. I came to chess club tonight because I got back from the doctor’s office and I didn’t know what to do or where to put myself. I needed to distract my mind. The only place I could think to go was here. In the end, I just stared at the chessboard and ended up withdrawing from the tournament. I wanted to call you and cancel tonight because I didn’t even know how I was going to look at you.”

A shudder racks through me. “This was all supposed to be fun. I wanted to have a good time with you, and I know that’s all you wanted with me too.” I inhale a deep breath, laughing at the mess we’re in. My emotions are all over the place. “And here I was, telling you not to use a condom because I was on birth control even though I apparently couldn’t take it correctly or account for when I was sick and?—”

“None of this has ever been just fun to me, Darcy.”

I stop dead when he cuts through my ramble.

Archer interlaces our fingers, bringing our joined hands from his heart to his mouth, where he kisses the center of my palm.