Page 77 of The Strawberry Patch Pancake House

She wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her body against his. He let out a soft groan.

‘Give in,’ she whispered.

His eyes were still closed. The muscle in his jaw ticked. Iris held her breath.

And then his hands were on her waist, his fingers digging into her flesh as he lifted her onto the counter of the island. Her surprised gasp was swallowed by his mouth on hers, greedy and hot. He kissed like he did everything else in this kitchen, with perfection and complete dedication.

He deepened the kiss, his tongue sliding against hers, his fingers in her hair. And all Iris could do was hold on. She wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him closer as her hands roved across the muscles of his back.

This T-shirt has to go.

She grabbed his shirt from the bottom and pulled it up, breaking the kiss only long enough to get the shirt off and tossed to the side. She ran her hands across all the firm muscle and soft hair that combined perfectly to create Archer. God, he was hot. This was hot. Iris was melting. Or burning. Was it possible to come just from kissing? From kissing Archer Baer, maybe it was. Because Iris had never been kissed like this before, like she was Archer’s last meal. Or his first after he’d been starving for years.

It was all-consuming, urgent and insistent. This wasn’t just a kiss. It was an assault, a release of all the tension that had been building between them for weeks.

‘Iris,’ he groaned, pulling away and resting his forehead against hers.

‘Don’t say it.’

‘This is a bad idea.’

Itwasa bad idea. She knew it was a bad idea except right now in this exact moment she was having a hard time remembering why it was a bad idea.

Because he was her boss? That only made it hotter.

Because of Olive? As long as she never found out, as long as Iris didn’t make any promises she couldn’t keep, everything would be fine. Iris could kiss Archer by night and care for Olive by day, no problem. It didn’t have to get complicated. It could just be this, two people kissing like their lives depended on it.

Because of that tender part of her heart that kept flaring up every time she saw Olive and Archer together? That was easily ignored.

Especially right now, when Archer still had his fingers in her hair and his half-naked body pressed up against her. She could ignore the hell out of that tender spot.

She kissed him again, nibbling his bottom lip. ‘I know, but let’s keep going, anyway.’

His laugh tickled her face. ‘What happens when this doesn’t work out?’

‘When what doesn’t work out? This fantastic make-out session? Because I think it’s working out just fine.’

Archer pulled back a little further, studying her face. ‘Just a make-out session?’

Iris smiled. ‘Just a harmless make-out session between friends. No big deal.’ No big deal at all. This was just a ‘we need to make out or we will explode so let’s just take care of it like adults’ moment. It didn’t have to be anything else.

‘No big deal,’ Archer echoed as she pulled him back in.

‘Exactly.’ She smiled against his mouth, and he slid his hands down to her ass, tugging her even closer so he was nestled between her thighs. She ignored the slight tilt of disappointment in his voice, the look on his face that said maybe he didn’t want this to be just a make-out session between friends. She put those things in the same little box she’d put her tender feelings for him and tucked it right back behind her spleen, where she’d never have to think about it.

Archer must have tucked it away, too, because he was kissing her again, thoroughly and enthusiastically, his hands roving her body.

‘Shit, Iris,’ he murmured against her lips. ‘You’re so— This is just—’ He kept starting sentences and then breaking them off with more kisses, never finishing his thought but making it pretty clear what he was thinking, nonetheless. ‘Let me touch you?’ His hand was on her inner thigh now, so close to the bottom of her tiny shorts that Iris felt like she would combust if he didn’t touch her.

‘Yes, chef,’ she purred against the soft shell of his ear and smiled at his answering groan.

‘You have got to stop doing that,’ he said. ‘Or I’m really going to embarrass myself.’

Iris’s laughter was cut off abruptly by the feel of Archer’s fingers slipping beneath her underwear. He didn’t waste time. He found her clit and pressed with his thumb and Iris momentarily lost consciousness.

‘Holy shit, Archer,’ she breathed, and it was his turn to smirk.

‘Like that?’