Free Bound to Be His (The Archer Family Book 2) by Allison Gatta

against the white door.
    "Okay, so we need a couple ground rules." She huffed a strand of her dark hair out of her face.
    "Um... hello to you, too?" He stopped short and surveyed her, trying to determine if she was drunk.
    She wasn't swaying; her eyes weren't glassy or half-lidded. Her hair was a little haphazard, but it was nothing unmanageable. In fact, if it wasn't for the red glow on her cheeks, she might have looked completely normal.
    Normal, of course, in the way that Shay was normal—her slender body wrapped in the slinkiest black dress he'd ever seen. The collar dipped just low enough for him to catch a trace of her cleavage, but then—
    He internally shook his head again. Impassive. That was the new stance. Whatever she did, he was impassive.
    No matter how fuckable she looked in her shiny red heels.
    "We... I'm not sure where to start."
    "Probably with an aspirin. Are you drunk?" he asked.
    She shook her head furiously. "I stopped drinking hours ago when I finally decided that..."
    She trailed off again and then took a deep breath and said, "I just poured Andy into bed. Logan was already asleep."
    "Okay." He nodded.
    "They're both pretty knocked out. It's just you and me."
    The huskiness in her voice gave him pause, but he said, "Good, if we play Yahtzee, I'll know I can yell."
    "No. Listen. I... We need some rules."
    "Like not barging into my bedroom?" The corner of his mouth quirked up, and she rolled her eyes.
    "Don't make me change my mind."
    "That's a big ask when I don't know what the hell you're talking about," he said.
    She nodded. "Right, right. Well... look, I've been thinking. This thing between us. It's not going away. I don't think it's going to, and I think it's been there for a lot longer than either of us will admit."
    He stayed silent, unsure whether to trust whether she really meant what he thought she meant. And if she did...
    His gaze flicked to the messy tangle of his sheets. "What are you saying?"
    "I'm saying we need some rules."
    "What, like Pretty Woman ? No kissing?"
    "How the hell do you know the rule in Pretty Woman ?"
    "I'm a man. I'm not dead."
    She shook her head. "Right. Not important. Rules. We need to, I don't know, agree that whatever we do is confined to our bedrooms. No PDA. We're not a couple."
    "So... you want me as your booty call?"
    "Yes, I guess. My very secret, temporary booty call."
    "How temporary?"
    "Just until we're off the island. By then, we'll have all this out of our systems and we can find people we're more compatible with without wondering, you know—"
    "What would have happened if we'd slept together more than we already have?"
    "Right."
    "You know you're crazy, right?"
    She nodded. "Yup. Now take off your pants."
----
    M att laughed , and stared at her, though he did loop his thumbs through his belt loops hopefully. She couldn’t be serious, though. Not really.
    What woman just barged into a man’s room and demanded to have her way with him? No, it was more likely that she was trying to get back at him for something—was trying to get him to strip down and then, when he was totally naked, she’d leave him there and laugh on her way out.
    “Well, what are you waiting for?” she asked.
    "The end of the joke," he said, raising his eyebrows.
    "I'm not joking. Take off your pants."
    "Are you sure you're not drunk?" He laughed.
    Seh sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine, if it's so hard to believe, I'll go first."
    Then, incredibly, she reached behind her and started on her zipper. He listened to the gentle zip as it slid down and then the whoosh of flop of fabric as she pulled it over her head and dropped it on the floor.
    Then there she was. Shay Meyers in nothing but her bra and panties. Her hair nearly as mussed as the last time he'd laid her down and--
    "What happened to this never happening again?" he asked, though he was amazed he could bring himself to speak with the whole of her gorgeous body at his disposal. He bra was one of those push-up things that