Faith (The Fast Love Collection Book 1) by TM Watkins Read Free Book Online Page B

read it?”
    He nodded and I stupidly looked up at him. Archer offered nothing that would make me think he'd seen me, just a plain face as he waited for me to move.
    “Sure, okay.” I whispered, still completely mortified.
    He followed me to the bookcase and watched me as I put it back onto the shelf. Could this get any worse? Possibly, maybe I'd left the cactus on my desk. Fear gripped me as my eyes darted around the room. Refraining from a groan of relief, I realized that I'd put it away before I put my clothes back on and crawled out of the room. I did not want him to see me and so I was on my hands and knees, avoiding all of the windows until I reached my bedroom.
    Archer turned to look at the books, running his fingers over the spines.
    “Is this the next one?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Sure you're okay for me to borrow it?”
    “Yeah, it's cool.”
    He chuckled as he looked at me, dragging the book from the shelf. There was a certain awkwardness that I couldn't get past, it was me and I knew it. He was being a gentleman and not saying anything. Smooth Archer, real smooth.
    “Oh my gawd.” Eddie crooned. “Are you coming to dinner too Archie?”
    I looked beyond the bulky man in front of me and saw not only Eddie and James but my parents as well. Oh what fun. My mother was great for making assumptions.
    “Archer.” He grunted as he turned around.
    “Faith.” I said under my breath rather smugly.
    His eyes narrowed with a playful smirk, hopefully conceding defeat in his little Roxy game.
    “Oh of course you are staying for dinner. One more won't matter will it Faith?”
    Eddie looked at me with his cheeky, wry grin. Almost daring me to refuse him.
    “Sure. Stay if you want.”
    “Faith darling that is no way to invite a guest.” The bastard continued.
    I was going to kill him as soon as I could figure out where to dump his body. The backyard was an option, I'm sure I could con Elise into helping me. Ken would sit on a deck chair with a beer and watch as two women dug a really big hole in the ground, offering his advice and not bothering to help. It didn't matter, so long as it was big enough to stuff a traitor into then it was fine by me.
    Archer slid into position next to me, looking rather smug with himself. James was grinning, my parents were confused. They were faced with a man in my apartment which was odd.
    “Fine.” I sighed. “Archer did you want to stay for dinner? But you can't right? Because you said that your friends are coming back tonight.”
    “Actually I was just joking. I was planning on kicking back with a good book but seeing as you so kindly offered, I'd love to stay.”
    Like he was in cahoots with Eddie, the bastard smiled at me.
    “Great.” I said which kind of sounded like a groan.
    I began to wander to the kitchen, my mother grabbing my arm.
    “Aren't you forgetting something?”
    “Probably. Am I wearing pants?”
    “Yes dear.”
    With her eyes she tried to indicate something about the new figure in the room. Eyebrows raising, eyes darting and face crinkling, all while trying to move as little as possible.
    “Archer, these are my parents Roxanne and Peter. That's Archer, he bought the house across the road.”
    I left them to do their greeting thing, Eddie followed me into the kitchen.
    “I am going to kill you.” I muttered.
    “Oh Faith you could never harm me. You know you love me far too much to do that.”
    “Yeah.” I sighed. “Lucky for you.”
    Eddie started to remove the plates from the cupboard, putting them onto the counter with a heavy sigh.
    “So why was he here anyway?” He whispered.
    “He was returning one of my books that he borrowed last night.”
    “Oh, okay.” He frowned as he took a moment to think about it. “Did he really read it? You write chick books, he didn't read it did he?”
    I shrugged as I leaned on the bench beside him.
    “He said he did, wanted to read the next book so I guess he really did read it.”
    “Huh.” Eddie said