Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 122609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 613(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 409(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 613(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 409(@300wpm)
“No, no! Don’t touch that.” He shooed her away and grabbed the thing.
“What’s the problem?” Her forehead creased and brows rutted. “I just wanted to see it.”
“You can see it without holding it.”
She rolled her eyes. “Archer, you’re being ridiculous. Let me see, I mean, hold it.”
He’d about had enough of his sister and Honey. Having two obstinate, defiant women in the house at one time made his blood boil. They also got along too well, seemingly joining forces, sharing ideas, and concocting plans behind his back… And truth be told, he loved every minute of it.
“I’m going to place it gently in your hands. Don’t do anything but look at it.”
“I won’t! Relax. You’re acting like it’s a radioactive time bomb. So preposterous.”
“I AM relaxed. You’ve seen me agitated. You’ve seen me annoyed. You’ve seen me frustrated. You’ve never seen me actually angry, and you don’t want to see me angry. I reserve that for different circumstances. Here.”
When he put the weapon in her grasp, her eyes lit up like a million stars.
“Damn. It’s heavy. Oh, wait. It’s two of them… a double bow? Yes, it’s a double. Wow! This is badass!” She began to turn it to and fro. “Teach me how to shoot, Archer.” She was practically chomping at the bit. ‘Hussle in the House,’ by Nipsey Hussle, boomed through the amplifiers in the room.
Standing directly behind her, he wrapped his arms around hers. “Lift it up, just like this. This is an Excalibur Twin Strike. Look at this… That’s the scope. It has a light on it. This right here is the—”
“…Scope mount.”
He paused and looked over her shoulder. Their eyes met.
“I wanted to learn about what you love, so I studied it.”
I’m impressed. “Okay, so where were we? Oh yeah, the scope mount. This is the fail-safe. Obviously, if it has two arrows, that means it’s dual fire. These are quill arrows.” He took the bow and arrow from her and laid it down. “Hold your arms out and look at me.” She seemed rather confused at the request, but did as asked. “You’re left eye dominant.”
“I am?”
“Yeah. You need to aim using your dominant eye.”
“You can tell just by looking at me.”
“Yeah. You being left eye dominant means that once you get into the groove, you should use a bow with the sight window on the right-hand side of the bow. That means you’ll draw the arrow with your left hand in the direction of your left eye while you’re pullin’ back. Let me grab an easy bow for you to learn on.” She nodded in understanding before he disappeared into his back closet area to grab a recurve bow. He joined her and explained the various parts of this particular weapon, taking his time, being patient with her. “…and this is the nocking point… Now hold it… you’re too stiff… yeah, that’s better, just relax your shoulder.”
“Like this?”
“Perfect. Did you hear that click?” She nodded. “Okay, let’s give it a try.”
The first arrow shot through the air, not hitting the bullseye at all.
“That’s okay,” He ran his hand along her back and helped her adjust her posture. “Here.” He handed her another arrow. “Chin higher. Relax… try again.” This time, she hit the target. Not spot on, but pretty damn good for a second try. “Much better, baby. Here, try a third one.”
She pulled the string back with the arrow and he could tell she was pouring all of her concentration into this. The arrow flew across the room to the target—almost perfect. He high fived her and kissed her lips.
“This takes a lot more arm strength than I imagined,” she said with a smile as she handed him the bow.
They walked to the targets together, and he described to her how to remove the bows from the boards. She placed one hand on the board, then pulled the arrow out of it with the other hand, letting out a soft grunt after each tug. After all three were collected, they walked back to the front of his archery room where he pulled a glass out of a chest and poured her some water. As she sipped, he brushed the side of her neck with a slow crawl of his fingertips.
How can a powerful woman trust me enough to relinquish some of her control and let me hold her sword, as well as carry her burdens?
The thought popped into his head as he wrestled with his desire to tell her: NO. To stop her from risking her life, her present and her future for retaliation that he anticipated. He wanted to slam her against the wall, demand that she go nowhere and let her know the Bannon plan was off the table. But then, he remembered the definition of love.
It doesn’t control. It doesn’t dominate. It doesn’t force submission or obedience. Love is open. It is free. It is wide. It is special. It is pure. It’s intelligent, not empty of true thoughts and emotions, though emotions are not the fuel of love. Logic and understanding is.