It had to be Archer Cooper.
Astonishingly, he looked nothing like his twin, Leon. He had thick dark wavy hair, that was so black that it was almost blue. His jaw was covered in a dusting of a dark stubble, like he hadn’t shaved for a few days. His eyes were sharp, but unlike his brother’s his were an electric blue and it somehow made him look more dangerous. He was very tall too, even from the distance, Ivy could see that he was taller than his brother, at least six and a half feet. And Archer Cooper was grinning at her, because she could see the deep dimples that slashed across his cheeks. But there was something in his eyes, in the way his jaws were sharp and chiseled, which gave it away, that he was Leon’s brother.
Archer remained where he was, leaning against the brick wall, facing in Ivy’s direction. He had a lit cigarette between his fingers which he now brought up to his thin red lips and sucked in a mouthful of smoke.
“Don’t mind me.” He said lazily, when he let out the smoke from his mouth. That was when Ivy realized that she had been frozen to the spot, that she hadn’t moved since the towel fell away from her, since when he had seen her completely naked.
“This is a private space.” Ivy snapped at him, clutching her dress ineffectively over her breasts. She knew that he had seen her, he had seen what he had to see.
He continued to smile, and continued to take long lazy drags of his cigarette.
“My brother doesn’t like me smoking in front of him, so I had to find a quiet spot.” He said, ignoring the rage in Ivy’s voice.
She didn’t know why she continued to stand there, why she didn’t just rush back into the house, save whatever bit of modesty that she could. There was something about this man that drew her, to watch him, to look at him.
Ivy could feel her heart beating against her chest wildly, these were the exact feelings that she had felt when she had first laid eyes on Leon.
“Can you please leave?” She forced herself to say, aware that she was sounding rude. But he didn’t seem to mind, in fact the smile on his face only grew wider.
“Why aren’t you going back inside?” He said with a laugh in his voice. He formed a thick cloud of cigarette smoke in front of his face when he blew it out of his mouth.
Ivy was growing conscious of her hardening nipples, how her stomach was clenching and unclenching itself the more she looked at him. Whatever Leon had awakened in her, his brother was doing the same.
She glared at him for a few seconds longer, and he continued to smile back at her, till she turned on her heels with a flourish and rushed back into her room through the side door. She knew he had seen her naked back, her bare butt, but what other choice did she have? He wasn’t offering her any help and she only had the dress to save her.
When she was safely back in her room, Ivy rested her damp head against the door and slid down to the carpeted floor. She was breathing heavily; her chest was heaving. She couldn’t be sure what was happening to her, what exactly was going on. Why was her body reacting this way, like she was excited that Leon Cooper’s brother had just seen her naked?
She should have been embarrassed and angry, but instead Ivy could feel a thrill coursing through her veins, and she tried to suppress a smile.
Chapter 3
When Ivy came into the dining room, she noticed that Leon, or perhaps both the brothers had already set the table and were sitting at either end, talking. A hush descended in the room when she walked in.
Ivy had taken care to present herself well this evening. She was in a white lace dress that fell wide from her waist and reached her knees. She knew the dress worked well at revealing her curves, the full figure of her breasts and matched the golden color of her hair. She had let her curls hang loose, and her ringlets fell like a curtain around her shoulders, as she drew out a chair for herself and sat down.
Ivy was conscious of the two brothers studying her. She looked from Leon to Archer and then down at her lap. Leon was watching her with the usual grim expression on his face, while Archer still had that dimpling smile. Now, more than ever, that they were in the same room together, they looked like brothers.
“I believe you’ve met my brother. Ivy, this is Archer.” Leon said to her and she finally looked up. She had turned to Archer with a red flushed face, shy now in the knowledge that he had seen her completely naked.
“We have met, very intimately in fact.” Archer said and she noticed how his arms lay on the table, on either side of the plate before him. He too, like his brother wore a plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He too had the same wide shoulders, the broad chest and the narrow waist, and Ivy couldn’t help but wonder what he might look like without any clothes on. It wasn’t that hard to imagine, because she had seen Leon naked, several times.
“Ivy is a brilliant cook.” Leon said, breaking the awkward silence. Either he hadn’t noticed the awkwardness that Ivy was suffering, or he didn’t care. She wondered if Leon knew what had happened earlier, that his brother had seen her naked.
“I can see that.” She heard Archer say, while she kept her head hung, focusing on her fingers on her lap.
“How is Minnesota, brother?” Leon asked, changing the topic immediately, while the two brothers began to serve themselves.
“The way you left it. Nothing has changed. But this place is amazing. Daddy would have been proud.” Archer replied.
Now that the two of them were talking amongst themselves, Ivy had the courage to finally lift her head and look at them. They looked so different and yet the same. It made her feel strange to have someone who spoke and talked like Leon in the same room. It made her fingers shake and she had lost all her appetite.
“Gravy?” Archer had said, snapping her out of her thoughts and she realized that he was holding a gravy boat out towards her, still grinning, with those dimples on his cheeks that made her weak in her knees.
She only shook her head instead of saying anything, and Archer suddenly let out a laugh.
“Your housekeeper doesn’t seem to say much.” He had turned to his brother, as though Ivy wasn’t even in the room. She looked at him again, glaring with her burning green eyes.
“I’m only giving you two time to catch up.” She snapped at him, and it made Archer smile and look at his brother knowingly. When she looked at Leon, she realized that he had been smiling too. They were both smiling, at her, like they had an inside joke. What had Leon told his brother about her?