Chapter 13
He needed her like he needed air.
Throughout the whole game, Archer had never once looked away from River as she revealed more and more to him, eager to see her as she was under all those layers, under all that facade of being proper.
He supposed it wasn’t so much a facade for her; she was a proper lady, clearly untouched, even by him.
But River was his wife. He wanted to give her the pleasure he knew he could.
He wanted her to know what it was like to be with a man like him.
He wanted to see her as he touched her for the first time, to hear her gasps, her moans, to feel her part for him.
Even if he couldn’t take her—not yet, at least.
“What if we do somethin’ that doesnae put us in risk of bairns?” he asked her, and River only stared at him in silence, her mouth hanging open. She didn’t give him an answer, but she didn’t stop him either, and so Archer moved slowly, giving her time to pull back from him if she so wished.
She didn’t. When he leaned in to capture her plush, rosy lips into a kiss, she simply gave into it immediately, melting into it.
She tasted of sweet wine from the cup that was on the small, wooden table by the couch. Her lips were soft, pillowy against his own, and the more he kissed her, the more he wished he could simply never stop.
Just looking at her while they were playing the game had been enough for him to be filled with an unbridled lust, with a need that demanded to be fulfilled. Now that he was kissing her, that need only amplified until it was almost unbearable, until he almost lost all control of himself.
“Ye’re makin’ me mad,” he mumbled against her lips, and River moaned in response, the sound reverberating through him.
His hands found her hips, fingers digging into the ample flesh through her shift, his manhood twitching eagerly under his kilt as River finally wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer.
“Do ye want me to show ye how good I can make ye feel?” he asked, giving River little chance to respond before he dove back in and scattered kisses on her neck, nibbling the sensitive skin there.
River’s hands curled around his shoulders, holding onto him as he teased her, as he tasted and licked and kissed anywhere he could reach.
“I’ll make ye feel so good, River. I promise ye. ”
River mumbled something unintelligible under her breath and Archer’s hand found her hair, releasing the long, dark locks from their updo. Her hair spilled down her shoulders like ink, and he threaded his fingers through it, caressing it gently.
When he pulled back to look at her, her pupils were wide in her blue eyes, almost swallowing the iris. Her lips were parted as she panted, slick with saliva, and he couldn’t help but wonder just how slick she was between her legs, too, where he craved to touch her.
“What...what will ye do?” she asked, sounding uncertain.
“I’ll only kiss ye,” Archer said, pressing a kiss to her mouth, then her jaw, then her neck again, until he could reach her breasts over the fabric of her shift. Like that, he sucked one of her nipples in his mouth, wetting the fabric, and above him, River cried out in surprise.
“Where?” she asked, breathless.
“Everywhere.”
With a hand trembling from passion, Archer reached down and gave his length a squeeze. Just seeing her like this, just hearing her moans had him desperately hard, and he imagined what it would be like to plunge into her wet heat, claiming her as his own for good.
But now was not the time for this. He would claim her, as soon as she asked him to.
With slow movements once more, Archer took the fabric of her shift between his fingers and lifted it off her body until River was entirely nude before him.
The sight of her creamy skin under the soft candlelight gave him pause; she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
Not for the first time, he wondered how he could have ever stayed away from her when she was so beautiful, so sensual, without even knowing it.
Did she know it at all, he wondered? Did she know what her round breasts, her thighs, that thatch of dark curls over her mound did to him?
As he leaned over her, Archer exhaled softly over her breast and watched as goosebumps formed on the skin.
He leaned closer and wrapped his lips around her nipple once more, this time without the barrier of fabric between them, and River arched her back, pushing up into the touch of his lips.
His hands roamed all over her body, touching anywhere he could reach—her neck, the swell of her breast, the length of her calf, taking in all that smooth skin on display for him.
And when River spoke, it was the sweetest sound he had ever heard.
“Please,” she said. “Please, Archer.”
Archer’s touch was like a branding iron on her skin, and River never wanted him to let go.
She had never expected it would be so easy for her to be like this before him—entirely nude, lost in pleasure even as she anticipated more of it.
Only moments prior, she would have thought herself too shy, too easily embarrassed by such displays of passion, but now her wanton moans filled the room, simply because she had no hope of ever stopping them.
Need like liquid heat filled her body and pooled in her stomach.
Her core throbbed with every brush of Archer’s tongue over her nipple, the feeling intensifying every time she managed to gather the courage to look down at him as he sicked on her breasts.
His gaze never left her, and for once, he looked so open, so raw that River didn’t know what to do with herself.
It was as if this Archer before her was even newer, another version of him she would have never thought existed.
“I wish to taste ye,” he mumbled over the swell of her breast as he dragged a finger down her stomach, then lower and lower, over her mound, until he reached the top of her seam.
There, he suddenly pressed against a spot, and River cried out, her entire body convulsing with pleasure that she had never thought possible.
“Ach!” she shouted, her legs closing on reflex before Archer pushed them apart with a gentle, yet firm hand.
“That’s it,” Archer said softly, quietly, as if he was trying to calm a spooked animal. “Let me.”
And River did. She let her legs fall open on the couch as Archer settled properly between them, moving to her other breast to lick and suck on her nipple as his hand snaked lower and lower to find that spot again.
With slow, gentle circles, he began to massage it, and that overwhelming first pleasure turned into something sweeter, a little duller, enough for River to relax and surrender to him for good.
Her body melted on the couch, and she didn’t even care that she was splayed out under Archer like that, without any shame.
Still, her cheeks burned with embarrassment, but it wasn’t enough to stop her from undulating her hips, trying to get more of that delicious friction that seemed to send wave after wave of pleasure through her body.
“Archer,” River moaned, her hands finding his crown.
Her fingers tangled in his hair, tugging gently at the strands as he began t kiss his way lower and lower, his lips following the path the hand had taken earlier.
River’s eyes widened when she realized what he was doing, but she had no time to react before he settled lower on the couch and pressed the flat of his tongue against her opening with no warning.
She cried out again; she couldn’t help it. The pleasure was overwhelming, and so was the idea that he was doing this to her. River was quick to avert her gaze, but when she looked up at the ceiling, Archer stopped and took her jaw gently between his fingers, tilting her head down again.
“Look at me,” he growled. “I want ye to look.”
She blushed furiously at the command, but she had no choice but to look at him as he pleasured her now.
If she ever so much as moved her gaze for a moment, Archer stopped, and she never wanted him to stop.
That velvet heat of his tongue against her folds, that wetness that mixed with her own had her gasping for breath and sent her heartbeat racing.
Every circle of his tongue over her sensitive spot, even flat drag of it over her seam brought River closer and closer to her climax.
Pressure built deep in her core, pressure that demanded release, and in the end she found it when Archer flicked the tip of his tongue over that spot again and again, coaxing her orgasm out of her.
She shook as she reached her peak, but Archer worked her through it, his hands holding her securely as his lips and tongue continued to pleasure her until the very end.
Warmth spread over her limbs—warmth and a comfortable numbness as she came down from her zenith, slowly catching her breath again, even as her mind was still empty of thoughts.
It seemed to her that she was running on instinct alone, a deep, old knowledge that her body had stored for her until this very moment.
Archer didn’t speak. He only pressed a kiss to her forehead and gathered River in his arms to carry her to the bed.
Once there, he laid her on the soft linens and pulled the covers over her body as she quickly drifted into sleep.
She wanted to ask him to stay; she wanted to tell him to sleep there, in her chambers with her, but in the end, she didn’t find the courage.
She only let her eyes slip shut in the quiet and the darkness of the room as Archer gathered their clothes, placing hers over the back of a chair and putting on his own once more.
It occurred to River, distantly, that perhaps she should have offered to do the same to him.
It occurred to her that he would be leaving her chambers unsatisfied, and she wondered if that made her a bad wife, if nothing else.
Still, she didn’t know how to offer such a thing.
She didn’t know how to ask Archer if that was something he wanted, if she should be reciprocating.
What if he doesnae want me to? Where does that leave us?
Would he have asked if he wanted me to do somethin’? Did he nae ask because he didnae want me to?
These thoughts troubled her even as she heard the door click shut behind Archer as he left the room, and then as she slowly fell asleep.
She didn’t want to consider the possibility that she had been disappointing.
She didn’t want to consider the possibility that Archer had rejected her, in a way, for yet another time.
Nay...nay, this Archer wouldnae do that.
But how would I ken that? I daenae even ken who this Archer is or for how long he will be like this.
In the end, River fell into a deep, yet fitful sleep, these thoughts following her into her dreams.