Chapter 58
58
ARCHER
A fter the promise I made to my mother, I abandon the paint job, leaving the guys to finish up for me. It’s like someone lit a fire under me, and I’m more eager than ever to get home to Layla and figure this mess out.
Thankfully, Darius, Mason and Nolan offered to clean up our mess and lock up the place, so I could get out of there quicker. Despite my brothers being idiots, they are decent human beings every once in a while.
It’s late as I race up the mountainside to my home. The thirty-second drive has never felt longer. I might have made big promises to my mom earlier, but I have no idea how to handle this.Yet the situation feels urgent.
This time next week, Layla and Sky will be gone . They’ll be moved into their new place and out of my life forever. Unless I take action. Now.
When I creep into my house, the whole place is shrouded in darkness. Everything is painfully silent. For a second, I panic, worried that maybe they're already gone.
Coming home to Layla has become the highlight of my days. Even though we spend most of the workday together, it’s not enough. We always have so much to talk about each night.Well, mostly she talks while I listen. Whether we’re working on a jigsaw puzzle together or cuddling in front of the fireplace or making each other feel good in my bed. I can’t lose her companionship. I can’t go back to the way I was living before.
I quietly hustle down the hall. I push the door and poke my head into her room…and there they are. I close my eyes, sucking in a breath of relief. I’m being ridiculous. I was just at their new house. Of course they’re still here.
But it’s late, and I see that Layla and Sky are already asleep. The child is curled up in his crib, blanket kicked off and snuggling with the old teddy bear I got him a long time ago. His thumb is poked into his mouth, making me smile. He looks so precious.
Layla is also fast asleep, lying in the middle of her bed. Even in the dark I can see that her makeup is scrubbed off and she’s got her dark hair up in a messy bun. She’s effortlessly beautiful.
My chest squeezes so tight that it’s hard to breathe. I have to keep her. I have to do whatever it takes. I have to fight for her.
Pulling the door half-closed, I slowly make my way to my bedroom. Exhaustion is settling in, so I fall into my bed and try to sleep.
But my mind won’t shut off. I toss and turn in my bed. I’m wide awake, trying to figure out what the hell I’m going to say to her. I have no tricks up my sleeve, and I’m seriously running out of time.
My mind keeps shifting in a dark direction. I bolt up in bed at my next terrifying thought. What if she leaves early? What if she wakes up and decides to move out of here tomorrow?
I can’t come home to a quiet, empty house for the rest of my life. I’ve had a taste of what it’s like to have a family, and I want more. I want it all.
I’ve got to convince Layla to be with me. I have to do something. Anything.
Without a second thought, I rush across the hallway and peek inside her room again. Yes, the door is still cracked open, and yes, I could just let myself inside. But I don’t want to intrude. So I pace around in my boxers like a crazy person outside her door.
Shit, I should have at least put on some pants.
And what am I even going to say? Why didn't I think about that before I showed up at the damn door?
Before I can consider bolting, the door swings open fully and Layla stands there in the pajamas I bought her on Valentine’s Day.
She’s rubbing her eyes, looking alarmed. “Are you okay? Is everything okay?”
“I…uh, I…” I scratch at the back of my neck, shifting my weight from side to side.
“Archer, you’re scaring me.” She reaches out, gripping my arm. “Please tell me what’s going on.”
Still, I can’t find words. So I fall to my knees, reaching out and gripping both of her hands in mine.
“Okay, now you’re really scaring me. Archer?” Her big brown eyes blink at me in the darkness.
“I…” Shit. “…I can’t fall asleep one more night without telling you that….that I’m in love with you, Layla.”
Her jaw drops. Then it closes and opens several more times.
Before I can chicken out, I go on. “I can’t close my eyes one more night without you knowing that you’re in my every thought. I can’t go on pretending that I’m only pretending when I kiss you. Because every time I kiss you, it’s real. It’s real when I touch you. When I fuck you.”
“Oh, Archer…” Her fingers rake into my hair and I lean into the touch like a needy puppy.
My lips press against her stomach. “In my mind, this thing between you and me was never just for show. It was never pretend. I kiss you because I’m obsessed with you. You hear me? Obsessed .” I lift the hem of her pajama shirt, touching her with my lips again. “I fuck you because, despite my rules, I can’t resist you. I break every one of my rules because I’m out of my mind for you. None of this is pretend, Layla.”
I pause to catch my breath, my chest heaving as I stare up from where I’m crouched in front of her.
“I’m in love with you, Layla. For real. I have so many regrets when it comes to you and how long I’ve waited. But I can’t let this be one of them. I can’t let you walk away.”
She stares down at me for several long beats. Just when I think she’s going to tell me to get lost, she yanks me onto my feet and pulls me in for a kiss.
“Archer…” she mumbles my name against my lips, before my tongue ventures out to find hers.
My hands tangle into her hair, and we stumble backward into her bedroom. She tilts her head to the side, breaking the kiss and glancing at Sky who is thankfully still sound asleep in his crib.
With two hands on my bare chest, Layla pushes me back out into the hallway, stumbling along with me. “Your room,” she breathes into my mouth. “Your room now.”
Not wasting a second, I scoop her up into my arms. Burying her shriek in my neck, she clings tightly to me.
Inside my bedroom, I throw her sideways across my bed and I start stripping her out of her clothes, not wasting a minute.
“Wait,” she says breathlessly. “Wait, Archer.”
My heart stops cold.
I pause and watch her reach into the pocket of her pajama pants. She turns and flicks on the bedside lamp. That’s when I notice the paper folded in her hands. “I wrote down some things I want to say to you,” she whispers girlishly.
“Oh, yeah?” I ask, climbing over her and kissing her jaw and her neck. “Read it to me,” I demand as my lips travel across her collarbone.
A quivery breath leaves her before she begins. “Dear Archer; It turns out you were right about everything,” she reads quietly in the dim light.
That makes me chuckle into the curve of her neck. “Well, that’s a good way to start. I’m liking this. Keep going.”
I hear the laughter in her voice as I kiss a line down the center of her chest. She holds the old envelope over head and she continues to read. “You were right to have a no-kissing rule. It annoyed the hell out of me at first, because I just wanted to get your lips on me. But with time I’ve come to see that you were right.”
I grunt, cradling her breast and gently taking her nipple between my teeth.
“Because before we kissed, I still had a shot at convincing myself I could resist you, that we could be just friends, that we could be platonic and nothing more.”
Her breaths start to go ragged as I feast on her breasts, but she pushes forward, reading the letter.
“But the minute you kissed me at the hockey game, the floodgates broke loose. All the feelings I tried to keep at bay came sweeping in and I fell helplessly, hopelessly for you.”
My kisses move down her stomach as I push her legs apart.
“Archer…” she moans, her free hand finding my hair and pulling.
“Keep reading, baby.” I want to know that she cares about me. I want to know that she belongs to me. Because all of me belongs to her.
She drops her cheek against the pillow, struggling to keep her eyes open as I kiss along the crease of her pelvis.
“I don’t want to be halfway in with you anymore,” she says, hooded eyes on the paper. “I just want to be yours. Only yours.”
My knees hit the carpet and I drape her legs over my shoulders. “God yes, Layla,” I moan as my mouth opens against her pussy.
I’m so fucking turned on right now. Layla, reading me a love letter while I’m on my knees devouring her pussy. I couldn’t think of a more fitting way to start this new chapter of our story.
She begins to grind on my face. “I’ll stand by what…I said from…the beginning.” Her eyes flutter open and closed as I begin to lick her. Her skin flushes pink all over. She’s struggling to speak. Yet she continues to ride my mouth and speak her beautiful words to me. “Being single…beats being in a…relationship with the wrong…person. But you’re the…right person, Archer.” Her hand wobbles as she tries to keep reading the letter.
I’ve never been more turned on. Hearing the woman of my dreams confessing her feelings to me? This night will be the death of me. I fervently eat her pussy like I’m losing my mind.
She pulls my hair. She bucks on my face. Her spine arches up off the bed as her voice grows more high-pitched. “For me…oh my god, yes…for me…” The words come out in a rush. “You’re the only person for me, Archer Brighton!!”
At that, Layla’s muscles go tense and her release washes my tongue, her sweet, sticky juices drenching my face.
I growl, holding her thighs in place and aggressively devouring and licking up every last drop. I don’t stop until she’s so sensitive that she’s closing her thighs and softly pushing my head away.
Her hand goes limp against the pillow and the envelope flutters to the floor.
As I watch her, devastated in my bed, a realization blasts into my brain. She’s mine. She’s mine. The woman of my dreams is finally mine .
Layla.
Always Layla. Only Layla.
Forever.
A shock of electricity explodes at the base of my spine. White lights flash behind my eyes. I grab hold of my cock right as I start to come inside my boxers.
What the actual fuck?
Her eyes flicker open as her legs continue to shake. She watches me heatedly as I fall apart for her.
A smile dances across her face. “You came…” she whispers knowingly and entirely too smugly.
Wiping my mouth on the back of my arm, I drag my limp body onto the mattress beside her. “Yeah. I came. Knowing that you’re finally mine has that effect on me.”
We’re all kinds of sweaty and sticky by the time Layla crawls onto my chest. I have no idea what time it is, but I’m fairly sure it’s tomorrow by now.
Exhaustion is settling in for real this time, but I’m too keyed up to sleep. I wrap my arms around Layla’s very naked body, content to run my hands up and down her back for the rest of the night. For the rest of my life.
It takes me a second to realize that her body is shaking.
“Layla?” My eyes shoot to her face, shocked to find her crying. I swipe my thumb across her wet cheek. “Belle, what’s wrong?”
Her head lifts off my chest, her messy bun falling sideways on her head as she looks at me in the dim room. “Nothing’s wrong. I’m just so happy that you’re mine for real. You are such a good man, Archer Brighton.”
Then she holds her breath and blurts out three words I never thought I’d hear her say.
“I love you.”
My arms tighten around her. My resurrected heart throws a marching band parade inside my chest.
I’m dreaming. I must be dreaming. I’m sure this whole thing must be a dream.
But then she says it again.
“I love you. I love you I love you I love you.” She lets out a breathless laugh as her hand slips beneath the waistband of my boxers and starts to stroke my cock. “Wow. That feels so good to say.”
“I love you so fucking much, Layla.” I lean in, kissing the tears off her face. “I love you. You and Sky, both. You don’t ever have to worry about a thing. I’ve got you. From now to forever.”