Chapter Twenty-Four Archer
Chapter Twenty-Four
Archer
More.
I needed more.
More of her kisses.
More of her lips.
More of the sweet hint of her tongue.
More of her hair tangled around my fingers and her skin underneath my hands.
And with the pliant arch of her body into mine, the soft press of her stomach against my aching hardness, I knew she was willing to give it.
My hands curved around the back of her head, and I slid my tongue into her waiting mouth, the wet lick of her tongue on mine lifting the hairs on the back of my neck as we groaned in tandem.
Hers was relief.
Mine sounded dirtier, lower. This was from just a kiss. What sound would she make when I slid inside her body? What sound would I?
The need to know set my entire being on edge.
Having waited for this moment didn’t make me rush through frantic kisses or groping hands. No, it had given me time to think.
Think about what I’d do to her, given the chance.
Kiss her everywhere, memorize all her sounds, taste every inch of her skin.
Take her past the edge again and again until she was spent and sated and sleepy. Then I’d take her one more time, wring every last ounce of pleasure from her body. Make up for all the days and hours I’d thought of her just like this.
I banded an arm around her lower back, my fingers splayed over the curve of her waist as I held her tight to my body.
As our kiss deepened, the only thing I could hear was the furious pounding rhythm of my heart.
Her hands skimmed my chest and shoulders as I dipped my knees to use my other arm under her ass to boost her up onto the island.
Her legs wrapped immediately around my waist as my hands wandered along her back and up behind her neck. The band holding all that red hair back had disappeared, and I hoped she never fucking found it again.
All that thick, silky hair. Fire in my hands. I wanted to see it tangled and messy all over my pillows in the morning, absolutely wrecked from what we’d done to each other.
Remi kissed like she did everything else—like the weight of her entire soul was behind it. Would she carry the weight of mine as I stumbled through this?
I wanted her.
I wanted her so fucking bad that my hands shook.
Kissing her might be my new religion. Her lips would bring me to my knees. Her tongue and her scent and her little sounds would have me worshipping her for the rest of my life.
When I skimmed my teeth over the tip of her tongue as it pulled away from mine, she whimpered, and it was like she tugged on a rope around my waist, my hips rolling into hers unconsciously.
At the feel of me hard between her legs, she made another sweet, helpless sound.
Her hands tightened on the back of my head when I did it, our kisses taking on a fierce, serrated edge. We’d excised the need for sweet and slow, for tentative kisses that felt like a question.
The only thing left behind was the raw desire we’d felt since the very beginning.
I pulled back and nipped along the edge of her jaw, sucking at the soft patch of skin underneath her ear. Remi tilted her head back and gasped.
“Right there?” I asked, my lips brushing against the spot I’d just found. Her hands fisted in my shirt, and she nodded like she was drunk. “Let me hear you, firefly,” I whispered into her skin. “Don’t keep those sounds to yourself. They’re mine.”
I dragged my teeth over her earlobe and sucked hard. She jerked me closer, her hips moving restlessly.
“Here?” I asked, sliding my hand between us and rubbing on the seam of her shorts.
She moaned my name, her head tipped back. She gripped my wrist, hips rocking back and forth as she worked herself on my hand.
“God, I want those shorts gone,” I moaned into her neck. “Wanna feel you.”
Could I lay her down here on the island and break her apart into a million pieces? I’d do it with my tongue and fingers first, and my mouth watered at the thought.
I wanted to see her dazed and limp. Wanted to make her scream.
Wanted to wrap her in my arms as she came down from the peak.
I wanted to love her.
The words threatened, but something in my gut whispered, Caution.
Not yet. Not yet.
But I didn’t want caution either.
Caution meant slow. Slow might pull us from this place, and that was the last fucking thing I wanted now that we were finally here.
Her mouth found mine again, our tongues winding around each other, slick and wet and dirty. My hands moved to her waist, pushing up to the sides of her breasts under her shirt. My thumbs found the hard tips through the thin layer of her bra, and I rubbed back and forth as she arched her back.
“Dreamed about these,” I murmured. “It wasn’t enough. I want to see them, kiss them, suck them.”
When I pushed her bra out of the way, my fingers dragging over a nipple, she shivered.
Then I pulled back, studying the flush of color in her cheeks and down into her chest. With my finger working in tight, light circles, I wanted to see what that did to her. She kept her eyes closed, quick, panting breaths making her chest heave.
“So fucking beautiful,” I whispered. “Look at you.”
We’d hardly touched each other and I knew if I got her into my bed, I’d have her.
She’d let me do whatever I wanted right now.
God, I’d do so many things. I’d make it so good for her, she’d never leave.
Never leave me.
Remi’s hands found the waistband of my pants, and she curled her fingers there, dragging her knuckles over the V of my lower abdominals. Her eyes were hazy when she opened them.
“Archer, what are we doing?” she moaned.
I stole another kiss, and she gave it willingly. When I pulled back, we were both breathing hard.
“What we’ve wanted since that first fucking night,” I said, before finding that spot underneath her ear again and sucking. Hard.
She gasped, her hands fisting in my shirt. I grinned, nipping at her lips, then angling my mouth over hers for something deeper, wetter, a luxurious kiss that I had no right to take from this woman.
Remi made a plaintive noise as I gripped her breast, dragging my thumb over her, harder this time.
Her hand pushed at my shoulder.
Pushed.
Not pulled.
I broke the kiss, a harsh exhale leaving my mouth before I could stop it.
“Hang on,” she panted. “Just . . . hang on a second.”
“Fuck,” I muttered, dropping my head against hers as I tried to catch my breath.
All the blood flow had diverted to my very angry hard-on, and at the moment, he could’ve broken through a brick fucking wall.
She kissed the edge of my jaw and breathed out an “I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s fine.” I pinched my eyes shut. “It’s okay.”
“I just . . . I keep hearing his voice.” Remi lifted her head, and her eyes weren’t hazy with lust anymore. They were filled with apology. “What he said about us.”
God, I didn’t want it there, didn’t want him anywhere near this, but as soon as she said it, his voice was in my head too.
Fucking your way through your community service might be a little cliché, but she looks like a pleasant enough way to spend the time.
“I could lose my job for sleeping with you right now. If anyone finds out . . .” She rubbed her face, and I took an unsteady step back. “Your dad could tell someone. The press, social media . . .” Her voice trailed off, hopelessness filling her gaze.
“I know,” I admitted in a rough voice.
She searched my expression like she was waiting for me to say something else.
But I didn’t.
I couldn’t.
I wanted to tell her that sleeping with her now meant I was in.
That she was it for me. That I wanted her reading in my chair and putting up Christmas trees with ugly ornaments.
That I wanted to pick up Gavin from practice and help him with soccer in her tiny backyard.
I wanted her in my life. Wanted to be in hers as much as she’d let me.
And I still wasn’t sure she was ready to hear it.
That same voice that whispered caution told me that, even worse, she might not believe me.
“You have a lot more at stake than I do,” I said in a dull voice.
Reality had a nasty way of elbowing into the best moments, and it absolutely devastated this one. The pretty pink color ebbed from her cheeks as we stared at each other.
Remi sighed, staring down at her hands where they were clasped in her lap. “I wish I knew how to make our lives make sense together, Archer.”
“Me too, firefly. Me too.”
She gave me a sad smile as I helped her down from the counter. I handed her the hair tie that had fallen to the ground, and watched in fascination as a few loops of her hands twisted all her hair up off her neck.
Everything she did seemed to fascinate me, though. Wasn’t that part of the problem?
Remi was my addiction. And it didn’t help either of us for me to replace one unhealthy behavior pattern with another.
Before she walked out the door, I tugged on her hand and pulled her back into my arms, sighing when she returned the embrace and rested her head on my chest.
“I’ve never had anyone fight for me like that,” I admitted, pressing my nose into the crown of her head. “Thank you.”
Remi didn’t pull out of my arms right away, and knowing that this was hard for her helped, just a little. Even though I wanted her to be sure, and I wanted her to choose whatever was happening between us, I couldn’t fault her reasons for holding back.
The stakes for her were much higher, and I knew it.
When she pulled back, I saw the indecision in her eyes, the slight pucker to her brow. I smoothed my thumb over the lines there and smiled. “Drive safe, okay?”
There was a moment where I thought she might say something, might kiss me again as her gaze flickered to my mouth. But she didn’t.
Remi nodded and pulled out of my arms.
When she left, I stood on the front porch, leaning against one of the columns and watching her drive away. I did so knowing that she’d changed something fundamental inside me.
Or maybe I’d changed it, and she’d been the catalyst I needed. Allowing Remi to see more of me than anyone else ever had was upending my life as I knew it.
Carefully, I touched my cheekbone and winced.
Some things would heal on their own, and others . . . well, they required a little bit more intentional action.
I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and dialed a number I’d never called.
“Hey, it’s Archer Evans. I know it’s late, but I have a huge favor to ask, and you might be the only one who can pull it off.”