11. Archer
Archer
Eve stirred on my chest. I propped my head up with one arm, tracing the path of her wild chestnut hair with the other. Chill bit my skin where our mingled sweat dried, but I was in no hurry to make my girl move.
My girl.
Fucking finally.
She gave a soft, satisfied sigh, and snuggled deeper into my chest. The corner of her pink, swollen lips turned up.
I struggled with the concept of not flipping her over and fucking her again for far too long a moment, and finally settled on distraction instead.
“You know I didn’t have this in mind when I came up here,” I murmured, winding her hair around my finger.
“Wasn’t it?” Eve raised her head to prop her chin on her hand, looking at me through dark, curved lashes that only highlighted the gold flecks in her eyes. “You had a purpose other than a debaucherous afternoon together?” Her lips curled up, her tongue darting out to flick across her lower lip.
I hardened beneath her, one hand pressed between her shoulder blades. I shifted, but all it achieved was to raise my arousal.
“Yes,” I said, my voice straining. I cleared it, and tried again. “Can you reach my jeans? There’s something in there for you.”
Eve shot me a quizzical glance and reached out half-heartedly with one arm, wiggling her fingers in the air. She gave up with a groan, slumping onto my chest with no small show of theatrics. “Do I have to?”
I watched her with amusement. “Yes.”
“Fine,” she grumbled, wiggling further around on her belly, her head hanging off the edge of the bed, her rump curved over my hips.
I gritted my teeth. Maybe this hadn’t been the best idea. Resisting the urge to smack her ass, I leaned back, and tried to count the deer in the front field.
“This?” Eve sat up, straddling me, her present in hand. A haphazard mass of bed-head curled tumbled over her as she sat up, completely naked and utterly comfortable.
I had never loved her more.
“Mmhmm.” I drew her to me, winding my hands through her mussed hair as I kissed her until I got one of those tiny noises from her that she made when she was horny.
I released her, watching her flesh creep across the tops of her breasts as she tried to regain her composure. Her gaze flicked up to me and narrowed.
Tossing a confident smile my way, Eve straightened her shoulders, shaking her hair back from her shoulders to give me the perfect view.
So perfect, I almost groaned at the sight of her. She gave a little hip wiggle to cement her paint and waved the thin, wrapped present I had brought upstairs with me.
“What’s this?”
I gripped her hips, stealing her wiggling so I could speak. “Your present, honey. I...you seemed distracted. I didn’t want to wait. Plus, I kinda hoped we might use it together.”
Eve’s eyebrows rose. “You bought me a dildo?”
“What?” I barked a laugh. “Hell, honey. I mean I’ll try toys if that’s what you want, you filthy little kitten.
” I pressed her down onto my rock hard cock, sliding her back and forth over my length, more than ready to go again.
“Christ, girl. Open the damn present.” I released her, inhaling long breaths to slow my heart rate.
She wasn’t the only one who had been teased then.
Eve gave me a wicked grin, gave another hip wiggle and tugged the tape free from the paper.
The red wrapping fell away to reveal a slightly tattered book of pamphlet size, its corners worn from tiny thumbs rolling them.
I rubbed my fingers together subconsciously, the memory of my childhood overwhelming me.
Her smile faltered as she turned the booklet over, tracing the creased lines where the cover had folded over the years. She flicked through the hand-written pages, silent.
I swallowed hard. “It was my great-grandmother’s recipe journal.
It’s been handed down the family line for years.
Most of my family are incredible cooks, and not just the women.
Da’s brisket is a life changing event. The gene skipped me.
” My grin skewed a bit; Eve cooked the most amazing food I’d ever had, even over my grandmother’s.
My lack of talent in that area was limited to a high appreciation of excellent grub.
“I didn’t know what to get the girl who has everything. ”
“Everything?” Eve raised her head, tears sparkling in her eyes, tiny snow drops clinging to her lashes.
I brushed my thumbs across them, drawing her into my arms. “The ranch, the mountain. Your family,” I nodded to the yard outside where a few ranch hands milled about. “Freedom.”
“And you’re giving me this?” She searched my face with those dark chocolate eyes, clouded with…
Doubt?
Maybe a sex toy would have been more fun, but it was time to fess up. I’d held back too much, too long. That hurt her, and it was nothing that I ever wanted her to experience again. “I’m not here for a visit, Eve. I’m here to stay. If you want me.”
Eve wasn’t the only one with doubts.
“If I want you?” Her laugh had a brittle edge to it that sliced at my heart.
“I don’t have to stay, and I don’t want to take anything away from you,” I murmured, easing back a little. “I’m not here to steal Red Hart away from you. I have my own place, but that’s back in Texas. You know that.”
The gap between us broadened, filled with a weight of guilt I hadn't known I’d carried.
It had taken me far too long to get back to Red Hart, to get back to Eve. Too many hours working, trying to tie everything up perfectly before I left Texas for good. But nothing as ever perfect, could ever be. And now, waiting might have cost me what I’d spent sleepless months working towards.
Eve’s hands gripped me firmly, her nails digging into my shoulders. “You’ll stay?”
It was a half demand, half question, and all Eve.
I wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I resigned my commission. In Texas,” I added helpfully.
Eve’s mouth dropped open. “You gave up being a Ranger?”
That never really happened, but I wasn’t about to burst her bubble.
“I officially handed the unit over to Andy the day I climbed in my truck and drove here to find you.”
Eve shook her head, the rest of her body as stiff as a board. “But Archer, you’ve spent twenty years working on your career there—”
“A career I’ve fulfilled and pushed as hard as I can.” Nothing I said was a lie.
I’d spent as many sleepless nights in the office chasing an endless stream of cases and furthering the careers of the rangers in my unit as I had hours trying to return to Eve after last Christmas's calamity.
“—and your unit. I know Andy.” She chewed on her lip, looking at me through her hair. “He’s super sweet.”
I grinned at what she didn’t say. Andy Matthews was ‘super sweet.” she’d nailed his personality. But I’d also seen the man develop from a raw Texas Ranger into an authoritarian figure the rest of the unit respected over the last few years.
“I’ve been trailing Andy and Ethan to take dual control.
One has the smarts; the other has the heart.
They’re both loyal as hell. I have no doubts, Eve.
” I traced a cinnamon dark curl that looped beneath her ear, running my fingertip along the line of her chin to draw her mouth to mine. “But it’s okay if you do.”
The curls swayed from side to side as she shook her head, her lips brushing mine. “I don’t. I promise. I didn’t want to push you. And you're just so. Damn. Stoic!” She punctuated each word with a finger poke into my chest.
I raised an eyebrow. “Ma’am, I think you’ve held that stoic card yourself for a while.” Winding my hand around hers where it pressed into my pec, I kissed the tips, then folded her fingers over mine and brought them to my lips. “Hard times, good times. I’m here.”
Eve’s forehead pressed to mine. “Stay. Please,” she whispered. “And thank you. It’s perfect. I have something for you, too. But now might not be the best time.” A shrill giggle escaped her.
“I’m intrigued.” Slipping the recipe book that held most of my family history — birthday cakes, Sunday roasts, bean and chicken lunches that Texas was raised on, Christmas feasts—onto her bedside table, I slid my hands along her back, over the curve of her ass.
“Let me go, Archer.” She wiggled against me.
I let her go with a groan. “Christ, firecracker. You’re a tease.”
“Says the Ranger who invented flirting.”
I opened my mouth to tell her I wasn’t a Ranger any more, but she was gone and it was a moot point.
Laughing softly to myself, I leaned back on her bed, one arm tucked behind my head.
My eyes shuttered as the exhaustion of the last two weeks of driving and working the land for her with several partial night’s sleep caught up with me.
I was halfway gone when something soft, then not so soft, slammed into my midsection.
“Fuck, Evie,” I muttered, wrapping my hands into her hair as I caught my breath. “You sure know how to kill a man.”
“Yep.” She pressed a key into my hand. “Get dressed.”
I squinted at her, and sniffed. “Did you just put dinner on?”
“Yep.” She knelt on the bed, wiggling like a fucking puppy. “Come on.”
“What are we doing?” I watched her curiously.
“Treasure hunt?”
“Uh huh.” I dug about for my jeans, swiping sleep from my eyes. “Hel, I could do with a few hours. You know that?”
“Later.”
She hauled me along the hall as I pulled my shirt on, not bothering with the buttons. I wrapped my hand around hers, watching her ass as she led me downstairs and around the rear of the kitchen, stopping in front of the study door.
“Ta-daa.” She waved her hands theatrically.
I raised an eyebrow. “I get to be office bitch for Christmas day?” I counted backwards. “You do know that’s tomorrow, right?"
Eve blinked. “Shit. Is it? Good thing I have a turkey. Or a ham. Or five. I think. Looks like we’re defrosting!”
“So…” I stalled on the threshold, looking into the lushly appointed study.
“Honey, desks and I really don’t agree but if you want me to do book work, I can guarantee I’ll fuck something up in short order.
” I was half joking. Business, I could do when the need called for it, providing it was paper based.
Get me into a computer system, and that was where the fuckery started.
My accountant threw a party when I left Texas, and not the retirement sort.
“Your present.” Eve tugged me into the room, an exasperated look on her face. “Here.” She grabbed one large, over-filled bookcase by the edge and pulled.
It didn't move.
I coughed softly. “Try the next one?”
“Nope, it’s this one. Sure of it.” She pulled again.
I glanced at the floor, and took two steps forward. “Right bookcase, wrong side. See?” I tapped the markings on the floor with my toes. “It budges from this side.” I pulled and the bookcase swung open toward me like a secret door.
A gun safe stood behind it. Eve presented me with the key.
I took it, frowning. “Evie. Are you sure?”
She nodded. “The tumbler’s ruined, long ago. This kinda works.”
I stuffed about with the key until the ancient lock gave up its ghost for me. I pulled the heavy door open, exposing a rack with three rifles on it.
“Travis’s,” She pointed to a Remington that looked like it had barely been used.
“Mine,” —she pointed to another similar rifle, though this one bore more marks.
“And yours.” She grinned at me, lifting an ancient looking Hawken double barrel rifle from the rack.
“It’s a lot of fun. And it was one of the last made, I think.
It’s been in the family forever. Now, it’s yours. Merry Christmas.”
I stared hard at her. “Evie…”
“It’s yours, Rhys. I talked to Trav, and this is what I wanted to give you the day you said you’d stay. So, this belongs to you, now. It’s part of red Hart, and it never leaves this land.” Defiance glittered in her eyes, along with a challenge.
This rifle belongs here, and now, so do you.
“Then I accept.” I took the rifle from her, its weight heavy but good in my hands. “Thank you, beautiful.” I leaned in and kissed her gently.
“You’re welcome.” Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears as she worked her arms around my neck and pulled me closer. “I’ve waited so long Rhys,” she whispered.
I swallowed hard. “I know, Evie. Can I put this down so I can kiss you properly? I don’t want to offend house ghosts right now."
She giggled at me and put the rifle back into its rack, closing everything up. Then she slid the key into my pocket.
“Love you,” she whispered, and slipped past me, heading for the kitchen.
I stared after her, that simple phrase nearly knocking me on my ass.
“Damn,” I muttered, leaning on the false bookcase, unsure if it propped me up or if it was the other way around. “I was looking forward to that kiss.”