Chapter 41
Chapter 4 1
Erica
Laughter filtered through from somewhere Erica couldn’t pinpoint. Her mouth was dry, and her body ached. She was wrapped in warm arms under a covering and felt like she was suffocating for a moment. Then, jerking awake, Erica sat up and blinked several times to focus on where she was.
“Are you okay?” A sleepy male voice said next to her. She realised it was Archer.
“I think I had a nightmare. I thought I was suffocating.”
She sank back down on the bed and turned on her side to look at Archer. It didn’t take too many seconds for her mind to remember why her body ached.
“You may have those startling moments for a while,” he said carefully, looking back at her with a gaze she hadn’t seen before. The last time she was him, he was frosty and distant, and now all she saw was raw emotion.
His hand stroked her arm from shoulder to wrist, his eyes following his movements.
“I thought I was going to die out there. Gregg left me and swam away. I didn’t know what to do. If you hadn’t pushed me with all that training, I think I would’ve gone under sooner.”
“How long were you out there for?”
“About twenty minutes, but it felt like longer. I tried to tell Gregg not to go out on the sandbar, I could see the water coming over his feet, but then he lost his footing and got caught.”
“So you went out to save him,” Archer said, encircling her wrist with his fingers.
His movements were gentle and innocent, but she could tell he was holding back the rage for her situation.
“I thought it was still shallow enough.”
Archer’s eyes snapped up to hers, and his lips thinned. “Rule number one when saving someone from drowning is never putting yourself in danger.”
“You did.”
“That’s different. I knew what I was doing and how to get you out of the riptide. Plus, I was not going to leave you out there.”
Her heart melted at his conviction. Their fingers entwined, knotting together and then falling loose as he played around.
“Where is Gregg?” she asked.
“On the mainland, Luke put him on a ferry.”
“He was so angry, Archer,” Erica said and then sobbed, bringing her hands to her face.
She was pulled into a bear hug cocoon in his arms as she let out the anguish from earlier in the day. He made soothing noises lulling her back into a calm state. Snuggling closer, she lifted her chin, so her face was pressed against his throat. Erica could feel him swallow hard, and he tightened his arms further .
“Why was he angry, honey?”
“He blamed me for the divorce, even though he filed for it. Then he blamed me for his girlfriend, tricking him into thinking he would be a father. I felt so bad because he really wanted a family, and I wasn’t ready. Then he blamed me for her rejecting him because he was willing to raise another man’s child. Then he blamed me for making him sign a prenup which made him penniless. Apparently, she walked away when she found out he had no money. She assumed he would get money from the divorce. That’s when he confessed he was already divorced, and there would be no money coming.”
“And you still risked your life for him?”
“He was in trouble.”
“And you came running.”
Her breathing evened out, the cold hard truth of the risk she’d taken. “And I got into trouble. How did you find me?”
“Teddy. He came running across the lawns, fixated on us following him.”
“I need to treat him in some way. What do dogs love?”
“Attention and loyalty, they give it back in spades.”
Erica fell silent. Now was as good a time as any to tell him what she’d decided on the flight over. Surrounded by Archer’s family, she realised she couldn’t go ahead with the marriage like it was a business deal.
“Archer,” she said eventually.
“Please don’t say it,” he whispered and moved his head to kiss her lips. “Please don’t break my heart.”
Erica automatically opened for him, welcoming his passion as he kissed her, but she had to stop him. Putting her hand on his chest, she gave him a shove but didn’t leave the confines of his arms.
“I can’t marry you, Archer,” she said, breaking out into a sob.
He held her tighter. “Why not?” The words came out as a wail.
She had to plough on, get it all out, so Archer knew where she stood.
“I thought I didn’t care about marriage after Gregg was so disloyal and easily broke the vows meant for life. But watching you with your family, getting to know you, your mind, and your body, I can’t let it happen. I know you need the business for your family, but it feels wrong to marry just for money.”
He’d turned back on his side, eyes watering at what she was telling him. He clutched both her hands in his. “And you couldn’t learn to love me?”
“No.”
Archer fell silent and turned onto his back, covering his face with his hands. “Am I so awful that you couldn’t love me?”
Smiling for the first time in hours, she tugged on his bicep, but he wouldn’t budge, wouldn’t look at her.
“I can’t learn to love you because I already love you. I don’t want to marry you to fulfil the requirements of a bitter old lady. She pulled me aside in the grand foyer that night to tell me if I didn’t stay married to you forever, she’d write you out of the will. She insisted I go through with the ceremony no matter what. She needs me to marry you, but I don’t think she cares if love comes into it.”
“You love me?” Archer said.
Archer turned back and then covered her body with his, moving her legs apart with his thighs so he could nestle without putting too much weight on Erica. His forearms were at her head, mouth covering hers as he moved his hips. Erica wanted to answer him, but he wasn’t letting her away from the searing kiss he was lying on her. His tongue swept into her mouth so slowly and tentatively that she thought her shiver would never end. Archer knelt back in a swift movement that had her dazed for a moment. Bare chest, broad shoulders on display for her. She hoped forever.
“You love me,” he stated. “Love. Me.”
Erica nodded as tears formed in her eyes. She could feel her mouth fill with water from nerves. He hadn’t said it back.
“So if you married me next week, it would be for real and not save my siblings and me?”
“Yes, but do you want to marry me?”
“I’ve always wanted to marry you. I meant the proposal, and I would’ve meant the vows even if you hadn’t.”
“Archer,” she said.
He looked down at her body. Erica felt her nipples pebble at his gaze, but she didn’t move an inch. Archer tugged off her pyjama bottoms and panties and then pulled her up to a sitting position to discard her top. When she was naked, he slipped off the bed, turned the lock on the bedroom door, and pushed his boxers off as he approached the bed again.
“Do you want to have kids?” he asked.
“I do.”
“How soon?”
Erica was ashamed when she visualised her movie schedule, which would start in two weeks.
“Anytime,” she answered, not caring. If he got her pregnant there and then she wouldn’t show until after filming.
Archer gave her a salacious grin and crawled up the bed to resume his position covering her body. “No need for condoms then,” he said as he entered her .
Erica sighed as he pushed inside. Hearing Archer’s groan in her ear, she wrapped her legs and arms around him. It didn’t take either of them long to reach their climax. Quietly they exclaimed the peak of their passion, hard throbs over Archer’s thick cock as he kept going, sliding inside and out. The realisation she had come just from his cock was making her heart beat wildly. Archer’s lazy thrusts turned into hard pushes again. Erica was racing towards her second orgasm as Archer reared up. Soft love-making the first time had turned to hard fucking the second time.
He put his hands flat on the mattress, then balanced on the one hand, grabbing the headboard so he could slam into her harder like he wanted to be buried deep. Erica was aware of the laughter coming from somewhere, so she closed her lips as she moaned through her escalating orgasm until she couldn’t stand it any longer and grabbed a pillow to scream into. Archer let out a roar as he came, pushing in hard one last time to seat himself to the hilt. The laughter instantly stopped. Archer pulled the pillow away from her face and gave her a wide grin.
“You should’ve just let it out, honey. They were going to hear us, anyway.”
“I can’t ever face them again,” she said, embarrassed that they’d been overheard.
“Don’t be embarrassed. They’ll be glad that we’re still together.”
“We’re going to get married,” Erica said in amazement.
“Yeah, for real.”
“Let’s get showered and dressed and join the others to give them the good news.” Archer tugged her off the bed and led her into the bathroom attached to the bedroom. “We also have a dog to lavish all our gratitude.”