Chapter Sixteen
Echo
S IX HOURS LATER, Judy was taken away, and Floyd was once again wrecked. The folks at OHSU had been lovely and extremely gentle with both Floyd and Judy, and they had promised to deliver Judy’s ashes to him when they were done.
Dani had organized a crew of ladies to come in and clean the house from top to bottom, and you’d barely have known they’d been there. Laundry was done, folded, and put away. The bedding was changed, dishes done, food cooked, all while Dani, Warren, and Booker sat with Floyd and kept him distracted.
Archer on the other hand, kept me distracted.
By seven p.m., I could barely keep my eyes open, and Archer decided he’d had enough.
“I need to take Echo home.”
“I’m okay.”
Floyd looked my way and frowned. “You’re exhausted, sweetheart. You need to listen to your man and go home.”
“We’ll keep Floyd company,” Dani said. “He won’t be alone.”
“I won’t?” Floyd asked.
Dani smiled. “You won’t ever be alone again, buddy.”
“You also need to get some sleep, Floyd,” Bryn said.
He sighed. “I won’t be able to sleep without my honeybee next to me.”
“I can give you something to help,” Bryn said.
“I didn’t hear that,” I rasped.
“No, you didn’t,” Archer confirmed, and pulled me up next to him. “I’m gonna take you home.”
“Are you sure you’re good, Floyd,” I asked.
“I’m good,” he promised. “Can we still do dinners sometime?”
“I’d be really sad if we didn’t,” I said. “You call me and we’ll set it up.”
Floyd nodded, as Archer gathered my things and led me out the front door where I froze.
“Holy mother of god,” I whispered. “What’s going on?”
Archer wrapped his arm around my waist from behind. “A few of the brothers are here in case Floyd needs anything.”
“That’s more than a few.” I craned my head to look up at him. “They’re going to freeze out here.”
“If they can’t hack it, they’ll leave, baby. It’s all good.”
“They can come to my—”
“No, no they can’t. You need to sleep.”
I leaned heavily against him. “Oh, right. Sleep. What is that again?”
“Come on, let’s get you home.”
* * *
I awoke to the sound of Archer’s quiet voice coming from the other room, and I rolled over to grab my phone to check the time. It was just past four a.m. Lordy, I’d been asleep for almost ten hours.
I dragged myself out of bed and padded into the kitchen. My boss had managed to move things around so I could have today and tomorrow off, which was very sweet of her considering how incredibly understaffed she was.
Archer was leaning against the kitchen island, no shirt, jeans slung low on his hips, and his head bowed as he spoke softly to whomever was on the other end of the phone. “No, she’s sleepin’.”
“I’m here,” I said, closing the distance between us.
He held his arm out to me, and I slid into his embrace, kissing his chest.
“Yeah, Mom, she just woke up. I’ll tell her.” He gave me a squeeze. “I’ll ask her. Jesus, Mumsy, would you like me to write all this down, or can I go and take care of my woman now and we can debrief later?”
“Archer,” I admonished.
“I love you more. Okay, I’ll tell her that, too. Bye.” He set his phone on the counter next to us, then wrapped both his arms around me. “How ya feelin’?”
“Much better. What did your mom want?”
“She was asking how you were and giving me an update on Floyd. He’s doing better, by the way.”
“Did he sleep? Is he eating?”
“He slept. Bryn helped with that.”
“I don’t want to know.”
“Okay.” He grinned. “And if you don’t eat around my mother, she’ll force feed you. It’s a thing.”
“Is she still there?”
“She went back. Dad made her go home and sleep for a few hours, so Maisie tagged in.”
“They are the most amazing people. Ever.”
“Agreed.” He kissed the top of my head. “You hungry?”
“Yes, but I really need a shower first.”
“How about you go do that, and I’ll have it waiting.”
I frowned up at him. “No, you’re missing the point here, my guy. If I need a shower, you need one, too.”
“Oh, gotcha.” He chuckled. “Lead the way, beautiful. ”
I took his hand and did as he demanded.
* * *
Close to a month later, life was back to normal. Or as normal as life could be after a colossal loss like the one Floyd had suffered.
Archer pointed out that I’d suffered the loss as well, and of course, I lobbed back that as sad as I was, it wasn’t quite the same. We went back and forth a bit, but in the end, he dropped it, because I made him drop it, but I knew he wasn’t happy about dropping it because he told me so.
Things after that small blow-up had settled down, and Archer and I fell into a steady rhythm.
He’d met my entire family, even joined us for a few dinners, and much to my brother’s chagrin, charmed them all.
Especially my dad. Dad had even gone out fishing with Floyd and Archer’s grandfather, and Oscar had lost his mind.
Partly because Archer hadn’t been there, which meant our dad wasn’t there ‘to keep an eye on him.’ Whatever the hell that meant.
There was another family night tonight, and Archer would be picking me up in half an hour.
I was actually looking forward to it since Sunday was my day off.
This time, it was a bonafide day off, no on-call schedule, no nothing.
He’d suggested we stay the night at the clubhouse, which meant we could drink, then sleep in the next day, and I was all over that.
“Echo?” Archer called out .
“Back here!”
“Baby, why’s your door unlocked?”
“Because I knew you were coming,” I said, walking out into the hallway from my bedroom to meet him. I smiled, leaning up on my tiptoes to kiss him, but he frowned. “What?”
“Don’t do that, Echo. Never leave your door unlocked.”
I frowned, biting my lip. “It was unlocked for less than five minutes.”
“A lot can happen in five minutes.”
“You’re not my dad, my guy.”
“But how sad would he be if someone walked right in here and grabbed you?”
I gripped his cut. “I’m going to let your bossiness pass because I know it’s out of concern.”
“My gorgeous, sweet, amazing, sexy as hell fiancée, you haven’t begun to see bossy,” he murmured, sliding a hand to my butt. “Lock your goddammed door.”
“How about I lock my door, and you can have a key?”
“I’ll allow it.” He leaned down and kissed my neck. “You look great. You ready?”
“I think so.” I wore a pair of skinny jeans, low-heeled boots, and a long-sleeved T-shirt with a peacock on the front that read, ‘Disco Turkey.’ “Is this okay?”
“Yeah, baby. Love the shirt,” he said with a chuckle.
“You know how much I love peacocks.”
“I’ve got an inkling,” he said, glancing around the room. My home was tastefully filled with peacocks of all sorts, and I loved it. Once people found out how much I loved them, they seemed to multiply. “Did you pack a bag?”
I nodded. “It was hard not to pack two.”
“You could have packed two,” he said.
“And move in?” I teased.
“You can leave some things there for future sleepovers.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Mom and Dad have an apartment there where you can lock your things up. No one will fuck with it. No one would anyway, but you can stash a few things in there if you like, and the room stays locked. Because we’re a couple, we get a private room and bathroom, so for tonight, we’re covered, then you can leave a bag in my parents’ room if you like. ”
“That’s so cool,” I said. “I’ll decide tomorrow.”
“Sounds good.” He grinned. “Show me where your shit is and I’ll take it out to my truck.”
“In my room. It’s all ready.”
“Hey,” he said, taking my arm as I turned to walk away.
“Hm?”
“In all my alpha-bossy, making sure my woman was safe, growly shit, I didn’t properly say hi.”
“Oh, right.” I melted into him. “No, you didn’t.”
He kissed me gently but it quickly turned heated, and I slid my hands under his cut and up his back.
Oh my god, when his tongue slid into my mouth, my world shook.
Don’t get me wrong, all of our kisses were amazing, but this one was extra.
Maybe it was because Archer had just growled at me and for some weird reason, it had made me a little hot under the collar.
Maybe it was because he’d immediately apologized, even though he didn’t really have to.
Maybe it was because I was in love with a man who was blowing all my expectations to smithereens.
Whatever.
He continued to kiss me as he backed me into my bedroom and the world outside ceased to exist. Just Archer. His arms, his mouth and his tongue. I could not get enough.
I wove my hands into his hair as he lay me onto the bed, and I held on even as my legs automatically circled his hips, his groin pressed deep to me as his tongue pillaged my mouth. I was so lost in the kiss, I let out a shocked cry when he broke our connection.
He knifed off the bed, then gently removed my boots, his eyes dark with desire as they met mine.
Tugging my jeans, panties and all, down my hips, he buried his face between my legs, I couldn’t stop a moan as I arched into him.
I lost his mouth momentarily, but his fingers quickly took over, and I sighed with pleasure.
“Spread, baby.”
I spread. His hand kept teasing between my legs, working me even as he tugged at his jeans. He pulled himself free, then stepped off the bed again to remove the rest of his clothing.
I leaned up on my forearms and grinned. God, he was beautiful.
His hard muscles, the ridges, the cum gutters. Amazing.
I pulled off my shirt and bra, and he fell onto his back using one arm to pull me over him, so I was straddling his hips.
His other hand slid between us, guiding him in and then he jerked me down on his cock, filling me.
I nearly lost my mind. It was our first night without condoms and the feeling was almost too much.
Before I could fully impale myself, Archer flipped me onto my back again and was pounding inside me, his arm still around me, driving me down with each upward thrust.
“Archer!” I screamed, one of my hands looped around his neck, the other one trailing down his spine.
“Don’t come,” he growled.
“Then stop being so good with your dick,” I hissed.
He chuckled, kissing my pulse as he continued to thrust into me.
I honestly thought I might die with pleasure.
Could you die in ecstasy? I wondered if fucking Archer was more than my body could take sometimes. It was far too good.
I arched into him, the moment seeming to go on forever… in a good way. And then I was riding the wave of an orgasm that hit hard and it hit fast.
I came back to reality wrapped up in Archer, his cock still buried inside me and his face in my neck.
“Never again,” I panted out.
“What the fuck?” he growled, meeting my eyes.
“Condoms,” I clarified giving him a sassy smile .
“Woman,” he warned.
I chuckled. “I’m learning the art of teasing, my guy.”
“Well played, beautiful, well played.” He grinned, leaning down to kiss me gently. “I’m going to slide out, then we’ll get cleaned up.”
“Okay, honey,” he said.
Once we were ready again, we headed to the club and I was practically shaking with excitement because what Archer didn’t know was, I had something planned for him.