Chapter Thirty-Six
DARCY
Morning sickness has taken me out these past few days.
Not that Archer needs to know. He needed to concentrate on the away series against Dallas and keep up the run of form he’s had since he started the regular season. His knowing about my sporadic puking wasn’t going to change anything, other than having him on the first flight out of Texas.
He needed to be there with the team. When he says Jack is the more valuable player, he’s doing himself an injustice.
And now, with the contentious trade of Tommy Schneider, his teammates need him more than ever.
He’s the backbone and steady ship that steers them, even if he doesn’t recognize it in himself.
He shows up for his people, and they love him.
I’m falling in love with him.
Truthfully, I think I’ve known it for a while.
I’ve certainly felt it in my heart. From the moment I found out he was “seeing” someone else, I tumbled into his world and abandoned my inhibitions.
Yes, I was determined not to become another notch on his bedpost, but honestly, I don’t think there was ever a risk of that happening.
Archer Moore is the kind of boyfriend you dream about taking home to your parents while simultaneously counting down the hours until you can leave the family dinner table and get him alone again.
He’s perfection personified.
He’s the father of my child.
And he’s mine.
He’s also half an hour fucking late.
Wide awake at past midnight, I roll onto my back and stare up at the white ceiling.
It’s been nearly a week since I last stayed at my apartment, promising Archer I’d stay at his place instead.
Apparently, a dead bolt, smart camera, and an incredibly nosy neighbor weren’t enough to convince him I would be safe.
“So possessive,” I whisper into the dark, smiling the whole time.
Reaching across to the side table, I tap the lamp base and flood the room with a warm glow. When I sit up and the duvet pools around my waist, I see the faint outline of a bump. To the onlooker, I’ve probably had a big meal, but to me, it’s obvious.
I swipe my sudoku book and pencil from the table since my brain needs some kind of distraction and begin filling out the first problem when I hear the faint sound of elevator doors opening.
Every nerve tingles while I listen for footsteps following the familiar noise of his keys being set down on the console table.
I fight back a giddy smile and focus on my puzzle when the bedroom door cracks open, and Archer carefully steps inside.
His eyes drop to my puzzle book, balanced in my lap. “Does your brain ever get tired?”
He’s already halfway to my bedside when I begin chewing on the tip of my pencil, appreciating the way his black tailored trousers and open collared white shirt hug every part of his perfect body.
Pretty much every year, he’s voted by a magazine as the hottest guy in the NHL. Come to think of it, I’m fairly sure I voted once too.
He takes a seat on the edge of the bed next to me, cupping one side of my face in his hand while he slowly undoes his shirt with the other.
The first kiss he sets on my lips is soft and sweet, allowing me to taste what I’ve missed for nearly a week. He pulls back, eyes sparkling with mischief.
“I’m fucking crazy about you, Darcy.”
If I couldn’t feel the mattress beneath me, I’d feel sure I was levitating.
“My mind only rests when you’re around,” I breathe, trying to fill my lungs with the oxygen they crave.
His shirt now half undone, I notice he’s wearing the platinum chain I love so much. “Where did you get that?” I ask, smoothing my fingers over it.
Archer takes the chain between his thumb and forefinger, eyes dropping to it. “I bought it myself. The day I got my signing bonus from the Philadelphia Bolts, I went and got it. It serves as a reminder of how far I’ve come and what I worked hard to achieve.”
I never anticipated such a simple question to evoke the emotions forming in my throat as I take in a man who surprises me every day.
“You’re sentimental?” I ask.
He dips a hand into the pocket of his pants and pulls out the conker he picked up in Fort Greene Park. “I guess you could say that, yeah.”
I take it from his hand and turn it around in front of me, tears filling my vision. I know I’m all kinds of hormonal, but this is one of the sweetest gestures ever. “You kept the conker and took it away with you.”
“Anything to help me get through the days without you, Darcy Doll.”
Leaning forward, he presses a searing kiss against my lips, and I part for him, tongues tangling in perfect harmony. Nothing with Archer is forced—from our kisses to our conversations and more.
When we break for a second time, he picks up my puzzle book, turning it the right way up so he can study it.
Next, he picks up my pencil and begins scanning each square on the sudoku board.
After a few beats, he inserts a four into the central square on the third row down and hands the book back to me.
I check it over to make sure it doesn’t clash with any other row or column. “You learned how to play?”
He flushes the cutest color, placing the pencil down on the side table. “Some of the team flights can be long and boring. It’s kind of fun when you get used to it. Good for the brain.”
He taps his temple twice, and I swear I fall further.
“That said, I still hope our baby girl gets her mom’s brains.” He chuckles as I slide the puzzle book next to the pencil.
He lowers the duvet from around my waist and lifts my sleep top to just below my breasts.
“You’re definitely starting to show now.” His warm lips rest against my bump, the vibration of his voice firing more sparks beneath the surface of my skin. “The way your body will change as it grows my baby will be a sight to behold.”
Another kiss, and I’m melting.
“I’ve been chewing over potential names, and I think I might have one.” He lifts his gaze to mine as he rests his chin on my growing belly.
“I’m not calling her Archer,” I muse, running a hand through his soft brown hair.
“Damn.” He clicks his tongue. “Good thing that wasn’t the name I had in mind.”
“What did you have in mind?”
He exhales a long, smooth breath, and I feel my shoulders relax in response to his calm.
“Emily.”
Okay, that wasn’t the kind of name I expected him to say. I was anticipating something more modern.
But I love it so much.
“Why Emily?” I ask, already choking up.
Archer climbs up my body, hands pressed into the mattress on either side of my ass as he looks into my eyes.
So much emotion, so much depth to this man.
“Back before I first met you at the Scorpions game, I was winding Jack up about his sister. Little did I know that when I met her, I’d be enraptured within minutes and fully in love with her a couple of years later.
” He sets a kiss against my forehead. “When we were talking in the group chat, I called you Emily since that was the first British name I could think of, and fuck did I think it was beautiful.”
We’re so close that I can feel his breath as it caresses my face, the beat of my heart growing faster.
“You know what I think?”
“What’s that?” he replies, his voice intense.
“I hope Emily gets her daddy’s brains because that will make her the kindest, smartest, and most thoughtful person I’ve ever met.”
I see the shine in Archer’s eyes as he lifts my top overhead, and I raise my arms for him.
It’s late, and I have work in the morning, but screw it. I want him. All of him.
Archer kisses his way up my body, starting at my stomach and continuing past my breasts. I reach for his pants, but he stops me with a hand.
“No. This is about you tonight. Chasing your high is the ultimate prize for me. Plus …” He kisses my left breast, and my nipple tightens at the sensation. “We have all the time in the world to explore each other.”
When he moves to my right breast, I know what he’s going to say; I can feel it in my gut as it squeezes.
“We’re never going to be anywhere but with each other.”
His soft words cut me like a thousand knives, and I recoil.
Not at him, of course, but at the reality I’m faced with.
Mum is still looking into options for me to stay in the US, but every process takes so long.
I know, some point soon, I’m going to have to talk to Janine about my job and if there’s any chance she will keep me on as a permanent member of staff, even throughout my maternity leave.
I might feel the pain, but Archer looks like I took a blade and shoved it right through his heart.
“What’s going on, Darcy?”
He slides off the bed and removes his shirt and pants in front of me. Not saying a word, I watch on, mesmerized by his beauty and forced into silence at the spinning thoughts in my head.
I truly hoped that we’d have a solution to my visa dilemma by the time I had to tell Archer. But I don’t, and suddenly, the sight of his warm eyes and concerned voice, coupled with the general overwhelm of pregnancy, slam into me.
Angrily, I swipe at my eyes. Crying about it isn’t going to change my situation.
“Come here.”
Dressed in only his boxers and me in my tiny pink sleep shorts, Archer reaches out and takes my hand in his.
I climb out of bed, loose hair that’s fallen out of my braid tickling my cheeks.
With my hand in his, Archer turns and walks us to a chair in the corner of his bedroom. He takes a seat, spreading his thighs and pulling me down onto his lap.
I sit across his body, and he interlaces our fingers together.
There’re a few seconds of silence, noise of late-night traffic faint but audible from the streets below us.
“What’s going on?” Archer asks again, pushing my braid to one side and kissing my left shoulder. “I thought that maybe something wasn’t right before I left for Dallas, and now I’m convinced of it.”
“Umm … I’m not quite sure of how to put this?” I can hear the stress in my own voice.
“You should know by now that you can say anything to me. Nothing is off-limits between us.” In contrast to mine, my boyfriend’s tone is cool and collected. He’s likely shitting himself, but he doesn’t let it show.
“Over the past few days, Mum and I have been looking into my visa options,” I begin, taking a deep breath before continuing. “You already know I was here on an employer-sponsored visa and planned to get a permanent job out here after my contract with Glide ended.”
He closes his eyes, face twisted with frustration and a painful realization. “And now you’re pregnant, so getting another job won’t be easy.”
I nod once. “Just because I’m having a baby with an American doesn’t automatically allow me to stay here in the US.
In fact …” I swallow down a pain I’ve never experienced in my life, one that makes me want to wail.
Tears reemerge because I’m incapable of controlling them.
“When my job at Glide ends, I’ll have to return to the UK soon afterward, and our baby … ”
“Would likely remain here as a US citizen,” Archer finishes for me, putting all the pieces together.
Instead of nodding, I gulp this time, a puking bout threatening to strike again.
Archer shakes his head slowly. “I can’t live without you, Darcy.
I won’t live without you by my side.” He lifts his head back up, a burning determination taking over his eyes.
“I’ve fought this hard to get you, and I’m not about to give you up, not for Jack, Coach, Liam, or the fucking Atlantic Ocean.
They can all go fuck themselves because I’ve found my future and she’s five feet three with honey-blonde hair and the biggest blue eyes I’ve ever seen. ”
We don’t say anything more to each other as he carries me in his arms to the bed he bought especially for us and lays me down on the soft duvet.
My sleep shorts are over my knees and lying in a heap on the floor in seconds, and Archer drops to his knees, pulling my bottom half off the bed. Next, he rests my legs over his shoulders.
No more words pass between us, only the sound of his mouth and tongue as they play with my pussy, eating me with a slow intensity I know only he’s capable of delivering.
And when he enters me with a single thick finger, curling it upward as he licks and sucks my clit, I move my right leg onto the bed, sliding my foot along the edge of the mattress so I can open wider for him.
“Good fucking girl,” he groans against me. “Spreading yourself without me even asking.”
I lean up on my elbows so we can make the eye contact I know he demands when we’re having sex.
He strokes my front wall again, and my jaw hangs open. I’m so wet; I can hear it.
Clearly not satisfied with my pleasure levels, Archer pushes a second finger inside my pussy, and this time, when he crooks them, I feel an involuntary release into his mouth.
“I’m thirsty for more. Give me more of your sweetness,” he demands, running a slow lick through me.
My knees shake. No, my entire body trembles from the way his mouth and fingers work me into such a frenzy. I know why he’s doing this. He wants me to forget the stresses we’re faced with since there’s nothing we can do about them right now. Instead, he wants me to bask in the comfort of his love.
Just as I come, my elbows give out, and he works his fingers faster, not letting up when I repeatedly cry out his name.
When I’m fully satiated and limp, he climbs to his feet and pushes down his gray boxers, taking his leaking dick into one hand.
“Fuck, Darcy. You turn me on so much. I’m always so goddamn hard for you.
” He rolls his head back to the ceiling, pleasuring himself in front of me on deep breaths he pulls into his lungs.
“Let me suck you,” I whisper. “I want to make you come now.”
As he grips his shaft tightly, his heated gaze holds me captive. “I already did—in my pants, around thirty seconds ago.”
He steps between my still-parted thighs, and I spread as wide as I can for him.
Archer presses the tip of his cock inside me. His next words are a little shaky as he says them. “Just in case the universe isn’t receiving the memo clearly enough, I said what I said: I’ve found my future, and she isn’t going anywhere.”