Chapter 45
DARCY
“You cannot tell me that this wouldn’t look so fucking cute on our daughter.”
One fist propped on my hip, I eye my husband carefully as he holds up a gawdy-looking patterned dress.
“It looks like wearable carpet.”
Archer’s brows knit together as he twists the dress around by the hanger, studying it carefully. “I was thinking about it for next Christmas.”
I drop my head down and laugh. “We need to focus on the right now.”
He hooks the dress back on the rack and stalks toward me, tipping my chin up with his finger. “Well, right now, all I can think about is how fucking stunning you are.” His free hand splays across my stomach. “And all I want to do is see you in that lingerie set I just bought.”
My cheeks heat when he presses his mouth to mine, festive music playing in the background. For the day before Christmas, the shops are pretty quiet, and I’ve had the best time baby and clothes shopping.
“You realize I’m right here, don’t you?” Jack groans from beside us. “And there is zero reason why you need to pet in public.”
I twist my head and look at my brother. Being able to spend time with him without feeling like I’m hiding my whole life is everything, but having him accept Archer as the man I want and will make me happy? That makes me a whole new level of content.
“Pet?” I reply. “Who even says that word anymore? Do you mean make out or get it on?”
Jack closes his eyes and groans again. “It’s seeing you all over each other. I don’t want to think about my sister and best friend … you know … getting it on.” He finishes the last part of the sentence in a pained way.
“Oh my God, check out these cute maternity dresses!” Kendra comes barreling toward me with two versions of the same maxi dress. One yellow, one blue.
I step away from Archer, and she holds them up against me, twisting her lips to the side in thought.
“I mean, they’re definitely cute. I’m not sold on how horizontal stripes will look.” Her face lights up. “I genuinely think you’re going to be huge in your third trimester.”
“Thanks,” I reply dryly, taking a dress from her and inspecting how stretchy the material is.
“You’re going to be fucking stunning in your third trimester.” Archer leans into my ear, his voice low and gravelly. “Although we might need to fuck doggy style more often because of, you know, logistics.”
“Still here,” Jack sings.
“You don’t need to be,” Archer chimes back.
Jack pushes his jacket sleeve up his arm, checking the time. “Regardless of where I am right now, we need to be at the steak house in thirty minutes for the table I booked.”
I scrunch my nose up at the thought of a slab of red meat. Well cooked or not, it grosses me out. I remember Kate turned vegetarian when she was pregnant with the twins, and now I’m beginning to see why. How in the hell I’m going to get through a full Christmas dinner tomorrow, I have no idea.
“You want Taco Bell, don’t you?”
“Yes,” I whisper back at my husband. “With extra cheese sauce, rice, and beans.”
When I turn to locate my brother and Kendra, they’re across the other side of the store, Kendra showing him more maternity clothes as he nods along agreeably.
My shoulders deflate as I stare up at Archer. “The exhaustion is really starting to set in now. Between work and the holiday season, I’m … I’m struggling. All I want is Taco Bell, a soft blanket, and my favorite movies on repeat.”
Archer looks down at the bags he’s holding from previous stores we visited. Anything I remotely liked, he took it straight to the counter, whether it was a cute romper set for Emily or sexy underwear for me.
He really is that freaking perfect.
“Then why don’t we do that? I noticed they have this really cool documentary about Alan Turing on Netflix. He’s the guy from The Imitation Game.” He winks proudly, and I can’t help the giggle as it escapes my chest.
Archer presses a kiss across the bridge of my nose. “All I want is for you to be happy and comfortable. If I were any good at editing, I’d do your job for you too. Somehow, I think Janine might notice a decline in quality though.”
I giggle again, losing count of how often my husband makes me laugh.
“I’ve never been happier, truly. I think I just need to sleep for a thousand years once tomorrow is over.
Jon has gone to a lot of trouble with the dinner, and I’m looking forward to seeing your mum again. I don’t want to let anyone down.”
He takes the maxi dresses from me and hangs them over his shoulder.
“I don’t think you could ever let anyone down, Darcy.
My sister genuinely thought you were one of the best people she’d ever met.
My mom can’t stop talking about you every time I call her.
And I know when my dad finally meets you, he’ll love you too. ”
If there’s one thing about pregnancy I’ve learned so far, it’s that one second you can be ready to cry your eyes out, craving the comfort of your partner.
Whereas, in the next, all you can think about is his cock and how you’re desperate to ride it.
This is especially accurate when your husband is Archer Moore.
My eyes rove the empty store, Jack and Kendra still busy shopping and the assistant distracted with her phone, fully in holiday mode.
I lace my fingers through his. “Follow me.”
Guiding him toward the changing rooms, I find a large corner cubicle and pull back the curtain.
“Take a seat,” I instruct, pointing at a plush couch in the corner.
Without hesitation, Archer does as I ask, and I pick up one of the luxury shopping bags he’s been carrying around for the past hour.
I know he’s desperate to see me in the lingerie set he bought at the first store, and all I want to do is show him.
When I shrug off my jacket and go to pull my dress overhead, Archer shifts in his seat, swallowing thickly.
The lacy white thong isn’t something I’d usually go for since I prefer dark underwear.
But when I saw the way my husband’s eyes darkened in response, I knew this would be a gift for him as much as it was for me.
It was the fastest purchase in human history as he took it to the counter and had it bagged, all before Jack could notice what we were doing.
The bra is a balconette style, making the most of my modest chest, which is slowly getting fuller by the week. Something else Archer loves about pregnancy.
He leans back, spreading his thighs wide as he watches me get undressed silently. The atmosphere between us is charged to fuck, only made hotter with the risk of being caught.
A few more seconds, and I’m standing in front of him, completely naked, my body burning from head to toe.
“What do you want me to try on first? The thong or the bra?”
He reaches forward and pulls out the thong, dangling it on the end of his finger. He’s so turned on; I can see by the way his jeans tent at the front.
“I want to see you in this, Darcy,” he replies darkly, biting off the tag with his teeth.
Pulsing at the way he says my name, I take the thong from him and slowly step into it, pulling the thin strap up my thighs.
“What now?” I ask, my voice barely audible over the soft background music.
Archer rises from the sofa. Standing in front of me, he hasn’t laid a single finger on my skin, yet the anticipation of his touch alone burns white-hot pleasure throughout my body.
“Why did you bring me in here, Doll? What do you want me to do to you?”
I grow damp at the question I’m confident we both know the answer to.
“Is it because you want me to fuck you?” he continues, dipping a single finger beneath my thong’s waistband. “You know what I think?”
I roll my lips together, yearning for him to move his hand lower and slide his fingers through me.
“What’s that?”
Like he can read my mind, he dips a hand into his pocket and pulls out his phone.
“I think you want me to rail you hard and take photos as evidence.”
My entire body flushes as I respond in a breathy voice, “Yes.”
Archer wastes no time as he takes a step back and snaps a picture of me wearing only the thong, smirking when he throws his phone onto the seat.
When he finds my opening, he pushes a thick finger inside. I sag against the pleasure, looping an arm around his neck.
“I also think while you love having your brother here, helping us shop and prepare for the arrival of our baby, you miss the way we used to fuck in secret. Do you like it when I fuck you in secret, Darcy?”
I lift onto my tiptoes, our lips ghosting over each other. “Yes. I like to have lots of fun.”
In a split second, my back is against the cubicle wall, one hand under my ass, Archer pinning me in place as he undoes his jeans and pushes them down, along with his boxers.
I’m suspended and ready to be filled when I feel something foreign, and I immediately look down at my stomach.
“What is it?” Archer asks, looking and sounding concerned.
I’ve never been pregnant before, but I know from the baby books we’ve read together and the conversations with our doctors that it’s possible to feel them as early as sixteen weeks.
Bringing a palm to my bump, I rub small circles over it. “I-I think Emily just kicked for the first time.”
Archer’s brows knit together as he tries to process my words. “She did?”
His hand immediately covers mine, and just as I pull it out from underneath—hoping that she’ll kick again and Archer will be able to feel it fully—she does. His breath catches in his throat, eyes growing wide with amazement.
“Holy shit. Our baby girl is saying hello.”
Love overtakes me, a flurry of warm fuzziness filling my chest. “She is,” I whisper.
He waits for a few more seconds, but no more kicks materialize.
“I think she went back to sleep,” Archer says, brushing his thumb over the small beginnings of a stretch mark.
I nod once, imagining her getting comfortable in there. “Probably just changing position in her little womb.”
“Little womb,” he repeats back, lips pulling into a warm smile.
I didn’t think it was possible, but when Archer kisses me, I’m certain he just fell harder for me and our daughter.
Archer sucks and nips at my neck, taking all of my weight as he holds me by the thighs, spreading them as wide as I can go before entering me quickly.
Pieces of dark hair fall over his slick forehead, partially covering his feral eyes. I know he loves the thought of getting caught as much as I do; I can tell by the feel of his cock—how hard he is, how big it grows inside me.
“How’s that?” he murmurs into the side of my neck, licking his tongue over my collarbone. “Does my wife like getting dicked down by her husband like this?”
“Yes.” All I can manage is a whimper, and it’s probably just as well since if I could find my voice, I’d be screaming my response.
Archer slows his pace, dropping his head to observe the way I take him.
“Look,” he croons, drawing his bottom lip between his teeth. “Look how beautiful our bump is, along with the dick that created it. You let me fuck you so well.”
I feel my release as it trickles down my thighs. I’m so wet and spread impossibly wide for him.
“You’re all over me, coating your husband in secret while your brother is just in the next room.”
More release covers his dick as I tighten around him, right on the edge of losing it completely.
“Come for me, Darcy.”
I shake my head, scared if I do, then I’ll be unable to temper my cries.
Archer clamps his mouth over mine, driving deeper and harder with thrusts that push me into a pleasure-induced trance. My orgasm ripples through my veins, seizing every muscle, igniting every nerve I possess.
As he licks into me, my pussy locks on to his dick, and I feel the way he throbs, liquid heat spreading throughout my lower half.
I’m not sure Archer has ever come this hard, and by the way he shudders and shakes in response, he’s fighting to stay quiet too.
He drops his face back into my neck, growling out the remains of his high.
I’m a strange kind of satiated—caught in the bliss of the orgasm he just gave me, yet still desperate to have his dick all over again.
Pregnancy can be a wonderful thing.
A throat clears from the other side of the curtain, and Archer’s growl turns humorous.
“We’re going to be late for the steak house,” Jack grinds out, the pained lilt in his voice earlier sounding even more intense.
“Yep,” Archer acknowledges, shoulders shaking with silent laughter as he presses his still-hard cock further inside me. “We’re just making sure these dresses are right for Darcy.”
“Of course you are,” Jack groans. “I have no doubt you’re making sure every inch fits perfectly.”