23. Shane
Chapter 23
Shane
Something had changed between us. A new connection had slotted into place like the final piece in a puzzle. After drying off, I threaded our fingers together and led Archer to my bed. Sometimes, in the middle of the night when I was alone, I’d questioned the need for a king-sized bed, but I was glad to have it now because I saw the fire flicker in Archer’s eyes when he looked at it.
It was a sturdy bed with a heavy wood frame and deep purple, rumpled bedding. I threw the covers back and climbed in. I stretched out on my back and smiled at Archer when he crawled in after me and snuggled up close. I ignored the way his proximity made my cock throb and twitch. If Archer needed that from me, I’d happily provide, but tonight I assumed he needed something else.
“Have you decided on my tattoo yet?”
“Mmhm,” came Archer’s reply.
I shivered when he started tracing patterns on my chest with his fingertips.
“I need to work on it. It’s not ready yet.” Archer’s fingers wandered lower, skating over my stomach. Shifting around, he nuzzled in against my neck. Hot breath ghosted over my skin. My name tumbled from his lips as his hand slid further down, inching closer to my eager dick.
“Shane,” he said .
Something in the tone of his voice had me tilting my head so he could capture my mouth in a kiss. His tongue flicked over the seam of my lips and he gasped a little, like he was shocked by something.
“Shane,” he whispered my name reverently then sealed his mouth over mine.
I’d never kissed anyone the way I kissed him, like he was oxygen. Like if I died right then, it would be okay because nothing in my life that came after could ever be as perfect as that moment.
Archer kissed me like we had all the time in the world. Like we were all that was left in the universe. We kissed like we were the universe.
Archer pulled away, breathless. His eyes sparkled like stars as I watched him lick the seam of his mouth, and then I captured the back of his head in my hand and it was my turn to pull him into a kiss, but this wasn’t slow or sweet. Archer answered the ferocity of my kiss with a growl and flung his leg over me. Once he was on top, he kissed me deeper, harder, almost in a punishing kind of way. Like he hated that he liked kissing me so much. His cock was hard as fuck and hotter than hell pressed against mine and I gave my hips a little thrust, grinding our cocks together in the tight space between our bodies.
“Fuck,” Archer gasped. “Lube?” he asked, even as he spotted it on my nightstand. He scrambled off me to retrieve it, but returned before I had a chance to miss the weight of him on top of me.
“How do you want me?” I asked, putting my hands on his thighs. I slid them up to his ass and grabbed a handful of his perfectly round peach.
Archer spread a liberal amount of lube over his cock, then mine, before leaning down and ghosting a kiss against my lips. He didn’t answer with words, just settled his mouth over mine, licked his way into me, and started grinding against me. Our cocks slid together and I pulled him closer. Tighter. Wishing I could fuse us together like this .
He rocked against me and the silky glide of his cock against mine pulled a needy sound out of me. Archer answered by rocking faster. The urgency of his kisses increased too. The sensations were overwhelming. Slick cocks and blunt fingers digging into my chest as he rocked forward again.
Collapsing down on top of me, he pressed his mouth against mine. The kiss was sweet, soft, different than the other times he’d kissed me during sex. The sex was different too. An undercurrent of energy ran through me, thrummed, throbbed, making every nerve in my body answer to his slightest movement.
Even this softer version of Archer was a force to be reckoned with. Softer didn’t mean less intense. His movements were long and languid. Sounds that I’d never heard him make tumbled out of him. Moans and whimpers, little gasps, and then a guttural groan as Archer wrenched his mouth away from mine. His forehead against mine, he started to babble.
“Shane, fuck. God, this is … you’re … I need …”
“Take what you need. I’m yours. I’m yours.” I sank my hands into his hair and held him in place. We were so close his features were blurred and all I could see were the colors of his eyes, the length of his lashes, and the gentle furrow between his eyebrows.
“I’m yours,” I repeated, unable to stop saying it now that it had come out of me. I’d been his since that first day we met. Since that first time he looked at me and gave me what I wanted and took what he needed. I’d been his all along.
Archer shut me up with a kiss. His thrusts had grown frantic, his easy pace lost to passion, and he rutted against me until he was crying out into my mouth, coming against my skin, all over my cock, like he was marking me as his. Snaking a hand between us, Archer grabbed my cock and jerked hard and fast, yanking the release out of me in such a sudden way that my head swam. My lungs couldn’t keep up with the demand for oxygen and I whimpered breathlessly when my dick became too sensitive to be touched.
Archer collapsed on top of me and buried his face in the crook of my neck. Winding my arms around him, I kissed his hair and smiled when he made a happy, rumbling noise.
With a final kiss to Archer’s head, I rolled him off me and climbed out of bed. He propped himself up on his elbow and watched as I padded back toward the en suite.
“What, no cuddle?”
“If we cuddled like that much longer, they’d need the jaws of life to pry us apart.” I gave myself a quick wipe down in the bathroom and returned with a cloth. I’d intended to do it for Archer, but he smirked at me and took the cloth, wiping off his own junk before returning the cloth to me. I tossed it into the laundry pile and told myself that I absolutely would not forget to deal with it properly in the morning.
Climbing back into bed with Archer was strange in the best way. Previously when we’d hooked up, it was the main event. Now, though, the best part of the night was yet to come. I pulled Archer into my arms and kissed him, taking my time to map the contours of his mouth.
Eventually, he pulled away and pressed himself into my side, using my chest as a pillow. Now that we’d had sex, I wanted to tell him how I felt, but it was awkward without my walls down the way they were when Archer was rutting wildly against me.
There had been some serious relationships when I was in my twenties, but nothing that lasted for long. For one reason or another, things never worked out. I’d thought myself to be in love each time, but nothing I felt back then compared to the way I did now. Like Archer was my heart walking around outside of my body .
“Thanks for letting me come over,” Archer said, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“You don’t have to thank me. You’re welcome here any time. All the time. I’d probably never let you leave if I had it my way.”
Archer snorted. “How very Misery of you. Are you going to hobble me and make me draw for you?”
“I’d never hurt you like that. But I might bribe you with your own art studio in my unused attic space and infinite orgasms.”
Next to me, Archer went still. “I suppose that’s better than being hobbled with a sledgehammer. I mean, who doesn’t want infinite orgasms?”
“Probably lots of people,” I answered honestly. “But I want that with you. I want a lot of things with you.”
Nothing good ever came from not being brave. For better or worse, I wanted Archer to know about the feelings that had taken root in my heart. About how I couldn’t make it through a day now without talking to him. Through an hour without thinking about him. I wanted to tell everyone we were together, starting with his bullheaded, overprotective brother.
I shifted around until we were on our sides, facing each other. Archer naturally moved closer to me, but I stopped him from hiding his face in against my chest, or from initiating that kiss I saw him telegraph a mile away.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve told anyone this, and I’ve never meant it the way I mean it with you.”
Archer bit his lip like he knew what I was going to say and wanted to interrupt, but had to hold himself back. I prayed it wasn’t a rejection.
“I’m in love with you, Archer. I want more nights with you. Mornings with you. Dates, in public. I want to kiss you and hold you and watch movies with you. I want to give you everything. ”
Silence met me. I watched his lip slip free from his teeth, and watched his tongue poke out and wet the surface.
“You don’t have to say anything.” I rushed to fill the deafening silence, but Archer only smiled at me.
“It’s not that I don’t know what to say, or that I don’t have anything to say. It’s that I have too much to say. I didn’t want to like you as much as I do. I didn’t want to keep seeing you, but you made it impossible to say no. I couldn’t get enough of you. Can’t. Probably won’t ever, if I’m honest. But … I have nothing to give you. I’m barely getting back on my feet and it’s all thanks to you.”
Unable to help myself, I closed the distance between us and kissed his cheek. The corner of his mouth. The tip of his nose. “I have more than a lot of people. Does that mean I should only be with someone who has more than me? Who can give me things? I don’t want things. And the things I do want, I have. You’ve given me something money can’t buy. You see me how I am, not now you want me to be, and I’ve never had that.”
“Never?” Archer looked incredulous. “Surely there was someone—”
“Never,” I cut him off. “Not one person has accepted me the way you do. Has let me be free to be myself the way you let me. I’d give all my money away if it meant keeping you.”
He laughed and stole a kiss. “Well, you don’t have to do that to keep me. You’re already doing a pretty good job of that.”
It wasn’t quite the declaration of love I’d hoped for, but the last thing I wanted was for Archer to confess to things he didn’t feel. That I didn’t scare him away was a big enough win.
“Do you really want to take me on dates?” Archer asked .
“Why wouldn’t I? We have fun together. I like talking to you. I’d like to do it in public, over dinner maybe. Or ice cream. Or a drag show. Whatever you want.”
“Even karaoke?”
I suppressed a shudder. “Even karaoke.”
His face lit up like the sun. “I’d never make you go to karaoke.”
Archer moved in closer, his lips brushing against mine. My eyes fluttered shut as he teased another kiss against the seam of my lips. “I love you too much to subject you to such a cruelty.”
He kissed me and I couldn’t respond to anything but the way his mouth fit perfectly against mine. The way his breaths mingled with mine and how it felt when he slid the rest of the way over to me, pressing our bodies together again.
We kissed.
And we kissed.
And we kissed until there was no more breath in our lungs and we were forced to pull away. Even then, we lay tangled together, sharing gentle touches as we whispered about our plans for the future. We weren’t planning far ahead yet, but someday we would. Someday we’d be planning forever.