Chapter 17
“Iwant ye,” Archer said, and River had no hope of ever refusing him. He whispered in her ear, his breath ghosting over the side of her face, and she shivered with the promise of what was to come.
Archer kissed her again, his tongue prodding against her lips until she parted them.
With strong, steady hands, he grabbed her hips and lifted her up onto the table, settling between her legs when she sat there.
River wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him close, pulling him to her until there was no space left between them.
Archer began to pepper kisses on her cheek, her jaw, her neck, drawing soft gasps out of her.
She was already shaking, her body filled with need, desperate for some sort of release.
This need, this passion she had for him had been building for days, his touch, his kisses, his gaze, all of it teasing her until she couldn’t stand it anymore.
There was risk to it, she knew. There was the risk that she would fall pregnant, which was the very thing neither of them wanted—even if one of them didn’t remember it.
But her desire was inescapable. The more she sat there, bracketed by Archer’s arms, lost in his kisses, the more she wanted him to claim her, just like he wanted, too.
Archer’s body was like a brick wall against her own, full of hard lines and muscle.
River let her hands trail down his chest, feeling the strength of his body under all the layers he wore, and she revelled at the small sounds he made, as if he could hardly contain them.
He pressed closer against her, and River felt the length of his manhood for the first time between her legs, the size of it making her eyes widen.
She didn’t have a point of reference, but it seemed to her that he was, in fact, very large.
“Tell me ye want it, too,” Archer growled in her ear. “Tell me ye want me to have ye.”
“I—”
River didn’t know whether she should say it, whether she should give Archer permission.
She told herself she had to be strong; she had to be the reasonable one, the one to put an end to this before it got too far.
But how could she do that when all she wanted was to feel his hands on her once more, to feel the touch of his lips and his tongue, to allow him to give her that indescribable pleasure?
She craved it more than she craved anything else, and nothing could compare to it. Nothing could stop her insatiable need.
“If ye tell me to leave, I will,” said Archer, pulling himself back just enough to look at her. “I swear it, River, tell me to leave—”
“I daenae want ye to leave,” River was quick to say, interrupting him. She didn’t think she could stand that. “I...Archer, I want ye. I daenae care anymore. I want to be yers.”
Archer’s eyes narrowed when River spoke those words, filling with heat. His fingers dug into her flesh as he gripped her hips, so tight that it was as if he was using her as a lifeline.
“Say it again,” he said, voice low and sweet.
“I...I want to be yers,” River repeated. “Please.”
Before she knew it, Archer had lifted her from the table and was carrying her through her sitting room and towards the bedroom.
River yelped in surprise, her legs closing around his waist as she held onto him, though she knew she was safe in his arms. His manhood pressed against her once more, and when the movement of their walking forced her to roll her hips against him, Archer let out a barely restrained moan, as if that one little brush was enough to ruin him.
When they reached her bedroom, Archer laid River over the bed, leaning over her to kiss her.
His dark eyes took in every inch of her, looking at her from head to toe as if he couldn’t get enough.
His hands followed the same path, fingers brushing over her neck, over the swell of her breasts, over her stomach, until he reached her thighs.
There, he grabbed them and pushed them apart, gathering her skirts haphazardly to reach bare skin.
“Ye’re always on me mind,” Archer said, and River twitched in surprise when she felt his hands on the bare skin of her thighs. “Do ye think of me?”
River could only nod. Of course she thought of him; she thought of him all the time, and it was beginning to become a problem for her.
When Archer pulled back to remove his clothes, River watched, her lips slightly parted as she took in the sight of him.
Under the candlelight, every inch of skin revealed seemed to glow.
Her eyes took in every bulging muscle, every silvery scar from the years he had spent training and fighting, all that expanse of pale skin, parts of it tanned from how often he trained in the sun that summer.
The sight of him like this, first taking off his vest, then his shirt, then his trews, had her mouth watering and wetness gathering between her legs.
When he stood before her, fully nude, his manhood standing up straight and straining against his stomach, River couldn’t take her eyes away from him. She sat up on the bed and reached for him, her fingers once again tracing every muscle on his torso, only now there was no barrier between them.
She had never seen a man like this before, and she doubted anyone compared to Archer anyway. Her breath caught in her throat, and the more she looked at him, the more her desire grew, threatening to overtake her.
“Let us undress ye, then,” Archer said with a smirk, one of those that drove her crazy.
He climbed onto the bed and did just that, his hands undressing her bit by bit, slowly, carefully, as if she were something precious.
Archer slid her petticoat off her shoulders and tossed it on the floor.
Then, with endless patience, he removed her corset, her stockings, her shift, until she, too, was bare on the bed.
River then had the instinct to hide herself, to make sure that Archer couldn’t see all of her, her arms wrapping around herself to hide her breasts and her mound.
“Daenae do that,” said Archer, taking her wrists in his hands to pull her arms away.
River let him, though she blushed scarlet, the color seeping down to her chest, but Archer didn’t seem to mind.
If anything, from the hunger and the heat in his gaze, River could only imagine that he enjoyed what he saw very much.
“Never hide yerself from me. Ye daenae have to. Ye’re so bonnie, River. And ye’re mine.”
As he spoke, Archer tucked a stray strand of her dark hair behind her ear and leaned closer to press a kiss to her cheek. A shiver ran down River’s spine, heat blooming where he kissed her, and she wrapped her arms around his neck once more to pull him close.
“I’m...I’m ready,” she said with a small nod. “I want it, Archer. I want ye.”
Archer nodded in response, bracing himself on the bed to hover over River. He captured her lips into another kiss, this one heated, full of passion, licking into her mouth when River parted her lips for him.
“Alright,” said Archer, sounding as breathless as River felt. “If ye wish to stop—”
“Nay,” River was quick to say, shaking her head. “I daenae want ye to stop. Never stop.”
Archer nodded once more. Then, he began to leave kisses everywhere he could reach—her neck, her chest, his lips brushing over the swell of her breasts until he could wrap them around her nipple.
River arched against him, her breath leaving her lungs all at once, wave after wave of pleasure crashing over her as Archer’s hands and lips roamed all over her body.
When he grabbed her thighs, pushing them firmly apart, desire pooled deep in her belly. She stared up at him with her lips parted, her mind blank, lost in the throes of passion.
Archer’s fingers lingered over the bare skin of her thigh, caressing it, before finally snaking over to her mound to tease that spot that by then she knew would have her trembling and begging for more. He cursed under his breath when his fingers found her entrance.
“Ye’re ready for me, are ye nae?” Archer said, and River’s entire body heated with a mixture of embarrassment and need.
He didn’t seem at all embarrassed himself; quite the contrary, in fact, as he took himself in hand and began to stroke his length just as he pressed a single finger against her entrance, pushing slowly inside.
When he reached for her hand, tangling their fingers together for a moment before he guided it to his manhood, River’s eyes widened.
She wasn’t certain what she should do; how should she touch him?
How much pressure should she put? But Archer didn’t let her wonder for long.
Instead, he guided her to wrap her fingers around him, his own fingers wrapping rounder hand to show her the firmness of the grip he wanted and the slow, teasing pace.
That drew a moan out of Archer and his mood changed instantly.
His eyes darkened with desire and he crawled closer to River on the bed, like a predator ready to pounce.
If he had seemed like he had wanted her before, now it seemed to her like he was uncontrollable, his need taking over him and turning him into something feral.
“Ye have nae idea what ye do to me,” he growled against her lips as his hands found her hips, lining hers with his own. “I want ye, River. I want ye more than I’ve wanted anythin’.”
“I’m here,” River assured him. “I’m yers.”
Her words drew a moan out of Archer, one that sounded like music to her ears.
Ever so slowly, he pressed his manhood against her folds, guiding himself inside her with a hand around himself and the other gripping her hip.
When his manhood pressed past the tight ring of muscle, twin sighs escaped them, and River was instantly gone, lost in her pleasure.