Chapter 23
Nate
Waking up with Hayleigh wrapped around me is one of the best feelings I could ever imagine.
I only wish we could do this every day, but I understand that she needs to be able to have her own space, something that no one else has control over, but that won’t stop me from missing her when she isn’t here.
She stirs in my arms and slowly wakes up, so I shift position to lie facing her and place a kiss on her lips. Her eyes fly open, and she pulls away, covering her mouth.
She squeaks out. “No, I have morning breath, let me brush my teeth first.” She squirms under the sheets, but I wrap my legs around hers, pinning her in place.
“Long haul, remember, a bit of morning breath won’t put me off, Shortcake.” I dive under the covers as Hayleigh laughs, trying and failing to move back up towards her.
I have her pyjama shorts down in one smooth motion, and her laughs of protest soon quieten down when I drape one of her legs over my shoulder, opening her wide to me.
My tongue swipes up her centre as she lets out a low moan, her hands find their way to my hair, her fingers twisting around the strands as she pulls tight.
I fucking love the feeling of her letting go and guiding me to where she wants me, letting me devour her like the queen she is. I alternate between sucking, nibbling and flicking my tongue against her swollen bud. Her breathing is ragged, and I know she’s close because her legs try to close.
So I let go of her leg from my shoulder, using my width to wedge her thighs open while I bury my fingers deep inside her, scissoring them.
Her back arches off the bed, and she screams out my name as she gushes all over me.
I take it all, lapping her clean until she’s boneless and tapping out on my head.
Hayleigh pushes down the covers until I can see her, grinning from between her legs.
She’s never looked more beautiful, bare face, flushed from her orgasm and smiling at me like I’m her whole world.
I’m about to move up to kiss her, but footsteps bounding up the stairs have me flying out of bed and standing behind the door.
I really need to get a lock.
Hayleigh climbs out of the bed, taking her top off, baring her whole body to me, and I have to swallow back a groan as her tits gently bounce while she walks towards me.
Bang. Bang. Bang, then Archie shouts. “Nate, Hayleigh, are you both up? I’m making waffles for breakfast.”
Hayleigh places a finger to her lips, then drops to her knees in front of me, pulling my pyjama pants down and freeing my needy dick. I shouldn’t be doing this with Archie on the other side of the door.
Bang, Bang.
I hear him muffle a curse, and then the handle turns as if in slow motion.
I blindly reach behind me, stopping him from moving it any further, but my head drops backwards and thuds on the door when Hayleigh’s hot, wet mouth closes around my cock, sucking and swirling her tongue around it’s too much.
“Shit, Nate, are you okay? What was that thud? Knock twice if you need help.” Archie’s concerned voice sounds from the door.
I make the mistake of looking down. Hayleigh’s eyes are on me as she sucks me harder, one hand squeezes and moves up and down my cock while her other hand disappears between her legs. She moans, and the vibrations are too much.
I let out a low moan. “Fuck…” My breathing becomes more ragged, but my eyes widen when I hear Arch.
“Oh god, Nate, I don’t know what’s wrong, but I’m coming in!”
Fucking hell, not now, Archie.
I clear my throat. “Archie, I’m good. Ahh…” I trail off as she uses her mouth to suck me deeper into her throat, her hand lets go of my dick and moves to squeeze my balls. The feeling is too much, my balls tighten as the pleasure zings through my body.
Somewhere in the background, Archie’s shouting, but I block him out, instead looking at Hayleigh as she works me harder, sucking me deeper, her hand moving at lightning speed between her legs.
She shudders, her movements slowing, so I cup the side of her face as I murmur. “Open that pretty little mouth and stick out your tongue.”
She does as I ask, letting my cock go with a pop of her mouth, she sticks her tongue out, her fingers squeezing her nipples. I work my cock up and down, squeezing when I get to the tip. I let go of the door with my other hand and move it to the back of Hayleigh’s head, keeping her in place.
She looks up at me. “Come all over me, Nate, make a mess of me.” Those words do something to me, and before I know it, her tongue’s out catching the ropes of come from my cock.
She sits back on her knees, smiling, and I thud backwards onto the door. My dick’s still hard. I give it another squeeze, and Hayleigh’s eyes widen.
I nod towards the ensuite. “Let’s take a shower together. I need to be buried inside of you right now, making you scream my name.”
Her cheeks flush as she scurries up and off into the ensuite.
Yep, I’m really going to miss this.
**********
We load the back of my car with Hayleigh’s bags; she doesn’t have much with her, some clothes and personal items, no furniture for her new home.
Maybe I should have filled her home with furniture while I was doing up the place.
I break out of my daydream as Archie slinks past us to sit in the backseat.
He still hasn’t spoken to us this morning. I have to hold in my chuckle when he crosses his arms and huffs like a giant toddler.
Hayleigh nudges my arm as she whispers. “Do you think he heard us this morning?”
I nod my head. “One hundred per cent, but it serves him right for creeping.”
We hear a gasp from inside the car, then Archie swivels in his seat to glare at us through the open boot. “I was not creeping. I made waffles, Nate. Waffles.” He swivels back around to face forward.
I climb into the driver's seat as Hayleigh climbs into the passenger seat. She turns around to Archie. “I’m sorry, forgive us?”
I look in the rearview mirror and see him roll his eyes. “Fine, but just know I can never scrub my brain from those noises.”
She giggles beside me. “Would it make you feel better if I told you it was an audiobook–”
She doesn’t get to finish what she’s saying before Archie gags. “Please, for the love of the smut goddess, do not ruin smutty audiobooks for me, too.”
Hayleigh holds her hands up in surrender. “Okay, I’m sorry. I’ll buy you pizza for dinner.”
They bicker and talk back and forth about some book they’ve both been reading, and you may call me a softy, but my eyes sting, knowing that they’ve found each other.
One day, I know I’ll have to leave Archie, he’ll meet someone, and I might finally get to live with Hayleigh.
It’s something that scares me but also excites me.
I only hope Archie knows I’ll always be there for him, no matter what
We arrive at Hayleigh’s new home, and I’m nervous for her to see in person everything that Archie and I have done while she was away and for her to finally see the rocking chair that I spent countless hours on.
She unlocks the door but doesn’t walk through it; she spins round to face us, a giddy smile on her face. “I can’t believe I’m really doing this.” Then she turns back around and pushes the door open.
She walks through the hallway; the dirty floorboards are gone; they’ve been cleaned and restored throughout the home.
The walls have been replastered thanks to Rafe and his college days of plastering.
Ethan helped set up her security system.
Cole ensured the foundations were structurally sound and the interior walls were solid.
All Hayleigh needs to do now is decorate it and choose her furniture.
She moves through the home, oohing and ahhing now and then, but when she walks through the door that leads to what will be her reading room, she lets a sob. I rush forward, and as I reach her, she spins round, throwing her arms around my neck and burying her face in my chest.
She mumbles. “Nate, I-I, oh god…”
For a minute, I worry that I’ve overstepped or that the rocking chair isn’t right; the last time she saw it, I had only just started it. “If it’s not right, I can make another.”
She pulls back and whacks me in the chest before wiping her eyes. “Don’t you dare.” She looks around the room, smiling. “This whole, I mean, it’s, wow.” She laughs.
“It wasn’t all me, my brothers helped, Archie a lot more than most.” I nod my head towards Archie, whose cheeks flush with red.
He shrugs. “I was happy to help.”
Hayleigh unwraps her arms from around me and launches herself towards Archie, mumbling a thank you as she hugs him tight.
He wraps his arms around her, patting her back. “I added my own little touch to this room. Take a look in the drawers over there.” Archie nods towards the custom-built bookcases I made for Hayleigh with drawers at the bottom.
She scrambles over to them, opening the drawers, her hands fly to her mouth when she sees it’s full to the brim with brand new books, all handpicked by Archie. I walk over to him, nudging him with my shoulder.
“Thank you for helping me and making her smile.”
He shrugs at me and smiles. “Don’t mention it. She means the world to you, and she means the world to me. I want you both to be happy, and I know one day I’m going to have to go it alone, but…I’m glad you have her, Nate.”
I turn fully to face him. “Archie, I’m not going anywhere. Even when we’re both settled with families of our own, you’re my brother.”
He smiles at me, but it’s a sad one. I wish I knew what was going on inside his head. I’m about to ask when Hayleigh jumps up. “Okay, who wants to come shopping for decorating stuff?”
Archie’s smile is back, if not a little strained, and he claps his hands together. “Shopping trip? I’m in.”
**********
Three hours.
Three hours of my life I will never get back. That girl can shop, she’s like a woman on a mission and Archie and I? We ended up glorified bag holders, but seeing the smile on her face as she flitted from aisle to aisle made it all worth it.
Now we’re digging into pizza, sitting on the floor of Hayleigh’s living room while the log fire roars to life. I imagine what it will be like in years to come, whether she’d ever let me move in with her, and whether we would sit here like this.
Something bounces off my head, and I look up to find Hayleigh and Archie laughing at me. I wipe my mouth in case they’re laughing at pizza sauce being smeared on my face. “What?”
They look at each other and burst out laughing before Hayleigh says. “Wow, and I thought I zoned out. I was asking you if you had time tomorrow to help me decorate?”
I nod. “Sure, I have some time.”
She opens her mouth to say something else, but her phone buzzes. When she opens it up, she’s reading something, her eyes flitting across the scene. The colour drains from her face.
“Hayleigh, what is it?” Unease churns in my gut.
She looks back up at us. “It’s from my boss; they’ve arranged a disciplinary meeting for me for tomorrow.”
Archie and I exchange a worried look, Archie asks. “Have they sent that out of the blue?”
Hayleigh looks away as tears fill her eyes. She takes a deep breath. “I haven’t been going into work. I called in sick months ago.” She worries her hands in front of her, not meeting our gaze.
I crawl over to where she sits and wrap my arms around her. “Why didn’t you tell one of us?”
She shrugs. “I don’t know, shame, I guess? I couldn’t stand being there…everything was a reminder. People kept asking me what happened; they all said it couldn’t be true. Pete was such a nice guy after all.” She lets out a humourless laugh. “Little did they know he was a demon in disguise.”
“Then fuck them.” I spit the words out. “Quit, tomorrow. Don’t let them bully you into whatever they want. Quit and find a new job or take time out and redo your house.”
She rolls her eyes at me. “How am I supposed to survive with no job, Nate?”
“Work for me, I’ll pay you.”
She narrows her eyes, and I realise how that sounds. “Excuse me?”
I laugh it off, or try to, before pointing at her. “Come on, that’s not how I meant it to sound, but you’re wasted there, Hayleigh. Work for Cole, now that Emmy’s part-time, he could use the help, and I’m sure he could use the help with HR.”
She grimaces. “I don’t know, I don’t want to come across like a charity case…”
Archie laughs. “This whole family is a walking, talking charity case, Hayleigh. It’s called helping family out. Let us help you.”
I feel on top of the world when she nods. “Okay, tomorrow I’m quitting my job.” She stands up and dusts herself off. “I’m going to paint my book room.”
Archie gets up and holds his hand out to help me up. “Great, shall we do another room?”
Hayleigh’s smile wobbles. “I don’t expect you both to stay with me and help.”
I walk to her, cupping her cheek with my hand. “We know you don’t, but we want to help anyway.” I kiss her softly and hear Archie gagging behind us, muttering something about boundaries and no kissing.
I don’t care.
Hayleigh’s accepting help, and that’s all that matters.