Chapter 2 #3
“We have a plan in place.” To douse her anger, I lay a kiss on her firm lips.
“We have suitable accommodation he can stay in while he recuperates, our sweet Mary to help, a medication schedule signed off by his team, and a cardiac nurse on standby twenty-four hours a day. Call me an optimist, but I believe he’ll receive better, specialized, more consistent care at the house than he ever would at the hospital.
Plus, his chance of contracting a nasty staph infection has now decreased considerably. ”
“Exactly.” Steve rolls his hand, weakly letting it droop when he’s done. “I’m safe and happy. And you’ll be at the house, anyway. Sounds kind of perfect, don’t you think?”
“Speaking of…” Minka swings desperate eyes up to mine. “We’ll have to send someone to the apartment to pack up a few of our things.”
“A few?”
“Yeah, just…” She’s tired—mentally and physically. “Clothes to get us through the next few weeks, at least. My textbooks. Shoes. My laptop. Just the basics.”
“Why the basics? You don’t want all of your stuff?”
“I mean… I don’t know that we’ll stay there permanently.
Do you? I figure we’ll get Steve settled in and feeling better.
We’ll stay until he’s up again and his surgeon has signed off.
But then Mary will leave for New York. Steve will want to go back to the apartment.
Then it’ll just be me and you again. That’s a lot of house for two people. ”
“And me.” Cato swaggers closer. “You forget me so easily?”
Minka presses her palm to his face and pushes him back. “You know what I mean. I just want to make sure we have the clothes and stuff we need for now. We’ll decide the rest later.”
“Mmhm. I’ve taken care of it. Are you done harassing Steve yet?”
“I’m not harassing him! I’m just—”
“Because I was hoping I could talk to you in private.” I allow my eyes to turn deadly serious. “It’s important.”
“Wait.” Cato stiffens. “Everything okay?”
“Archer and Minka private. Not whole family private.” I pinch Minka’s chin between my thumb and fingers, forcing her around and her gaze to mine. “Please?”
“S-sure,” she stammers. “Is something wrong?”
“I’ll tell you in a second.” I bring my gaze up and lock with Mary’s.
“There’s a car waiting outside to take you to the house.
Your luggage has arrived, and a room has been prepared for you.
I have men there already establishing a safe perimeter.
Felix and the rest of them are staying tonight, too.
Garth is leading security for that, so don’t fret. ”
“You seem to think I’m concerned.” She takes a step forward and straightens my tie. “I am not.”
“Of course.” I release a soft chuckle and look down at Steve. “She’s gonna have you up and dancing a jig real soon. You’re in the best hands money can buy.”
“We’ll be at the house in about twenty minutes,” Minka adds. “I’m not sticking around here a minute longer than I have to. Not when I know I have a comfortable bed in a quiet room waiting for me.”
“Take your time, Miss Minka.” Steve grabs her wrist and gives it a gentle squeeze. Then he glances back at Mary. “Just as soon as I’m on my feet again, I promise to open doors and wheel your chair around.”
“No need to worry, Mr. Morris.” Mary situates herself behind his wheelchair and disengages the brakes. “We’ll see you in the morning, Detective.” Then she casts a pithy look Cato’s way. “I expect you’ll behave yourself, young man.”
Offended, he lays a hand over his chest. “Don’t I always?”
“Let’s go.” I drape my arm over Minka’s shoulders and tug her away, hugging the outer perimeter of the room so the only thing between us and the wall is Felix’s guards.
“What’s wrong?” Minka practically jogs to keep up. “Archer?”
I hold her tighter so she doesn’t stumble. “Move faster.”
“Archer!” She attempts to drop her weight and dig her heels into the carpeted floor. “What the hell is going on?”
“Private.” I swing her past Cordoza’s men, even those who stare, and through a set of heavy wooden doors until we emerge into a brightly lit hallway with two guards following close behind—does she even notice them?
Glancing left, then right, I decide which way I’m taking her and drive us toward the swinging kitchen doors that servers pass through.
Dinner has already been served, and dessert long ago arrived at our tables.
I drag her through the door and draw half a dozen sets of eyes, white coats—not the same as Minka’s when she’s working—and a server delivering a tray of empty wine glasses.
I hook a thumb toward the door. “Get out.”
“Archer!”
They go, fast as rattlesnakes, half of them bolting through the door at our backs, and the other half choosing the second exit across the kitchen.
When the last of the cooks is gone and the swinging doors move in and out, I catch sight of a muscular, suited set of shoulders of a soldier now on guard.
“What the hell is going on? Archer—”
Alone.
Thank fuck.
I take her face in my hand, digging my fingers and thumb into her cheeks, then I slam my lips to hers and swallow her surprised gasp.
My cock rages with an ache only she knows how to soothe.
My belly rolls with a heavy dread only she can calm.
And fuck, my heart pounds out of control, relaxing only as her tongue comes out to play and her arms come up, draping over my shoulders without me lifting them for her.
“I hate being here with these people.” I crush her against the wall, the rattle of pots and pans on the shelf above creating a tinkling threat that could end with them raining down on our heads.
“I hate not being attached to you, literally, while these people are in the same fucking building. The same city.”
“Archer—”
I fist her dress and drag the heavy material up.
Silky fabric seems to go on forever, filling my palms, and still, there’s more to come.
But I discover her thighs eventually, releasing a shaky, shuddering breath the moment her flesh touches my fingertips.
Desperate and hungry, I slide my palms around and palm her ass in two heaped handfuls.
I drag her cheeks apart and earn her breathy gasp of surprise.
“I can’t stand the idea of being away from you, even for ten minutes. Not when these people are around.”
“You’re anxious.” She opens her eyes and tries to pull away. To search my face. “I can feel it.”
“Correction: was anxious. Because I didn’t have you.
” I tug her panties down, over her thighs, and past her bandaged knee.
I’m careful not to cause her pain when I know damn well her knee hurts more than she lets on.
Then I drop the lacy fabric and slip my fingers between her wet folds, growling when I find her exactly how I knew I would.
“Shit.” She drops her head back, thunking it against the shelf behind her. “Archer.”
“You’re who I go to when I’m anxious. When I’m out of sorts.
” I drive my fingers through the moisture between her legs, then I duck and scoop one up, supporting it with my arm, and opening her wide, front and back.
“You’re who I go to when I’m sad. And mad.
And happy. When I’m bored, and when I’m busy.
You’re my touchstone, and I can’t honestly explain how fucking good it feels to have found you after thirty years of being without. ”
She moans, panting with every touch of my fingers on her flesh. Groaning and rocking her hips in search of more.
But those are her hormones. Her libido.
Her brain has always been, and will always be, more powerful.
“You’re upset about something.” She peels her eyes open, her long lashes flickering down to kiss her cheeks against her will. “We can talk about it, Archer. We don’t have to—”
“Fuck?” I unsnap my pants and tear the zipper down with a fast jerk of my hand.
Freeing my cock, I damn near come just at the thought of being inside her.
“I like to fuck. You like to fuck.” I set the tip of my dick at her fiery opening and take her lips with mine.
Biting. Sucking. Tasting her while her cunt beckons me closer.
She could be death, with a giant flashing sign and an unwavering promise to be the end of me, and I’d still walk toward her. “You don’t want me?”
“I don’t want you to bury your feelings with sex.” She inches back again and searches my eyes. “I don’t want you to hurt yourself by ignoring things you really should talk about.”
“I already talked about it. This place sucks, these people suck, not being near you sucks.” I dive forward and capture her lips with mine, and because she’s distracted, I slam my hips upward and bury my cock to the hilt.
She cries out, gasping and mewling.
“And now I feel so much better.” I piston my hips forward, sliding in and out as her natural lubrication smooths the way and her heart pounds erratically out of control.
“Before you came along, when I was feeling a certain way and needed a touchstone, I hurt myself. Time and time and time again, I made poor choices and left a mess everywhere I went, knowing that pain was better than whatever the hell I was feeling inside. Didn’t matter if I broke a bone or destroyed a friendship.
Didn’t care who I pissed off or what evidence I left behind.
I needed relief from whatever turmoil was circling over my head.
” I flash a deviant smile and fill her sweet pussy, lifting her clear off the ground with each thrust. “Now I have you.”
She exhales, pleasure and pain washing through her veins. “Now you have me.”
“I’m not breaking bones or fucking over friendships anymore. Not even pissing you off most of the time.” I fist her hair and drag her head back, exposing her delicate throat and the pulse thundering against her too-thin skin. “You like it when we fuck, too, so it’s mutually beneficial.”
“I like candy,” she pants. “Doesn’t mean I should let us eat it for every meal, every damn day.”
I breathe out a choking laugh and scoop her tits out of the top of her strapless dress. Folding myself over her, I take her peaked nipple between my lips and ride the electricity she creates when her pussy squeezes me impossibly tight.
“God.” She bangs her head against the underside of the shelf, gasping for fresh air. But then she explodes, crying out and crushing my cock as her wet release splashes against the laminate flooring. “Archer…”
“Such a sweet sound.” I drag her face closer and take her lip between my teeth, suckling because it tastes so fucking good, and riding her like a mongrel dog intent on breeding. “Eight billion people on the planet, and I found my penguin in a packed airport during a blizzard.”
“Stop.”
“Prettiest fucking thing I ever ran into in my whole life.”
“Archer, stop—”
“Sassiest mouth I ever tasted.”
“Archer.” She shoves a hand between us and grabs my cock, fisting the length and dragging me to a painful halt. “My knee hurts.” Panting, she searches my eyes. “A lot.”
I back away and look down at her bandaged limb, expecting the stark white bandages to glow red. They’re not. “What?”
She coughs out a silly snicker. “I’m not usually one to complain, but it actually kinda hurts. So if you could—”
“Move.” I swing her around and swallow her yelp of surprise, carrying her all the way to a prep station already cleaned by the chefs now that they’ve finished dinner.
If I had to toss pots and pans aside, I would.
If the countertop was littered with food and knives, I’d throw those, too.
Setting her on top of the icy cold steel, I thrill in her shiver of delight.
In the goosebumps racing across her skin, and the salacious grin that curls her lips higher. “Guess that makes you my feast, huh?”
“This is so unsanitary.” She laughs and throws her head back, only for the sound to turn to a breathy moan as I take her nipple between my lips. “Fuck, Archer.”
“Put this up here.” I scoop her bad leg up and drape it over my shoulder, then I sacrifice the deliciousness of her tit and push her back instead, pressing my hand to her belly to keep her down.
“Shift you here.” I drag her to the very edge of the counter and force the million yards of silky fabric up to reveal her juicy cunt, glistening just for me.
I fist my cock and line up at her opening. “Insert this here.”
She releases a deep, throaty groan as I glide forward and fill her up.
“Thirty. Long. Years.” I support her leg and fuck her mercilessly, setting a rhythm that stokes an inferno in my belly. “Three decades without you, Minnnka. I need you always, but fuck, I need you more when I’m surrounded by these people.”
She writhes on the countertop, her stomach flexing and her tits swaying. Her chest lifts and falls at a frantic pace. But most stunning of all, her cheeks glow red from a blush that sets my heart on fire.
“Never gonna let them hurt you.” I cup her tit in my palm, stroking the peaked nipple with my thumb. “Never gonna let their world and yours mix.”
Though I already did. By marrying her, I tossed her into the deep end of everything I am.
“Never gonna risk you.”