by A. J. Downey
“It was worth the wait,” I admitted, my breath squeezing from my lungs with the heated look he was giving me. He leaned forward and I closed my eyes, expecting the kiss to fall on my lips, but it didn’t. Instead, his lips brushed over that spot on the side of my neck that left me jumping, an effervescent rush sweeping over the half of my body he paid attention to.
This time, the sex was even more slow and deliberate than it’d been last night. He took his time slipping me out of my clothes and let me give him the same consideration although I was a bit shyer when it came to my explorations.
It surprised me how patient he was being with me, I didn’t think he had it in him to be honest. I’d never in a million years expected that Archer knew how to be soft, how to be kind; how to be gentle, but with every light touch of his lips against my skin, every caress of his roughened fingertips, the man was slowly stripping away my misconceptions as well as my clothes.
“Lay on your stomach,” he murmured once he had me nude, and I complied, my curiosity at what he had planned having developed far more than any fear I’d held on to. He kissed my back, his teeth lightly scraping in these sensational little love bites, a sharp contrast with the tickling sweep of his hair that followed. His lips were warm and his touch made my senses wake up, coming alive until I was squirming underneath his attentions for want of a deeper touch. He pressed his hands to my ass cheeks and spread them. I stiffened for a moment, but he wasn’t going there. Instead, he found the opening to my pussy with his cock, and pressing me into the mattress, slid inside. I groaned in pleasure, the angle sharper and deeper somehow. Archer swept my hair up off my neck and fisted it gently at the back of my head, running his tongue along the side of my neck as I grew impossibly wet, his cock slipping from me once or twice until with a curse he got up off of me.
“On your knees for just a second, Baby,” he said, voice husky and I complied, expecting him to just fuck me doggy style, less intimate than what he’d been doing but certainly still hot. He surprised me when he jammed a couple of the pillows beneath my hips and pressing me back down into the mattress by my shoulders, he found me again with little difficulty and slipped right back into me.
The satisfied, triumphant, pleasure filled groan he let out was almost enough to make me come, but what finally did it? The slight change in angle had him sliding right over that spot inside me. I felt the weight of my impending orgasm build twice as fast as it had been before, my pussy clenching around his cock. I wanted it, I wanted to feel good; I wanted him to feel good so bad.
He bit my shoulder and instead of the fire in my blood cooling, it was as if he’d doused the flames in gasoline. They overtook me and I lost myself in that pure, shining, burning light, all of my doubts and inhibitions burning away as I arched low to the bed, shoving my ass towards him in silent offering. Hell, I’d give him anything if he could make this feeling last, and he did, for as long as he could.
Chapter 24
Archer
Someday, I was going to take her ass. If she kept arching into me like she was right now, that someday might be today, hell it might even be right now. Her pussy was so hot, so wet, and so perfectly snug around me I almost couldn’t hold back when she came.
She writhed so fucking beautifully when she orgasmed. Like some kind of mythical sea creature, which was funny considering she couldn’t swim. Her passion filled cries were definitely some kind of siren’s call and when they rose an octave, when I found a particularly sensitive place inside her? That was it; I couldn’t hold off anymore. I shoved into her tight pussy, hard and deep and spilled over the edge of my own orgasm.
I came back from the experience slowly, braced over the top of her, holding my weight off her body with arms that caged her protectively, despite their trembling. Her back touched my chest gently with every heaving breath she took, as she panted fervently, trying to catch it. I was gasping similarly, and wasn’t really ready to speak yet myself, but I did press a kiss behind her ear, trailing them down the side of her neck, as I slid my limp dick out of the sticky mess we’d both created. I guess it was time we found out if that bathtub were really meant for two or not.
“I love it when you do that,” she murmured.
“Mm?” I made the sound a question, I was pretty sure she was talking about the little kisses and nips I was laying against her skin, but I wanted to hear it. I wanted to know her exact meaning.
“That,” she said, arching luxuriously like a well fed cat beneath me just as I pressed my lips to another bare patch of pale silk that was her skin.
“Hmm, I’ll remember that,” I said, darting my tongue into one of the dimples at the small of her back. She sucked in a sharp breath and pretty much melted into the comforter and when I looked, she had her arms beneath her chin, and she turned her head just so to lay on them and the light was perfect. I snatched up her camera silently, and adjusted the lens carefully and, snap! Her eyes flew open and she stiffened, but it was too late, I’d captured my prize.
“There may be something to this whole taking pictures of everything that you do. I’m gonna have to have you print that one for me.” I said showing her the result. She blinked and leaned up to look better her face softening.
“Okay,” she said softly. She couldn’t argue with me on this one. There wasn’t a damn thing wrong with that photo. It was tasteful, her tits were covered because she was laying on them and her ass was covered because the picture stopped before it went down that far.
“You on birth control?” I asked suddenly and she looked back at me over her shoulder, pushing herself up a little to do it which thrust out her perfect tits. Before I knew it, I was getting hard again.
“Yes, why?”
“I want you to stop taking it,” I said frowning, “I’m not getting any younger and I don’t want Noah and his little sibling too far apart in ages.” She nodded, her eyes clouding with a faraway look that spelled trouble.
“I got another question,” I said before she could get too far into her head and whatever she was thinking about spoiled her mood.
“Yes?”
“You ever try anal?”
“Once; it hurt and I didn’t like it.”
“Did he take his time?”
“Um, I think he tried.”
“He use lube?” her face was blushing a furious crimson by now and she let herself drop back to the bed with a huffed out sigh.
“I don’t really need to point out that if you’re fucking me in the ass that you’re doing it wrong, do I? I mean, that’s not exactly how babies are made.”
“No, but it fuckin’ feels good, and I want you to try it with me at some point because I want you to enjoy it too.”
“If I hate it?”
“Then that would suck, but I’d never make you do it again.”
“Just once?” she asked uncertain, and it had that edge like she’d she would let me do it, a sort of taking one for the team so she could say ‘nope’ and never do it again.
“Once is all it’d take, you don’t like it, I’ll never bring it up again. You do, it’ll be kind of a regular thing.”
“What is so appealing about shoving your dick in a woman’s ass, anyways?” she asked and I could tell I was pushing her out of her comfort zone.
I fisted my cock and stroked it lazily, but answered her question the best I could. “I don’t know, maybe because it’s considered dirty? Maybe because it’s a totally different sensation? I just know I was willing to try anything once and that it really tripped my trigger.”
“That’s not really helpful for making me understand it, I mean… it is kind of gross, isn’t it?”
“Meh, it can be messy, but I’m a grown ass man. I learned how to wash my dick a long ass time ago.”
I could hear Mel roll her eyes, “Oh my god, Archer! Stop, your idea of romance is just killing me here.”
I shoved my dick back into her pussy, her walls clenching in surprise as she cried out first in surprise, but pretty quick she bit i
t off into one sexy as hell moan. Oh man, she was still wet. I stroked in and out of her a few times.
“You were saying something?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah…” her voice was breathy.
“What were you saying?” I asked driving into her gently, I knew where that spot of hers was now, and I made sure I was going over it.
“More?” she asked.
“Fuckin’ right,” I growled and nipped her shoulder. I was a little more aggressive with my thrusting, but made sure to stay inside her comfort zone. It took practice to read a woman’s body language, to know where the boundaries were and to stay coloring inside the lines. I don’t know what it was about Mel, but I picked up on hers pretty quick.
Maybe it’d been all those years watching her with Grind, as creepy as fuck as that sounded. Even if you don’t spend much time interacting with someone, you spend enough time around ‘em, spend a few months livin’ with ‘em, you pick up on some of their subtler cues. As much as I was enjoying keeping her pinned on her stomach, the delicate curve of her ass fitting the curve of my hips as I shoved inside her, I was missing her legs and arms wrapped around me; I’d liked that, too.
I pulled out of her, and thought that a bath would definitely be the next order of business when I was through with getting my fill of her lush body underneath mine.
“Turn over,” I gasped and let her up enough so she could do it. She did, and immediately pulled me down on top of her, her legs going around my waist, her arms around my shoulders. Her nails dug into my back and I thrust into her a little harder than I’d meant to, but it turned out to be okay because she was into it. Like so into it, that she clamped her legs around me harder, pulling my cock into her further, her teeth setting into one of my trap muscles a little less than gentle.
I couldn’t leave a challenge like that unanswered, so I drew back and thrust into her even harder. She arched and cried out, “Oh, yeah!” and it was pretty frenzied after that. I sailed past lovemaking right into some down and dirty fucking, and she kept pace the whole way. I was glad for it, and that it didn’t always have to be slow, because I liked it a little on the rougher side some nights too.
“A little more! A little more!” she cried and I gave it to her, and she crashed to the bed, crying out in wild abandon as her body went deliciously haywire beneath mine. Oh yeah, it was just what I needed to tip me over the edge. It seemed we were compatible in the sack, which was a good thing. A very good thing.
We rested, catching our breath, finding our heartbeats and taming them into a more sedate pace. It was with more than a little reluctance and some regret that I pushed off of her and got to my feet.
“Where are you going?” she asked softly and it made me smile that she wanted me to stay.
“Drawing us a bath, we’re a mess and I’d rather not fuck up the sheets.”
“It looks big enough for two, think we’ll both fit?”
“We’ll find out,” I said and padded into the bathroom barefoot. I could have sworn I heard her hum with appreciation. I was glad she liked the view.
I started the water and looked at the box of bath shit that was still sitting on the little side table beside the tub. Melody laughed at me from the open bathroom doorway.
“What?”
“You’re looking at it like it’s going to bite you,” she said, laughing so hard tears sparkled in the corners of her eyes.
“I’m not rightly sure it isn’t,” I said.
“Want me to pick?”
“I sure as hell don’t; I’d have to pull my own man card.”
She dumped a vial of this and a bottle of that and pretty soon the water was foaming and swirling with sparkly shit in it. I stared at it, eyebrows raised and Melody smirked.
“You need to get in first, if we’re both going to fit,” she said.
“You tell Rush or Nox about this, I’m going to spank that ass before I fuck it.”
She giggled and I liked that she’d relaxed around me enough to do it. She got into the bath and I helped her sit between my knees and lean back against my chest. She hummed in appreciation and when the water was deep enough, reached up and shut off the tap.
“Like this.” I said, head leaned back, eyes closed.
“Mm hmm, you?”
I chuckled, “I wasn’t asking, I was telling, and I’m glad you like it, too.”
She sighed in contentment and I actually cuddled her close. I couldn’t ever remember a time I’d engaged a woman like this. Usually I fucked it, and kicked it right out my fuckin’ door. I’d never had a woman of any kind of real quality in my life before. I didn’t have time for it, and it was kind of tough attracting any kind of woman with an understanding of this life that had the morals to live up to my expectations. I hadn’t thought Mel was one of those women in the beginning… I thought I’d learned differently by watching her, but she was always tucked into Grind’s side.
When he’d taken off out here, he’d said it was because of Mel, and hadn’t wanted to talk about it at all. I’d figured she’d walked on him. I never in a million years thought it was my brother who’d walked on her… Grind knew he’d had it good with Mel. She kept takin’ him back. Even after fuckin’ around with no good club sluts because they were there and they were easy, Mel had taken him back.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked softly.
“Why’d you let him do it.”
“Do what? Cheat?” she asked, and her sigh was heavy.
“Yeah.”
“I don’t know, to be honest… He said he loved me; said he was sorry and I believed him. I could and would forgive him anything as long as he loved me.”
“That’s not love, Baby.”
“Closest I’ve ever been to it,”
“No, it’s not; it’s really, not. Sit up for a minute, turn around and look at me.”
She did as I asked, slowly, and when she was at the opposite end of the tub, facing me, I pulled her towards me and into my lap. She was effectively straddling me and taller this way, so I had to look up, into those true blue eyes of hers.
I had to sigh, “Walking out on your lady, putting her last, fucking some other skeeze.” I raised my eyebrows and said, “Giving your woman who waits on you hand and foot, keeps your place clean, cooks your meals, and gives you freedom the fucking clap,” Melody jerked like she’d been slapped and I was pretty sure she hadn’t known that all of us guys knew but it just served to bring my point home, “I don’t care how much you say to her that you love her, but that ain’t love, Baby. That’s the furthest thing from it.”
Her face crumbled and I didn’t like it, in fact, I wanted to build it up right quick, so I told her the truth of it, “Putting a roof over her head, holding her when she cries, being her strength when she has none left, protecting her, protecting the children you have with her, providing nourishment not only for their bodies, but for their souls… that’s love.”
She searched my solemn expression, her hands perched on my shoulders for the longest series of heartbeats my body had ever produced. Her eyes misted, and she wrapped my pony tail around her hand, tugging my head back as far as it would go. Her other hand resting on my forehead as her mouth crashed over mine and she kissed me as if she were a starving woman and my kiss would provide all the nourishment she’d need for the next thousand years.
I held her tight and kissed her back and it tasted sweet with relief and a lot like victory.
Chapter 25
Melody
“No.”
“Melody…”
“I said no, Archer!” I stared at him with disbelief over Noah’s head, hitching my baby up higher onto my hip.
“I ain’t exactly asking, Mel,” Archer said quietly. We’d come back from our honeymoon just last night, and already he was standing here telling me that he was leaving again, on a run, to Arizona no less, and that he would be leaving in just three days.
“This is unbelievable,” I uttered and he reached for me, I stepped back
.
“Why?” I demanded, “Tell me; why now?”
Archer sighed and dropped his hand to his side, he hung his head and huffed a bitter chuckle, “That’s club business, Baby.”
I frowned and demanded, “You swear to me, you swear to me, that it’s legit club business and has nothing to do with my parents.”
“I swear to you, it has more to do with the club than your parents, but I had planned on making a visit to them, too.”
I felt myself pale, “Don’t Archer. Please don’t, you don’t know what they’re like and we don’t even know how long it will take for you to legally adopt Noah. Please don’t stir this pot until all is said and done. Please!”
“Hey, hey, hey!” He came to me and Noah both, and I was out of places to sidestep or back away, but I didn’t feel like putting space between us anymore. I wanted the comfort he was offering. He took both me and our son into his arms and held us, kissing the top of my head. “No tears,” he said and I nodded against his chest.
“We’re leaving Friday, but Baby, the Arizona chapter… the shit they’re doing… Dragon won’t have it. It goes against everything this club has stood for since Tilly died. They’ve had long enough to clean up and get on board.”
“What happened to it being ‘club business’?” My voice was muffled against his chest and the vibration of his chuckle made me want to cuddle a little closer.
“Somehow I don’t think you’re gonna rat me out, but I’ve got a vested interest in seeing Dom’s face, looking him in the eye, when I ask about the way he treated you.”
I nodded, my eyes riveted to the floor and the scuffed and worn toes of Archer’s motorcycle boots. Heat rose in my cheeks, and I felt the blush bloom against my skin. I don’t know why it still humiliated me so much, but the sting of embarrassment was still pretty sharp. Archer touched my face with gentle fingertips that smelled of orange hand cleanser and beneath that, worn metal.
We’d both gone to work that morning and my feet ached from having been on them all day and then some. One of the girls hadn’t shown up for her shift, and I had called Revelator to see if I could take half of her shift and get a few extra hours in. He’d been happy to, and so I’d stayed, picking up dinner for Archer and myself and a little dessert for Noah as Rev had said he’d feed our son dinner.
