Heidi went slack-jawed beside me but looked to me for an answer. A smile curled on my lips as I looked up at my mother and also got up, tugging Heidi with me. “Thank you, Mum. That would be great. As it happens, we do have a lot to talk about.”
Millie was disappointed about not spending the rest of the day with us, but since Heidi had kept her promise about still being there after the talk, she believed us when we said we’d all do something together tomorrow night.
Mum and Millie waved us goodbye, and then it was only Heidi and me. We rehashed everything my mother had said on the way home, with even Heidi saying she understood her a little better now.
When we got there, I walked straight to the kitchen and looked at Heidi over my shoulder. “Now, I believe I still owe you a dinner. We never did get to have that one the other night.”
“True,” she said, coming up behind me and winding her arms around me from behind. Her hands slipped underneath my T-shirt and her fingertips slid along the ridges on my stomach. “But I think I have a better idea.”
“Oh yeah?” I turned to face her, bringing my hands to her luscious hips and squeezing. “What’s that?”
“This.” She pushed up on her tiptoes and kissed my mouth, my jaw, and my ear. “Take me to bed, Mr. Lee. We have a successful event to celebrate.”
“And a new relationship,” I said, my lips feathering across her as I talked.
She smiled against them and placed her hands on the nape of my neck, her thumbs stroking my skin. “Exactly. So like I said, take me to bed, Archer.”
“With pleasure.” I slid my hands down to her bum. “Yours and mine.”
Chapter 38
Heidi
Archer laid me down gently on his bed, the mattress dipping as he crawled up over me and rested his elbows next to my head. His eyes were on mine and they were filled with a deep well of emotion that made me feel all tingly inside.
When he finally broke eye contact, it was only so that he could brush lavish kisses to the exposed skin on my neck, my shoulders, and my chest. I gasped when his hot mouth closed over the tip of my breast, the warmth of it making the peak stand at attention even beneath my clothes.
My hands burrowed into his hair, my neck arching my head into the pillow beneath it. I felt Archer hardening against the inside of my thigh as his hands drifted lower, eventually reaching the hem of my dress.
With his fingers skating up the bare skin of my thigh, I tightened my grip on his hair and one hand and reached between us with the other. Since his back was slightly hunched in his efforts at my breasts, it was easy enough to wedge my hand between our bodies and all the way down to the waistband of his pants.
He groaned around my nipple when I dragged my fingers from one hip to the other beneath the fabric, the sound vibrating into my chest. “I was so scared I was never going to be able to touch you like this again.”
“So was I,” I admitted, delving beneath the elastic of his underwear and wrapping my fingers around his silky length. “We might not have been in a fight for a long time, but I missed so many things about you while we were. This was definitely one of them.”
“Same.” His hands reached the apex of my thighs and hooked around the front panel of my panties, pulling them away to slide one finger through the slickness pooled there. “You’re always so wet for me, so ready.”
“So are you,” I murmured, swiping my thumb across his tip to spread the wetness around him. “I need to tell you something.”
“What?” he asked, tilting his head as he laid his head down on my chest and looked up at me. “Please don’t tell me you want to stop? I mean, I will, but—”
“It’s not that.” I chuckled and spread my legs a fraction wider, moaning when he slid his thick finger into me at the invitation. “I think you can feel it’s not that.”
“What then?” His voice was strained, his cock throbbing in my hand, but still, the lust in his eyes gave way for concern. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” My eyes fell shut and I moaned as he stroked a particularly sensitive spot inside. Pleasure fizzed through me when he did it again, making my toes curl and my mind go blank for a minute.
But then he stopped moving and pouted up at me. “Talk to me, love. You’re killing me here.”
“Right.” A smile curled on my lips as I slid my hand out of his pants and put both of them on his face, tugging him up to me.
He groaned at the loss of my fingers stroking his cock but came willingly. There was a serious expression on his face as he peered down at me, his eyes hooded and still dark with both lust and concern. “You trying to kill me, is that it?”
“Nope, I wanted to tell you that I have an IUD,” I said.
Archer’s eyes went wide, but there was a flash of excitement in them that told me I’d made the right decision in bringing this up now. “What are saying? Obviously, I know what an IUD is, but I need you to spell this out for me.”
“It means that if you want to, you can be inside me without needing anything between us,” I whispered. “I got it last year and I didn’t mention it before because I didn’t want to take any chances with someone I hardly knew.”
“I’m clean,” he replied, his voice now matching his expression and without some of the strain in it. This wasn’t the sexiest conversation to be having, but it was necessary. “I get myself checked out regularly. I can show you my latest results if you want. They’re on my phone. I haven’t been with anyone but you since.”
Before I could reply, his arm shot out to grab his phone from his bedside table. He tapped into his emails and searched something, then flashed the results in my face with the sexiest smirk on his. “See? Clean as a whistle.”
“I’m clean too. I don’t have my results on my phone, though. I got the good old paper results from the clinic. If you want to wait until—”
“No, I told you, I trust you.” He nudged his nose against mine. “I never really thought that I couldn’t trust you.”
“So do you want to—”
“Yes.” He bent his head and claimed my lips in a near bruising kiss. When he finally lifted it away again, he was as breathless as I was. “I definitely want to.”
Things slowed down then. We kissed languidly and let our hands explore the other’s body first over our clothes and then beneath them.
When we were finally skin to skin and Archer’s broad tip pushed at my entrance, his eyes were on mine and they were filled with the same emotion I’d seen from him earlier. He took my hands and wrapped his long fingers around mine, holding them and bringing his mouth back to mine before sliding into me.
My hips went up to meet his, staying with him for every thrust. The climax I felt building below my belly was immense, so immense that even the soles of my feet were beginning to feel warm.
Whenever I tried to speed things up, Archer slowed them right back down. He kissed every inch of my skin he could touch, his hands never leaving mine.
He was building me up, taking me higher with each kiss and each scrape of his stubbled jaw over my skin as he kissed. Every thrust threatened to make me fall apart around him. It felt like my whole body had become a nerve ending and he was worshipping it in the best way ever.
“Archer, I—”
“What do you need?” he whispered into my ear just before tracing the shell of it with his tongue, making me shiver in response. Although at this point, I was trembling so much that I doubted he even felt the extra shiver. “You feel so good like this, love. You’ve always felt great, but this is fucking incredible. Whatever you need, tell me and I’ll give it to you.”
“Faster,” I panted. “Just… harder.”
He grinned against my cheek, but I felt his muscles quiver against mine when he started speeding up. “I was afraid it might be that. I didn’t want you to think this was just a fuck.”
“I know.” He didn’t have to say what he was thinking. I felt it too. What we were doing now was different. It was like the stars were alignin
g and everything was perfectly right. Like this was always where we’d been supposed to end up, together, starting the new year in each other’s arms.
Archer made a strangled sound in the back of his throat at whatever he saw in my eyes as the thought crossed my mind. “I might not last long if we keep going like this.”
“I definitely won’t and I don’t want you to either.” I took his hands again and squeezed them, then kissed him until pleasure rocketed through me. My walls clenched down on him so hard that he was right there with me.
His hips bucked against mine, his thrusts wild, and his mouth stilled on mine. I felt like I was melting and exploding at the same time, absolute euphoria grabbing hold of me and sending me higher than I’d ever been before.
It took forever for us to come back down, collapsing as we lay panting in each other’s arms. For the longest time, neither of us said anything.
As always though, reality came creeping back in as our heartbeats stabilised and our breathing returned to normal. Archer stroked my hair absently as I lay with my head on his chest, my fingers drawing around the outlines of the dark whorls of ink on his skin.
He propped himself up on his elbow so his body was facing mine, letting my head slide to his bicep as he met my eyes.
“So, what do we now?” he asked. “I should probably have warned you before, but I get pretty busy sometimes during the year. I’m sure you do, too.”
“I do.” I thought back to the conversation I’d had with my mom and what she’d told me about careers. “I’ve decided I’m only going to take the local jobs from now on, though. We have a lot of stuff happening all over the country, but I’m going to let the others handle those.”
“What?” He frowned. “Why? Because of me?”
Lifting my hand to his head, I ran my fingers gently through his hair and nodded. “Yeah, because of you and Millie. I want to be here for you. I’m not saying I’ll never have to travel again, but I want to be around as much as possible.”
“You don’t have to do that, love. I’m cutting down on travel too, but you don’t have to.”
“I know I don’t have to, but I want to. If we’re going to try this for real, then I’m all in.”
“So am I.” He lowered his head and ran his nose down the length of mine, closing his eyes as he released a soft sigh. “I’m definitely all in too, but I don’t want you to feel like you have to give something up to be with me.”
“I’m not giving anything up. I’ll still be working and doing my events. The only difference is that I won’t be travelling.” I looked into his eyes and rolled my lips into my mouth. “Besides, I want to be around for my mom as well. I don’t know how much time I have left with her or how long it will be until there are no moments of clarity. Whatever time I can get with her, I want to take.”
Archer’s blue eyes softened with understanding and he planted a kiss on the tip of my nose. “I guess we’re both cutting down on travel, then.”
“Yeah.” I smiled. “I guess we are. You know when you told your mother that we cared deeply about each other?”
He nodded. “I really do care deeply about you, Heidi. I know it’s too soon to say the other thing, but I’m thinking that I care so deeply about you that it might even already be turning into that.”
Joy flowed through me, and I snuggled into his broad chest, turning my head so I could still look at him. “Yeah, I feel that way too. I’m glad I’m not alone in that.”
His grip on me tightened as he pressed a kiss to the top of my head, whispering, “You’ll never be alone in anything again, love. Trust me. We’ll be here for you no matter what happens.”
With that beautiful, comforting thought in my mind and with my heart full, warm, and happy, I closed my eyes and breathed him in as I drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 39
Archer
“What would you like to do later for our four-month anniversary?” I asked Heidi, sliding my eyes to the side to catch a quick glimpse of her in the passenger seat of my SUV.
Her back was straight, her knee bouncing, and her jaw clenched. Fidgeting with her fingers as we drove, she shrugged and barely looked my way before resuming her staring contest with the scenery outside the window.
Moving my hand from where it had been resting on the gear lever to her knee, I gave it a reassuring squeeze. “It will be fine, love. No matter what happens, we’re here for you.”
I’d lost count of the number of times I’d used that phrase over the last four months. Every time she went to see her mother, Heidi was a wreck.
Sometimes, she came home smiling and I’d know her mother had had a good day. But then there were the other times, the ones when she came home in tears or with her eyes rimmed in red from having sobbed all the way back home.
Those were times when it was especially important for me to remind her that we would always be there for her because those were the times when I knew she felt like she was about to be all alone in the world.
Heidi and I had grown a hell of a lot in our relationship since January, but in a way, it was still new. We’d only known each other for almost six months, been together for five, and official for four.
She was mine now, and I was never going to let her go, but I knew she still worried about ending up alone, about losing us and her mother in one fell swoop. It wasn’t going to happen, but I had to keep reassuring her.
There was a ring in my safe at the office that definitely would have helped with the reassurance, but Heidi didn’t know about it yet. I’d bought it on a whim after seeing it in an online store when I was searching for something for Millie’s upcoming birthday.
It was a simple design, but it was beautiful, and as soon as I’d seen it, I knew that it had to belong to Heidi one day. From the minute I’d laid eyes on it, it had reminded me of her.
So I’d gotten it, but I hadn’t gone down on one knee quite yet. I’d brought it up once or twice to test the proverbial waters, but she’s laughed me off and told me that it was way too soon.
I agreed with her. It was too soon. But I didn’t really give a fuck. I just didn’t want Heidi to feel that I was pushing her into something she wasn’t ready for yet.
My heart and soul belonged to the girls in this car with me. Millie was stuck with me until she was at least eighteen, but Heidi and I weren’t bound together in any official way just yet. I wanted that to happen. I wanted to be hers as much as I wanted her to be mine.
I never wanted her to have to worry about being alone again and I wanted her to know without a shadow of a doubt that she was part of our family. Because she was.
In fact, she was the very heart of our family now.
Although she’d repeatedly turned down my requests to move in with us permanently, she was at our house all the time. She’d added personal touches that made it feel more like a home than ever before. We cooked dinner together almost every night and made breakfast together almost every morning.
She packed our lunches while I loaded the dishwasher and got Millie ready for school. Then Heidi dropped her off because it was on her way to her office. We’d settled into a routine and I swore that domesticity had never felt so much like bliss.
But now wasn’t the time to make it official, as much as I might have wanted to. The nursing home had called this morning to say that Heidi’s mum was having a good day. It didn’t happen very often anymore, so we’d decided to take advantage of it and go with her to meet her mother.
Because it wasn’t happening very often anymore, Heidi was more stressed about her than ever. If I popped the question now, she’d think I was only doing it to make her feel better, and she’d turn me down. Also, I didn’t want her to think I was rushing things because of the state her mother was in.
When I asked her to be my wife, and it was a when, not an if, I wanted her to say yes without having to question my timing or motivations. Besides, there were a couple of other big steps we also hadn’t taken yet.
One of which wa
s our meeting Heidi’s mum. It had been a tricky step to arrange because Heidi didn’t want us coming on one of her bad days, and often, the good on the good days only lasted so long.
But it meant a lot to Heidi to have her meet us, and to us to meet the woman who had raised the love of my life, so Heidi had asked the nursing home to give us a heads-up as to when might be a good time for the introductions to be made.
Apparently, that time was today. But Heidi was worried that it would be too late by the time we got there and that we might have already missed our window of opportunity, which was why she was so tense beside me.
“What if we get there and it’s bad again?” she murmured, glancing up in the rearview mirror at Millie in the backseat. “We can’t let her see my mom that way. I know she doesn’t know her, but when it’s bad, it’s bad enough to traumatise anyone.”
“It will be fine,” I repeated softly, stroking her thigh over the fabric of her jeans. “If you’re worried about Millie, why don’t you go in ahead of us when we get there? Just have a quick check. We’ll be right behind you, so you won’t be alone if it is bad, but you’ll have enough time to catch us before we enter the room.”
Her teeth sank into her bottom lip as she thought. Then she nodded and offered me a weak smile. “Yeah, I think that does make me feel better. Thanks.”
“No worries.” I kept my hand on her for the rest of the way to the nursing home, soothing her as best I could while I couldn’t take her into my arms and hold her.
The nursing home turned out to be a lot cheerier looking than I’d expected it to. There were big gardens dotted with colourful flowers, picture windows, and white benches as visiting areas in the shade.
I parked out front and turned in my seat to face Heidi as I lifted both hands to her face. “Go on. I’m just going to get Millie out of her seat and then we’ll be right in. Deep breaths, okay? This is going to be fine.”
Show My What You Got Page 24
