Hope was dashed when the footsteps came closer and the door opened. The woman who stepped inside, tall, blonde, sleek, with a voluptuous fake chest, wasn’t what Nya would’ve expected from Archer’s range of exes.
“Well,” said the blonde, cocking a hip and drumming her shocking pink nails against it. “There’s hope for my boy yet. This is some kinky shit.”
The woman came over, observing Nya’s form, and Nya stayed still. She didn’t want to struggle. All she could do was maintain wild eye contact and beg that the woman would show her mercy.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, the woman’s pink dress rode up, showing the lace tops of some fancy white stockings. The visitor leaned over and began to untie the knot that was balled against Nya’s cheek.
“So, sweetheart,” the blonde said. “I’m his mother, Ester, who are you?”
The gag was loosened and Nya gasped for breath, both out of necessity and shock—this was his mother? “Girlfriend,” Nya said, trying to control her panting. “Nya.”
Ester’s eyes trailed down her body, taking a measure of her son’s girl. “And he just left you here? Why have you got your clothes on?”
So she thought this was a sex game, maybe some sort of power play, kinky for sure. “He’s pissed at me,” she said. “Insists this is how he can keep me safe.”
“Oh,” Ester said, running her hand over the edge of the nightstand. “Then where the fuck is the key?”
“Dresser,” Nya said, pointing to the unit beside the door with her chin.
Ester got up and went over to retrieve the key. Holding it up in triumph, she spun around to eye Nya again. “Now, you’re not bullshitting me, are you? He’s not looking for some kind of information from you, is he? ‘Cause all you have to do is tell him and he’ll cut you loose. He’s like that. He keeps his word.”
“If he was, I’d be chained to the bathroom,” Nya said, shaking her head to get rid of the hair that had fallen into her mouth. “It’s a really long story.”
“I bet it is,” Ester said, crossing to lean over and slip the key into the lock, giving Nya an eyeful of the woman’s generous breasts as they hung near her eyes.
The lock snicked free and Nya sat up, rubbing her wrists. Taking a deep breath, she rolled both hands to try and lessen their ache. “Thank you.”
“What’s that?” Ester asked, snatching her hand to pull it upwards so she could examine her mark.
“I told you,” Nya said. “I belong to him.”
Ester smiled as she traced her fingers over the shape. “You’re not pissed about this?”
“Pissed about it?” Nya asked, standing up to press her fingertips against it. “It’s my favorite part of my body.”
“You and me are gonna get along, I can tell already.” Ester took her hand and linked their arms to draw her out of the room. “Now, let’s find the liquor.”
Nya cooked for them both and they drank what they found with Ester consuming the lion’s share. Nya did her best to make it appear that she was drinking, but she’d always been a bit of a lightweight so only sipped, drinking as little as she could.
“He was an asshole,” Ester said, lurching forward to snag the wine bottle from the coffee table. They sat at opposite ends of the couch, both with their feet stretched towards each other. “I mean I thought he was all that. I thought he was so cool. And then, he went and fucked around on me.”
“You don’t deserve that,” Nya said to the slurring woman.
No woman deserved half the things Nya had heard Archer’s mother talk about tonight. Ester had plenty of experience with men. Plenty of stories. But Nya loved listening to her talk, loved her confidence and her joie de vivre. Ester had constant optimism even in the face of all the horrific things that had happened in her life.
“He thought he got one up,” Ester said, sloshing the wine onto the edge of the couch as she poured it. Archer would go mental when he saw that stain later. But Nya just hid her smile behind her glass. She wouldn’t be snitching, he deserved everything he got. Karma worked in mysterious ways. “He told me to pack my shit, said he wanted me gone by the time he got back from having his smoke.” Ester banged the bottle onto the table with such force that more liquid shot out of the top, creating a puddle on Archer’s pristine coffee table. “I went in that apartment and I threw my shit in a bag, it took me thirty seconds. Then I went in the bathroom and used a pin to poke holes in all the rubbers I found.”
Ester laughed a wild kind of cackle and ran her hand through her hair when she tipped her head back to gulp down half her wine.
Nya didn’t know whether to be shocked, horrified, or amused. It was clear which one Ester was. “Wow.”
“Thinks he can leave me for some dumb little nineteen year old bitch, that’ll show ‘em,” Ester said and polished off the wine after her next breath.
“I guess it will.”
This woman could handle her alcohol; she’d already drunk one bottle and was on to the second. But she could down it flat, without pausing to breathe, it was quite impressive. “Do you use rubbers?” Ester asked, pointing her glass at Nya, who shook her head.
“No, we… we don’t.”
Ester’s head went up and down making her voluminous hair bounce in radiant waves. “You trust him, that’s good,” she said, sort of melting off the couch when she reached for the bottle again. Except she turned it, read the label, and screwed up her face. “He must have something stronger than this.”
Ester used both the couch and the coffee table to push herself onto her feet. Nya laughed. “Are you ok?” she asked, but Ester ignored the concern.
“Most women get scared by the size of his cock,” Ester called out, her face scrunched like she’d forgotten why she was on her feet.
Nya squeaked when she inhaled. “What?”
“His girlfriends, Archer’s girlfriends, they get freaked out by it. You shouldn’t be freaked out,” Ester said, shaking her head, and picking up the wine bottle. She still stood between the couch and table, searching for the reason for why she was here. “His daddy was hung, seriously hung… There are tricks, you know? For dealing with guys who are well-endowed. I can show you—tell you, I can tell you. Teach you, that’s what I meant.”
Nya wasn’t sure how that would go across with Archer or even exactly what the woman meant. But his mother went off towards the kitchen, with the wine bottle in hand; she slugged from it a couple of times before she opened the first cupboard.
“He hides the hard liquor,” Ester said.
Nya put her glass on the table and was about to respond when the front lock clicked and the door opened. When Archer came in, he made his usual entrance and slammed the door. First he looked at her, and then at his mother, and then back at her.
“You’re not where I left you, Squirm,” he muttered.
Pissed as she was at where he’d left her in spite of her protests, she could already tell that this experience was going to be payback enough. “Honey, we have company,” Nya said.
Ester chastised her son. “Who the fuck do you think you are?” she said and tripped over, but caught herself on the breakfast bar so she didn’t go down.
“Shut your trap, Ester,” Archer said. “What the fuck are you doing here anyway?”
“Drinking,” she said, holding the wine bottle aloft.
He huffed. “When are you not?” he asked and came in to dump the paper bag that had been hanging in his hand, loose at his side, onto the table.
“I’ve been getting to know your girl,” Ester said, coming out of the kitchen, using the wine bottle as a pointer to indicate Nya. “I like her, she’s good.”
His eyes grew a fraction. “You like her? Goddamn it,” he said. “How much have you had to drink?”
He stomped into the kitchen and Nya got off the couch, she wanted to know what had happened while he’d been out. His scowl wasn’t optimistic, but could’ve been caused by his mother as opposed to what he’d been through since he’d left her here.
Nya lea
ned on the corner of the fridge and watched him go into the cupboard to begin to make coffee, strong coffee if the number of scoops he put into the machine was anything to go by.
“No more booze,” he said, marching past Nya to get to his mother who was somewhere near the back of the couch. He grabbed the wine bottle and wrestled it away from her to take it into the kitchen.
Nya expected Ester to object, but she didn’t. “She’s pretty,” Esther declared. “You’ve done well, son.”
Archer tipped the wine down the sink and then put the empty bottle on the counter as he glared past Nya at his mother. “Ester,” he warned.
“Got a good figure too,” Ester said.
Nya laughed when Ester’s hands came around her body from behind to cup her breasts, giving them a squeeze and a shake.
Archer’s jaw ticked. “Ester, take your hands off.”
“Oh look, he doesn’t like it,” Ester said, taunting him. “I think he’s jealous.”
“Maybe I don’t want my mother’s hands all over my girl,” he said, coming over to grab Ester’s wrists to pull her hands away from Nya’s body.
“She’s got a pretty face too.” Scooping her hand around to Nya’s opposite cheek, Ester used her free hand to stroke Nya’s hair. “She’s got those big Disney princess eyes, look, look at them!”
Archer had to grit his teeth. “She’s not a fucking Disney princess.”
“Sure, she is!” Ester exclaimed. “Every woman’s a fucking Disney princess.” Ester laughed and turned around, happy to stagger away on her own. “Now where’s the music? You used to have a killer sound system, where did that go?”
“I sold it,” Archer said, coming up close to Nya’s side. “How long has she been here?”
“A couple of hours.”
“She let you go?” Nya nodded. “And you didn’t walk out on me?”
“Yeah, imagine that,” Nya said, folding her arms. “I told you I could be trusted.”
“So you stayed to prove a point. Now what?”
“Do you care?” Nya asked, looking up at him. “You said keeping me safe was all that mattered to you. You didn’t care if I loved you or not when the Hexam situation was through, as long as I was alive.”
But there was no apology on his lips. “If I have to choose between your life and your love, I choose your life.” But his hand came up to curl around her chin, forcing her to crane her head back. “But if I can have both, I’ll take it.”
“I’m tired!” Ester exclaimed from the other room. “Tired! Tired! Tired! Time to get some sleep!”
There was only one bed in this apartment and Nya knew Archer had slept with his mother before, to keep the woman in check, so she saw that as her cue. “I should get going,” Nya declared to both people in the room, but wrapped a hand around Archer’s bicep. “Look after her tonight. I’ll look after me.”
“No! No! No! No! No! No! No!” Ester said, shaking her head and rounding the couch to come to the couple. “You need to go to bed.” She grabbed both their arms to pull them in the direction of the kitchen table. “You go in the bedroom and you screw each other senseless. Yes, yes.”
Putting their hands together, Ester squeezed them. “That’s what you need to do. You’re young, and Archer gets irritable if he doesn’t get regular pussy.”
“Ester!” he chastised, but his mother seemed impervious because she sauntered away to her own purse and raked inside for a minute before coming back.
“A present from me to you, son,” she said, slapping something down onto the table and then lifting her hand to reveal it.
Nya laughed when she registered the two wrapped blue pills and covered her mouth with her hand, but it was too late to conceal her amusement.
Her love wasn’t entertained. “What the fuck is that?” Archer asked.
Ester came right over to Nya and lowered to whisper in her ear. “Sometimes he gets performance anxiety when his mom is in the next room.”
Nya knew Archer didn’t appreciate the grin that twisted her lips, but she’d never heard anyone talk of him this way and it was clear that it riled him. “I’ve never had any performance problems,” he said. “And who the fuck carries Viagra around in their purse like it’s gum?”
“I do,” Ester said, holding up both hands as if it was something to be proud of. “When you get to my age, son, sometimes the talent isn’t as lively as us ladies need it to be.”
Now Nya did laugh and had to curl into Archer to bury her face against him because her hands just wouldn’t pass muster. “Right, enough, you need to sleep,” he said, pointing at his mother. Grabbing Nya’s hair at the back of her head, he pulled her away from his chest. “And you’re not going fucking anywhere, you know it. Both of you, bedroom.”
So she was to sleep with his mother. Nya could understand that he wouldn’t want either of them in the living room alone. Her because he was worried for her safety, and his mother because he was worried for his liquor.
“Both of you, go to bed,” he said, pushing and cajoling them both down the hallway, into the bedroom. Pulling back the blankets before he took two tee shirts from the drawer, he tossed one to each of the women.
“You should have sex,” Ester said and tried to walk to the door. “Don’t mind me.”
Archer put an arm out to catch her shoulders and urge her back. “We’ll have sex when you’re sober and out of here. Now get in the fucking bed and go to sleep.” Ester began to get undressed, Archer turned his back, pulling Nya in front of him as he went. “She’ll be out fast, she always is. She’ll chatter for a minute and then she’ll start snoring.”
“What about you?” Nya asked.
“I’ll be on the couch if you need me.”
Now it made sense why he had a super long, super wide couch. Nya had always thought it was a strange purchase because it had to have been expensive, and yet he always stood at the back of it. The only time he enjoyed it was when he was enjoying her. Now she knew it doubled as a bed for him when Ester was around.
“Ok,” Nya said. “I’ll look after her.”
He cleared his throat. “Did she say anything? You know…?”
“Inappropriate?” Nya asked, grinning again. “Just about every word that comes out of her mouth is inappropriate. She’s fabulous. I love her.”
He blinked, his expression went completely blank and then confusion became curiosity. “You like her?”
“Why wouldn’t I? She’s a blast. She says exactly what she thinks.” Nya got closer. “She even promised to teach me a few techniques for dealing with your monster,” she said, batting his groin.
He caught her wrist and yanked it high. “You fucking dare talk about that—”
Nya laughed. “I’m kidding,” she said, stroking his face with the hand he hadn’t captured. “I’d never talk to her about our sex life. But I do love her and even though you’re a complete bastard and I hate you for what you did to me tonight, I do love you too.”
“Aww,” Ester wailed, coming closer until she was beside them, wearing Archer’s tee shirt. She wrapped an arm around both of their backs and pushed them together as she pulled herself close. “You should totally screw now.”
Nya made strained eye contact with Archer when Ester backed up a step. “We’ll wait ‘til you’re asleep,” Nya said to appease Ester.
Archer kissed both women’s heads and went to the door. “I’ll be out here if you need me,” he said.
“We’ll be fine,” Nya replied, ushering Ester to the bed and laying her down.
Yes, he was a bastard and there were several issues they had to address, but they weren’t going to fight in front of his mother, so those issues would have to keep until after they’d all gotten a good night’s sleep.
On coming out of the bedroom, Nya paused in the hallway. Opposite her, she could hear the shower on in the bathroom. To the left, when she craned to listen, she heard the tone of some daytime TV chat show.
Nope. Archer had to be in the shower. There w
as just no way that he would be watching something like that. Plus, from here, she had a clear view straight to the front door. If Archer was here, he’d be standing at the back of the couch, blocking her view of the exit.
Trying the bathroom door and finding it unlocked, she closed it as quietly as she could and slipped out of the tee shirt he’d given her to wear last night. Creeping forward, Nya paid as little attention as she could to the pipe she’d once called home and let her hand snake around the curtain.
Edging the fabric aside, just enough for her to see, she saw he was washing soap from his face. As soon as her hand made contact with his ass, his snapped down to grab her wrist. Spinning around, he was growling, like he was ready for a fight.
But she smiled and pushed her shoulders back. “Don’t be mad, I have tits you can play with,” she said and his grip changed from aggressive to supportive as he pulled her arm higher to help her over the edge of the bath into the stream of water with him.
“Don’t fucking do that,” he said, pulling the shower curtain rings right to the end of the pole.
Stroking her hands over his abdomen and up to his chest, she purred out her delight at being so close to his naked form. With her fingers spread wide, she sank her mouth onto his chest and tasted as much of him as she could.
“I realized that’s the first time I’ve slept in that bed and not got laid,” she said, giving him only a brief view of her smile before she went back to her kissing.
“So you thought you’d come in here and change that?” he asked. “My mom’s in the kitchen.”
“She’s watching TV,” Nya whispered. “She won’t care.” Maybe she would, Nya didn’t know for sure. But the uncertainty didn’t prevent her skimming her hands down his ribs, over his obliques to his hips, and then curling both hands around his proud dick that was already trying to say good morning. “Have I persuaded you?”
He was already fondling her breasts, tweaking her nipples, and rubbing his face in her wet hair. “When do I ever need to be persuaded?” he asked, grabbing her shoulders and spinning her around to plant her back on the wall.
Scarred (Branded Book 2) Page 13
