by Haley Jenner
Moving to sit, I begin tugging at the hem of his shirt before he works to pull it over his head. I run my hands across his muscled chest, down his defined stomach and back up his sides, coming to an abrupt stop when I reach his ribcage. I lift my head to meet his eyes and he’s watching me intently. Flicking my eyes back down, my eyes widen, focusing on his very own Maple Leaf, one mirroring my own – inked into his skin.
"Only way I could think to keep you with me," he whispers and for just a moment, the pain that has seized my heart for years, eases, if only slightly and I can breathe.
Urgently my lips meet his once again and our kiss is greedy as we try to consume one another after so long apart. My hands work at his pants, pulling on his zipper desperately, needing to feel him against me completely. Standing quickly, Archer removes the rest of his clothes and I can't help the groan that escapes my lips when he springs free, his erection straining. He doesn’t hesitate to climb back over my body as I wrap my legs around his waist, pulling him closer. Our bodies settle into place easily, remembering how well they fit. "What do you need, baby?" Archer’s voice is rough, giving away the desperation he feels as he runs the tip of his tongue along the soft spot under my ear.
"Inside. I need you inside me. I want to feel you." I loosen my grip around his waist to allow him the space he needs to position himself at my entrance.
He watches me closely as he pushes slowly inside; making my body feel full, making my body stretch to accommodate his size. "Fuck, baby, you're so tight. So good," he groans, pausing when he fills me completely to lean forward and kiss me softly.
My hips tilt upwards, my body seeking relief; encouraging him to move. Archer’s groan at the movement is deep. "Belle, baby, I feel like I'm gonna blow. Just give me a sec.”
I smile up at him, reaching up to pull his bottom lip between my teeth. His wicked grin transforms his face before he kisses me, stroking his tongue expertly against mine. Breaking our kiss, Archer pulls out slowly before sliding lazily back in, his eyes locked with mine, one hand tangled through my hair. I wrap my hands around his neck and pull him down, wanting to feel his weight on me and his hard chest meets my oversensitive nipples, making me gasp at the contact.
Our lips meet intermittently as he makes love to me, watching me intently; wanting to see every breath, every moan, and every touch. My climax comes first; my entire body tightening, my back arching before it convulses into spasms. My fingernails claw into his muscled back, my groan muted as my teeth sink into his shoulder. If possible, Archer lengthens farther inside me as a guttural groan meets my ears. He thrusts inside me; once, twice, before he stills, emptying himself into my welcoming body, his teeth meeting my neck on his release.
I move my lips over the bite mark on his shoulder in a soft kiss as he lightly drags the tip of his tongue across his mark decorating my neck. Habit; an intimacy we’ve shared countless times. Archer pulls back after a short while and searches my eyes, for what I'm not sure, before leaning in to kiss me softly. I whimper at the loss when he pulls himself from my body and he smiles, arranging my body like so many times before; my back to his chest. Bending one of his strong thighs between my legs, he pulls my hips tightly back against his own. One arm slides under my pillow, essentially sitting under my neck as the other is slung over my body. Burying his nose in my hair, he breathes in deeply before planting a soft kiss to the base of my neck. I sigh in contentment, the alcohol and orgasm clouding my better judgement as I fall into a restful sleep, tangled up with the man who has caused me immeasurable pain, but whom I know I still love with every part of me.
Archer
Placing another soft kiss at the base of her neck, I hear her sigh in fulfillment as she wiggles her ass back into my body, attempting to get closer. My dick twitches at the feeling and I suppress a groan.
Within minutes her breathing evens out as she drifts into sleep, mumbling to herself and my lips quirk up in a grin. Fuck, I love that she still talks in her sleep; it’s one of the million things I miss about her. First time she told me she loved me, she was falling asleep, granted, she didn't remember in the morning and it took her a few more weeks to come out with it in a coherent state. But it's still one of my favorite memories. Pain radiates through my chest; consequence of remembering all the things I’ve thrown away in life and I pull Belle in closer as I attempt to escape my own thoughts. After a few deep breaths, my body relaxes against hers and just before I fall asleep, I hear it. It's almost inaudible, but I hear it all the same, as if she's screamed it for the world to hear.
"I love you, Arch."
Chapter Thirty-Two
Archer
My eyes travel the length of her body as she sleeps on her stomach. Face pointed to the opposite wall, her thick brown hair falls across her shoulders and naked back, the sheet only just covering the pout of her beautiful round ass.
My cock is rock hard, throbbing with the need to be buried deep inside her once again. I’ve spent the last 3 years jacking off to the memory of her, memories that couldn’t come close to the reality. Fuck, last night sliding inside her after all these years was ecstasy. My cock twitches at the memory and I need to be inside her again. I need to feel her gripping my cock; milking it.
Trailing the tip of my tongue from the dip of her ass along the length of her spine, I groan at the taste of her skin. Planting a wet kiss below her ear, I inhale her flowered scent, mixed with sex. It’s intoxicating, driving my urge for her wild.
She’s awake and I watch as her brown eyes flicker open, unsure as she blinks her surroundings into focus. Her body tenses almost immediately under my own and I know she’s hesitating, considering pushing my touch away. I can’t let that happen. I need to show her, remind her that she belongs to me. Show her how well her body responds to me, how good I can make her feel, how intense our intimacy can be. I need her to remember that our love fires everything. That the overwhelming want we have for one another is a side effect of that love.
Dropping soft kisses down her neck and along her shoulder, I ghost my fingers up the crease of her ass, up her spine and back down her side along the swell of her perfect tits. Her face turns into the pillow, her body rising slightly as she attempts to gather her senses while her body betrays her brain – thank fuck. Her skin breaks out in goosebumps at my barely there touches and I smile to myself, rising to my knees over her ass. She’s completely on show, laid bare for my eyes and I take the opportunity, palming my hands up her back and around to her full tits. Flicking her nipples between my thumb and index fingers, I’m rewarded when her neck arches in pleasure, her lips breaking open to moan my name. Languidly, she pushes her body upward, onto her knees, keeping her elbows braced on the bed, as her round ass pushes into the underside of my straining cock. If heaven is a place – this is it. Guaran-fucking-teed. I groan as I pull her hips back to rest my cock tightly between the globes of her ass and moving a hand across down her soft stomach I reach for her.
“Are you wet for me Belle Baby?” I speak softly against the skin of her neck and she whimpers in response.
It’s desperate.
It’s needy.
It’s music to fucking my ears.
A feral growl escapes my lips as I reach the small patch of soft curls at the apex of her thighs; she’s drenched and I slip a finger easily inside her. “FUCK Belle. Feel how wet you are for me? How well your body responds to me?"
I stroke the sweet spot inside of her at my leisure, sliding my other hand down to work her clit and her body shudders involuntarily as her warmth grips my finger tightly.
"More," she begs, completely unashamed of the neediness in her throat and I give her what she wants, adding a second finger to her narrow heat.
Tracing the shell of her ear with my tongue, I bite down on her earlobe, inciting a muffled groan. “Your pussy is mine, Belle. All. Fucking. Mine. Baby."
Belle’s body has always been greedy to my touch, never having any hesitation to use my body – any part of it – to get her the
re. She’s vocal, not shy in telling me what she wants or needs. Now is no different, her body instinctively fucks my finger, making her ass push deliciously against my dick. Come is already beading at my head, I’m delirious with my need to feel her grip my cock. Pulling my finger from her wetness, I spread it into the crease of her ass, my face breaking into a grin at her throaty groan; my baby still loves ass play.
Hell-fucking-yeah!
Thrusting my finger back into her heat, I use the thumb of my opposite hand to put pressure on the tight hole of her ass. Her head flies back at the feeling and her whole body convulses, her pussy gripping my finger like a vice, throbbing through her climax as she screams for me. “ARCH. BABY. YE-ES!”
Her juices coat my tongue as I lick my fingers clean, her husky post-climatic laugh causing my heart to stutter in my chest. Her head drops to the bed, her body languid from her orgasm. Her breaths are coming out in short, sharp bursts as after-shocks continue to rack through her body. I don’t give her a second to come down from her high and with a firm grip I pull tightly on her hips lining the head of my cock at her entrance.
“Gonna fuck you hard, baby.”
She looks over her shoulder biting her lip, her eyes drunk with want and my eyes hold contact with hers as I slam into her, burying myself to the hilt in one powerful thrust. The cords of my neck are tight, strained as my head flies back on a shout of relief. She’s warm and wet and soft like silk, her tight little pussy firm in its grasp, stretching to accommodate me after her orgasm.
I twist her thick brown hair around my hand to keep her neck arched, my hold causing her ass to tilt farther, allowing me deeper access. Belle attempts to move herself on my cock, but my grip on her hair and hip is hard enough to stop her getting the relief she so desperately wants. “Please baby,” she begs, all urgency and need.
I slowly pull my cock from her heat. “See how well we fit, Belle Baby? How good this feels? Like you were made for me, Belle, like your pussy is molded solely for my cock.” I slam back into her in another powerful thrust.
Her soft cries are desperate and my will almost cracks, my want to hammer inside of her fast and hard, very nearly winning out. “Arch. Baby, faster. Please.”
I lazily remove my cock from her channel once again, a whimper escaping her lips as she attempts to back onto my straining erection. I palm her ass before bringing my hand down in a hard sting, burying myself inside her again and causing more wetness to coat my cock. I rub my hand across her ass soothingly before I grab hold of her hips in a vice like grip.
“Ready, baby?”
Her soft moan is the only encouragement I need. My thrusts come hard and fast, the sounds of slapping flesh, her desperate cries for relief and my guttural groans echoing in my ears.
I feel like I’m home again. Like I’ve been gifted a second chance at the life I was supposed to have. I feel free. Connected. Slamming into Belle’s eager body, over and over again, I feel like we’re right where we’re supposed to be. Where we’ve always supposed to be. Together.
Belle’s pussy starts throbbing, tightening around my cock as I near orgasm. Her entire body convulses on a loud cry, her climax coating my cock as her inner walls milk my release. “ARCH. YES. OH! FUCK!”
Tingles begin at the bottom of my spine, travelling upward and igniting every nerve ending right before I explode inside of her.
“BELLE…. BABY…FUCK!” I bellow into the quiet of the room and deep-seated, I still as the final surge of my release empties inside of her willing body.
Our breathing is heavy as I watch myself fall from her body, my seed dripping down, decorating her creamy thighs. Leaning over her back, I plant a soft kiss to the dip of her spine and see it. Clear as day. The moment she tenses and works to push me away. She moves fast, pushing me back in her haste to get off the bed, working quickly to put the physical distance she needs between us.
“You’ve now fucked me twice without a condom. When was the last time you were tested? You’ve given me enough shit in life, Archer, I don’t need to add an STD to the list,” her tone is harsh, as icy as her stare and even her standing before me completely naked doesn’t cool my anger.
Standing, I stalk towards her. “You practically begged for it last night,” I grit my words out between clenched teeth, making her recoil. “Needed me inside and now you have the fucking audacity to throw that shit at me,” I hiss. “Trust me when I tell you I’m clean, you are the only woman that’s ever felt me bare. What about you, Annabelle, you clean?” I accuse.
I watch as the dark brown tone of her eyes shade to black, murderous in their glare as she slaps me; fair across the fucking face. Taking a step closer she moves onto her toes, so we’re almost nose to nose and her next words are spoken quietly, completely void of emotion. “I made sure I got tested after I let the last guy fuck me because I wasn’t too sure where he’d been.”
I breathe through my nose; thoughts of Belle with any other man, especially bare, fucking with my head. Anger radiates from the both of us and she watches me for only a second or two more before she takes the knife she’d lodged in my chest and twists it. “See, Archer, the last man I let fuck me, also broke my heart and on the nights he would actually come home, to this very house, if he wasn’t passed out in his own vomit, he usually smelled of some other bitch’s perfume.”
She doesn’t attempt to stop the tears falling from her eyes as I forget how to breathe. “Now, get the fuck away from me,” she spits before turning her back on me and walking away. I can’t help myself when I grab for her wrist, but I drop my hand in defeat when she screams so loudly her voice cracks. “DON'T FUCKING TOUCH ME."
I watch as she rushes into the bathroom, hearing the lock click into place as I take my first breath in what feels like forever, slowly dressing. My mind is screaming at me to wait her out, to talk her through this. Fuck, she can't actually think I touched another woman when we were together? I want to tell her no, that she’s wrong, that that never happened, but right now she won’t be able to see past her anger. At this moment, she wants to hate me, has probably convinced herself she needs too. So in her rage, she’d cling to her doubt. She needs to be calm when I take those doubts away, it’s the only way she’ll see the sincerity in my eyes. It’s the only way she’ll actually believe me. So, against my better judgement, against my screaming conscious, I leave. Walking from our home, my head once again, a fucking train wreck.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Annabelle
I walk through the hospital, my mind pre-occupied. Yesterday I was so panicked to be inside this building, to see Janie, to know she was okay, to see her with my own eyes. Today, my mind works overtime on recalling every last detail of the past 15 hours. I can still feel him inside my body. I feel it in the rawness of the skin on my neck from his unshaven face. In the swell of my lips, still bruised from his kisses. In the red bite mark decorating my neck. In the tenderness between my legs.
For the first time in years I can clearly recall the sound of his voice, his smell, the feel of his body, his taste and as much as I hate to admit it to myself, all I can feel is relief.
I over reacted this morning. Archer was right; I did beg him to touch me last night. I needed, craved only the comfort he could bring. Even this morning, he touched me and no matter how hard my brain warned me against it, my body gave in without an inclination of fight.
It’s actually frightening how easily I fell into him again. I’ve been home for less than 24 hours and I all but threw myself at him. It’s pathetic. I'm pathetic. But in the same way it’s shameful and humiliating, it’s exposed the weaknesses, I’d convinced myself, were no longer there. It reinforces my need to keep my emotional distance; I cannot and will not let Archer Dean break me again. I wouldn't survive it. I can’t let myself read into Archer’s intentions and fire the hope I’d sworn myself away from. It’s been three years. Three long years of hell. Of slowly piecing the shattered pieces of my heart back together. I have to fight to keep the wall I’
ve built, up. It’s not strong, built with only the scraps of self-survival I could muster; the smallest wind could break it down. So keeping my distance is the only way; physically, mentally, emotionally – any way I can.
Reaching Janie's room, I freeze in the doorway watching Archer fuss over his Mom. Through my internal turmoil I didn't give consideration to the chance that he would be here. He notices me before Janie does, his hard mask falling into place immediately, making me uncomfortable. Ignoring his glare, I smile awkwardly as I enter the room.
"Hey, baby girl," Janie says, greeting me with a half-smile.
Leaning forward to kiss her forehead I can see the pain marring her features and my brows furrow in concern. Archer picks up on my worry, but his tone is empty when he speaks to reassure me. "Pain relief after the surgery has worn off slightly, so she's feelin' the discomfort a little more. Already addressed it, don't stress."
Easily sensing our tension Janie sighs loudly, drawing both our attention. "When you’re in this room, you’ll be friendly to one another. Leave your shit outside, understand?" she snaps eyeing both of us purposefully.
We both nod our heads and take a seat, trying to get comfortable, both too stubborn to accept the awkwardness and leave. Silence ensues before I finally clear my throat, talking softly. "Janie, I'm staying in town, for a while at least. I'll be here to help, until you get back on your feet."
I feel Archer's eyes burning into the side of my face and fight every urge I have to turn to him. "Don't let us keep you from your life in Bellingham. We know this isn't your home anymore." He lays the venom on thick and the anger I felt this morning rushes back through my veins. I hate being on this side of his attitude, his inability to be able to take a second to look at things clearly.
