by Riley Ashby
“How long has it been since someone apologized to you for wronging you?”
She let her hands slide down her face and to her sides as she thought. “A long time.”
I fell back and laid next to her for a while. I didn’t bring up what had made me run out in the first place. I waited to see if she would, but she said nothing.
“You need to sleep,” I said finally, sitting up and walking over to my bag.
She propped herself on her elbows. “Where are you going to sleep?”
“Right fucking here,” I said, harsher than I intended. “I don’t want you going anywhere. I’ll sleep on the floor.”
“Why did you leave me in the first place if you’re going to play the prison guard now?”
I couldn’t help but smile a little. There was the missing anger. I’d pissed her off, but the fear and exhilaration of her near abduction had tamped it down. Finally, she was showing it.
I couldn’t look at her, but I could be honest with her. “Because you scare me, okay? I can’t get you out of my head, and you insist on torturing me. Our relationship should be professional, but you keep … existing.”
She scoffed. “So sorry my existence offends. Except … you know what? I’m not. All you’d have to do is admit you feel something for me, and we could try something together. Work out rules, even. But you insist on keeping me at arm’s length and making me feel bad about myself.”
I yanked one of the pillows off the bed along with the top sheet and threw them on the floor at the foot of the bed. “Fine, Josie. You turn me on, and it makes me hard when you call me Daddy and do what I tell you to do. You want to get on my good side and stay there? Do those things. Obey me, and maybe I’ll fuck you. Would that make you happy?”
She looked shocked, her jaw nearly on the floor.
“Shut your jaw and answer me.”
She closed her mouth, swallowed. “Y-yes. I think.”
She was half wrapped in the comforter and sheets already, tangled hair wild around her head. She’d been like that in the hospital too, always cocooning herself in whatever fabric was available. I wondered if she’d always sought comfort in texture and fluff, or if she ever slept through the night peacefully. If the need for comfort was instinctual or a result of her trauma.
I tugged the comforter away from her, revealing her knees pulled up to her chest and her injured hand held protectively against her breasts. Her face was placid, but her breathing came quick, lips parting as she looked up at me.
I should have been gentle with her. Better yet, I should have let her go to sleep. But she looked so hungry, sitting up straight with a strange mixture of hope and fear on her face. I thought about the shifting from the bed as she rubbed her thighs together all night, the night I kissed her against the door when she thought I was asleep in my own apartment. I’d sat outside all night listening to her little moans, wondering if she would pleasure herself, but she held off.
At the very least, I owed her an orgasm.
I put one hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her on to her back. She shifted beneath me, eyelids fluttering as I climbed onto the mattress with her.
“Archer?” She gasped as I pushed her legs apart and knelt between them. “What’s ...?”
“I think,” I muttered, “I know why you didn’t listen to me before.” I lowered myself to her level, stomach flat on the mattress and my face level with her pussy. “I think I know how to guarantee you’ll obey.”
“Yeah?” she whispered. “How is …?”
I pressed my nose into that soft space where her thighs met and inhaled.
“Oh!” She cried out as she arched her back.
“You smell like I imagined you would,” I said. “Were you thinking about me all day while you were alone? I bet you never left my bed, even after I told you to. Is that why your pussy smells so sweet?”
“Y-yes,” she stammered. She squirmed, pushing herself harder against my face and mouth. I placed my hands on her thighs to hold her down.
“You want me to touch you here? Kiss you here?” I opened my mouth and scraped my teeth against her. I could feel her swollen labia pressing against my lips through the fabric. She was so turned on, it had to hurt.
“God, yes.”
“Then you do what I say.”
“Yes.”
“You listen to my commands.”
“Yes …”
“You no longer try to investigate who is sending the photos.”
“Yes! Yes, just, please—”
“You promise to be good, give me no more shit, and I’ll let you come right now.”
“I swear. Please, Archer, I need it!”
Her leggings were all too easy to pull down, her pussy all too pink and smooth for me to bear it as I finally looked at her. She was even more gorgeous up close than she had been when she was underneath me this morning, when I was so close to fucking her it was a miracle I’d been able to pull myself back.
“My pretty baby has such a gorgeous pussy,” I muttered, almost to myself, and she groaned.
“Just lick it, Archer, goddamn.”
“Is that any way to talk to your daddy?” When I pursed my lips and blew softly against the wet skin, she spread her legs wider, opening herself even more. Christ, she was soaking. How did she get so wet so fast?
I should be punishing her, not giving her what she’d been begging for, but I was too far gone to stop now.
“Say you’re sorry for talking back. Apologize for going outside without me.”
“I’m sorry!”
“You’re sorry, what?”
“I’m sorry, Daddy. I won’t do it again.”
“That’s a good girl.” I touched the tip of my tongue to the hood covering her clit, and she let out a high-pitched moan.
“Keep making those sounds, baby, and everyone will hear. Is that what you want?”
“No, yes, what do you want me to say?”
“I want you to keep quiet while I eat this delicious pussy. Do you think you can do that?”
“Yes … I’ll try.”
“Try hard, baby.” I closed the final distance and licked the entire length of her.
She couldn’t keep her promise for one damn second, hips arching and a loud moan sounding into the room, but I didn’t care. I goaded her higher, further, as my tongue probed deep inside her where my cock wanted to be. Her inner walls clamped down on my tongue, trying to draw me in deeper, but I pulled out and licked my way up to her clit. Her moans grew louder as I teased her more and more. The little nub grew beneath my lips, swollen and protruding, and before I knew it, I was hooking my hands underneath her ass to pull her tighter against my face.
“God, Archer, you eat pussy so good.” Her hips bucked against my mouth as I sucked up every drop of her that I could get, my own hips slamming into the mattress to stoke that delicious friction for myself. I still wasn’t truly satisfied after she sucked me off. I needed to be in her, and it would happen at some point. We just had to find the right time.
I attacked her relentlessly, endlessly, until the graze of my teeth against her clit sent her soaring. She pulled the comforter into her mouth to stifle her scream as she came on my face and my lips, and I sucked on her clit all the harder while she rode her pleasure as far as it could go. She fell back onto the mattress, completely spent, chest slowing as she caught her breath.
I climbed up her body an inch at a time, kissing her stomach and then her chest through her shirt. I was acutely aware I still hadn’t been able to suck on those tits, hadn’t been able to hold them in my hands, and it was suddenly all I could do not to throw aside the last of my restraint and fuck her right then. But her eyes were only half open and her mouth slack. After all that’d she gone through today, she was exhausted and needed to rest.
“Lie down now and go to sleep.”
She nodded and rolled to her side, hands reaching for me. “Stay with me. It’s okay now, right?”
I looked over at the pillow
and sheet by the door, then back at the sleepy girl underneath me. She was right, there was no pretense anymore. Someone would have heard her for sure.
“Remember what you promised me,” I whispered as I shifted behind her, pulling her butt against my hips, trying to talk down my excited cock from keeping her up any longer. “Get some rest. We have a lot to talk about tomorrow.”
She was asleep in moments, her chest rising and falling beneath my arms.
It took me a lot longer to claim sleep for myself.
I braced the next morning for him to push me out again or go running, but we laid for a long time in half-consciousness as his fingers trailed up and down my arms.
“Are you okay?” He rolled me to face him, peering into my eyes as if he were trying to see to the back of my head. “Any fear? Nightmares?”
I shook my head. “I knew you were here.”
He scoffed a little. “I almost wasn’t. I need you to remember that. I knew you left the apartment because I put a tracker on your phone without you knowing.”
I raised my eyebrows, but I wasn’t all that surprised.
“And right now,” he continued, “I’m trying to resist the urge to handcuff you to me.”
I slid my leg between his. “I’m not sure I’d mind that.”
He pushed his face into my hair, kissing my neck. “I don’t think I would, either, but there are things you need besides me fucking you into unconsciousness.”
I pushed closer to him, wishing he’d make good on that promise now, but a knock on the door reminded us we were not in my apartment and far from alone.
“What is it?” Archer’s voice was gruff from sleep, and he cleared his throat.
“It’s Tori. I’ve been sent to tell you we’re about to sit down for breakfast.”
“We’ll be right down,” Archer replied wearily, extracting himself from me.
“Let’s stay,” I whispered, catching his hands. “I don’t want to see them. They’re strangers to me.”
“I don’t know them well either, and Castel’s about to give me a world of shit, but there are things we need to do today—things I need to do, at least. Go on, get dressed.”
No matter how much I dragged my feet, Archer was ushering me out of the bedroom soon enough. When we stepped into the rest of the house, everything about him changed. He stood apart from me; no guiding hand on my back or touches on my shoulder. It was clear what message he was trying to send—what happened didn’t leave the bedroom in the slightest.
Everyone was staring at us as we entered the main dining room. Sophie, Tori, Ellery, and Vail looked hastily back at their food, but Castel actually stood, staring daggers at Archer.
“Sleep well?” he asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Well enough,” Archer answered, feigning nonchalance. He was stiff as he pulled out his chair and sat next to me.
The six of us ate in silence before Tori finally spoke up. “Vail and I have a morning yoga practice on the lawn if you’d like to join us, Josie. I can modify the sequence so you don’t put pressure on your hand.”
I looked at my fingers, considering this. I was sore from my days of lifting with Archer, so stretch might feel nice.
“We have a workout to do,” Archer said simply. I stared at him but said nothing. He didn’t want me to do yoga, so I wouldn’t do yoga. It was the least I could do after yesterday.
“Sometimes it’s helpful to mix it up,” Vail offered, looking back and forth between us nervously.
Castel’s silverware clattered on his plate as he dropped them. “Can’t let go for one fucking second, Bryce? Glad to see you took what I said to heart.”
Archer glared at him. “Literally every time I leave her, she runs off and endangers herself. So no, I’m not fucking ‘letting go.’ We’ll do our workout together where I can keep an eye on her.”
“It’s not like I’ll be alone,” I whispered. He snapped his head toward me. “I’ll be good.”
“Jesus Christ,” Castel muttered.
Archer slammed down his utensils and stood. “You got something to say to me, Austen?”
Castel stayed in his chair. “You know exactly what I have to say.” He looked at Ellery. “Can you back me up here?”
Ellery shook his head. “Me? Seriously?” He pointed at Sophie. “I kidnapped her. I don’t exactly have any ground to stand on.”
“Can we not do this right now?” Tori stood and grabbed Vail, beckoning to me. I stood slowly, Archer’s attention focused on Castel. “There’s too much testosterone in this room. We’re going outside. Archer, I’ll be right there with her.”
Still, I looked at him for assurance it was okay for me to go. He hesitated, then jerked his head in a nod. Sophie joined us in our rush out the door.
“Hot damn,” Tori muttered as we walked into the sunlight. “Nothing like a good old alpha male stand-off to get your blood moving in the morning.”
“Why is Castel angry with Archer?” I dared to ask, looking at my companions. We stopped at a smaller cottage a few thousand yards from the house, and Tori ducked inside, returning with yoga mats and towels.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Vail asked, cocking her head at me. “Archer should be keeping his hands off you, but anyone with eyes can tell there’s something going on. Castel’s pissed about it.”
“Jeez, Vail, a little tact?” Sophie glared at her, then put her hand on my shoulder. “We don’t need to talk about that.”
A block of ice settled in my stomach. I hadn’t thought much about how our relationship would look to other people since we had gone for so long without seeing anyone. I forgot there would be more people with opinions about what this looked like.
“That’s not what it’s like,” I muttered, but I didn’t sound convincing even to myself. I squared my shoulders and tried to look like I knew what I was talking about. “Look, it’s not anyone’s business, but I’m the one who went after him. He pushed me off him more times than I can count.”
“But he’s not pushing you away now.” Tori didn’t look at me as she spread out the yoga mats one by one.
I looked at the ground. I couldn’t answer. “You said we would do yoga?”
Tori raised an eyebrow with a smirk but didn’t say anything. “Stand here.”
All I knew about yoga was downward-facing dog, but Tori helped me modify every pose so I didn’t have to use my wrists or hands to support myself so much. The muscles and tendons in my palms protested at the stretch and weight, but I made it through the practice without collapsing. Afterward, I lay panting on my back, staring at the sky. I hadn’t realized how much I missed being outside. This was different than being outside in the city with the traffic and people and smog. There was a lush garden and trees on the horizon instead of buildings. The Kings had carved out a little oasis here.
I couldn’t wait to get back to the apartment.
“I need to find Archer,” I said, rising to my feet as the other women looked at me.
“Is everything all right?” Little Sophie was such a mother already, rising from her own reclined position to walk alongside me as I hurried back to the house.
“I need to see if he’s okay. I don’t like the idea of Castel beating into him over something that I’m totally on board with.”
“How long has it been since you talked to anyone besides him?”
I scowled. Sophie and I had forged something of a connection while I was still enslaved, but I didn’t appreciate her digging into my personal life now. “I see a therapist since everyone’s so interested. But Archer’s the only one I want to talk to.”
“I enjoyed hanging out with you this morning.”
I forced myself to be polite. “It was nice to spend time with you too. But right now, I need to talk to Archer.”
We paused outside an ornate wooden door, hearing the rising voices coming through from the other side.
“You know that won’t be enough. You two got off on the completely wrong foot. A new job is th
e least of it.”
I tensed. He said he wasn’t going to be heading back East for at least a few more weeks. And now, after what we went through yesterday, he was going to take off without me?
Sophie tried to hold me back, but I burst through the door into what looked like a home office. “What the hell are you talking about?” I could hear the hysterical pitch in my voice, but I didn’t care. “Were you going to leave without telling me?”
Archer grabbed my arms and steered me out of the room, away from Sophie’s pity and Castel’s glower.
“You need to get a hold of yourself,” he whispered, leading me back to the room we’d slept in the night before.
“I think I’m perfectly justified. You’re out there making plans to leave me …”
“Josie, calm down.”
“… and you weren’t even going to tell me about it!”
“Don’t let yourself get worked up. Nothing has changed with regard to my future plans. I’m still going to get my job back. We’ll still have to find you a new keeper.”
I swallowed thickly, willing myself not to cry. What, we hook up once, and I completely lose my head? I really was pathetic.
“You can’t take off without warning me, at least.”
“I can promise that much,” he assented.
I thought he’d let me fall and go back to his business, but he held me close for a while longer. Our breathing synced, chests pushing against each other as his head slowly fell toward mine, and he captured my lips once more.
“You’re still mine for now,” he said with my lower lip between his teeth. “Don’t go getting any new ideas.”
I will be yours for so much longer. I had to believe that. He wouldn’t really run off on me, not when it came down to it.
“What about your mom?” It broke the spell, but he hadn’t even mentioned her since the phone call. “Don’t you need to go see her or something?”
He frowned as he stepped back.
“She doesn’t want to see me.”
My heartbeat slowed at the ice in his voice. “Why not?”
“It’s complicated. I don’t want to talk about it.”
He grabbed my hands and pulled me to him, crushing his lips against mine. I waited for him to pull back, to keep me from reciprocating, but he lingered. He let me kiss him back.
