by Lora Leigh
Turning back to her, Archer placed himself in front of the door before crossing his arms over his chest and glaring down at her.
“Oh, and don’t you just look so damned arrogant and commanding,” she mocked, but despite the anger, he could see a hint of tears in her eyes.
Damn, he wasn’t about to lie to her, period. But right now he almost wished he’d been able to lie to her. To tell her he would have come for her. To tell her he wouldn’t have let her stay away much longer. Or would it have been a lie?
“We’re going to talk about this, Anna—”
“We’re not talking about a damned thing,” she informed him furiously. “I don’t have to have all my clothes to leave, Archer. I can easily just wear what I have on.” She brushed her hand down the front of the T-shirt she’d stolen from him before flipping her fingers toward him contemptuously.
His dick was hardening.
Dammit.
He needed a clear head, not one burning with lust.
“Don’t make me tear that shirt off you, Anna,” he warned her with the utmost gentleness, determined to remain calm.
“Don’t make you tear it off me?” Incredulity filled those wounded green eyes as she stared back at him, as though he were a slug that had crawled out from under a rock.
He felt like a slug, too.
“Who the hell do you think you are to believe you can dictate to me so cavalierly?”
He gave a low snort. “Cavalierly? Honey, don’t use that word too often in Sweetrock. Folks might think you’re beginning to get a little above your raisin’.”
*
She was going to go ballistic. Anna could feel the rage, pain, and fear growing inside her, and couldn’t seem to stem her response to the powerful dominance he was facing her with.
“You can’t make me stay here.” She was shaking with anger. But at least with the anger she didn’t have to face the pain any longer.
“No,” he agreed. “But if you make the mistake of stepping out the door I will ask Ivan Resnova to abduct you himself and make damned certain you don’t escape until all this is over.”
It wasn’t a threat. It was a declaration of intent, pure and simple, and Anna recognized it for what it was.
Archer didn’t deal in threats. They required effort, he’d once said. No, he simply stated what he would do, then acted accordingly.
In this case, she simply couldn’t see it happening, though.
“I highly doubt Mr. Resnova asks how high when you say jump.” Her fingers curled into fists as she ached to strike out.
Anywhere.
At anyone.
Oh God, she couldn’t bear this.
She had the feeling that if she just disappeared, no one would really miss her.
Sure, her family had tried to protect her over the years. They didn’t know her; they had no idea who she was. They wouldn’t miss who she was, because they had no idea who she was.
“No, he doesn’t ask how high,” Archer agreed. “Ivan runs a favor tab, sweetheart. And he believes he owes me for allowing him to continue to butt his nose into my investigations here. Trust me, he would do far more than abduct you if it meant he could continue to do so.”
“You honestly believe you can force me into giving in to you, simply because you know some damned Russian hoodlum with more money than good sense?”
“I do.” He nodded somberly, sending outrage surging through her. “Leave this house without my express permission, and, before the Slasher has a chance to even consider grabbing you, I’ll have Resnova’s men come for you. Before you can process the trip, you’ll be hidden so deep inside Mother Russia that even Resnova himself couldn’t find you without the Slashers’ heads on stakes to prove your continued safety. Do we understand each other?”
He wouldn’t dare.
Resnova wouldn’t dare.
No man had that kind of power to display.
Did they?
“You have no right to do this.” She was on the verge of stomping her foot, and that would only piss her off further. “Damn you, Archer, you can’t do this. It’s illegal.”
His smile was cold and filled with bitterness. “So are rape and murder, but someone in this County has been getting away with it for more than twelve years. I’ll be damned if I’ll allow them to add you to their list of victims.”
“And to thank you for keeping me alive I’m supposed to just spread my thighs for you and fuck you whenever you please now?” Heat was engulfing her, and it wasn’t just from the anger.
His grin was slightly less cool and without the bitterness. “Well, now that you mention it, that would be quite nice of you, Anna,” he replied with the utmost seriousness. “It will definitely make the time go by quicker, don’t you think?”
Eyes widening, her lips parting in shock, Anna could only stare back at him, certain he wasn’t as serious as he sounded.
“I absolutely refuse to deal with you any further,” she bit out furiously. Incredulous disbelief filled her. “Go ahead and call your buddy Resnova, Archer, because I’m not staying with you a moment longer.”
“Because you believe I had sex with you to draw the Slasher out?” he shot back at her as his eyes narrowed, his entire body tensing. “Anna, you know better than that.”
If only that were the reason. She wished she could say that was the only reason she was pissed. It wasn’t. It was the knowledge that, once again, she was pushing herself in somewhere she hadn’t been wanted.
Just as she had with her parents.
“Go to hell,” she snapped, the ragged, tear-thick sound of her voice another humiliation for her to bear.
She was fighting to keep her eyes dry, to keep from sobbing with the pain and fear she couldn’t seem to get a handle on.
“Or is it because I couldn’t tell you I was going to come tearing to California or France like some white knight, and declare my undying love?”
Hell, just declaring his undying need would have been nice.
It hurt. It tore a gaping wound into her heart and she had no idea how to repair it.
Anna turned away from him quickly to hide the overwhelming pain from his too-sharp gaze, to keep it to herself before she found herself dying of humiliation.
She wasn’t a child who believed in fairy tales, and she wasn’t waiting for Prince Charming to ride in on a white steed. But neither of those were love. And Anna knew she had loved Archer for most of her life. Loved him so much that she had no desire for another man’s touch, or another man’s kiss.
She’d waited for Archer, and now she wondered if the fairy tale had been believing that Archer was a man who even wanted to be loved.
“Leave me alone.” The demand was all she had left. “Just get the hell away from me, Archer.”
He could have at least allowed her the chance to run.
Before she could guess his intent, he gripped her arm, swung her around, then pulled her to him.
“The hell I will.” One hand buried in her hair, pulling her head back as his head lowered, his nose nearly touching hers, so close she could see the fiery sparks of fury deep in the predatory golden brown gaze now locked with hers. “You gave yourself to me, Anna. There’s no turning back. No turning back and no taking it back. Now I’ll be damned if I restrain myself from what I know we both want. And I’ll be damned if I let you leave.”
Anna didn’t have a chance to argue. She wasn’t even certain she could argue. As Archer’s lips pressed against hers heatedly, parting them, his tongue licking inside, Anna fought him and the pleasure. She knew, even as she did so, that she was fighting a losing battle.
Struggling against him, pushing at his shoulders, she struck out at him with her fists, and still her lips parted for him. Her tongue met his, and as he lifted her with his free arm beneath her rear, Anna lifted her knees and gripped his hips tight.
With the hard wedge of his cock centered on her sensitive pussy, Anna couldn’t help but move against him. Whimpering with pleasure and risin
g need she rode the iron-hard erection her body craved, torturing them both with the hunger.
“Not yet,” she cried out as he broke the kiss, but then she moved with him eagerly, helping him to dispose of their clothes, stripping, tossing them aside with a hunger that seemed to possess her.
The second they were both naked, his head lowered, lips parting and covering the tight, aching peak of her breast.
“God I love these pretty tits,” he groaned, cupping one with each hand, pressing them together, then licking and suckling at each tip until she was certain the pleasure would burn her alive.
He was destroying her with his touch. He always did. There was no way to fight it, no way to resist it.
It was so good. The pleasure-and-pain sensations were impossible to resist. They kept her on such a sharp edge she couldn’t fight them.
She didn’t want to fight them.
“I won’t let you go. Did you really think I would?” he growled.
She needed him far too much to deny him now. She would figure the rest of it out later. Right now, all she wanted was his possession and the release she could only find in his arms.
“Don’t make me wait, please, Archer,” she cried out, the melting ache in the depths of her vagina demanding the hard thrusts of his cock.
“Don’t make you wait?” he growled. “Don’t make you wait for what? For me to fuck you until we’re both dying of pleasure? For the release you know you’ll only find in my arms? Oh, baby, don’t worry, I’m all yours now.”
He was all hers for this moment. His tomorrows weren’t hers, but she was more than willing to give him all her tomorrows. And even amidst the blinding pleasure, she could feel the anger from that knowledge.
“Damn you, Archer, fuck me now. Fuck me like you mean it.”
“Oh, baby, I already mean it; every stroke, every cry I pull from your pretty lips, I mean every bit of it.”
And just as he had before, he pushed her to her stomach on the bed.
It was almost déjà vu as his hard hands gripped her hips and pulled her to her knees. With one hard knee he pressed her legs further apart before moving in behind her, his harder, stronger body completely dominating hers.
Anna couldn’t hold back her muted cry of sensual surrender as she felt the head of his cock press against the clenched entrance of her pussy. Her juices spilled from her inner flesh, slickening it, easing his way before gathering in the swollen folds and torturing the swollen bud of her clit.
“Archer.” Her fingers dug into the blankets beneath her as his hips pressed and rolled, impaling her flesh. The rubbing, stroking motion of the head of his cock stimulated naked, excited nerve endings to a fever pitch of pleasure as he came over her.
Bracing his weight on one powerful arm, his hand planted on the mattress next to hers, Anna felt Archer’s heated breaths next to her ear.
“Damn, I already love fucking you,” he groaned. “Feeling your tight little pussy all wet and hot, clenched around my dick, has to be the most exciting pleasure I’ve ever known.”
His voice was strained, tight, and filled with the audible proof of that pleasure as he slowly worked his cock inside her. Moving in and out, burying it to the hilt before pulling back and surging inside once again.
Thick and iron-hard, his erection caressed pinpoints so violently sensitive that her orgasm was only a breath away. She could feel the need for it burning through her, her hunger for it building with every second.
“Does it feel good, baby?” he groaned at her ear as his powerful hips began moving stronger, harder. Each stroke sent a burst of fiery pleasure radiating through her. She felt locked in a sensual swirl of such brilliant sensation that nothing mattered but pleasure and the drive to orgasm.
“Tell me you’re not leaving,” he demanded, his voice hoarse, his own pleasure building.
Anna was so lost in the ecstasy racing through her that she couldn’t fight, she couldn’t deny him, no matter what he wanted.
“Promise me, Anna.”
“Please don’t—”
“Promise me.” He surged inside her hard, his cock stretching her, burning her with pleasure. “Promise you won’t leave, Anna.”
“I won’t leave,” she cried out, knowing even as she said it, she lied. “I won’t leave, Archer. Please—”
Pulling back, his hard body tight, powerful as his hands gripped her hips, holding her steady as he let loose the hunger tearing through both of them.
Control was a thing of the past. Anna couldn’t help but lose herself in his touch, and if he hadn’t lost himself in her touch, then he was doing a damned good impression of it.
With each hard, heavy stroke he pushed her higher, sent the fires burning hotter, harder. Anna cried out his name, begged, fought for release until it took her with a strength and overwhelming rapture she was afraid marked her soul.
Behind her, Archer fucked her through her release, thrusting and surging inside her until at the last second he pulled free of her. The feel of his seed spilling onto her rear, his groan, then the feel of his body coming down beside her as he pulled her against him had her sighing in aching regret.
She had lied to him, and she knew it. Anna had never made a promise that she hadn’t kept. She was careful with her promises, stingy with them her grandfather often said. But Archer had used her pleasure against her. He had forced that promise from her, and a forced promise didn’t count.
Did it?
CHAPTER 14
She should leave.
And how very ironic that was considering she’d dreamed of sharing Archer’s bed and his life for so many years.
Anna told herself countless times over the next five days that leaving was the best thing she could do. While she was at work dealing with Crowe’s snide remarks. Each evening when Archer arrived home and watched her with that suddenly cool stare of his.
Each night when they went to bed, silently, and he rolled over and went to sleep, it was the last thing she told herself as she finally drifted off, often hours later.
But each morning she awoke in his arms, never certain how she found herself there. His arms would be wrapped around her, his face buried in her hair, and then he would act as though it had never happened, get up, shower and go to work.
That Friday, as she left the office, then paused at the entrance of the tavern, waiting on Rory, she was still debating what she should do, what she shouldn’t do.
He wasn’t having her move to the guest room. Each time she had mentioned it after the first attempt, the look he gave her had her tightening her lips and quickly moving away from him.
She was not going to let it be said she made the first move to fix whatever the hell was going on between them.
“Rory has to work late.” It was Archer who stepped from the bar, rather than Rory. “He’ll see you in the morning.”
Anna was surprised to see Archer; she stared back at him in surprise as he paused in front of her.
“I’m sure I could have walked back alone,” she assured him. “You didn’t have to take off work.”
“I didn’t,” he growled.
Tucking her hands into the shallow pockets of the gray pencil skirt she wore that day, she considered debating her Archer problem again, now that he was reminding her why she was still debating it.
“How did you manage to get off early, then?” she asked as he shortened his stride to match hers.
“Schedule was made out last month,” he answered, his voice short. “I should be off until Monday unless something happens.”
“Unless the Slasher comes out again,” she guessed.
“Or Caine needs help.” He shrugged. “This isn’t exactly a nine-to-five job.”
Anna nodded. He didn’t seem much in the mood to talk, so she wasn’t going to push it. It would have been better, though, if the silences between them didn’t feel so comfortable, despite the fact that she was mad enough to scream at him.
“How the hell do you walk in those shoes?”
he asked as they passed a narrow alley entryway and moved along Main Street, crossing in front of the stone courthouse as she glanced down at the light pink four-inch heels that matched the light sleeveless blouse she wore beneath a gray sweater.
“Practice.” Glancing up at him again, she nearly stumbled at the look of pure lust that flashed on his face. Just as quickly, it was gone. And Anna couldn’t help herself but push. “I started wearing heels when I was twelve.”
Surprise glittered in his eyes for a moment. “Isn’t that kind of young?”
She shrugged.
“Not in California,” she assured him, remembering Jaci Fielding and how she had taught Anna to wear the shoes. “All the girls wore heels at Tennenbaum’s Establishment of Higher Education.” She almost snickered at the name. “It was very exclusive. Every girl there but me, I believe, had been arrested at least once, done drugs at least once, and everyone I talked to claimed to have had sex. At least once.”
“At twelve?” He glanced at her in disbelief.
Anna sobered, frowning at the memory of the girls who were much older than their ages. “They were all very worldly. I had my first drink there, on my first night in the dorm. I had my first hit of pot there.”
“At twelve?” he repeated, more than shocked now.
“I didn’t inhale,” she promised with false sincerity.
“Hell, and here I thought I was wild as a kid.” He could only shake his head at her. “How did you handle it, Anna?” He breathed out roughly.
For a moment, the distance that had grown between them for the past days had disappeared.
“I cried every night I was there,” she sighed, feeling his hand settle lightly at the small of her back as they walked. “I would call my parents for weeks on end and beg them to let me come home. I was always begging to come home and they were always refusing.”
“Until you stopped,” he guessed, his voice quiet then.
Anna nodded. “Until I stopped. It was my fourteenth birthday. I’d spent every birthday alone since I turned ten. They forgot to call that night.…”