My mother barely lifted her eyes from the paperback she was reading. “Enjoy. I’d rather not get in myself at the minute.”
“Suit yourself.” I peeled off my T-shirt and ran for the pool, lifting my knees to my chest as I launched myself into the water.
Millie squealed with laughter, clambering onto my back as soon as I surfaced. “I want to jump off your shoulders.”
“You got it.” I took her little hands in mine and dipped under the water until I felt her feet get purchase on my skin, then popped up and chuckled when she jumped off. “You okay, squirt?”
“Again,” she yelled, wading through the water to get back to me. I held my arms out for her and repeated the process about twenty more times before cutting through the water towards the edge.
“That’s it for me for now.” I grinned as I braced myself against the bricks around the pool and heaved myself out. “I think you need to get some fresh sunscreen on too, so out you come.”
Millie nodded as she paddled to me. “Can I swim again once it’s on?”
“Of course.” I smiled and held out my hands to help her get out. My phone buzzed on the glass-topped table near the door and I frowned, glancing down at Millie. “Go ask Grandma to help you with the sunscreen. I need to get my phone.”
My mother lifted an eyebrow in question, but I just shrugged. I wasn’t expecting any calls today. In fact, I’d given explicit instructions at the office that I wasn’t to be bothered.
When I got to the phone and saw who was calling, I smiled. I might not have been expecting her call, but I would talk to Heidi anytime. “Hey, you. Merry Christmas.”
There was a soft sniff on her end of the line. “Yeah, sure. To you guys, too.”
Turning my back on my mother and Millie, I walked into the house to ensure I was out of sight and earshot. It was only once I was sure that they couldn’t see me that I let my forehead rumple into a frown. “What’s wrong? Are you… are you crying?”
“Maybe.” The soft-spoken word was followed with another sniff. “Are you busy? I know it’s Boxing Day, but I wonder if I could see you this afternoon.”
I glanced at Mum and Millie through the window. Mum was still reading and Millie had crawled up in the shade on the lounger I’d been on with a book of her own. It looked like the sun and swimming had exhausted her as well.
If I knew my daughter, and I liked to think that I did, she was going to fall asleep soon. Besides that, Heidi sounded terrible. Her voice cracked with every word she said, and more than once, she had to pause before she could keep talking.
“Yeah. I can see you. What’s going on? Has something happened?”
“No.” Another pause. “Nothing recent anyway. I just… I really need someone today.”
And she was calling me for that? What the fuck is going on?
“Yeah. Sure. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“No.” A long sigh. “I will be. I just...”
She trailed off without finishing her sentence, so I did it for her. “Really need someone?”
“Yes. Are you sure you can get away?”
My eyes drifted back to the window. “Yes. It should be fine. Millie’s going to have a nap and my mother is spending the day here with us anyway, so I’m sure it won’t be a problem if I go out for a while. Where do you want me to meet you?”
“Do you think you could come to my place?” The suggestion was made hesitantly, but her voice was stronger when she said, “Meet me at my place as soon as you can.”
“Okay.” I frowned again. Something was very, very wrong. “I’ll be there soon.”
She disconnected the call without another word, and still clutching my phone in confusion, I went back outside. “I need to go check on something with work. I’ll be back by tonight.”
My mother’s eyes narrowed to the barest of slits. “Work better be where you’re going.”
I rolled my eyes. “You should really stop treating me like a child. I’ll be back before seven. You mentioned you needed to leave by then?”
“I do.” She inclined her head, looking like she wanted to say something else but then thought the better of it. “We’ll be fine here. Go do your work, but give whoever called you in a talking to from me for taking you away from your daughter on Boxing Day.”
“Yeah, okay.” I suppressed another eye roll and then bent down to kiss Millie’s forehead. She was already starting to nod off, but she gave me a sleepy smile and a wave of her fingers.
As soon as Heidi opened her door, my suspicions about something being very wrong with her were confirmed. Her eyes were red and swollen, like she’d been crying for hours or maybe even days.
She smiled when she saw me, but it was weak at best. Without stopping to think about it, I folded my arms around her right there in her doorway. She didn’t fight me on it, melting into me like ice cream in the hot sun outside.
“Hey, what’s going on? Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine. I just needed to spend some time with you,” she murmured against my chest, her voice muffled by my T-shirt. Stepping away from me, her hand slid down to mine and tugged me into her flat, slamming the door behind me.
I’d barely gotten a look at her small but stylish entrance hall when her lips were on mine. Her arms looped around my neck, and the next thing I knew, she was practically climbing me. I caught her with my hands on her thighs, walking us back to where I thought I’d seen a couch.
I had to break our kiss to do it, but I held on to her and looked into her beautiful hazel eyes as I spoke, a smirk tugging at my lips. “What was that for?”
Her hands snaked down to my hips and started tugging on my shirt. “Do I really need to have a reason? I just need you, Archer. Please.”
How the hell was I supposed to say no to that? Searching the depths of her eyes, I saw both lust and an alarming sadness warring for the win. It was obvious there was something on her mind, but it was also obvious that she needed this to help her with whatever it was.
I didn’t have the perfect words to ease whatever pain she was feeling. Crying people had never found me to be much of a comfort. Thinking back to her call, I also realised that she hadn’t said she wanted to talk to me. She’d said she needed me.
It was clear now what her meaning had been. She hadn’t called me to reveal her deepest thoughts and heartaches to me or to have me talk her off some kind of ledge.
She’d called because she needed my body, and I would give it to her. Anything to ease some of that pain and sadness that sat so deep in her eyes it seemed etched into her very soul.
But before I did anything, I had to ask. “Are you sure about this? I don’t want you feeling like I took advantage of you when you wake up tomorrow.”
She rolled her hips against mine, making me groan softly. “You’re not taking advantage of me. I promise. I just need to feel, to feel something good, to feel alive. Trust me, I thought about this long and hard before I called you. I want you.”
Just the words “long and hard” coming out of her mouth sounded dirty. I remembered how surprised I’d been the first time we’d slept together that her mouth was just as filthy as mine at times. Pleasantly surprised, that is.
I’d never been with a woman who was quite as assertive, responsive, and vocal as Heidi and it’d be a lie to say that it hadn’t turned me all the fucking way on. Shit, I’d even dreamed about it more than once since.
She kept her eyes unwavering on mine, and within the blend of sadness, pain, and lust, there was certainty. Her voice too was sure and firm. I was what she wanted right now. And if I could help her in any way, what she was asking sure as hell wasn’t much of an ask.
“I can make you feel good,” I promised, lowering my head to nip the sensitive skin at the crook of her neck. “I can make you feel alive, and I will.”
At my words, she let out a moan that vibrated from her chest into mine and I knew the time for speaking was over. Thank God.
“Where’s your bedroom?�
� I asked between the kisses I brushed over her neck and jaw.
She shook her head. “Just use the couch. I want this too much to wait.”
Well, all righty then. I kept my lips on hers, carrying her to a modern but comfortable-looking grey couch in her living room.
Briefly looking around as I pulled my shirt up over my head where I stood over her, I took in her neat but bright space. Everything except for the couch she was on was colourful and boldly patterned.
Flowers were in funky-shaped vases and on her walls were large, framed pictures of the city, New York City, and laughing faces. Three faces were repeated in many of the photographs: hers, Bonnie’s, and an older woman’s who looked so much like her that it had to be her mother.
Everything about the flat spoke of the vibrant, happy woman I had met over a month ago. So why were the sunshine-yellow curtains drawn so tightly shut that it looked like they would never open again?
My trail of thought was broken when Heidi’s dainty fingers touched my skin, dragging along the edge of my waistband. I was still wearing my board shorts, so the pants were hanging low as it was.
With the first dip of her fingers into them, she brushed the tip of my hard cock and conscious thought vanished. It didn’t matter why she needed me, not right now. It only mattered that she did and that I would give her whatever she needed.
Chapter 24
Heidi
Thanking my lucky stars that Archer hadn’t pushed me for answers, I gazed up at him standing between my knees and marvelled at the sight of his bare body above me.
His head had rolled back when my fingers brushed over the head of his cock, revealing the elegant line of his jaw and neck dusted with dark stubble. My gaze travelled lower, across the broad expanse of his shoulders and chest.
There was a light smattering of hair there, and I had the sudden urge to touch it. My fingertips danced up his side and over the perfect little blocks on his abdomen until they pushed into those soft hairs.
My other hand was still in his pants, the fingers gently caressing his rock-hard length. He groaned again, and the sound made a needy whimper of my own escape. This was exactly the distraction I’d needed after my disastrous day before, after being swamped by a loneliness so intense that I just wanted to crawl into it and stop existing. It wasn’t like anyone would notice I was gone.
Well, Bonnie might have. She’d probably have been a little upset, but she had a large support system. Plenty of people cared about her. There was no way she would ever be alone.
I’d hardly slept, misery weighing down on me like there was a ton of bricks in my chest—not even on it. In it.
Mom wasn’t gone yet, but for all practical purposes, she was. Every time I visited her, her condition had deteriorated even further. By this time next year, I truly would be alone in the world.
That thought, as well as my grief over the loss of my mother when her shell was still with me, had sent heaving sobs wracking through my body for most of the night. I’d been borderline hysterical at one point.
Morning had come and gone, but I hadn’t gotten out of bed. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been in bed after eight, so when the glowing red numbers of the old-school digital alarm clock on my bedside table told me it was after noon, I’d known I was in trouble.
I’d allowed myself almost twenty-four hours to wallow. I couldn’t allow any more. I’d built a pretty damn decent life for myself in Sydney—with Robert’s help, at first. I didn’t want to lose it. I was already losing my mom. I didn’t want to lose anything else.
The problem was that I was so numb, so down that I hardly managed to drag myself out of bed. Once I had eventually managed it and even had a shower, the numbness hadn’t evaporated.
Depressing thoughts kept infiltrating my mind, no matter what I did. Neither the TV nor a number of books had held my interest for more than a minute. Work hadn’t either, and since I had to go back to the office after only one more day off, I had to find a way to snap myself out of it.
The solution to my problem had come to me while I’d been trying to think about the last time my brain had just switched off. It needed to be reset, to be distracted so that those dark thoughts couldn’t dare to come to the fore.
The last time I remembered having had no capacity for thought was when I’d been with Archer that first time. He’d driven me mindless with want, with a need so deep and pleasure so intense that nothing else had existed in that time.
That was what I needed, I’d realised. Calling him had been a risk. I knew that there was every chance he could refuse me and that rejection could make my funk even worse, but I also knew that the depressing thoughts and the numbness needed to be banished.
So I’d made the call, and he’d come through for me without question. As soon as I’d pressed my lips against his, I’d known that he was exactly what I needed. He’d come through for me again by not asking questions, and he didn’t even know it yet.
His hips rocked as my fingers formed a fist around his thick shaft, a loud moan falling from his lips. My clit was starting to ache, my own breathing speeding up right along with his.
Dragging my hand away from his chest, I fumbled with the lace-up tie of his shorts. Thankfully, there was only one knot to undo, and when that was done, the short rip of the velcro fly opening pierced the air.
Archer’s eyes opened and his head came up to look at me. My lips curled into what I hoped was a coy, seductive smile as I let the shorts fall to his feet. He was naked beneath them, obviously one of those guys who didn’t believe in undies while swimming.
Leaning forward, I used my grip at the base of his shaft to angle him and then licked the sensitive underside of his tip. The muscles in his thighs trembled and his hands burrowed into my hair, but he didn’t stop me.
I licked him a few more times, taking in the salty, yet vaguely chlorine-y taste of him. Then I closed my lips over his head and slid my mouth down his length until it met my hand at the bottom. Archer let out a string of muttered curses. “Fuck. Heidi. Yes. Fuck. Yes. Oh God, that feels so fucking good.”
I smiled around his cock. How I’ve missed that mouth of his.
Using the natural rhythm of the rocking of his hips, I let my mouth and hand work while I watched him. Men weren’t supposed to be this beautiful, but he was. Especially with the agony of impending pleasure contorting his features.
Suddenly and without any warning, he took a step back and out of my grasp. A smirk played on his pink lips, his gaze on fire but his voice controlled, if a little hoarse. “Did you really think I was going to let you make me come that quickly after you called me here to make you feel good?”
He cocked his head, watching me as he lowered himself to his knees. Oh, God. That’s hot.
My mouth went so dry that I had to lick my lips three times to return enough moisture to it to talk. Also, all the moisture in my body seemed to have found another place it preferred to be. A place which was now throbbing and hot.
“No,” I managed to get out, my voice barely above a whisper. “But I also wanted to make you feel good, considering you dropped everything and came when I called you.”
“You’ve made me feel so good,” he practically fucking purred as he started moving toward me, still on his knees. “Now it’s my turn, but the difference is that I’m not stopping until I’ve licked every last drop of come from that gorgeous pussy.”
Okay, even I didn’t know what to say to that. But I guessed I didn’t need to say anything at all. I only had to do, to feel. That had been the point of this, after all.
Sliding my hands into the waistband of the cotton sleep shorts I’d pulled back on after my shower, I lifted my hips and slid them and my panties off. After kicking them away, I spread my legs to make space for him there.
I didn’t know what it was about Archer that made me so bold and wanton, but it was like I could be free to act on anything I wanted with him. His gaze darkened as they landed on the thin patch of hair between m
y legs, fixed on it as his wide shoulders spread me apart even farther.
“Holy fuck, this couch of yours is the perfect height for us,” he said, his breathing ragged. “Lie back and hold on, babe. I have a soft carpet under my knees and your pussy perfectly lined up with my face. This might take a while.”
With one last smirk up at me, his big hands were on my thighs and his tongue darted out to lick me from bottom to top. When his lips closed around my clit and sucked, I saw stars. “That feels so good. Don’t stop.”
“Never.” His lips brushed against my much more sensitive ones on that one word, and I moaned again. “But since you said you needed to feel, I’m not going to let you come that quickly either.”
Anticipation pooled in my belly and my inner muscles clenched. Taking his advice, I leaned against the backrest of the couch and drowned in the pleasure he gave me.
As promised, he didn’t let me come quickly. Instead, he brought me to the edge time after time, so perfectly in tune with my body somehow that he knew just when to stop before I hit the point of no return.
At least the one thing I had to hold on to during his sweet, incredible torment was that he’d successfully driven me absolutely mindless with blinding need. Every time I thought he was going to let me fly over the edge this time, he wouldn’t. He’d slow down, blow cool air over my overheated clit, or do something other than giving me what I needed for the final push.
I thrashed and cried out like a wild animal, squeezing his poor head between my thighs, but he just carried on like he wasn’t in his right mind either. When he finally let me come, my orgasm was so intense that my body and mind shattered to atoms and I felt my juices wetting the couch beneath me.
Again, true to his word, he licked me clean before rising up from his knees. His gaze found mine, and there was a desperation there that reached me even though I’d never been so sated in my entire life.
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