Marked (Branded Book 3)

by Scarlett Finn

  One of his hands landed on her face and stroked. When he clutched a handful of her hair, she turned toward his fist, digging her teeth into the bulge of flesh at the base of his thumb. He swore and she growled, grabbing his head, she made him kiss her again.

  “Oh, you bastard!” she screamed, her pelvis rising and lowering in time with his. “You bastard!”

  “I know, Squirm. You’ve got me. I’m going nowhere.”

  And that was it; those were the words that pushed her into the blissful haze of orgasm. The clamp of her inner muscles around his cock gripped him so tight that his volume almost matched hers as he poured himself into her. Thick and warm and exactly what she’d been missing, his seed made her whole.

  Stars flickered in front of her eyes and for a minute, she couldn’t bring him into focus. Nya realized that his forehead was on hers and he was too close. “Archer,” she whispered, but he stole her words with another kiss before he rolled to his side, taking her with him so that they were face to face.

  Their bodies were still engaged for a few blissful seconds before his softening member slipped from her. He helped her strip off her clothes, then gathered her into his arms again.

  Stroking her hair on her cheek, Archer kissed her forehead, her eyes, the end of her nose and then her mouth once again before he tipped his head back. “Ok, Squirm. Now you can let me have it.”

  “You didn’t leave Levi bruised and bloody in the hallway, did you?” she asked, brushing her fingers down his upper arm.

  “Your first question’s about your new boyfriend?”

  Pinching his bicep, she was tempted to bite his lip because she could. Lying in his arms, with their limbs entwined, they were naked in their intimacy.

  Nya couldn’t think of a more incredible way to end her day. “Don’t start that shit; unless you’re gonna tell me this was a one-time deal?”

  “I don’t hook up with hos,” he said, combing his fingers into her hair.

  “For a guy who should be groveling, you’re slinging a lot of insults at me.”

  “My woman’s not a whore.”

  “So we’re back on?” she asked. “All the way? What changed?”

  “Everything,” he said. “I don’t know.”

  “Fella, don’t let this be one of the times that you keep things from me. I don’t want to just forget the last forty-four days. I want to learn from them.”

  “What did you learn?” he asked.

  She almost didn’t know where to begin. Nya had learned so much about herself, about Archer, and Tag, about what she wanted from life and what she didn’t. “I learned that psychopaths look just like everyone else.”

  His fixation on his hand in her hair switched to her face. “Now who’s slinging insults?”

  Smiling, she was happy to be so chilled with him again. “I’m not talking about you,” she said, sliding her thigh higher between his. “Derren said that Woodrow was going to hurt your mom.”

  But he wasn’t worried. “We’d never have let that happen. We were keeping an eye on the guy.”

  “You sent me to dinner with him and you knew he was dangerous? Maybe there’s a lesson in there for me to learn. Don’t trust the ex-boyfriend who’s trying to get rid of you.”

  “I was never trying to get rid of you,” he said, going back to his observation of her locks fluttering through his fingers.

  “Really? ‘Cause it seemed that way when you were telling Levi how easy I was.”

  “Hmm,” he exhaled a laugh that came with an almost Elvis lip curl, disgust and anger made him squeeze one arm so tight around her waist, she couldn’t breathe for five seconds. “You want to start with that? What the fuck was that?”

  “Enough to bring you to your senses,” she said, running her tongue along his lower lip. “The guy came to my door.”

  “If guys come to your door and tell you to go places with them, the first door you come to is mine,” he said. “Soon as I open it, you tell me they’re taking liberties and I’ll show him what his insides look like.”

  “He wasn’t taking liberties. I met him by accident on the stairs before you came back from Vegas. We spoke for two minutes. Next time I saw him, he was at my door asking to be introduced around. I thought maybe if he got to know people, I wouldn’t be as interesting anymore.”

  His hand slid from her hair down her shoulder to cup her breast. “These babies are always interesting,” he said. “That guy didn’t want to know the neighbors, he wanted to get his hands on these.”

  Picking up his hand from her breast, she put it back into her hair. “I tried to tell him not to come near your door. I was never trying to sleep with him.”

  “Then what was tonight? I walked up those stairs and saw you making out on your doorstep with the guy I threatened to kill if he touched you.”

  “He didn’t kiss me. I didn’t lie when I said nothing happened. I was coming in from the club. Tag called, that’s when I left you that voicemail. When Levi came out of his place and offered to take me for a drink, I thought it was the least I could do after what happened on your doorstep. I figured it didn’t matter anyway. I hadn’t seen you since the hallway incident and I was making plans to leave town. I told him straight out that I wasn’t interested in dating him.”

  “I heard you. I’m not sure I processed it when all I could see was some guy crowding you against your door.”

  “So you thought it was ok to come and murder him?” she asked. “My floor is the nice one in this building. Folks on this floor don’t go around slashing people.”

  “I could’ve dragged him up a floor, if it would’ve made you happy,” Archer said. “The guy hits the gym, but he’s from a nice family. He doesn’t know how to fight dirty.”

  “And that’s your specialty, I suppose?”

  “I can fight clean,” Archer said. “But I wouldn’t if I was protecting you.”

  There was something romantic about how far he was willing to go for her. “You didn’t tell me what you learned,” she said. “You were so damn sure that you didn’t want to be with me. But this week’s been different, since you got back from Vegas—”

  “I was meeting a guy there,” he said. “I have a couple of contacts I needed to check in with and we went out to this club, a strip club.” Drumming his fingers down her spine, he sent a ticklish flurry through her. Nya snuggled closer to his chest in her body’s attempt to resist the stimulation. He stopped tickling to cup her ass and pull her close. “So we’re at this club, and we’re talking, and we’re right there by the stage. Up close to the flesh, you know?”

  “I don’t think I like this story,” she said, but was intrigued about where it was going.

  He didn’t reassure her, just brushed his lips on her as he talked. “One of the guys goes to get more drinks. And I’m sitting there staring into my glass thinking, maybe I overreacted, maybe I was out of line. Maybe Nya was right that I shouldn’t have hit Tag so hard when he was fucked out of his brain. Thinking I should call you and thinking you won’t pick up. Thinking I don’t want to call and get your voicemail ‘cause that makes me fucking mad, and I’m too far away to jump in my car and come to your door.”

  In the past when he’d shared information with her, it tended to be facts about other people or details about himself that were physical, tangible. He didn’t often confess to what was going through his mind.

  “I might have picked up.”

  “It doesn’t matter now,” he said, kissing her forehead, coming out of the daze he’d slipped into. “I was thinking all that and I realized there were three naked women on the stage. Hot, fucking, sexy women. Two redheads were making out and fingering each other and the guy’s in the club were going nuts.”

  Ok, that wasn’t like any strip club she’d ever worked in, but Nya knew those kind of sex clubs existed. “Nice place,” she muttered. In Vegas, there were all kinds of clubs, and those off the beaten track, where Archer would probably meet contacts, were likely to be even more risqué than
the mainstream places.

  “But me, Ny,” he said, making eye contact. “I was bored out of my fucking mind. I didn’t see the tits and the ass—and those women were sex on fucking legs. I didn’t give a shit about any of it. All I kept thinking about was how I’d pissed you off. And that word you used, ‘distance’. Fucking distance.” He spat the word like it repulsed him. “You know how to cut a guy.”

  “I was going out of my mind, Arch. Every time I saw you, I wanted it to be like it was. I wanted you to want me again like you had.”

  “I never stopped wanting you. I didn’t end it because I stopped loving you.”

  “You did it to protect me,” she said.

  Giving her ass a squeeze, he grazed his palm over her thigh, and up to her hip. Then taking her elbow, he raised her arm higher to hook it around the back of his neck. “When I came home and Ester said you’d taken a beating because once again you wouldn’t tell a cocksucker where I was… you knew where I fucking was…”

  “What difference would it have made if I’d told him? By the time he got on a plane to chase you, you’d have been on the way back.”

  “Which would’ve bought time,” he said. “And Jonno was never getting on a plane; he’d have waited for me. But somebody put their hands on you in anger because my scrappy little Squirm thinks she’s a fucking giant when she’s standing in front of me.”

  He could mock in that passive aggressive way all he wanted, she wouldn’t apologize. “I told you before, I won’t make you any promises about not doing that again. Look at me, Arch, the bruises are fading. It wasn’t even that big a deal.”

  “It’s a huge deal,” he said, pulling her closer still. “Ester told me what you said about Damien.”

  Nya wriggled, the discomfort making her face fall to his chest. “I guess I didn’t tell her not to.”

  “No one should put their hands on you in anger, Ny. I’m sorry that what I do hurts you.”

  Her head snapped back and her frown landed on him. “You don’t hurt me. You could never do it. I can watch you work. Tonight, I stood there in that hall, and when I saw you go for your knife, I ran toward it. I got in front of it. I took your blade to my throat, Arch, because you could never hurt me.”

  He kissed her slow, massaging her lips with his own for a long time before his tongue probed forward, seeking entry to her mouth. Nya granted him access and allowed her body to be pulled on top of his when he moved onto his back.

  For the longest time, they made out without expectation of anything more. He began to kiss down her throat and she knew neither of them would be getting any sleep tonight. “You know something that’s funny?” she asked, brushing her lips over his before she sat up to straddle his belly so she could stroke his chest.

  “What’s funny?” he asked, taking his own opportunity to caress her arms, her shoulders, her breasts, her stomach.

  “You spit out the word ‘cocksucker’ like it’s an insult.” She smiled. “I like sucking your cock; I wouldn’t be insulted if you called me that.”

  He laughed and pulled her down to kiss her again. “Jeez, Nya, how the fuck did I walk away from you?”

  That was a question that hadn’t been fully addressed. Archer tossed her onto her back to tease and taste his way down her body. Licking a nipple, he hummed. “I’ve missed my Cheerios,” he muttered.

  Excitement made her almost drum her hands and feet on the mattress, instead, she grinned. “I’ll give you all the time you need to work through the backlog.”

  “I’ll make up for every time I missed,” he said, just as he licked her clit.

  Their responsibilities would probably be ignored for the next week or two if she had her way anyway. Ideas for the club could be put on hold and she’d have to talk to Archer about renovations, and Tag—

  “Tag!” she exclaimed aloud and her eyes opened.

  Archer’s head rose until his chin was level with her bent knee. “What the fuck?”

  She sat up. Closing her knees around his ribs, Nya took his face to kiss his lips. “No,” she laughed. “Did you get my message? Did you call him?”

  “Just like old times,” he said, but kissed her. “No, I didn’t call him. The fucker can wait. I know what he wants. Gio’s coming back into town.”

  “Did you find out about the fifty grand?” she asked.

  His eyes narrowed. “Do you want to talk about your buddy’s buddy, or do you want me to eat your pussy?” Stroking his fingers over her clit, Archer sent a zap of excitement north through her belly.

  Hooking her arms around his neck to kiss him with all the love she’d saved over the last forty-four days, she said, “I guess it can wait.”

  Nya had her man back and there wasn’t a feeling that could match it. This was the kind of kiss that she wanted to hold onto forever, but Archer pulled back. “That’s not your pussy.”

  “You’re eager. Have you missed it?”

  “Eating you out? Damn right. Some nights I thought about waiting ‘til you were asleep and sneaking down here. I thought I might crawl up under the covers and have me a midnight snack while you slept. I could just let you think it was some wet dream and you’d be too embarrassed to tell me so I’d never have to lie to you about it.”

  That idea was hot. Hot enough to make her shiver as her whole body blushed. “I’ve never been embarrassed to tell you about sex stuff,” she said. “And if you ever feel like snacking on me, any minute of the day, you’re welcome to.”

  “I like that,” he murmured and kissed her again. He pressed her shoulders, putting her on her back so he could hook her thighs.

  Instead of her clit, he went for her opening and suckled it. Dipping his tongue into her, Archer made her moan. Her whining made vibrations rumble in her throat, then another type of vibration rattled against the floor.

  The distinct sound of his phone shattered their intimacy.

  nine

  “Fuck,” he said against her. The shot of his breath gave her a jolt of pleasure and her hand fell to his head.

  But he shoved her leg aside and shunted to the edge of the bed to reach over and grab up his jeans. Fishing his phone from his pocket, Archer looked at it once and swore again before he answered.

  “What the fuck do you want?” he snapped down the line.

  But he wasn’t the one who had just been teased with the beginning of something that wouldn’t be finished while he was on the phone. Closing her eyes, Nya massaged her breasts, keeping her simmer going while he had his conversation.

  “No,” he barked into the phone. “I’m tongue-fucking Nya.”

  Her eyes opened. She sat up to shove his shoulder and frown at him. “What the fuck?” she hissed.

  He kept the phone at his ear, but lowered the mouthpiece a fraction. “It’s Ester,” he said, climbing up the bed to fall on his back beside where she sat. “Yes.” He was talking into the phone again. “No. What?”

  Nya lay on her side and drew her fingernails up his torso and down. Grasping his dick, she squeezed his girth hard, but he lifted a hand to the back of his head, nonplussed that she was being so familiar.

  “I’ll be as rough as I fucking like, Ester,” he said. “Stay the fuck out of our bedroom.”

  Archer seized her wrist so tight that she whimpered. At first, Nya thought he was objecting to her pleasuring him while his mother’s voice was in his ear. But the glare he landed on her destroyed her desire to torment him.

  “Pregnant?” he snarled. “When the fuck…” Ester had to still be talking. Nya sat up, although she couldn’t straighten because of the way he held her wrist. “No, she didn’t fucking tell me.”

  “Give me the phone,” Nya said, trying to reach for it.

  “No, Ester, fuck off,” he said, hanging the phone up and tossing it to the floor like he didn’t give a damn if it broke or not. “You’re fucking pregnant? Who the fuck got you pregnant?”

  If someone had asked her, she’d have given Archer more credit and asserted that he wouldn’t
believe Ester’s allegations without any proof. But that wasn’t what got her angry. “First off, I’m not pregnant,” she said. “And second, if I was, who the fuck do you think the father would be?”

  “We haven’t fucked for forty days.”

  “Forty-four,” she corrected. “Pregnancy lasts more than a month and a half. In case you forgot, we did quite a lot of fucking before we broke up.”

  “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?” he said, his eyes dropping to her belly above her crossed legs. “Have you been to a doctor?”

  Taking her hips, Archer guided her around to place her on her back more carefully than he’d ever done in the past. Nya couldn’t hold onto her frustration. He kept straightening her legs and pushing her down whenever she tried to move.

  “No, I’m not pregnant.”

  “You’ve skipped a period,” he said. “At least one. You should’ve started—”

  “Stop monitoring my cycle, Archer,” she said. “It’s all in Ester’s head, I promise. She came up with the idea when I got lightheaded. She’s been at me to get pregnant since the night I first met her. I told her I wasn’t. She asked about antibiotics and contraception—”

  “Fuck,” he said. “What did I give you?”

  “Would you calm down?” she asked, taking both of his hands. “I absolutely promise you, I’m not.” Cupping his hands in hers, she slid them up to her cleavage. “I took a test, Arch. I’m not. Sometimes when I get stressed, I skip periods, it’s not unusual.”

  “Are you stressed?” he asked, but glazed over that to get annoyed again. “Why the fuck are you taking tests without me?”

  “Oh, yeah,” she said, “ ‘Cause we were in exactly the right place where I could’ve knocked on your door with a pregnancy test and told you we had to watch it together? I was already crazy, stalker ex-girlfriend enough without becoming bunny boiler too. It’s not a big deal.”

  “It was a big enough deal for you to buy a test,” he said.

  “Only because Ester kept going on about it. She made me paranoid.”

  His mind was working fast. “You were gonna skip town,” he said. “Is that ‘cause you thought—”