Marked

eight-1

eight

“Okay, you were right,” Levi said as they walked back into their building.

The bar was as terrible as she remembered from the one time Archer had taken her in there. He’d gone in to pick up a message, and they were only there for a few minutes. But it was a few minutes longer than she’d wanted to be there.

In The Tavern, a woman stuck out like a Christmas tree wrapped in neon lights in July, but it had been fun all the same. She and Levi spent some time talking about how bad the place was, they commented on the décor, and what they might, or might not, adopt for their building.

That conversation took them onto her upcoming renovations at Sizzle. Levi was impressed that she owned a club; she didn’t explain how it had happened.

She was used to Archer walking her home, so when Levi bypassed his place and started up the stairs with her, she assumed he was doing the same thing. Her files were lying on her dining table and she thought about how long it would take to get through them as she pulled her keys out of her pocket.

Unlocking the door, she turned and was startled to find him standing so close. “Uh, I had a good time,” she said.

He got even closer, putting a hand on the doorframe to lean in to her. “Dinner next time?” he asked.

Putting a hand on his chest, she maintained some pressure to stop him getting any closer. “I was being neighborly, Levi. I felt bad for the other day. I’m not interested in… you know, dating you.”

Great, she’d hoped to apologize for the other day and now she was insulting him again.

“You’re not interested or you’re worried about what our neighbor might do if he finds out we’re seeing each other?”

“We’re not seeing each other,” she said, pushing harder when he tried to lean down. “Archer’s a man of his word, you don’t want to push him.”

Levi’s swagger wasn’t affected. “I’m not afraid of him.”

“You should be.”

The deep growl behind Levi came a fraction of a second before he was hauled off and tossed to the opposite wall. “Archer!” Nya didn’t even need to register the identity of the attacker; she could smell his possessive rage.

Archer pinned Levi to the wall with a forearm on his chest. Levi grabbed hold and tried to pull it down, but he couldn’t budge it.

“You had your f*****g warning,” Archer snarled.

When his hand twisted to the back of his waistband, she leaped forward to grab his wrist after he unsheathed his knife. Clinging onto him, she pulled back with all her weight to stop him taking the blade to Levi.

“No! You can’t kill him! Nothing happened!”

“You can’t tell her who to date!” Levi called out and she wanted to snap at him to shut up. Her arms were aching at the amount of strength she exerted holding Archer’s arm back from what it wanted to do. “Who do you think you are?”

“I’m the boyfriend, you fucker,” Archer barked.

“Ex! You’re the ex-boyfriend!” Levi spat back.

Archer surged forward, pressing more of his weight into his victim. “Not anymore.”

Nya’s shock made her relax, giving the knife a chance to move. Panicked by that sight, Nya’s muscles clenched and she swung herself around into the inside crook of Archer’s elbow. The force of her sweeping turn made her hit both Levi and Archer where their bodies connected.

While Archer didn’t take his eyes from his victim, she could see him. Archer’s tense expression was fierce and angry, he wanted to kill this guy, wanted to inflict pain, and he was capable. But she wasn’t sure if he knew what he’d said, let alone if he meant it. Just like when he told her that he loved her for the first time, he spoke before his mind kicked in.

“Don’t talk s**t. You’re not together,” Levi said.

Nya was still gazing at Archer, waiting for some clarification. “Archer?”

Though his eyes dropped onto hers, his fury was still hot. “Doing my job, protecting my turf. Get your a*s inside.”

“Gimme the knife,” she said, curling her hand around his on the handle. “Please, baby, just give it to me.”

She couldn’t let him kill Levi when nothing had happened between her and the neighbor. Out here in the hallway, clean up would be tough, and as soon as Reyes heard the commotion, he’d be out to pass judgement.

Slanting toward her, Archer got in her face without letting Levi move. “You’re gonna get it f*****g good tonight, baby. We’ve got forty-four days to catch up on.”

So she wasn’t the only one who’d been counting the days after all. Pure anticipation speared her heart and a bolt of pleasure fired outward. Struggling to focus on the consequences of what might happen out here while her mind considered what might happen inside the apartment, she swallowed.

“If you hurt him…”

Swooping down, Archer kissed her fast. “You still my girl?”

“You know I am,” she whispered, bringing his knife-wielding hand to the curve of her neck, she nestled the danger close.

“Then trust me. Get your p***y into that apartment, take off your clothes, and wait for me in bed.”

She didn’t know if he was serious, but she read hunger in his eyes and it made her belly tighten. When she moved away, she felt Levi try to move at her back, but Archer thrust him to the wall.

Levi said her name.

Archer had asked her to trust him, and following his instructions was the best way to help Levi out, so she ignored their neighbor and kept going. If Archer wanted to have a word and warn the guy off, Nya wasn’t going to make a scene.

Going inside, she took off her jacket and shoes, but didn’t go so far as to take off her clothes because she still didn’t know if Archer had meant what he said or if he was making a show for Levi. Nya wasn’t going to embarrass herself by being an eager beaver. A couple of weeks ago, sure, but not anymore.

Eventually, Archer’s hand smacked the door open, he grabbed it and threw it into the frame and marched up close, so close that his body hit hers.

“You’re not n***d,” he grunted.

“You’re not sane.”

“Give me s**t later, Ny. My c**k is gasping.”

Seizing the back of her head, he raised her up onto the tips of her toes and opened his mouth over hers. Bending his knees, he scooped his arm around her pelvis, and hoisted her from the floor. He took two steps forward and began to lower her onto the dining table.

“Mm, no,” she said, struggling to free her mouth from his that was so amorous and desperate to devour her that it fought to keep consuming her. “Not here.”

Impatient, Archer kept trying to kiss her. “It’s not our first time,” he said fast like he was pissed off she was delaying their joining.

“It won’t hold,” she said, grabbing his hair to kiss him again.

If he put her on that feeble surface, it would buckle beneath their passion. It was little more than a bistro table that wouldn’t give them much room to maneuver.

Archer didn’t let her complaint slow him down. His long legs ate up the floor and before she had a chance to open her eyes, he was putting her on her back on her bed. “I told you to be f*****g n***d,” he said, kneeling over her to rip off his own tee shirt and jeans.

Opening her hands on his corrugated abs, Nya whispered her delight and stroked them up to his hard chest as he doubled over her to drive his tongue into her mouth again. He groped over her clothes, shoved her top over her breasts and bowed to kiss them through her b*a. Frustrated that it was in his way, he grabbed the cups and tore them from each other, uncovering the responsive mounds he ached to feast on.

“Oh, Fella,” she said. “Yes, f**k me.”

Her whole body was tingling. Her thighs to her core were so sensitized that she could feel every thread of cotton rubbing against them. When she parted her legs wide to curl them around his body, she was delighted to feel the hot, n***d girth of his c**k probing her inner thigh, stimulating itself as his hips began to mimic the lovemaking she’d craved since the last time they’d been in this bed together.

Though it went against every screaming, fervent atom in her body, she pushed at him. “I have to get my clothes off,” she said.

His mouth ascended from her breasts to kiss her again, he sucked her tongue so hard that her throat hurt. But she wanted him like this; wild, unable to contain himself, no barriers or rules. He needed her. His hot hands roamed her form, squeezing and teasing the flesh he’d neglected for weeks.

“f**k that,” he said, shoving her underwear aside to plunge two fingers into her as he licked and nibbled at her neck.

“I don’t need that, Arch, f**k me,” she said and his thumb massaged her c**t.

“Cheerios?” he mumbled into her ear.

Nya shook her head so hard her cheekbone bumped on his. “No Cheerios, c**k, I need your cock.”

In almost the same moment his fingers slid out of her body, his d**k took their place. “Delivered,” he called out in time with her scream.

It had been so long that she wasn’t as accustomed to him as she used to be and she squirmed beneath the stinging of her tight tissue.

He pumped in and out, fast. “Oh, Squirm, baby, I can’t stop.”

“Don’t stop!” she screamed because there was something arousing about her body being forced to accept his.

Nya needed him in every way. Archer was claiming her now, marking her from the inside, forging a route so deep that she could feel him pounding against her limit.

“Arch!” Her voice was getting louder. “Archer!”

“Oh, f**k, yeah, baby, scream. I’ve missed that scream,” he said, pushing his sealed lips down onto hers. “Let me hear it!” His forehead landed on hers as their hips worked to drive them nearer to their bliss. “Make my ears f*****g bleed, horny one, come on!”

With fistfuls of the blanket beneath them, she boosted her hips high, tilting them to allow the head of his d**k to rub and stroke each crevice within her. “Archer!”

“You’ve got it, baby, you get anything you want.”

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 o****m. The clamp of her inner muscles around his c**k 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. “Okay, Squirm. Now you can let me have it.”

“You didn’t leave Levi bruised and b****y 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 n***d in their intimacy.

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