Chasing Shade Part 15

'You'll page me,' he said and laughed.

'You know it.'

He'd felt very lucky to have a man like Booth as his new boss.

'I don't want to go home,' she said softly.

'OK,' he said. 'No problem.'

'I need to be away,' she said. 'It feels like a break. From all that. From my life and the letter and the worry. I know it's a s.h.i.+tty motel, Archie. I'm sorry. I just '

'Whatever you want,' he said. 'I'm going to go pay. You sit here. And save me some fries!'

'Nevah!' she yelled as he shut the door.

The man behind the counter wore a name-tag that said 'Bud'. Bud looked like he was on his fourth or fifth Bud himself. He reeked of beer, his bloodshot eyes were s.h.i.+ny and he started when the little bell over the door jingled.

'Hey, man, I just wanted a room for a night.'

'Twenty bucks,' Bud said.

'Need ID?'

'Nope.'

Archie watched Bud fill out a room ticket. He wrote 'John Doe' in a streaky, unsteady scrawl. When Archie handed him a twenty, Bud checked the CASH box on the form.

'Room three,' he said.

Archie glanced at the pegboard full of keys. 'Nothing not so close to the office?'

Bud raised an eyebrow. 'Oh, noisy ones. Sure.' He took back the key to room three and gave him the one for fourteen.

Archie took the key. Wanting to say it had more to do with not wanting to be close to the office because it inspired horror-movie scenarios in his head. But he said nothing. He went back out and drove the truck around to their unit.

'Whatcha chewing?' he asked Betsey.

She giggled. 'Nothing.'

'My fries,' he sighed.

'Our fries.'

'Yeah, yeah...Let's get inside before I have no fries to speak of.'

She didn't say anything but reached over and shoved a few fries in his mouth so he had to chew or choke.

'There's your fries, bub,' she said.

It was nice to see her laughing. Lovely to see the woman who'd seemed so felled by that horrible house smiling at him. She was magic when she smiled. She embodied all that was right in the world when she laughed.

She grabbed her bag and the food. He locked up. Inside unit fourteen they stared.

'Nineteen-seventy-five called,' Betsey giggled. 'It wants its decor back.'

The room was done in dark plywood with a macrame owl on the wall. The rug was avocado yellow, the small fridge in the kitchenette a mustard yellow. The bedspread was an eye-watering argyle pattern in the colours of the decade. There were two lamps, the bases covered in glued-on sh.e.l.ls. Betsey dropped her bag on the dresser and snorted.

'Oh. My. G.o.d. An owl! A macrame owl!' she cried. 'Think I could steal it and get away with it? You have to admit it would make a spectacular addition to my trailer.'

Archie looked around. 'At least it's clean.' He pulled back the comforter and checked for bedbugs. The very thought of them made him s.h.i.+ver. No sign. Nothing but clean if slightly scratchy sheets. 'Really clean.'

'Really clean?' she asked.

Something in her voice made Archie turn. It was huskier and touched with interest.

She was nude from the waist up. Her sweater neatly folded, T-s.h.i.+rt and bra on top. Archie took a breath and then rushed to her, gathered her into his arms, held her close, kissed her like she might vanish.

'I thought you'd want to shower,' he mumbled. Then stumbled over his words. 'Or not want to...the day might have been '

She took his face in her hands and kissed him. Her tongue warm against his and salty from the fries. She pressed her body flush to his, her hips banging his hips. When she started to unb.u.t.ton his s.h.i.+rt, he batted her hands away and did it himself. He was faster than her. He got it off and his T-s.h.i.+rt too and then yanked her to him. Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s flush against his chest. Her nipples hard from the chill.

She laughed. It was a freeing sound. 'I can't imagine a better thing to wash away that horrible place this exhausting day than you inside me, Archie. Will you be inside me?'

A rough growl came out of him, surprising them both. He yanked her waistband and the b.u.t.ton of her jeans yielded. It was Betsey's turn to bat his hand away as she murmured, 'Let me' and slid her zipper down. Archie dropped to his knees on the hideous vintage carpet, dragged her jeans low on her hips, her panties too. He kissed her belly just above her mound and held the flare of her thighs in his hands. When she pushed her fingers into his hair, gently stroking it, he parted her nether lips with his tongue.

Betsey seemed to relax completely. Her knees dipped a little and he held her steady as he found her c.l.i.t. No wooing, no playing, he simply wanted to make her come. Hear her come and feel her let go and taste her on his tongue. Then he wanted to push her back onto the clean but rough sheets and slide into her and never leave.

Archie stroked his tongue over the swollen knot of her c.l.i.toris over and over again. When she sighed so deeply he felt her s.h.i.+ver, he sucked her with his whole mouth. Drinking in the sweet saltiness of her skin and her juices. Her fingers moved restlessly in his hair and he was lulled by her touch.

'Archie, don't you want to get on the be'

'Shh,' he said. When she s.h.i.+vered again he knew the vibration of his voice had rolled through her pelvis. 'Let me do what I want to do,' he said, smiling against her. Archie found her dampness with his fingers, drove two into her tight little p.u.s.s.y.

'Archie,' she said again, but it wasn't a question, just a word said in a moment of pa.s.sion.

He thrust deep into her, curled his fingers against the rough but smooth sheath of her p.u.s.s.y. All the while his mouth was on her, licking and sucking and drawing on her. He could be there all day and it would never be enough. The taste of her was magical. The feel of her beneath his fingers and his tongue intoxicating.

'Archie,' she said again but it was more breath than word because her hips rocked forwards gently to get better contact. The heated silk of her c.u.n.t rippled around his fingers as she grew wetter and louder. She was coming and Archie was just as felled by her pleasure as Betsey.

He sat back on his haunches to catch his breath. She ran a finger lightly over his wet lips. He turned his head, caught her fingertip, sucked it into his mouth. Her big brown eyes drifted shut and she groaned softly.

'Come to bed with me, Archie. f.u.c.k me.'

'Our food ' he started, but he was just teasing.

'Our food will heat up nicely in that tiny little ancient microwave over there,' she said. Then she held out her hand and he took it.

Sliding into Betsey was the most pleasurable thing he'd ever experienced. Her body seemed built for his. Her heart pounding so hard as he drove deep that he could feel it thumping against his own chest. He kissed her everywhere. Anywhere he could reach. Archie felt as if just kissing her for any blissful length of time could trigger an o.r.g.a.s.m. She wasn't willing to find out, though, because she grabbed his a.s.s with her hands and pulled him to her tighter. Pulled him deeper in. Her legs came up to wrap around his waist and he felt her hook her ankles behind his back.

'You feel so '

'You feel so good,' she said, cutting him off. 'You feel perfect. You know...' She gasped, shook her head.

'I what?'

'You know where everything is,' she said, then her face broke out in a smile and she giggled.

'I hope so!'

'What I mean is, you know where everything is and oh...'

He kissed her before biting her neck and then her collarbone. Light but firm bites that made her nipples spike hard against his chest. 'Oh, what, sweetheart?'

'And you know what to do to make me...make me...' She kissed him, clutching his face as firmly as she had his a.s.s. 'How to make me come,' she finally finished with a small puff of air. And then she proceeded to come.

'Two,' Archie said.

'Two? Are we counting?' She moved up under him, her hands roaming his body. The way she touched him made his blood hum in his veins. He was so close and yet he wanted to 'Yes, we are. We are counting.'

'To what?'

'To three,' he said, rotating his hips slightly. He rocked back and forth, b.u.mping into her, trying to stimulate her c.l.i.t with every stroke. Her fingers curled roughly against his back. Her fingernails biting.

'Three what?' She sounded a little breathless.

Her p.u.s.s.y grew tighter, her voice softer. Betsey stared into his eyes. She tried to keep contact. But every few seconds they'd drift shut and she'd bite her lip gently. It was enough to make him struggle to keep his control.

'You know,' he said.

Archie kissed her, ran his lips along her neck and over her shoulder. Her skin pebbled in gooseb.u.mps. He grazed her collarbone with his teeth and then found her nipple, already hard but begging to be bitten. He bit it, fiercely enough to make her gasp. Archie pushed his hands under her bottom and drove into her. He felt her coil tightly, flicker and then cry out as her o.r.g.a.s.m took her. He lost himself in the sound of her release. Buried himself in the soft exhalations and gasps for breath. Allowed himself to be tangled in her pleasure and her need. And then he came, saying nothing but her name over and over again.

They lay there still and exhausted on rough white sheets, the smell of cheap hamburgers and murder-house dust in their noses. It was perfect. Archie never wanted to move from this place. Never wanted to let her go.

'Hungry?' she whispered in his ear, pressing her lips to his lobe so heat p.r.i.c.kled his neck.

'Starving.'

'You find something trashy on TV. I'll heat the food,' she said.

He watched her walk, bare-a.s.sed and breathtaking, across the small room and felt his heart kick happily. Happy. It had been a while since he'd felt it.

Chapter 20.

Two cheeseburgers, a bag of fries each and a shared hot shower later, they were curled in the No-Tell Motel bed. Archie stroked her back and Betsey tried not to over-a.n.a.lyse how content she felt. It was what it was. She was determined not to think too much.

'Where are you going with this?' he asked.

'With what?'

'The whole backtrack thing. The visit to the abduction site, the cemetery, your old house, his...house.'

'You almost said lair,' she said softly in the blue, flickering darkness. The TV was turned low and on an old movie channel. Jimmy Stewart ran across the screen professing his love to Bedford Falls. Betsey realised that soon would come Thanksgiving. Then Christmas. It was a whole new concept with him in her life. And yet...was he really? Was he in her life?

'I almost did.'

'Where am I going with this?' She sighed. 'Honestly, I don't know. I just felt I needed to. I have for a while but...' She shrugged. She pressed closer to his body to soak up his heat. 'You make me braver, Archie. That, and the letter forced me into a corner, I guess. It was easy to ignore some of this emotional gunk when he was locked up for ever and that was that. But I guess we're humane even to monsters. More the family of monsters, I guess. But it's hard to keep sight of that.'

'It certainly is,' he said.

'I guess if you get a good lawyer you can convince a judge of just about anything.' She sighed again. 'But it's true, Archie. It's about Miller's family, not him. I want to make sure I'm ignoring that letter and Marie's pleas for the right reason and not just spite.'

'No one would fault you for being spiteful,' he said.

'I would,' she said. 'I believe in karma. And karma, like love, is blind. I want to say no and feel good about it. Or I want to move past it and say yes. Either way, I guess all this is the s.h.i.+t I need to dredge up in order to make up my mind.'

'I make you brave?' he said softly.

She b.u.mped her hip against his, playfully. 'You seem to, yes.'

'I didn't trigger this, did I?' Archie asked.

'No. You just lucked out and showed up at the entirely wrong time.' She laughed.

Archie sighed and Betsey took his hand. She squeezed. 'Archie, you didn't do this. The only thing you did...' She moved closer and kissed him. He smelled like generic bar soap from their shower and cheap motel shampoo. He smelled wonderful.

'What?' When he turned to try and look at her she kissed him.

'The only thing you did was keep me from being utterly alone when those dreams crushed down on me and I let my past step all over me and when I broke. You kept me from being alone during all of that.' Then her heart thumped heavily and dread settled heavy in her bones. 'I just hope I'm not pulling you down,' she whispered.

It was his turn to kiss her. He slipped a hand into her hair, cradled the back of her head and pressed his lips warmly to hers. 'Betsey, don't even think that. It's the furthest thing from the truth. You have...' He grinned. His teeth looked large and whitish-blue in the TV-lit dark. He appeared cartoonish but handsome and Betsey couldn't help laughing.

'What have I done?' she asked. 'Since it seems to be confession time.'

'You've woken me up,' he said. 'And I hadn't even realised I was asleep.'

'Is it weird?' she asked.

He rolled on top of her and Betsey realised how safe she felt when he covered her with himself. Archie was the only thing that had made that bas.e.m.e.nt experience bearable. The only person who gave her the steel inside herself to face the big demons in life.

His c.o.c.k rode the cleft of her p.u.s.s.y lips. His hardness sliding over her c.l.i.t so she had to catch her breath. Even as she tried to steady that breath, she arched up beneath him to get him closer to her. To feel him more.