Chasing Shade Part 20

He had to ask. 'I have to ask. Have you '

She read his mind. Or maybe his heart. She knew where he was going with this and she quickly shook her head. Her eyes darted down to her feet, to the door, to the ceiling. They finally settled restlessly on him. 'Never,' she said. 'Never anyone but you.'

She'd never craved this 'take me' stuff from anyone but him. Archie tried to repress it, maybe because it felt less than humble, but his blood jumped at the knowledge.

He folded her uniform and without another word walked behind her and unhooked her bra. He paused to plant tender teasing kisses along the slope of one shoulder. He grazed the nape of her neck with his teeth until he felt her s.h.i.+ver. He twisted her hair up and held it tight before kissing along the line of her throat. He could feel her struggling to breathe. Struggling to inhale normally instead of panting.

'You're failing, Betsey,' he said.

'What?' Her words were wispy.

'To not gasp. You're trying to breathe normally. You're failing.'

She nodded quickly and a tiny sound that was part sob escaped her. 'You seem to do that to me, Archie. You steal all the air in the room. Make me off balance but...but '

He reached around her and cupped her bare b.r.e.a.s.t.s as she spoke. Her words faltered. 'Go on,' Archie said.

'But in a really good way. A way I like.' The final words came out on another s.h.i.+ver.

'Me, too,' he said. 'I like how I affect you,' he said, pus.h.i.+ng her panties down as he spoke. 'When we're not doing this. When we're just talking or eating or walking or doing nothing at all. I also like...' Archie trailed off and found her nether lips with his fingers. He parted her there, licked the back of her neck and then kissed his way down her left shoulder. Just holding her open as he did so. Nothing more. Then he bit her, gently but firmly. She nearly s.h.i.+mmered beneath him. That's when he pressed his fingers to her c.l.i.toris and gave her a few strokes.

'Archie ' she said, hanging her head.

'As I was saying,' he said. He stopped stroking her and pulled his hand back. Then he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her back against him tightly. 'I also like how I can affect you when we're together like this. When we're going to f.u.c.k,' he said directly into her ear. His mouth so close he could feel the fine tickle of her hair and the softness of her earlobe beneath his lips. 'Because I'm going to f.u.c.k you, Betsey. Sometimes we make love. Other times we f.u.c.k.'

He gave her one more soft squeeze and then dropped his arms. He walked around to face her. She looked stripped bare and humble. She looked trusting and honest. Everything in him resonated with her. Everything in him wanted to hold her and protect her and take her. He simply wanted her to be his.

And that had never happened. Not even with Jessica. Not really.

'But no matter what we do,' he said, 'I always, always want you. I wanted you the moment I saw you and it hasn't stopped since. It hasn't even let up. You call to my heart, Betsey. And I embrace it one hundred per cent.' He trailed a finger around the fullness of one breast, then proceeded to mimic that motion around the other. Then he was able to gently brush his fingertip on her nipples and watch them peak for him.

'Now put your hand out for me,' he said, reaching in his pocket to find the twine.

She eyed it and her tongue slipped out to wet her lower lip. Then she chewed it. Then as if making up her mind, she nodded and did as he asked. Hands out, wrists up. Vulnerable and bare, blue veins faintly visible beneath the milk-pale skin. Just seeing that made Archie's already stiff c.o.c.k all the harder. He wanted to rush it. Pull her to him, push her down, spread her legs and bury himself in her heat. f.u.c.k her until she was saying his name in the intoxicating breathy ways she had and then and only then he could let go and join her in the o.r.g.a.s.m.

And then he wanted to do it all again.

Instead he took a steadying breath.

'If you can't tell me you love me right now, that's fine. I have something almost as good. You trust me.'

Her big brown eyes grew s.h.i.+nier with unshed tears. Again, her teeth found her lower lip and she gnawed nervously. Archie put his finger to her lips to make her stop. He kissed the swollen place where she'd worried her pink flesh. Then he began to tie her up.

'Look at how much you trust me, Betsey.' He went slowly, not sure what he was messing with here. What he was about to do, and it would make complete sense, could be a large part of her fears and horrors. Archie worked very slowly, watching for any signs that he needed to turn back. She was holding her breath but watching intently. 'But I have one thing to tell you,' he said and then he stopped speaking.

He waited. Counting heartbeats to see how long it would take her. As he did, he wound the twine ornately up her wrists and her forearms. When he got to the elbow, he stopped. Tied the twine off. It would be very easy to take his pocket knife and get her out of this. And that had been his goal.

'What?' she finally asked. Twenty heartbeats.

'If anything I'm doing scares you, you tell me.' He framed her face with his hands and made sure she was looking at him. Made sure she was seeing the look on his face. 'You tell me and we stop, do you understand?'

She paused and Archie studied the steady jump of her pulse at the hollow of her throat. It was mesmerising, watching that small patch of flesh leap that way. He couldn't help himself. He licked her skin, kissed her there.

He was just about to prompt her when she answered. 'I understand.'

'I want your trust, Betsey. And though I've never done ' he touched the twine softly ' any of this with anyone else, I like it. I like it with you. But like I said, I want your trust, not your fear.'

She sobbed then. No denying it. It wasn't a little sound, it was a big one. The sound of someone letting something go. Maybe just a little, but it was a release.

Her knees buckled and he caught her. Otherwise, he was pretty sure she'd have sat down hard and fast on the old trailer carpeting.

'Tell me,' he said, gathering her up in his arms. He walked slowly down the meagre hallway towards his equally humble bedroom.

'I like this,' she sighed.

'And that's making you cry?' He kissed her temple. In the bedroom, he peeled back the comforter and the top sheet and laid her flat on his mismatched fitted sheet.

'Yes.'

'Tell me,' he said again, sitting with her. He stroked her thigh and her belly but didn't touch any of the places he planned to. Not yet. Not now. He wanted her to get this out. To talk to him.

'I fought so hard against this.' She moved her arms towards him as if they were Exhibit A. 'And now, with you, I like it...that makes no sense.'

He smiled at her and covered her with his upper body, pressing down against her to warm her. He kissed her and, when she sobbed softly, he kissed her again.

'It's nothing to be afraid of. Or ashamed about. Or whatever's going on in that amazing head of yours, Betsey. That man that monster wanted to take this from you. He wanted to come in and take it away from you along with your power to say no.'

He kissed the place just below her b.r.e.a.s.t.s where her chest became her belly. The skin pebbled into gooseb.u.mps. The muscles rippled and danced.

'This...you're giving this to me. You're offering it to me. And if, at any point, it frightens you or you want it to stop, it stops. You say done and we're done.'

She smiled at him, a small hiccup working through her. 'Done,' she echoed.

He reached for her. 'Are you done?'

'No. I just wanted to hear myself say it.'

He stopped, watching her. 'What do you want, Betsey?'

'You,' she said. 'I want you.'

He nodded, stood, took off his clothes. He did it slowly, as she watched. He made sure to look her in the eye. Made sure to see her and let her see him. This would only work if they were genuine with one another. And Archie planned to be more genuine with Betsey than he ever had in his life. With anyone else. Maybe even himself.

Chapter 24.

She made herself watch him. Didn't allow herself to look away because the moment was too intense. It was her instinct and she fought it tooth and nail. He ditched his s.h.i.+rt and hung it on a hook. Next his T-s.h.i.+rt and his jeans. When he pushed his jeans down, she saw how hard he was. Betsey held her breath as he pushed the waistband of his boxers down and then he was bare. Erect. For her.

Another s.h.i.+ver pa.s.sed through her. It seemed to shake her down to her marrow.

'Archie,' she said.

'Right here,' he said, laughing softly. He climbed on to the trailer's excuse for a bed and the whole world rocked and swayed.

'Please,' she said. 'I just want you...'

'And I want you.'

'In me,' she finished. 'I'm not very good at expressing myself,' she whispered.

'You seem to be doing fine.'

'I'm afraid,' she said. Her lips were nearly numb with anxiety from her admission.

'Of this?' he asked.

'Of how I feel.' Even as she said it she found herself leaning up towards him. Seeking him out.

He stretched her bound arms above her head and pressed his body to hers. His c.o.c.k brushed the plump cleft of her p.u.s.s.y. His belly kissed her belly. His chest mashed her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. He kissed the tip of her nose, then her lips. So softly she thought she might have imagined it.

'How do you feel?' His big blue eyes studied her and then he shut them, grinding his hard-on to the split of her. Pleasure flared brightly in her pelvis and her c.l.i.t throbbed.

'I feel...the way you feel,' she said. 'And that is such a copout. I'm sorry.'

He smiled down at her. 'Is that the closest you can get right now?'

'Yes,' she said. Her cheeks blazed with embarra.s.sed heat.

'Then I'm thrilled. Because I love you. If you even think you might love me, I'm thrilled.' He used his big hands to part her thighs. His finger trailed over her wetness, found the very centre of her, slipped inside to tease her into gasping.

He kissed her chest, just above the swell of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. His lips slid along her shoulders and her arms. Lingering on her fingertips and her palms. Her entire body blazed with adrenalin and need. She arched her hips up before she even realised she was doing it. A hot tear slid down her cheek and, when Archie saw it, he kissed her again before kissing it away.

He took her bound wrists and hooked them over his head and around his neck. Her pulse pounded not just from excitement but from the taut bite of the twine.

There were no games. Nothing beyond her bound wrists. He pushed his fingers deeper, curled them and then dragged the tip of his c.o.c.k along her entrance. 'Archie,' she said again.

'Hold on,' he said, shus.h.i.+ng her. 'I'm getting there.'

Before she could answer, he thrust into her. He pressed his lips to hers, swallowed down the sighs and gasps. Betsey felt a great rush of tears this time. Had anyone before loved her no matter what? When she was young, her mother, yes, but then, after the attempted abduction, her love seemed to be tethered to money.

It had killed something in Betsey. Now that something seemed to be surging back to life.

He whispered in her ear. Small sounds, hus.h.i.+ng noises, nonsense, really. But it made her feel safe. It made her feel loved. Archie rocked his hips from side to side, changing his rhythm and catching her off-guard. She came. Her body contracting with release before she even knew it would happen. The pleasure grew and grew until it blotted out everything but the sound of his breathing in her ear.

'I love that,' he said.

'What?'

'That sound. That sound you make when you come. It's the best sound I think I've ever heard.'

He pulled almost free of her before plunging in again, deep. She cried out softly, bit her lip and tried to stifle it.

'Don't you quiet yourself, Betsey Green,' Archie growled against her throat. His lips were warm, his breath was hot. She felt a tingling free-fall feeling in her stomach as he held her hips steady with his big hands and f.u.c.ked her in a heart-stopping tempo.

'I...OK,' she said breathlessly.

'Say you won't.'

'I won't.'

'Say it's good.'

'G.o.d, it's good,' she said.

He grunted, his body slamming against hers faster and faster. She wrapped her legs around his waist and moved up to meet him eagerly. To take him as deep as she could.

'Say you won't run from me.'

'I won't.'

'Not unless you don't want to be with me at all,' he said softly, looking down at her. 'But even then you don't have to run. You just need to tell me.'

'I do,' she said. 'I want to. And I want to say I love you. I do...'

He stopped her voice by kissing her. His tongue sliding against hers, his mouth rough but wonderful. His hands slid up to cup her b.r.e.a.s.t.s even as he moved faster over her, inside her. When he broke the kiss he said, 'Don't tell me you want to tell me. Just don't say anything until you're ready. Whenever that is.'

'But what if it takes a long time?' she asked. Even she heard the watery tone of her voice. The worry in it.

He looked down at her, his blue eyes once again astonis.h.i.+ng her with their kindness. 'What if it does?'

'Won't you...' She shook her head.

His hands moved again, sure and warm, always keeping her on the edge of uncertainty. Just enough to steal her breath and make her heart pound.

'Won't I what?' He slipped his hands under her a.s.s and angled her. When he plunged into her again his c.o.c.k kissed all those blissfully plump places that caused waves of euphoria to sweep over her. It was so good. Too good. Perfect. 'Won't I get tired of waiting and go away?'

She nodded. Betsey didn't trust her voice to speak.

He stopped then. Not moving at all. She felt her body giving off ticks and pops of pleasure like a car cooling after a long drive. She wanted him to move. In her head she begged him to move. But her mouth remained shut and she said nothing.

'Do you think that? That I'd go away?'