The effect was instant. River moaned, her legs falling open on instinct, letting Archer slip his hand even lower, to her entrance. There, she was just as wet as he had imagined, his fingers slipping inside her with no resistance to rub and tease her walls, thrusting them all the way to the knuckle just to see her squirm under him.
“Is this what ye want, me love?” he asked her, and River nodded frantically. He watched her as he pleasured her, watched the way her body undulated to get him deeper inside her, the way her breasts swung with every movement of her body. He could watch her all night, he could simply stare at her as he pleasured her, just listen to her as she was lost in her passion, and it would be more than enough for him.
Archer leaned back, sitting on his heels, and pushed the covers back to reveal River’s body fully. He pleasured her with his fingers, pumping them inside her slowly to coax more of her wetness from her, while his other hand caressed her body—her hip, the curve of her waist, her breast, her shoulder, then back down her arm.
“Archer, please…” River gasped, reaching for him. “Please, I need ye.”
She didn’t need to say anything else. Archer was in no mood to tease her, not now, not when all he wanted was to feel close to her. Instead, he wrapped his hand around himself and gavehimself a few strokes, his fingers still wet from her entrance, before finally pushing slowly deep inside of her.
That was all it took for River to be completely lost in her pleasure, her fingernails scratching at his back as Archer pushed himself to the hilt inside her. She was so tight around him, her walls clenching with every small thrust of his hips, trying to keep him close, her body never wanting to let go. She was so warm, like fire incarnate, and Archer found himself never wanting to let go of her either.
Each thrust of his hips, each push deeper inside her had him gasping in pleasure. Her moans filled the air, and Archer angled his hips just right just to hear her make more of those sounds, to listen to the beautiful lilt of her voice when she called his name.
Archer knew he wouldn’t last. Each thrust, each slide of his length against her tight entrance brought him closer and closer to completion, and he wanted nothing more than to make her reach her orgasm first. He grabbed her hips in his hands, his grip firm as he slowed down his rhythm, but at the same time deepened it, their bodies meeting firmly with each thrust.
That drove River wild, just like he knew it would. She clung desperately to him, moaning his name again and again, and when she finally reached her climax, Archer could feel it in the way she tightened around him, the clench and release of her walls pushing him over the edge, too, until he was spilling deep inside her.
Afterwards, he collapsed next to her on the bed and promptly gathered her in his arms. River cuddled against him, curling up in his embrace, and relaxed him with a soft sigh. Every now and then, her body shook with the aftershocks of her orgasm, and Archer petted her through it, pressing a soft kiss to her hair.
“Was that alright?” he teased in the quiet that followed.
River laughed softly, nodding. Her hair tickled his nose as she did, and Archer couldn’t help but chuckle. “More than alright.”
“I’m glad,” Archer said, and then let himself succumb to the fatigue that finally claimed him. He had been so anxious the whole day, so high-strung that he hadn’t realized how late it was or how tired he was.
But now he was content. There was nothing left for him to do. River was safe, in his arms, and that was the only thing that mattered.
EPILOGUE
“He looks just like me.”
River stared at Aidan incredulously, entirely unimpressed by his statement.
“I carried him for nine months through all the nausea, all the fatigue, for ye to tell me he looks like ye?” she asked, her words coming out in a hiss so as to not disturb the baby in her arms. “He looks likeme, Adian.”
Aidan leaned closer as if trying to take a better look at the baby. “Aye, I suppose he does a wee bit.”
“I’m his maither!” River shouted, and then promptly lowered her voice again. She looked down at her son to find him still sleeping, thankfully. The boy was a deep sleeper, it seemed. “I’m his maither. Of course he looks like me. And yer me brother, ye bampot, we look alike.”
“I didnae ken ye fight with yer brother like ye’re twelve,” Archer said as he slid next to her on the couch. The drawing room was filled with people that morning, ever since Aidan’s arrival, and River was already beginning to crave the quiet she could have in her chambers—which were also usually full of people, but at least those people were the ones closest to her.
She supposed it wasn’t the maids that bothered her so, but rather the fact that Aidan seemed intent on bringing out the most childish side of her, like he always did.
Aidan gave Archer a small shrug. “This is what brothers are for. If I daenae bother her, who will?”
“Hopefully nae one,” River grumbled.
“If it’s important to ye, Aidan, I may have to take up the task meself,” said Archer, much to River’s chagrin.
“Then ye can go and live with me brother,” River said. “Ye can annoy each other.”
“Och, I daenae ken…I daenae find him so annoyin’,” Archer teased.
“Aye, I think we’d get along very well,” Aidan added.
Why was I cursed with these men in me life?
For all she complained, though, River didn’t know how she could ever possibly live without them.
