Whether he really was or not, Archer did sound quite surprised by that, as if he had expected River to do anything to get him naked. She rolled her eyes at him, but then refused to ask another question. She knew that if she did, Archer would simply refuse to answer her.
“Then let me ask ye one,” Archer said when she didn’t speak. He moved closer to her, shuffling over the couch until they were once again too close and River was enveloped in his warmth, in his scent.
The proximity sent a shiver through her. What hopes did she have of resisting him now that he had cornered her like this? All this time, she had done her best to deny her need, to put a wall between them, but now Archer was set on demolishing it.
River didn’t stop him when he reached out with his hand to brush his fingers over her neckline, before dipping lower and lower, until he could ever so gently roll her nipple. River gasped,the sensation foreign and yet more pleasurable than she could have ever imagined.
“What if we do somethin’ that doesnae put us in risk of bairns?” he asked, and River’s mouth fell open into a moan.
13
He needed her like he needed air.
Throughout the whole game, Archer had never once looked away from River as she revealed more and more to him, eager to see her as she was under all those layers, under all that facade of being proper. He supposed it wasn’t so much a facade for her; she was a proper lady, clearly untouched, even by him. But River was his wife. He wanted to give her the pleasure he knew he could. He wanted her to know what it was like to be with a man like him. He wanted to see her as he touched her for the first time, to hear her gasps, her moans, to feel her part for him.
Even if he couldn’t take her—not yet, at least.
“What if we do somethin’ that doesnae put us in risk of bairns?” he asked her, and River only stared at him in silence, her mouth hanging open. She didn’t give him an answer, but she didn’t stop him either, and so Archer moved slowly, giving her time to pull back from him if she so wished.
She didn’t. When he leaned in to capture her plush, rosy lips into a kiss, she simply gave into it immediately, melting into it.
She tasted of sweet wine from the cup that was on the small, wooden table by the couch. Her lips were soft, pillowy against his own, and the more he kissed her, the more he wished he could simply never stop.
Just looking at her while they were playing the game had been enough for him to be filled with an unbridled lust, with a need that demanded to be fulfilled. Now that he was kissing her, that need only amplified until it was almost unbearable, until he almost lost all control of himself.
“Ye’re makin’ me mad,” he mumbled against her lips, and River moaned in response, the sound reverberating through him. His hands found her hips, fingers digging into the ample flesh through her shift, his manhood twitching eagerly under his kilt as River finally wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer.
“Do ye want me to show ye how good I can make ye feel?” he asked, giving River little chance to respond before he dove back in and scattered kisses on her neck, nibbling the sensitive skin there. River’s hands curled around his shoulders, holding onto him as he teased her, as he tasted and licked and kissed anywhere he could reach. “I’ll make ye feel so good, River. I promise ye.”
River mumbled something unintelligible under her breath and Archer’s hand found her hair, releasing the long, dark locks fromtheir updo. Her hair spilled down her shoulders like ink, and he threaded his fingers through it, caressing it gently.
When he pulled back to look at her, her pupils were wide in her blue eyes, almost swallowing the iris. Her lips were parted as she panted, slick with saliva, and he couldn’t help but wonder just how slick she was between her legs, too, where he craved to touch her.
“What...what will ye do?” she asked, sounding uncertain.
“I’ll only kiss ye,” Archer said, pressing a kiss to her mouth, then her jaw, then her neck again, until he could reach her breasts over the fabric of her shift. Like that, he sucked one of her nipples in his mouth, wetting the fabric, and above him, River cried out in surprise.
“Where?” she asked, breathless.
“Everywhere.”
With a hand trembling from passion, Archer reached down and gave his length a squeeze. Just seeing her like this, just hearing her moans had him desperately hard, and he imagined what it would be like to plunge into her wet heat, claiming her as his own for good.
But now was not the time for this. He would claim her, as soon as she asked him to.
With slow movements once more, Archer took the fabric of her shift between his fingers and lifted it off her body until River was entirely nude before him. The sight of her creamy skin under the soft candlelight gave him pause; she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. Not for the first time, he wondered how he could have ever stayed away from her when she was so beautiful, so sensual, without even knowing it.
Did she know it at all, he wondered? Did she know what her round breasts, her thighs, that thatch of dark curls over her mound did to him?
As he leaned over her, Archer exhaled softly over her breast and watched as goosebumps formed on the skin. He leaned closer and wrapped his lips around her nipple once more, this time without the barrier of fabric between them, and River arched her back, pushing up into the touch of his lips. His hands roamed all over her body, touching anywhere he could reach—her neck, the swell of her breast, the length of her calf, taking in all that smooth skin on display for him.
And when River spoke, it was the sweetest sound he had ever heard.
“Please,” she said. “Please, Archer.”
Archer’s touch was like a branding iron on her skin, and River never wanted him to let go.
She had never expected it would be so easy for her to be like this before him—entirely nude, lost in pleasure even as she anticipated more of it. Only moments prior, she would have thought herself too shy, too easily embarrassed by such displays of passion, but now her wanton moans filled the room, simply because she had no hope of ever stopping them.
