A noisy yawn takes over me and makes my eyes water. It’s not even all that late, especially considering the time difference we’re accustomed to all the way over in Copeland City. But I’ve just survived the worst week of my fucking life, and Cordoza’s news hasn’t made things any better.
“Archer?”
“Mm. Dunno.” I drag her closer and bury my nose in her fragrant hair. I know I risk tangling our feet. My tight grip might even be painful for her. But fuck, I can’t let go. “A while. Slept okay last night, I guess.” But even that was fraught with hourly wake-ups and anxious checking to ensure she was right there beside me. “I know we need to discuss the Cordoza stuff, but I just…”
“We’ll pick it up some other time.” She presses a kiss to the side of my chest and wraps her other arm around my torso. She has no hope of carrying me if I drop, but I don’t doubt for a second she might try. “I don’t wanna argue about it right now, anyway.”
“No arguing.” I close my eyes and let her guide us around the final landing and along the hall. We pass guards, but I ignore them. We even pass Harrison, who might be Minka’s favorite guard of them all.
He nods. She nods. That’s all there is to their communication. Then we’re trudging through our door and into the room always ready for us, even when there are weeks, sometimes even months, between visits.
“Not gonna argue with you anymore, Minnnka.” I kick the door shut and spy our bags stacked neatly by the small sitting area in front of the TV. I lead her to the end of the bed and push her down until she’s sitting, then I sluggishly lower to my knees and peel her shoes off.I’ll get our bags in a sec. Get her meds so she doesn’t die on me overnight.“Never gonna argue again.” I yawn. “Gonna give you whatever you want for the rest of our lives.”
“Geez.” She cups my face and drags my focus back to her smiling expression. “You must bereallytired if you think either of us is capable of shutting our mouths, or that I’d accept a marriage where no one cared enough to debate worthy topics.” She inches closer and nibbles on my lips. “If you think that’s the humdrum relationship I’ll accept, then I guess we’re gonna argue about it. And stop worrying about my Factor. I’m not infusing tonight.”
“You’re…” Stunned, I pull back and blink, blink, blink through the fatigue beating in my veins. “It’s Sunday night. Youneedto.”
“I don’tneedto infuse, and I absolutely don’t feel like infusing, so…” She draws me closer, my very own praying mantis summoning me toward death. Or, well… toward the woman I exist for. “I’ll do it tomorrow night.”
“But—”
“You’ve grown accustomed to every second night, since you’re the most organized person in my life, and you ensured our schedules allowed for it. But before you came along, infusion night was whenever the hell I got to it. Every second or third, and sometimes when I was extra busy, fourth, night.” Her eyes dance with a playfulness I haven’t seen in too long. Her lashes flicker down and kiss the tops of her cheeks. She’s tired, too; the shadows beneath her eyes prove it. But she keeps hold of my face and slowly tilts backward, pulling me up until I’m kneeling between her legs, my hands on her thighs, and my focus solely trained on the dimples popping seductively in her cheeks. “It seems we’ve trained each other to expect certain things. Like, you and my infusion schedule.”
I narrow my eyes. “What have I trained you to expect?”
“Sex when you’re stressed.” Her lips split into a wide, taunting grin, and fuck me, my cock springs to life despite the bone-deep weariness dragging me toward sleep. She tugs on my face, prompting me to crawloff the floor and onto the mattress, then she wraps her legs around my hips and tightens until I no longer rest on my knees.
Instead, I rest on her.
“I was sitting at that table tonight, partially tempted to strangle Cordoza for creating such a mess. Tempted to preemptively pick a fight with you, since I figured you’d have some shit to say about all this. I was missing home, missing the dumb cat. Missing Micah and Cato, since we got to eat a delicious meal, and they were kept outside like stray dogs.” She licks her lips and drapes her arms over my shoulders. “But the most insistent thought rushing through my mind was ‘oh man. Archer’s gonna stress-fuck me so good tonight.’”
I choke out a pained laugh and shake my head. But fuck it. She’s already planted the seed.
I slide my hand beneath her shirt and tug the cup of her bra down, and with renewed energy, I pop back to my knees and spread her legs wide. “I’ve corrupted you.” Unsnapping the button of her jeans, I slip my hand into her panties and find her wet and pulsing. “Fuckkkk.” I take her lips with mine and suckle her tongue until I remember exactly how good she tastes when she’s desperate. “You’re never gonna be able to handle a stressful situation again without making a mess of your panties.”
“Only whenyou’restressed,” she snickers, sneaking a hand between us and unfastening the button of my jeans. She shoves the zipper down and slips her fingers past the waistband of my boxer shorts. Like the seductress she is, she fists my cock and hums her appreciation. “Stress doesn’t makemehorny, Detective. But it makes you needy, and you being needy for me gets me going.”
“Well, hell. I’llalwaysbe needy for you.” I peel her pants and underwear down, careful not to scrape the fabric against her healing knee, and since I’m going, I kick my boots off and push my jeans down, too. “You have no fucking clue how, just two minutes ago, I was already asleep on my feet. But then you mention stress, and now my cock is painfully hard, and biting you is basically the only thing I can think about.”
She giggles. It’s a playful sound. A beautiful, soul-shaking, heart-healing sound after the week from hell we’ve just crawled through. Then it gets a million times better as she places her hand on my shoulder and pushes.
Not away.
Over.
Her dimples dig deep, her eyes shine bright, and when my tired braintakes a hint and I flip to my back, her lips curl into the satisfied grin of a she-devil.
“You can bite me if you want.” Climbing onto my hips, she peels her silky top up and reveals tits perched above the cups of her bra. Reaching back, she unsnaps that, too, and tosses it aside. Now only one scrap of fabric stands between us. “I like it when you bite me. I like it when you hit. When you hurt.” Inching backward, she drags my shorts down and groans as my cock bounces against my stomach with a heavy thud. “I know you’re tired, Detective. More tired than you’ve ever been.” Seductively, she makes her way back onto my hips, pushes tall to create space between our bodies, then she fists my cock in a grip tight enough to almost undo me. “Let me take care of you this time.” She drops with a whimper and swallows me all the way to the hilt. Her heart pounds so hard I can see her pulse against the side of her throat. Her tits become a siren for my senses. A dessert just waiting for my sampling tongue. Finally, she rocks over top of me, mewling as I grip her trim thighs and bruise her flesh with my touch. “Fuck, Archer.” She tips her head back so long mahogany hair tickles her shoulder blades. Her bobbing throat steals my focus from her luscious chest. She’s as close to perfect as any mortal human can ever hope to be.
So fucking beautiful. So smart. So courageous. So tight, her pussy was created to wrap around me and lead us toward certain insanity.
“We still have a lot ofthisto make up,” she moans, her belly rolling with each slide of her hips. Bringing her devastating, dark brown eyes down to mine, she hooks a hand around the back of my neck and tugs until I sit up and take her nipple between my lips.
“Ahh!” She tenses on my lap and cries out in pleasure. In pain, especially as I bite the hardened peak. “I wanted to do this for you,” she moans. “I was gonna do all the work. But it feelssomuch better when you can barely control how violent you wish you really could be.”
“You want me to hurt you, Minnnka?” I grab her ass cheeks in my bruising hands and draw the globes apart. “You want me to destroy your cunt and be the reason youmustinfuse every second night?” I pull just one hand back, then I slap her ass. Not the cheek, but her asshole. I slap her pussy, exactly where we connect, and when I risk losing her to the ceiling Iknowshe wants to fly straight through, I hold her down and slip a demanding finger into her puckered opening.
“Ahh!” She detonates, crushing my cock and crying out as her release explodes between us. As her heart thrums three times faster than normal and her arms tighten around my shoulders. “Oh, God. Archer!”
