Page 74 of Easton
El, why aren’t you answering me? Are you mad at me?
It takes me a moment to realize we’re home and Archer’s hand is on my shoulder, trying to reel me back in.
“I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have anything to apologize for. Stay right there.”
He gets out of the truck, coming around to my side to open the door. The way Archer takes care of me makes me believe that maybe deep down, there’s a part of me that’s worth it if I could just bring it closer to the surface.
“Good boy,” he says when I take his hand and get out of the truck. Heat flares through me, the neediness I have for him growing. I don’t want to be what Gregory says. I don’t know if I am, but I don’t want to be. I want to be the man Archer sees when he looks at me, the one he tells me he loves.
He unhooks the dogs from their doggie belts, and the two of them run toward the house.
Once we’re inside, he takes the leashes off, that emptiness in me a vast echo I need to fill, and the only way I know how to do that is with Archer.
“Fuck me.” I take his face in my hands and pull his mouth to mine. My tongue slips inside, tasting the familiarity I’ve only ever had with him, the comfort I’ve only ever had with him.
Archer kisses me back, hands on my waist, fingers digging into me in the most welcome of ways.
I try to devour him, cling to him like if I let him go, he’ll disappear.
“Hey, slow down. We’re good. I’m not going anywhere. Maybe we should talk.”
We probably should, but I can’t, not now. “I just want to feel the way only you can make me feel. I’m so fucking empty without you. Need to be filled up by you.”
“Jesus. Yes. God yes.”
Our mouths fuse together again, and we find a way to stumble up the stairs while kissing. The second we’re in the bedroom, we pull apart only to kick out of shoes and remove clothes. It hurts not to touch him, to be away from him for one second. I maybe shouldn’t need him the way I do, feel like he’s what keeps me grounded, but I do, and I don’t ever want to lose that, to lose him.
To lose myself.
Archer’s arms wrap around me as he kisses me like he’s as hungry for me as I am him, as if he needs me just as much.
“He’s worth everything.”
I’ve never believed that. At least, not since Ella. I meant something to her. But when I lost her, I lost myself. Lost my worth. Dusty, Morgan, and Rhett tried, but they still couldn’t make me see, still couldn’t tear my walls down and silence how I feel about myself…but Archer is quieting those voices. Making me feel like maybe I’m worth fighting for.
Archer lowers me to the bed, pushing me up so my head is on the pillows. His firm, muscular body fits perfectly against mine, on top of mine. Hard cock against hard cock, heart against heart as he eats at my mouth like he might die if he couldn’t have me.
I spread my legs for him, wrap them around him, that ache to be filled by him consuming me.
And somehow, Archer knows. His mouth licks and sucks its way down my throat, his hair tickling my skin. “You need me inside that tight little hole of yours? Fuck, I need it too. I’ll always need you, East.”
I feel like I’m his, feel wanted, like in these moments, I can forget the words Gregory said to me, forget what I did to Ella.
“I’ll always need you too.”
He stills on top of me, pulling a sharp breath into his lungs. Then he looks at me and smiles, like I’ve made him the happiest person in the world.
Me. The unwanted one.
Gregory hadn’t wanted me.
My mom, though I know she loved me, initially hadn’t wanted me either. At least, she hadn’t tried for me. She’d wanted her girl. She’d wanted Ella.
Rhett and Morgan hadn’t wanted to take care of me.
But something about me makes Archer happy, and maybe that’s the light at the end of the tunnel, the full heart after years of it being broken…that I have him and he has me.