What struck him speechless wasn’t that Lily had a tattoo, which was news enough to him. It was that she had a tattoo honoring him.
“My Archer,” she said softly, reading his thoughts.
“When did you get this?” he managed.
“Just after you got the lily tattoo,” she replied, reaching up to trace it over his heart. “You never told me about it, but I saw it in photos. I knew you got it for me. So I decided to get one for you.”
She hadn’t gotten it to get his attention like other women might. He would probably never have known about it if not for this moment. She would have kept this private homage to herself, making it more meaningful than she would ever know.
When he just stared at the tattoo for another minute, she turned his attention by reaching up and pulling him closer so she could kiss him again. He was still stunned enough to let her. But when his hands wanted to roam along her velvety skin, he stopped the kiss. He knew he had driven Lily as far to the brink as she could handle.
Hell, he’d driven them both to the brink. He didn’t know how much longer he’d last.
He rose and stood beside the bed to remove his shorts. Lily shifted onto her side to watch him, probably just as curious about his body as he had been about hers. Her eyes widened when he stepped out of his shorts and was finally unclothed. He easily read her astonishment and no small amount of hunger.
It seemed neither of them was disappointed.
“Oh, my,” she breathed.
His entire body reacted to the words like a physical stroke. He opened the nightstand drawer and removed a condom, fumbling it out of its package with more awkwardness than he would have under other circumstances. His body’s raging insistence that he take Lily now had his hands not quite steady.
She watched him as he slowly rolled the condom on. He swallowed hard when she caught her full lower lip between her teeth. He would have made a smart comment about her obviously liking what she saw, but there was no way he could speak right then.
She kept her gaze on him as he returned to the bed, then she eased back so she was lying down as he got closer to her. She looked like a breathtaking fairy queen with her long, strawberry-blonde hair spread across the pillows, her eyes a deep violet and her lush lips pink from his kisses. The look in her eyes beckoned him.
She ruled his heart. And she was about to fully become his.
Her arms lifted to welcome him as he moved across the bed. He eased on top of her, bracing himself on his elbows and settling his hips between her thighs. She wrapped her arms and legs around him, bringing him closer to where she wanted him. Both of them closed their eyes and moaned as their naked bodies touched.
Sweat beaded on his forehead as he concentrated on holding it together. It took him a couple of minutes to get himself under enough control that he could touch her again. When he did, he went straight for her siren’s lips.
He couldn’t get enough of the taste of her.
She clearly felt the same way. Her hands twined in his hair, keeping him where her tongue could continue to dance with his.
Before long, the kiss got hot and urgent. Their mouths slanted over each other again and again. His hands slid along her hips and breasts as she stroked his shoulders and backside. The room filled with the sounds of their pleasure and labored breathing.
When she finally reached down between them and guided him to her, he didn’t fight her anymore.
God, he wanted her.
He watched her as he entered her, careful not to rush it. Her body, tight as a bow with sexual tension, wouldn’t let him rush things anyway. Her mouth opened and her head tipped back as he gradually moved forward, inch by painstaking inch. It felt like an eternity before they were, at long last, fully joined.
His heart clamored in his chest like he had just run up a mountain. He felt a line of sweat gather between his shoulder blades and another along his temple. Once again, he had to take a minute to calm himself down. The feeling of being inside Lily was almost more than he could bear.
When he had finally backed away enough from that fine edge, he opened his eyes and looked at her. He was startled to see tears glistening on her lashes.
“Are you okay?” he asked, reaching up to brush the moisture away.
She nodded, but it was clearly a struggle for her. Her voice wavered when she said, “It’s just...I’ve never felt...it’s so...”
He understood. Perfectly.
“I love you, Lily.”
“Oh, God, Dane. I love you, too.”
The words, spoken at such an intimate moment with such sincerity, made his chest ache with tenderness towards her. He felt both vulnerable and staggeringly invincible at the same time, a foreign sensation that couldn’t be captured in any song. He hoped he could keep this memory of her stored forever.
She rose up and he met her in another kiss. He made sure the kiss was gentle this time so he could savor the flavor of her. Although he tried to stay still and revel in the moment, instinct and raw desire prompted him to move. Her hips lifted naturally to meet him, much as her tongue met his. With each movement she seemed to draw him closer, deeper, until they were like one person.
The pleasure built, bringing them both back up to that glorious edge. He wanted to draw out this first joining as long as possible, but his body had other plans. It demanded an immediate end to this erotic torture.
He fought that primal impulse as long as he could. When Lily began moving more frantically against him though, his control snapped.
He lifted her legs higher around his waist and drove himself into her, moving more and more forcefully each time. His mind no longer controlled his actions.
Still, he kept enough of his senses to try and reach between them to touch her. He had told her they were going to do this together and he meant it.
“No,” she gasped, her nails digging blissfully into his shoulders as her hips rose against him. “Don’t stop. Don’t.”
So he didn’t.
He knew immediately when she went over the edge. She didn’t just come apart. She shattered, crying out his name.
And the feeling of that brought him to the most intense peak of his entire life.
* * *
His arms felt as weak as the rest of him. He was fairly certain he was crushing Lily beneath him. Rolling over would have taken an act of God, though.
The only sound was of their ragged breathing. Lily stroked his back, her damp forehead pressed against the crook of his neck. Her body continued to pulse beneath him, small but intense aftershocks that went right through him.
Lord help him, he was quickly working his way up to wanting to do it all again.
“God,” she panted. “That was...”
“Yeah.”
“Have you ever...?”
“No.”
“Me neither.”
A couple of minutes later, he pushed himself up enough to meet her gaze. They grinned like simpletons.
“Wanna do it again?” she asked.
“Hell yes.”
They didn’t speak again for a long time.
Chapter Thirty-Two
The sound of the hotel room’s door lock beeping woke Archer later that morning. His head lifted from his pillow and he looked around, disoriented. The bedroom was still dark thanks to the curtains, but he hadn’t thought to close the door separating the bedroom from the living area. He saw early morning sunlight pouring into the other room and spilling over the bedroom’s threshold.
A quick glance at the clock told him it was six in the morning. That meant it was Trey entering his room.
His immediate concern eased. Lily was still in his bed but that didn’t alarm him. Trey was nothing if not discreet.
Still, Archer extricated himself from Lily’s arm, which had been thrown over his waist, and made sure she was covered with the sheet before he hunted down his shorts and tugged them on. Spotting Lily’s dress on the floor, he grabbed it, too. By then Trey had entered the living area carrying
a travel caddy with three beverage cups in it and a brown paper bag that brought the heavenly scent of baked goods along with it.
“Sweet Lord,” Archer said as he pulled the bedroom door closed behind him. “Is that coffee? Please tell me that’s coffee.”
“Of course, sir,” Trey replied with a knowing grin. “Figured you didn’t get much sleep.”
There was a time when Trey wouldn’t have been so forward with him, but they had known each other for a few years now. Archer just shook his head and smiled as he lifted one of the coffees from the caddy.
“Think I’ve gotten about four hours in the past two days,” he admitted, removing the lid to add some of the creamer Trey had brought. “I’m glad it’s a travel day. I’m sure I’ll crash and burn on the drive to Glendale.”
“Mr. Donahue wanted me to remind you that we’re setting out within the hour.”
“I remember,” Archer said, sipping his coffee. “I’ll get started on waking Lily as soon as my brain clears. In the meantime, I need a favor.”
As he finished his coffee, he sent Trey off to Lily’s room with her dress and the request that he have Lily’s friends pack up an outfit and whatever Lily needed to get ready in his room. Archer wasn’t about to have her doing a walk of shame. There was nothing shameful about what they had done together.
Although he was pretty sure if he mentioned some of the things that they had done to each other the night before that Lily would blush like a stoplight.
Just remembering it had his body responding again. He wasn’t one to marvel over such things, but he couldn’t believe his physical response. It seemed inconceivable that he hadn’t gotten this keen and gripping lust for Lily out of his system during the night.
Not that he wasn’t enjoying every minute of it.
He gave her a little longer to sleep by taking the time to brush his teeth after he was done with his coffee and then checking his phone for messages. Even as he read the grumbling texts from his band mates about why he wasn’t at the gym with them when working out before dawn was his idea, there was a knock at the door. Ignoring it for a moment, he opened the heavy curtains in the bedroom, leaving only the sheer white panels to cover the window for privacy. He then moved over to the bed where Lily remained curled up like a sleeping kitten. The sunlight brought out the many shades of red and blonde in her burnished hair.
“Rise and shine, Lily Momilly,” he said, lifting a stray curl from the side of her face and brushing it behind her ear. “Time to get ready for the trip to Arizona.”
She made a grumbling sound in the back of her throat. Her eyelids parted to slits.
“I’m going to kill you,” she mumbled. “Need sleep.”
He bent down to give her a quick kiss. “You’ll make us late. There’s tea and breakfast waiting for you.”
“Go away.”
He laughed and tugged the sheet off her, taking it with him as he strolled out of the room. Her savage curses followed him as he closed the door. Dropping the sheet over the back of a chair, he made it across the living room just as the knock sounded a second time. He glanced through the peephole and then opened the door to admit Keith.
“Geez, Con Man,” Archer greeted him affably by his stage name as they walked into the living area. “What’s with all of the checking up on me? Don’t you have a girlfriend to go entertain?”
“She can entertain herself,” Keith said, not smiling as Archer had intended. “I have a life outside of her, you know. Anyway, it’s not like you to miss two gym outings in a row. You haven’t replied to anyone’s calls or texts. I wanted to make sure everything’s cool.”
“Sure it is. Everything’s great.”
One of Keith’s dark eyebrows lifted. “So it seems. You haven’t stopped smiling since I walked in here.”
“Really?” Archer shrugged. He’d never felt so light and invigorated. There sure as hell didn’t seem to be anything wrong with that.
“Yeah. It’s getting creepy.”
Archer finally clued in that Keith looked even more severe than usual. “Is everything all right with you?”
“What, just because I’m not smiling like the fucking Joker there has to be a problem?”
Keith’s cold tone didn’t ruffle Archer. “No, because you’re my friend and I know when something’s on your mind.”
“Jesus, are you Dr. Phil?” Keith shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and moved across the room so he could look out the two glass doors leading to the balcony. “Maybe I’m just in a pisser of a mood.”
Archer could have said that Keith was in a pisser of a mood more often than not, but that would hardly help matters. “Okay, fine. You want to go a round, get whatever it is out of your system?”
Keith’s eyes darted to him. He seemed to give it some serious consideration. Eventually he just frowned and looked back outside.
“You may want to go a round with me when I tell you why I’m really here,” Keith said without emotion.
Archer’s first thought was that Keith wanted to leave the band. Panic started to claw its way up from his gut.
The door to the bedroom opened then, drawing the attention of both males. Lily appeared in the doorway wearing Archer’s T-shirt from the night before. It barely hit her mid-thigh. She looked slumberous and sexy as hell.
“Dane, where’s my...” She drifted off when she noticed Keith staring at her. “Oh. Good morning.”
Keith’s eyes flickered back to Archer. “Now I see why you’re so damn cheerful. Guess Noelle was right about the power of a good lay.”
Archer heard Lily’s sharp intake of breath. His jaw muscle flexed and his hands tightened into fists. All sense of panic evaporated, replaced by insult and outrage.
“Get the hell out,” he said.
Rather than storm out like Archer expected him to, Keith briefly closed his eyes and shook his head. “Damn. That was a dick thing to say.” His blue eyes moved to Lily. “I’m sorry.”
There was a moment of tense silence, interrupted by the beeping of the door lock. Trey entered with a light blue overnight bag in one hand. His perceptive gaze picked up everything in one swift sweep of the room.
“Everything all right, sir?” Trey asked.
Archer wasn’t sure. There was clearly something at the root of Keith’s behavior. It wasn’t like him to treat someone he cared about this way.
But Archer sure as hell wasn’t going to stand there and let Keith talk about Lily like that.
“Keith was just leaving,” he said stiffly.
Keith frowned but didn’t argue. He headed towards the door. Lily watched him go, looking hurt and uncertain. Something she read on Keith’s face had her taking a few steps into the living area.
“I’m not just a good lay, you know,” she said to Keith, halting him in his tracks. She smiled when he looked at her. “I’m an incredible lay.”
Archer’s mouth flopped open. Keith’s lips twitched and an appreciative gleam entered his eye. Trey coughed on what Archer suspected was laughter.
“I’m sure you are,” Keith drawled. “Forgive me?”
“As long as we’re clear on that,” she said.
“Crystal.”
Archer rolled his eyes. “Well, now that that’s settled, I’m going to take this incredible lay into the bathroom and convince her to have shower sex. So beat it, Connors.”
“Beating it,” Keith said, once again striding towards the door.
At least now he was smiling, Archer thought.
Once Keith had departed, Archer took Lily’s bag from Trey. “Thanks. We’ll be ready in twenty minutes.”
“Thirty,” Lily corrected.
Archer saw the challenging look in her eye. “Make that thirty,” he said over his shoulder as he walked over to her and guided her into the bedroom, pulling the door closed behind them.
She smiled at him as he put the bag on the bed. His heart stumbled all over itself.
Boy, was he in trouble.
“You?
??re overdressed,” he said huskily, walking up to her and grabbing a fistful of fabric so he could tug the shirt off her.
“Thank you for fixing that. But you seem to be suffering from the same problem,” she replied, running her fingertips teasingly along the waistband of his shorts before sliding them off him.
Her hand slid back up his thigh and captured him while she held his gaze. He was pretty sure his eyes nearly rolled back into his head.
“Down to twenty-nine minutes,” she murmured as her hand worked its magic.
“‘Kay,” he choked out, forcing himself to step away from her. “Must shower.”
She grinned and watched him head into the bathroom. He took the time for the water to get to the right temperature and for Lily to brush her teeth to calm himself down. His reaction to her touch was now instantaneous. He had no idea how he’d function when they were out in public.
“Ready to convince me to have shower sex?” she asked from behind him as he checked the water. Her arms encircled his waist and she pressed her cheek to his back.
“Just—” he started to say, only to cut himself off with a hiss when her hand once again reached down to grasp him. “About,” he managed to finish.
He didn’t let her tease him for long. They were on a timeline, after all.
They stepped into the walk-in shower. Since it had multiple showerheads, they were each able to wash their hair at the same time. Archer watched Lily as much as he could while seeing to his own bathing, enjoying how the water and soap suds ran along her body. He took the time to wash his body, too, while she conditioned her hair. The rest of the bathing would be all about her.
When she was done with her hair, he poured body wash into his hands and stepped behind her. He brought his hands up and started washing her, beginning with her neck, shoulders, and arms and moving along to her back. As he reached her legs and backside, he started getting the sexy moans he loved.
He knew when she was getting impatient. She started to turn around, but he stopped her.
“No,” he said. “Hands on the wall.”
“Dane—”