Kya
“I think this is my new favorite part of having sex,” I whispered after our second round of consummating our marriage.
“What? Not your orgasm?” Archer nuzzled his head into my hair, his arms wrapped closely around me from behind.
“No, don’t,” I said and stopped him from pulling out of me. “I like it when we’re merged like this. It’s like we’re one.”
His lips had moved down to nibble at my earlobe. “I love it when you talk dirty like that, babe,” he said and although I couldn’t see him, I knew he was smiling.
“It’s just so…” Putting words to the feeling I was experiencing, would only flatten something that was extraordinary and magnificent, but I tried anyway. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that the sexual act in itself is amazing and the orgasms, well, that part is pretty addictive too. But this moment, right now, is my favorite because it’s tender and about more than lust.”
Archer squeezed me tighter, but didn’t speak.
“This is what love feels like, isn’t it?” I whispered. “Like a oneness.”
Archer’s voice sounded as hoarse as mine when he answered softly: “Yes, this is what love feels like.”
Turning my head, I found his lips again. “Or maybe we’re just momentarily high on all sorts of sex hormones.”
Archer laughed. “Well, in that case, I’d better make sure you get plenty of sex so you keep thinking that you’re in love with me.”
“As if you could have any doubt about it. I would hardly have married you if I didn’t love you.”
“I was scared that you’d run at the ceremony today,” Archer admitted.
“Didn’t even cross my mind.”
“Liar.” Archer tickled me and my jerking movements caused him to slide out of me.
“Now look what you did,” I said and clicked my tongue against my palate.
“Sorry.” He propped himself on one elbow and rolled me onto my back for our eyes to meet. “But if you give me a few minutes I’m happy to be one with you again.”
His smile was contagious and made my heart flutter. “This has been the craziest day of my life. This morning I thought I would never see you or the kids again and now I’m blissfully happy in your arms.”
“I’m sorry that I caused you pain,” Archer said and placed a soft kiss on my collarbone. “And I’m sorry marrying me means giving up your homeland.”
I let my fingers weave through his thick hair. “Maybe things will change and we can move there one day. Or at least visit often.”
“I would like that,” Archer said softly.
“What was your favorite part about the Motherlands?” I asked him.
“It was very different than I imagined.”
“Better or worse?”
He hesitated. “You have a lot of cool things, and I was surprised at how warm and cozy the Motherlands were. I always imagined it as clinical and void of colors.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know, maybe because I thought Momsies were uptight and humorless.”
“Ah, so you’re admitting that I’m funny?”
“Only when you can’t get down from trees.”
“That was one time!” I defended myself.
“Well, it’s also kind of funny that you refuse to acknowledge that Nieall and Tommy have become carnivores.”
“They haven’t.”
“Ha, then what do you call people who eat bacon for breakfast?” Archer laughed. “Come on, babe, you’re in denial if you don’t see it.”
“It’s not funny that you’ve corrupted them,” I said.
“I think it is, but talking about the Motherlands– it would be hard for me to live there with all your exaggerated politeness and the rules, and I would miss alcohol too much.”
“But you liked the water bubbles.”
“Sure, and the beach was amazing too.”
“What about the concert?”
Archer wrinkled his nose a little. “No offense, but those butterfly boys weren’t my favorites.”
I smiled at him as I remembered something.
“What is it?” he asked.
“That crazy dream from last night that I told you about,” I said softly.
“Yeah, what about it?”
Letting my fingertips run along the contours of his shoulder tattoo, I breathed: “My abdomen was huge in my dream. Like nine months pregnant or something. It was so strange.”
“Wow, that sounds more like one of my dreams.” Archer’s lips moved from my collarbone down between my breasts to my pelvis. “My dream is to have a family with you and to watch your belly grow with my child inside of you.” His hand splayed across my stomach and he was kissing my belly button.
“You know we’re going to have a lot of discussions about how to raise a child together, right?” I said and felt my chest burst with the all-consuming love I felt for this man.
“No, we won’t be arguing at all.” He lifted his head and gave me a teasing smile. “You forget that here in the Northlands, the man always has the last say.”
I arched a brow and chuckled. “Unless he’s married to a woman from the Motherlands, that is.”
“There is that!” he said and laughed with me.
A few minutes later, Archer was on his back and I was nuzzled up with my head on his chest feeling the vibration when he spoke: “I can’t believe that we’re actually married. I want to say the word over and over again. We are married, married, married.” Every time he said it, the word came out a little different as if he was tasting the nuances.
“It means a lot to you, doesn’t it?” I asked softly.
“It does!” he said. “I wish it was as magical to you as it is to me.”
Lifting my head up to look at him I was momentarily overwhelmed by the emotions in his eyes. “Try to explain it to me – is it the prestige that comes with being married?”
“No, that’s not it.” He looked thoughtful. “Maybe it’s similar to that oneness you were describing before. I mean, we Nmen grow up without a family. We have all our friends of course; but you and me being married…” He sighed and bit his lip. “It represents an anchor of safety and happiness in my life. Like I’m part of something bigger than myself.”
“But you already have that with the school.”
Archer was playing with a lock of my curly dark hair. “This is different, Kya, and you know it. On Thursday, Boulder told us about his being Raven’s new father. He called himself the happiest man in the Northlands and at that time, he probably was.”
“You don’t think he is any longer?”
“Nope, today I claim that title,” he whispered against my lips and as soon as I parted them, his kiss intensified and grew deeper.
When I finally pulled back to catch my breath and stare into those beautiful blue eyes that I had admired from the first time I saw him, he asked: “Are you ready to finally say the words I’ve been longing to hear?”
“I already said that I love you.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
I frowned a little. “But what do you mean then? I already said I would marry you. In fact, I did marry you!”
Archer’s eyes were full of mischief when he cupped my face and stared deep into my eyes. “Don’t you remember all the times that I begged you to commit to me? What were the words I wanted you to say?”
A slow smile spread on my lips, as I remembered.
Lifting my own hands to cup his face too, I poured all my love into the magical words I knew he longed to hear.
“Archer, I choose you!”
His shoulders visibly lowered as he exhaled and closed his eyes for a second.
“I choose you,” I repeated.
Words were redundant when his rich blue eyes opened again. All his love was right there blazing at me.
“I wanted you from the first minute I saw you,” Archer whispered.
My hand lifted and caressed his face with a smile. “Probably because I was the only single woman around.”
He chuckled.
“See, I am funny, I just made you laugh.”
“Yes, you are.” His lips lowered to mine. “And sweet too.”
“Don’t forget sexy,” I whispered into his mouth.
Archer pulled me onto his lap and pressed me against him. “Sexy is an understatement. You, my wife, are everything I dreamed about and I think it’s time I make good on my promise to you.”
“What promise would that be?”
Archer squeezed my hips and pressed a very hard erection against my core. “Something about a oneness that you love so much.”
“You wanna do it a third time?” I asked with surprise.
He laughed and lifted me just enough for him to position himself right at my entrance. “If you’re too sore, I guess we could always try that anal thing you wanted so badly.”
“I never wanted anal. You were the one frightening me to death with it.”
The edge of his eyes crinkled in amusement. “You just wait, my little prude, one day you’re going to be curious enough to ask me for it.”
“Don’t hold your breath.”
“Oh, I’m not planning to. I’m going to be too busy making out with you in the woods.” As he spoke he lifted me enough to slide inside of me, and for a while we didn’t speak.
Closing my eyes, I enjoyed his deep thrusts and leaned my neck back in a moan.
“Next year when the fireflies come back, we’re going to make love under the moonlight,” Archer muttered against my neck.
“That sounds romantic.” I smiled at him and planted kisses on his face. “Don’t let the other men hear you talk like that or they might strip you of your Nman badge. Aren’t you supposed to be rough and brutal to live here?”
He grabbed my chin and gave me another mischievous grin. “You shouldn’t have said that; now I have to show you just how rough and brutal I can be.”
“Oh, I already know that you’re a big bad wolf,” I said and grinned back at him when he turned me around and pushed a hand down between my shoulder blades.
“And you’d better remember that.” His fingers fisted into my hair roots, and he forced my head back.
“Anything else I need to remember?” I asked.
“Yes, wolves mate for life!”
The first two times we had made love tonight had been emotional and about bonding. This third time was raw and rough. He dominated me with his dirty talk and harsh commands while leaving marks with his mouth.
“There,” he said after sucking my neck. “Now everyone will see that you’re mine.”
I didn’t object to his old-fashioned claiming ritual. I was his now and he was mine, and as we lay closely together afterward, panting and sweating from exhaustion, the addictive feeling of oneness returned. Like a second heartbeat I could feel him inside of me.
“Wish all my little swimmers good luck. I want them to find your egg and give life to our first child,” Archer whispered and placed his hand on my stomach while spooning me.
“I think they already did,” I said, resting my hand on top of his, and turning my head to meet his eyes. “When I said my period was a little late, it wasn’t exactly true.”
“What do you mean?” Archer’s eyes were wide open.
“I’m not sure, but I think it’s been about seven weeks since I had my period.”
“How can you not be sure?”
“Well, it’s never been something I pay too much attention to. But it’s six or seven weeks.”
“Does that mean you’re pregnant?” The hope in his eyes melted me completely.
“I don’t know, but I’ve never been this late before.”
“But you said that being late was normal for you.”
“I lied – I was in denial, I guess.”
“When will we know for sure?” he asked eagerly.
“Maybe Finn could tell us. He’s a doctor after all.”
Archer opened his mouth as if he wanted to shout for Finn right this moment.
“No,” I quickly said. “Tonight it’s just you and me. I want to enjoy this a little longer.”
“Okay.” He settled down behind me again, his heart beating against my back.
“What if I had married Lori Ann and found out you were carrying my child?”
“I said I want to enjoy this, not think of worst-case scenarios, and besides, you would have never known because I was planning to leave before you brought Lori Ann back here.”
“Christina would have told me and it would have broken my heart.”
I sighed. “Archer, you’ve got to let it go.”
“I can do that; just never ask me to let you go.” He kissed me. “That I could never do.”
“Good, because I choose you, remember.”
Archer wrapped his arms closer around me. “And I choose you!”
This concludes The Mentor - Men of the North #3
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In the next book we’ll follow Finn on his adventures into the Motherlands.
The Seducer – Men of the North #4
Does a curse only work if you believe it does?
Chosen to be a priestess from early childhood, Athena knows everything about aligning her energy with the universe and spreading hope, healing, and wisdom to people. But her inner balance is disturbed when Finn shows up on her doorstep.
The large, annoyingly flirtatious man kept her imprisoned in the past and now demands she lift the spell she cast on him. Rather than explain to him that the spell wasn’t real, Athena sees her chance of teaching him a lesson in karma and makes demands of her own. Finn will allow her full power over him for five full days or live with the curse forever.
The Seducer is the fourth installment in Elin Peer’s wildly popular series Men of the North. Like all her other books it offers a fast pace and an emotional roller-coaster that will leave you breathless.
Get this book and go on an epic romantic adventure!
The Seducer – Men of the North #4 is available for NOW.
Release day January 9th, 2018