She nodded, swiping her hands over his forehead, his cheeks, pushing back his hair, touching him constantly.
“I have to talk to my mom,” he admitted.
“Yeah, you do,” she said gently.
“Will you be there with me?”
“At your side, baby.”
At his side.
He bent and touched his mouth to hers.
He lifted away and told her, “I also need to sit down with Tack. They were best friends. I need to know my father. I need to feel what he feels when he says the words. I need to look at his face as he’s saying them.”
She nodded. “You want me there for that too?”
“I don’t know. Can we see?”
“We can do anything, honey.”
We can do anything.
They could.
They were alive.
Breathing.
They had time.
She was right there.
Right there.
And she was his.
“You okay after all that happened tonight?” he asked.
“I am now.”
He felt a rueful grin hit his lips. “Not sure how that can be, me losing it on you.”
“Because you gave that to me, and it’s precious, I needed it and you needed to let it go.”
“Well, if you say it like that,” he joked.
Her mouth got soft, letting them have that moment of humor, before she kept talking.
“There’s also more. Because you asked me if I was okay and I need that too, Jag. We’ll work this out, with time, getting to know each other better. And you’ve gotta tell me if I’m wrong, but I sense you need space to sort your head out. The thing is, I don’t. I need you. I’ve needed you since that day I first saw you. I need you to ask. I need to talk things through with you. I need to lay shit on you. And you can’t hold back, thinking I need space. Thinking I need what you need. I’ve been shouldering everyone else’s shit for a long time, honey. I don’t want that. I want someone with me to help me carry the load.”
Shit, he’d fucked up.
“That’s me, Archie. I’m that someone. I hear you and I won’t hold back again.”
“If you mean with me and the burdens I’m carrying, okay. If you mean with you, you do what you need to do too. If you need to hold on to what you’re feeling until you’re ready to give it, you do what you have to do. Am I making sense?”
He nodded.
Something changed in her face and he braced at the sight of it.
She didn’t make him wait.
“The thing with your throat…I won’t touch it again.”
He settled some extra weight on her, not much, just hopefully enough to show her he was relaxing and take her to that place with him.
“With your mouth, I’m good. Not your hand apparently, okay?” he shared.
“Okay, boyfriend, but just to say, you put my hand there when we were talking about tats.”
“I was in control of that, tonight—”
She cut him off, nodding. “Yeah, I get it. And I’ll steer clear.”
He touched his mouth to hers.
Lifting away, he realized he still felt foggy, tired.
But also relieved.
Jesus, he’d been holding that so deep and so long, he didn’t even know it was there.
And it was weird, the hold it had on him was so strong, how dazed and fatigued he felt in letting it go.
Still, if felt fucking great to let it go.
“Now, tell it true, are you hungry?” she pushed.
He looked at her beautiful face, her eyes warm on him, the relief she also felt openly visible.
And he said, “I could eat my weight in schnitzel and I’m not even bothering with bowls when we tackle that trifle.”
That was when Archie smiled.
* * * *
Archie moved on him until Jagger was done watching her move on him.
Then he curled up just enough to reach out and catch her by the back of the neck.
He lay back, bringing her down with him, keeping his hand curved around her neck as he stroked inside her mouth with his tongue, and she stroked his cock with her cunt.
She got there before him, because that was her way, and because he was in a constant state of sated considering how much cum she coaxed out of him by any means necessary.
So when she came, he swallowed her noises. Then she got focused and gave it to him, and she consumed his groan.
It had been slow.
It had been lazy.
And as usual, it had been awesome.
After, he curled his arms around her and she tucked her face under his jaw, in his neck, but she did not lose his cock.
It was the morning after their big night.
She needed to get ready to go to the store.
He needed to run home to grab some stuff since he was staying the weekend at her place.
He also needed to check on Mal.
Neither of them moved.
Eventually, biology took over, and they lost their connection.
They still didn’t move.
But Jagger ended the silence.
“I think I’m going to Tack first. Outside of drawing Ma out, getting her to talk about him more, which she’s been doing lately anyway, I don’t know if I want her to know where my head’s been at. I don’t want her to think she should have hidden her pain, which would have hidden how much she loved him, and that was important for me and Dutch to know. I don’t want her to regret anything.”
“I think that’s a good decision, honey,” she murmured.
“I’ll call him today.”
“Okay.”
“Gonna pack a bag, stay here with you for a while. Groovy?”
“One hundred percent.”
Good.
He needed her space, her smell, her shit around him.
They’d move in together at his place, eventually, mostly because it was bigger.
When marriage and kids came, they’d find their own place.
But now, this was all her and he wanted nothing but that.
“I’ll text Mal, see if he wants a visit,” Jag carried on. “But be back to take you out to lunch. You pick. Though I might have him, if he wants to get away. If I do, it’s his pick.”
She snuggled closer and said, “Sounds like a plan.”
They both fell silent.
Archie’s phone ringing ended it.
She shifted, turned her head, reached out and nabbed her phone, all without really moving, and definitely not losing any contact with Jag.
“It’s Elijah,” she announced.
“You ready for that?” he asked.
She lifted her head and looked down at him. “Maybe the time is nigh.”
Her phone stopped ringing.
“Do you agree?” she queried.
She needed Jagger to help her work through things.
And he was there to do that with her.
“I do,” he said. “It goes without saying, I’m about you. But he was not down with losing contact with you. He didn’t go about it right, but he was pretty messed up you weren’t available to him. And I don’t think that’s about him needing you to deal with his shit however that comes. I think he loves his sister. He might not show it, but he probably loves your dad. That scene with that phone call at your dad’s house was serious, and he was on the outside of that. His doing. But being shut out after he hurt you that bad clearly ate at him.”