AUGUST | NH |

THIRTY ONE

Niall

Eight Years Later

"Are you sure that's everything?"

Resting her hands on her hips, Archer looks at the back of my SUV that has approximately nine million things shoved into it.

"I'm pretty sure even if we did forget something there's no way we could fit it in there." Reaching over, I wrap
my arm around her waist and pull her close, pressing my lips to her dark hair. "It'll be fine."

Peering up at me through her dark lashes, her blue eyes are just as bright as the day I ran into her outside of Holy Grounds. "Yeah but I don't want to forget anything."

Slipping my hand down from her wrist, I grab the checklist in her back pocket. "Look, you marked off everything as I put it in the car."

Archer looks over her list, the single line drawn through each item that I managed to find space for in the car.

"Okay, fine." Pressing up on her toes, her soft lips find mine in a kiss before she pulls back. "I need to—"

Catching her by the hand, I pull her body back into mine and kiss her. One hand slides up to tangle into her soft hair, the other? Well, my other hand takes a different path and grips her ass through her running shorts, taking a handful and squeezing.

My tongue finds hers easily before she tilts her head to the side, a silent request for me to move my kisses elsewhere. Nipping across her jaw, I love it when she lets out a breathless sigh when my lips move down her throat, just like she's always liked.

"Niall—" Her hands slide under my shirt, hooking her finger into the waistband of my dark running shorts. "We don't have time."

Letting go of her ass, my own hand slides under her shirt and when my thumb travels over her pebbled nipple and she arches her back into me, I laugh. "There's always time."

Walking her backwards, I easily drop my hands and lift her up to sit her along the workbench that sits at the back of our garage. My hands move to rest on her thighs as she grips my jaw and brings me down to her lips, taking my bottom lip between her teeth as her legs wrap around my waist and pull me even closer.

Moving my hand, I'm able to slip one finger under the hem of her shorts, pressing into her clit and gently teasing her. "Niall, please don't do that right now—"

"Don't what, peach?" I chuckle, pressing harder and making a whimper fall from her lips. "You don't want me to tease you?"

"No." Rolling her hips towards me, she seeks out more friction than I'm currently giving her. "I just want—"

"Daddy!"

The sound of James' voice is like a cold shower over the two of us as we jerk apart, a knowing smile on Archer's lips as she catches her breath, looking down to where I'm obviously having a hard time.

"What are you doing to mommy?" Looking over my shoulder, I smile at him as he looks over at both of us with a confused expression on his little features. "Is she okay?"

Gripping my arms that now rest on either side of her body, Archer leans around me to smile down at our son who stands just inside the garage from the door that leads to the laundry room.