Just One Night [SHORT STORY]

Chapter Nine

Jesse lurched out of her dream and found herself in her body, Archer's hands around her shoulders shaking her.

"Jesse!" he cried, shocked and clearly afraid. "Jesse wake up!"

Her eyes blinked and fluttered before they were open completely and she was finally able to look into Archer's eyes; eyes that made her feel safe instantly.

"I'm here...I'm here."

She didn't realise how relieving those words made her feel but without thinking, she wrapped her arms around Archer and breathed him in.

"I love you," she said, her face buried in his neck. "I don't know how or why or even when but I love you Archer."

Jesse didn't want to let him go and see the reaction on his face or the moment that he rejected her and so she held onto him tightly. Archer said nothing for a long time. She felt his heart beating against her own but eventually he pulled her way from him to look his green eyes into her brown ones.

"I love you, too."

"Not Alex?"

Jesse hated that she had to get that confirmation from him but it mattered considering they looked exactly alike. She couldn't have bared it if he was using her as a substitute for an old flame.

Archer stroked the side of her face once more, so much intent in that one motion that Jesse felt shiver down her spine. She realised then that she was naked again, having jumped back into her body. She loved the feeling of her naked breasts against his firm, hard chest and blushed at the thought of it.

"No, not Alex. Is she...gone?"

"You know what happened?"

Archer sighed as he adjusted himself on the bed to place Jesse comfortably on his lap. He wrapped the sheet around them so she wasn't exposed to the room and kissed her gently on the lips.

"Scoop discovered something a few months after Alex left. She'd spent the most time with her after me and she realised that Alex seemed to have an agenda. It didn't take long for her to determine that Alex wasn't who i thought...she wasn't the woman i'd loved or at least she wouldnt be when she came back."

Archer sighed and kissed her again, a little deeper this time that she found herself melting into him, wanting to go that little bit further. Archer pulled away for a moment, his nose still pressed gently against her own.

"I didn't know about you, about another Alex or whatever, whoever you are. When you turned up I truly thought you were her but the lack of tattoo and the ignorance of magic and just everything else told me I'd been given a second chance. A second chance with a beautiful, intelligent, sassy woman who just needed to smile."

Jesse smiled at him, a real one with all her teeth showing and stretching her face so much it ached. Archer laughed and so did she as they wrapped their arms around each other.

"It doesn't matter that it was just one night together Jesse...I love you."

Jesse's heart swelled with his admission. She couldn't contain her excitement that she turned her head to whisper into his ear.

"I tried the spell that Alex used...and I couldn't do it."

"What?" Archer pulled her away again to look into her face, his eyes pleading and questioning.

"It didn't work," she repeated. "I didnt want what was on the other side enough. Everything I want is right here."

The portals were powered by magic and the want for whatever was on the other side of the doorway. Jesse had not been able to open the portal to London because she simply didn't want to.