The Unknown Road

53 - Tessa

WHEN WE GET HOME, we are all fingers and thumbs.

The need to have Archie, to feel his hands on my skin was more powerful than I'd ever felt it. I barely touched him all the way home because I was afraid we would never make it home. The need was all over me, prickling my skin, making me hot with desire. And all I needed was his touch to unleash something I didn't even know I had in me.

As soon as the front door is shut, he picks me up in his arms and carries me up at the stairs, almost throwing me onto the bed in attempt to get as close to me as possible and as quickly as possible. He works at my buttons but loses patience, ripping it open after taking off my jumper. I do the same, buttons flying all over my room as our lips cover each other's in a frenzy.

I wrap my legs around his waist as he turns us over and when I'm on top he leans up and kisses my throat, undoing my bra as he fumbles to undo his belt. My hands are in his hair as he lifts my skirt up and I sigh into his ear as he kisses my neck, almost sucking on the skin.

He turns us over again, more gently this time, slowly moving his hands down my legs to pull my skirt, knickers and tights down and off my legs. He's setting my skin ablaze, making me feel like a wire about to explode, as he traces his fingers in patterns. I can feel goosebumps raising and I'm turning into mush when he presses into me, sighing as he pushes to new heights, new thrills, new places... anywhere... and just with him.

I'm focussing on nothing else but pleasure. I'm focussing on the fire Archie's fingers are helping to burn down my body; on the magnetic pull I can feel each time Archie kisses my neck; on the electricity igniting between us.

He's the lightning rod, and I'm the lightning, and together we make the room crackle.

***

WE HAVEN'T MOVED FOR an hour by the time we hear something downstairs. I can't hear voices, so unless Matt and Millie are keeping quiet, I expect it's Dad.

When I sit up, I notice Archie still has his trousers round his ankles and I smile and kiss his chest before getting up off the bed to get changed, making sure my hair doesn't give away what we'd been doing. When Archie has done the same, we head down the stairs.

Dad looks up when he sees us. "Oh hey guys. How long have you been back?"

"Just a few minutes," I say, stepping into Archie's arm, linking my fingers with his. "We were just getting changed."

"Where's your brother?" He asks, looking upstairs.

"Still at school I expect, waiting for Millie. We both had last period free."

He nods and then sighs.

"Dad, are you okay?" I ask, stepping out of Archie's arm to sit down next to him. Archie takes the seat opposite him and , to be honest, looks concerned too.

He doesn't say anything to either of us, so I decide now is the time to ask about what I'd asked Barnes about on Monday.

"Dad... what's going on?" He doesn't look up at me but I know I've hit the nail on the head. "Dad? Is there something you're not telling me?" I correct myself. "Not telling us."

Silence has enveloped the kitchen for what feels like hours before somebody says something.

"It's Dad," Archie says. His voice is small and unrecognisable. He rubs his hands over his face, and I can see he's pressing hard enough to make his head shake. It must be hurting him, pressing the bruises along his cheekbones and his jaw, but he doesn't make a noise. "It's always my dad."

He surprises us both when slams his fist into the table, making us jump, but neither Dad or I say anything. I don't know what to say. I'm frozen.

Soon, though, curiosity takes over me and I'm forced to ask a question.