I really didn’t.
“Nope, you’ll have to enlighten me.”
He groaned. “You enjoy torturing me, don’t you?”
I smirked sadistically.
“Devil woman,” Darcy growled.
My insides jumped at the delicious sound of his voice.
“Fine,” he muttered. “I fancied you. There, I said it. I don’t think I realised it at the time, though.”
Darcy had fancied me?
Me?
What the ever-loving hell?
This was huge news to me. Darcy had fancied me! But . . . ‘fancied.’ Past tense. So was all the attraction I’d been fighting for the past few days just one-sided, just me, or was he feeling it too? Again? Whatever? Fuck!
My heard started to spin again.
“Past tense? You don’t fancy me anymore?” I asked, and then flinched when heat stained my cheeks.
Oh, hello, boldness.
Darcy glanced at me, and he looked as shocked as I felt.
The poor lad.
“I do,” he said, then cleared his throat. “Do you . . . do you fancy me? Or like me in that way?”
If he had asked me that question last week I would have said no, even though I had always thought he was attractive.
I had never put a lot of thought into anything further than that, because we always fought, but now, if the butterflies and rush of heat when I saw him were anything to go by, then I would go with a definite yes.
“Yeah . . . I do fancy you, and like you in that way,” I admitted.
I couldn’t believe I’d said it.
I couldn’t believe it was the truth.
“Are you serious, Neala?” Darcy asked, his tone rough. “Because if you’re playing with me it’s not funny.”
He seemed irritated.
I put my hand on his arm. “I’m not joking. I’m serious.”
Darcy looked at me, and then tilted his head back so he could look up at the ceiling.
I settled back against his chest and I felt a shudder run through my body at the familiarity.
“Do you know what else this reminds me of?” Darcy murmured.
I closed my eyes and smiled.
“What?”
“Your fourteenth birthday. You were out with Daryl Maine. I knew he fancied you, so I told him that you were a closet lesbian, and he wouldn’t kiss you because of it. You drank your da’s whiskey out of anger at me and got shitfaced. I had to mind you for a few hours until you sobered up so I could bring you home and you could go to sleep.”
I burst out laughing, surprising myself again. “I actually remember a bit of that.”
It was one of my best memories, even if it was foggy in parts.
Darcy gave me a little squeeze. “I brought you down to the river and we sat there for hours just throwing stones into the water, seeing who could out-skip who. We didn’t fight or curse at one another – we forgot we hated each other and just had fun hanging out together. Just like we did when we were little.”
My heart swelled and my eyes watered.
“I miss those times,” I admitted.
Darcy was silent for a moment before he said, “Me too.”
I turned and looked up at him. He was already staring down at me.
“Tell me no,” he murmured as he lowered his head to mine.
My heart began to pound against my chest.
“What?” I whispered.
Darcy licked his trembling lips. “Tell me no. I’ll kiss you if you don’t.”
His warning fell on deaf ears.
“Darcy, before I answer you, will you tell me something?”
He blinked. “Yeah?”
The conversation we had the other day was sitting on my mind, and I just had to ask the question that had been bugging me.
“What did you mean when you said I should take you calling me the opposite of Laura Stoke as a compliment and not an insult?”
Darcy stared into my eyes, the corners of his own eyes crinkling slightly as a smile curved his lips. “Laura in her own right is sexy, but you . . . you, my Neala Girl, are beautiful. Anyone can be sexy, but not everyone can be beautiful.”
Oh, my.
My stomach exploded into butterflies, and tingles shot up and down my spine.
“Yes,” I breathed.
Darcy swallowed. “Yes what?”
“Yes, I want you to kiss me.”
I felt Darcy’s body shake as he lowered his mouth to mine.
“Don’t be scared,” I whispered seconds before his lips touched mine.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
I opened up all my senses to Darcy.
I could feel him, taste him, hear him, smell him, and see him.
I wanted him.
All of him.
I lifted my arms and slid them around Darcy’s shoulders until I clasped my hands together behind his neck. I pulled his head closer to mine until our faces were pressed against one another. I opened my mouth and welcomed Darcy’s warm, wet tongue. I mimicked his actions with my own. After a long moment I switched things up by nibbling on his lower lip with my teeth, and I could tell he liked it because he growled.
Darcy has growled at me enough over the years for me to decipher whether it was a good or bad growl, and this growl was good.
Very good.
I groaned when his arms came around my back and he hoisted me up onto his lap. I moved my left leg and turned my body until I was straddling him. Straddling Darcy turned out to not be the best option, because the longer and harder I kissed him, the more my core ached and begged to be touched. I moved my hands away from Darcy to the back of the couch, where I gripped it.
“Neala,” Darcy breathed against my mouth.
He pulled away and kissed along my jaw and down to my neck. He nuzzled there for a moment, then kissed the spot just under my ear, and it caused me to buck against him. I groaned out loud, and Darcy latched onto my neck and sucked.
“Darcy!” I cried, and ground my pelvis against his.
What the hell was going on me with me?
I was acting like a wild animal.
Get some self-control, wo
man!
It was extremely difficult, though, because it felt like I couldn’t control myself, and that I had to have Darcy in every way possible.
“Neala Girl,” Darcy murmured into my neck.
I moaned in response and pushed toward his mouth, making him chuckle.
“Are you okay?” he asked me.
I pulled back and growled at him. “If you stop touching me, we’ll have a problem.”
Darcy blinked at me. “I’ve never seen this side to you before . . . It’s sexy as fuck.”
I grinned. “Not beautiful?”
Darcy reached up and brushed his thumb over my cheek. “You’re always beautiful, but baby, you’re proving you can be sexy, too.”
Baby.
I liked that.
I looked at Darcy and swallowed.
I felt like I was floating only to smack down hard on the concrete. This was Darcy, my Darcy. I had loved him a long time ago, and I hated him for years, but I’d also had an odd attraction that had solidified into a crush over the past few days. I’d never realised it, but Darcy was someone who was constantly on my mind, and seeing him made my day – even if it was just going to be filled with the pair of us arguing.
I think I had a serious thing for Darcy.
Shite.
I ground my pelvis against his once more, and this time I felt him.
“Neala Girl, don’t do that. I don’t want to upset you, but grinding on me will only make me hard. I know you’re excited and—”
“I want to have sex with you,” I cut Darcy off.
He reared back and stared at me with wide, shocked eyes.
“Neala—”
“Don’t, Darcy. Don’t you dare ruin this and reject me.”
He looked pained. “I don’t want to ruin this, trust me. I would love nothing more than to explore every inch of you, but I want to respect you, baby. I want your trust.”
He was killing me.
“Darcy, please, I’m not a little girl. I’m twenty-five years of age, and I just realised that I’ve wanted you for as long as I can remember. I’ve waited long enough to have you; don’t make me wait a minute longer.”
He was torn between doing what his body wanted and what his mind was telling him, so I decided to make it even harder for him. Literally.
I stood up and reached down to the hem of my borrowed t-shirt and pulled it up my body and over my head, and threw it behind me on the floor. I pushed the trousers down and shimmied my hips from left to right until they gathered in a pool of fabric around my ankles. I stepped out of them and looked up. Darcy’s eyes were almost popping out of his head as they roamed over my bare chest.