Page 105 of Darcy
My control is hanging by a thread. All the good reasons I should stay away, protect her, are being slowly ripped from me with every twinkle of that gem. God, her ass is twitching around it, making it dance with each clench. Taunting me with thoughts of how she would strangle my cock if I fucked her back there.
Darcy was already my walking fantasy come to life; an angel incarnate. Now this image will haunt me every time I close my eyes.
“This is embarrassing,” she complains.
My hand comes down without warning, spanking her just hard enough to sting, but not hard enough to truly hurt. “I’m looking.”
If this is the only time I get to see this, I want it tattooed on my brain.
“If you’re not going to fuck me, let me go,” she retorts.
“Beg,” I retort, and the possessive monster within me purrs at the idea.
“In your dreams.” God, I love her fire. All riled up and sassy andmine.
The thought—so out of place—snaps me out of the haze, and I release her, throwing myself across the room.
“We arenotdoing this,” I say, more for myself than her.
Darcy—to her credit—turns so she’s sitting on the bed and stares me down. “There’s more to this than you protecting me from the cartel, isn’t there?”
Too fucking perceptive. “The cartel is a huge issue. If they don’t hurt you, they’ll hurt someone I care about.”
“Sound logic,” she replies. “But when they’re dead, what then? Will you consider it?”
It’s hard to believe that she’s capable of the feat, but I won’t say that. I trust her after all these years, even though she was keeping her profession a secret. Then again, we never exactly told her we were rock stars, either.
I could blow her off—give her some lame excuse—but I don’t think she’ll buy it.
“I don’t share well.”
I shake my head as I remember how eagerly I signed the band contract. I was full of the optimism and disregard for the future that was my hallmark in my teenage years, but I’ve had ages to think over what it would be like.
“We’ll try to make this work, and my jealousy will kick in.”
It was the reason I went to juvie, after all. I found out my girl was sleeping with half the football team behind my back. Then, while they were off chasing a ball around a field like a bunch of dogs, I snuck into their changing rooms, stole their keys, and carefully drove each of their fancy cars into the nearest river.
A small hopeful part of me tries to argue that that was literally almost twenty years ago, and that things are different this time, but I brush it off.
“There’s too much room for misunderstandings and hurt feelings,” I continue. “I’m not sure I could take it if I felt like you preferred one of us over the others.” It would destroy what remains of the friendships I once had.
She doesn’t immediately rebuke me or try to soothe me with easy promises. Instead, she gives my point a few seconds of careful consideration.
“You can’t know unless you try,” she finally says. “You’ve seen me with Dodger on the plane. Were you jealous then?”
God, no. I was more turned on than I’d ever been in my life. But that was one time. A long-term relationship would be different.
She must read my answer in my expression. “We’re adults. If it stops working, we can communicate.”
“And if we can’t?” I challenge. “This could ruin our friendship.”
Darcy pins me with a knowing look. “Haven’t you been doing a good enough job of that by yourself?” She pauses. “You’re pushing us away because you’re scared. I get it.” Damn, I wish she’d stop pinning me with those big green eyes. “The guys and I are committed to this, with or without you. I guess you just have to decide if the jealousy you might feel as part of our relationship is worse than the resentment you’d suffer watching us together from the outside. ”
Then, as if she hasn’t just cut my knees out from under me, she flounces off the bed and heads for the door.
When it slams behind her, the gust of wind knocks the photo she was looking at from its precarious position on the corner of my desk. It swirls in the air, then lands at my feet, and I bend to pick it up.
My younger self stares out, mismatched eyes judging me silently as he stands guard over the rest of the band, laughing and joking together.
