Page 43 of Third Time is the Charm
“How dare you come here and make me remember just how desperately I need you – how desperately I lo–”He caught her hand as it raised to strike him again, his other hand clamped on her waist, pushing her back against the wall as his mouth crushed hers, cutting off the last of her words.
Chapter 13
As soon as his lips touched hers, no doubt to shut her up, Beth felt her burning anger disintegrate into flaming desire. His kiss pulled every overwhelming emotion from her, and she let it; she poured everything she felt into that kiss and he took it all. Even though he’d kissed her, as soon as she began to take over, he let her; he let her tongue invade his mouth, searching for his to duel with. He let her consume every last space and breath in her search for answers within his kiss.
Beth felt herself wedged between the hard wall at her back and the hard wall of Darcy against her front. She felt his desire, and unlike with Colin, she wanted him to take him –to take her.Everything had gotten so complicated, but this, this was simple. Desire and passion – they were simple. Her hand moved up from his chest, her arms locking around his neck, pulling herself closer into the fire of desire that she hoped would burn every other sensation from her body; she craved the physical and mental release that she knew only Darcy could give her.
That he wanted to give her.
She felt his restraint slipping with every brush of her tongue against his. She felt his erection pressing –throbbing –against her stomach.And she wanted to know that she still had that control over him.
Suddenly, he was gone – his lips, his kiss, his body, his hands –everything;every sensation came to a screeching halt as Darcy pulled back and stepped a solid three feet away from her. It was like she’d been held under water and was now just coming back up, gasping for the oxygen that was reality. Beth stood, gulping for air; the three feet between them might as well have been three miles.
She swallowed hard, embarrassment flooding through her for her words, and her actions. Finally, she looked up at him, expecting to see the stone-cold mask that always seemed to make it back into place after he so easily distanced himself from his desire for her. This time, he looked as tortured as she did – hurt and desire mingled in his eyes; his bodyclearlystill on fire for her, his breath coming out in hard pants as his hand rested on the desk in the room to support himself.
She felt heat rising to her face, tears of humiliation threatening to boil over.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered thickly. “I need to go.” She abruptly turned back towards the door, when she heard his low, pleading voice.
“Beth, please,” he rasped. “I need to talk to you. Please.” Her brow furrowed, part of her wanting – needing that talk, the other part afraid to hear that she’d just thrown herself at a man who no longer wanted her.
Leaning against the wall, Beth bit her lip and sighed in resignation. “Ok, let’s talk.” She could see the relief that came over him, the tension dropping from his shoulders.
“Thank you,” he began, his voice firmer and more confident, as though he’d been waiting – practicing for this moment. “First, I want to apologize for the things that I said – how I treated you that night.” His jaw flexed with the anger he held for himself over his behavior.
Could she really be hearing this? An apology? In words?
“I was in shock and I felt betrayed, and while those are my reasons, they are no excuse for the way that I spoke to you; after everything that we had been through, after everything that you have put up with me for… my past, my behavior… God, I’m such a fucking ass for throwing it back in your face like that.” He turned away from her, violently running his hands through his hair.
“I stopped, you know,” Beth said quietly, the need to explain herself bubbling over. “She did ask me to keep her updated on what you were doing in town and if you had a significant other; in the beginning, I agreed because well, let’s face it, you hardly said anything to me anyway, what information could I possibly give her?” Darcy’s eyes fell on her again, regret glimmering in their molten depths. “But, when everything between us… started… I stopped. I think the last thing that I told her was that you were coming to our charity gala and weren’t bringing a date – to which Mrs. DeBourgh responded, inviting herself and Anne, and telling me that Anne was your date,” Beth stopped to laugh, remembering those events that seemed like a million years ago now.
“Beth,” he groaned. “You don’t need to explain yourself; I believe you. I fucking believed you that night when I confronted you, but I was too fucking angry to see it. I was angry that I had to find out fromthem,but, God, I never truly believed that you had been spying on me the whole time.”
“I see…” Beth whispered, staring at the man in front of her who was, at the same time, the Darcy she knew, but yet, a Darcy she didn’t.
“I don’t expect you to be able to forgive me. God, you moved hours away because of it, so I know that an apology five months later probably means nothing, but I needed you to know that what I said wasn’t true; I need you to know that I still needed you.”
Needed. Past tense.Beth swallowed over the anger rising in her throat.
“Needed me?” she asked incredulously. “How can you say that? How can you say that you needed me when you left me to walk straight back into Caroline’s claws?” She wiped away the stray tear that fell down her left cheek.
Darcy stared at her for a second, complete confusion wiping off the regret from his face. “What are you talking about? I never went back to Caroline.”
“God,” Beth laughed sarcastically. “I’m such an idiot; here I am, thinking that you were truly apologizing, and you don’t even have the decency to not lie to me anymore. What is this? What purpose does it serve to lie to me now? Who are you trying to control?” she continued asking, hysterically. “I can’t. I have to go – this was a mistake.”
She turned to leave, her face almost running straight into his arm as he put his hand on the wall next to her, blocking her path to the door.
“What. The. Fuck. Are. You. Talking. About?”His voice was deadly low and on edge.
The sharpness of his tone cut through the remaining barrier that she had left, tears beginning to stream freely down her face. “You left me; you told me it was over between us and, even after everything she put you through, after everything she put me through, you brought her to your apartment that night and slept with her – like I never mattered,” she bit out, trying to speak without sobbing.
“FUCK,”he swore vehemently. “Did Jane tell you? I’m going to kill Charles.”
“What are you talking about? Don’t try to lie your way out of this. No one told me – I saw it for myself. I saw you…I saw her… there… naked.I. Saw. Her.”
Beth gasped as Darcy’s hands grasped both sides of her face, forcing her gaze to his; her tears stopping short at the forceful movement.
“Beth, I swear to you, I did not sleep with Caroline that night… or any night since I’ve met you. Hell, I haven’t touched her – willingly – since she left me.Fuck.”His forehead came down to rest on hers, his eyes closing as she caught the barest glimmer of moisture in them. “I didn’t sleep with Caroline, Beth, I promise you. I didn’t even stay at my apartment that night; I went and stayed with Charles – he can tell you.”
