Page 87 of Third Time is the Charm
“You’re so much better at making coffee than I am,” he said.
“Well, it does help when you don’t spill half of it all over the kitchen.” She laughed.
“True. Very true, minx.”
She sipped coffee through her smile, keeping her eyes locked on his.
“So, how did you find this place?” he asked, eyeing her apartment.
“Why?” Her eyes narrowed. “When I first came up here, I was staying at an AirBnB not too far from here and one day I was walking by and there was a sign out that said, ‘Apartment For Rent.’ So, I called and inquired and yeah.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Why do you ask? What’s wrong with it?”
“Nothing is wrong with it. I just didn’t know if there was a specific reason that you wanted to live here or if you would be amenable to a bigger place.”
Beth rolled her eyes at him. “I thought we were going to wait to discuss moving in?”
“Who said anything about moving in?” he asked innocently. “I was just speaking hypothetically.” The impossible man then had the audacity to wink at her.
“And what if I said that I am very attached to this specific apartment?”
“Well, there are definitely certain parts of it that I thoroughly enjoy – the bed, the kitchen counter, this couch…” His eyes flared suggestively as he mentioned all of the places that they’d had sex.
“Oh, that’s it?”
“For now.” He set his mug on the coffee table and laid back against the couch, his arm wrapping around her waist, pulling her with him.
She barely set her cup safely on the table before he pulled her down to lay on the couch with him, her back to his chest.
“So, what have you talked to your therapist about?” she asked, no longer afraid to dive into that conversation with him.
“Everything,” he grumbled. His disgruntled response caused her to chuckle. “Those shrinks are so nosey.”
“It’s their job,” Beth retorted with a smile.
“Yeah, yeah. I talked to her about everything. It started with you –everything started with you.We talked about my need for control, especially when it came to you. We talked about my inability to express my feelings verbally, which prompted the discussion about why that was and who conditioned me to be that way…” He trailed off, not wanting to talk about Caroline.
“And how does she think you are doing?” Beth wondered.
“She says I’m doing better; the real test though was seeing you again. That first time, in the hall.Christ,I wanted you so badly – you have no idea. I was so close to pinning you against my door and having you in the hallway, not caring who saw.You were mine –that was all I could think.” She felt him breathing heavily against her. His hand slid up from her hip to cup her breast possessively.
“That’s why you said you needed to see her…” She trailed off as his fingers began to toy with her nipple through her shirt.
“How did you know?”
Beth felt her face flush even though he couldn’t really see her; she hadn’t meant to admit that out loud, but it was better to get it out in the open anyway. “When I left my room afterward, I heard you on the phone in yours… I may have listened for a little. But, I thought you were talking to… well… I thought you were talking to your girlfriend – maybe even Caroline; I didn’t know.”
Darcy groaned, his hand squeezing her tender flesh firmly. “God, no. It was always you…”
Beth swallowed thickly, thinking how foolish she had been. “What did she say?”
“She pointed out that Ididn’tin fact act on that possessiveness – which I guess was progress in her book.”
“Well, yeah.” Beth laughed. “Youdidn’tact on it, even though you wanted to. The old Darcy would have had me up against that door, and I will tell you honestly, that I probably wouldn’t have had the right mind to stop you. So, thank you for being strong for the both of us, but you’re far too hard on yourself.”
“Mmm…” came his response. Thinking about what she had said, his hand left her chest and ran down along her side absentmindedly, dropping from her hip to the juncture between her thighs where the material from her shirt had bunched, barely covering what was beneath. “And then, to see you at the wedding – you were so damn beautiful – to touch you, to walk you down the aisle, and then to see you looking at him.” His hand stopped abruptly at the flash of anger that ran through him.
Beth sucked in her breath because his fingers were achingly close to her center and because of the sudden tenseness in his body.
“I felt like I wanted to rip his head off because you were mine. Just like I felt last night when he dropped you off,” Darcy growled.
