Page 88 of Third Time is the Charm
A shiver ran through her at his words. She didn’t want to encourage the destructive level of possessiveness that he’d had before, but she wouldn’t lie – shelovedhow fiercely possessive he was of her, especially when he was telling her like this.
“Just like last night?” she questioned, breathlessly. “I’m pretty sure that I assured you before – and after dinner – that he would know exactly who my heart belongs to.”
“Alright, fine,” he replied begrudgingly. “Not exactly like the first time. Especially because the first time I had to wait fucking hours before I could touch you… hours during which I thought I’d never see you again, especially after what happened with Caroline at the reception. But this time…” He trailed off as his fingers flicked the inch of fabric off of her, two fingers delving into her moist folds.
Beth gasped, jerking slightly against his hand.
“Tell me what else you felt,” she whispered, unsure what she was enjoying more – the insight into Darcy’s emotions or the light tease of his fingers over her clit.
“At the reception?” he asked.
“Yes—” Beth bit her lip to stop a moan from escaping as fire shot straight to her core from his touch.
“Anger – at Caroline. Helpless, jealous, watching you dance with Dempsey all night,” he answered gruffly, annoyed to have to admit to those less-than-admirable feelings.
“Please,” she scoffed lightly. “I’m sure you were not jealous about being spared from dancing.”
“Beth, I would spend the rest of my life dancing with you, if it meant that I got to hold you again,” he returned, his voice painfully hard, yet tender.
She moaned at the sweetness of his words, but before she could respond further, he continued his confession.
“After the reception, I was lost. It was like midnight and I was calling Megan. I felt like I was losing my mind after dealing with Caroline and then feeling like I’d lost you to Colin. I don’t think I’d ever felt so helpless in my entire life, not even when I realized that you’d left and how much work I had to do to change. I felt like I’d worked so hard and none of it mattered because you were already his.” He spun her to face him so that she could read every emotion in his eyes that he had experienced that night. “And then you showed up at my door in the middle of the night.And all of a sudden, I had hope again – I had a chance – that I could prove to you that you were meant to be with me.”
“Darcy,” she whispered in awe. “I love you.”
“I love you, Beth” he whispered back, his lips falling to hers; their love burning brightly amidst the darkness that still tried to surround them.
His hands found her center again, wet and waiting. Sliding his sweatpants down, he lifted her leg to rest on his thigh and slipped into her. And that effectively ended their conversation until lunchtime.
Chapter 25
Beth snuggled closer against the warm chest that lay underneath her, silently cursing her alarm that was going off on her nightstand. She wished she could will the stupid thing to shut itself off.
“I think you’re being summoned,” Darcy grumbled.
She groaned, rolling over to turn off the buzzer. She’d set it for earlier this morning so that they could go to the police station before she went into work.
Beth hadn’t wanted the weekend to end. Cooped up inside her tiny apartment, they’d spent the days making up for their lost time – and lost conversations. Waking up this morning, she felt like the entire thing could have been a dream; Darcy had talked to her about his past, his father, his sister, being at Harvard with Charles… all of the simple, silly details that she’d been craving to know.
He’d told her about all of the times he’d saved Charles from missing class or from failing a class – not that Charles wasn’t smart, but in his first year, he’d gone a little overboard with partying. After that year, he’d gotten better – or so Darcy said.
In return, he’d tried to ask her every random question that he could think of from her favorite color (purple)to her favorite book(To Kill A Mockingbird). Surprisingly, he said that book made his top five list as well. Their conversation detoured from the questions to her admiration of Jean-Louise whereas Darcy admired the cool, caring, and knowledgeable reserve that Atticus maintains throughout the story. Neither of them had readGo Set a Watchman,their newfound similar taste in books spurring the decision that they should pick up a copy as soon as possible and get started.
After coming to that conclusion, she redirected their conversation back to his past… his life. He’d told her of the anger issues he’d had in college – fighting with classmates who mocked him when he didn’t want to go out drinking. And the time that George had spread a rumor about Georgiana around campus – Darcy had gone overboard and gone after everyone who had propagated it. He’d actually almost gotten expelled; his father stepped in and assured the school that it wouldn’t happen again. He struggled with it – hating the feeling that someone had to fight his battles for him.
Her response? She passed on a little tidbit of wisdom that her father had told her – not that she always heeded it, but she did try to keep it in mind. Her father said to her once that he believed “the biggest falsehood you can claim about yourself or someone else is to be a ‘self-made man’” – or woman. No one succeeds in life alone. They’d both agreed that her father was a very smart man.
She hadn’t really had too many embarrassing tales to tell either, aside from the few horrible blind dates that her mother had set her up on; they had a good laugh at those, once Darcy got over his momentary jealousy that he admitted to this time.
Beth sighed, hoping that one day soon it would be back to this. But for right now, she had a crazy bitch to deal with and the Contest to prepare for.
Darcy kissed her forehead before getting out of bed. She took one more moment to enjoy the view of his ass before he pulled his sweats on and caught her staring.
“C’mon, gorgeous, time to go.” Before she could pull any tricks to bribe him back to bed, he walked out into the kitchen to start the hot water for their coffees.
Beth threw the covers off of her, pulling on a grey pair of pants and white blouse. They both got ready in an ominous silence, knowing what needed to be done, but hating that they were being put in this position.
“What do you think she will try to do?” Beth asked hesitantly as she sipped her coffee.
