Page 69 of Take Me Home

I completely understood the subtext:am I one of many? Are you sleeping around?

I kissed the top of her head. “I’m not the playboy I once was if that’s what you’re wondering. I’ve been in a bit of a dry spell. You’re not really supposed to keep them in your wallet long-term, so yeah, I packed it for tonight.”

“You must have been confident your little deer would be eating from your hand, huh?” Darcy cracked.

“Was I wrong?” She slapped my arm for that one. “I’d prepared myself that you might say no. But I’m really glad you said yes.”

She met my eyes, her own brown looking bright and beautiful. “Me, too. How you feeling?” She gestured to my crotch.

“Oh, I’ll make it,” I said, carefully zipping my pants and fastening my belt before sliding into the driver’s seat.

“If it makes you feel any better, it was hard for me to stop, too,” she offered.

I turned on the truck, buckled my seatbelt, and gave her a hungry stare. “That just makes me more excited to get you home and get you in that bed, baby. I can’t wait to learn every little thing you like and give it to you til you can’t stand it.”

Darcy scooted over to the middle of the bench seat and buckled in. I kissed her temple and put my hand on her thigh.

“I like having you right here,” I said. “My girl.” She rested her head on my shoulder and sighed, and I couldn’t decide what was better: that or her sounds when we were fooling around. They both had their merits.

We talked quietly on the ride to Sheetz, reflecting on how much fun we’d had together.

“I hope we have lots more nights like this ahead of us,” I told her. She laughed.

“What? Why is that funny?” I asked.

“It’s just kind of awesome. Ten minutes ago you had your fingers inside me, coaching me to come, and licking the taste of me off your fingers. Now you’re this total sweetheart.”

“Get you a man who can do both,” I joked.

“I think I might have found one.”

22

DARCY

We rolled up to Sheetz just before eleven. On the ride over, Jake made constant contact with me, rubbing my thigh and planting kisses on me at stoplights. It felt so right, normal, and natural, like that was how we were meant to be. It seemed absurd that we hadn’t been that way all summer.

“I’ll be right back. Need anything else?” he asked before getting out of the truck.

“Nope. Just you,” I said, winking at him. He kissed my cheek and disappeared into the gas station.

I sat smiling to myself for a minute or two, processing how perfect the night had been. Then I pulled out my phone to send a quick celebratory text to Brianna. I already had three messages from her, one of which was a picture.

Brianna

This hinge date is meh, dude could not be more boring

Shit. I felt bad I hadn’t asked more about her date during our prep call that afternoon.

OMG! Becca sent me something VERY INTERESTING

The next message was a series of dark pictures from the Legion. Becca must have snapped a few pictures of our bar makeout. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED was written in text over one of the photos, one where we were truly sucking face. Jake had a fistful of my hair and I was holding onto his jaw.

Another message chimed right then.

Shit, D, I think Rob’s in WV

Bri sent a screenshot from Rob’s Instagram stories of the West Virginia sign at the border, time-stamped 3 hours before. Nausea washed over me.Why the fuck would he be here?

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