“You knew I wouldn’t recognize you, but you were still nervous … that’s what I recognized.”
“You’re delusional.”
“I fucked you.”
She snickers, unable to hide her nerves. “Don’t flatter yourself. I’m a married woman.”
“I love Darby.”
“You don’t know what love is.” The piercing edge to her voice unmasks her façade. “If you have a working cell left in your brain, you’ll walk away and never contact me or Darby ever again.”
“Because I fucked you?”
“Get. This. You pathetic waste of space, I am a self-made woman and I can guarantee you no man has ever fucked me!” She hangs up.
Just what I was afraid of … she fucked me.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“What did you just say?” My fingers dig deeper into his back.
Trick closes his eyes and brushes his lips across my forehead, down my cheek, finding home at my mouth. “Marry me, Darby Carmichael.” He opens his eyes to mine … my eyes that … Can. Not. Blink. “You’re the only memory I ever want. So can you do that? Can you give me … you … forever?”
Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!
Tears. So many tears for a friendship I never imagined, a love only found in dreams, and a man that has captured my heart so completely I can only breathe when I’m in his arms.
Trick brushes the back of his hand over my cheek and kisses me with beautiful patience and fragility. “Say yes, Darby,” he whispers with a vulnerability that pulls at every one of my heartstrings.
The mind speaks with reason and logic. The heart … it doesn’t speak, it just feels. But here’s the thing about feelings … they are the unspoken truth.
“Yes.”
He wipes my tears. “Yes …” That smile, those white teeth, they’re for me!
Now he kisses me like I’m his, forever.
Logic wants in so bad, but I’m not ready to share this moment with anyone or anything other than Trick.
“Come.” He takes my hand and leads me out the door.
“Where are we going?” I ask as he pulls me in the opposite direction of his place.
“Grocery shopping. Wasn’t that the real reason for your visit?”
I suppose some guys might suggest a trip to Tiffany’s or to the nearest bed to celebrate, but my guy’s taking me grocery shopping. The perfect part … I wouldn’t have it any other way.
*
“I like linguine,” Trick announces as I grab a box of spaghetti.
I purse my lips to the side and exchange the box for fettuccine. Trick smirks. We spend the next forty-five minutes making compromises and learning about each other’s food preferences beyond eggs, strawberry jelly, and multigrain bread. We haven’t mentioned the words engagement, wedding, or marriage since leaving Rogue Seduction, yet our shopping says it all. We’re planning forever and sometimes forever starts with something as simple as pasta.
We walk back to his place, both hands loaded with sacks of food. Words are sparse, but the sidelong glances with sexy smiles are plentiful. Bliss. It’s pure bliss.
“I’m going to take a quick shower,” Trick announces as I put the salmon, that we agreed on, in the oven.
“Okay.”
“I’ll be about ten minutes if that helps you gauge the time.”
I wash my hands and grab a towel. “The salmon will take about twenty, so you should be fine.”
He shrugs off his shirt on the way to the bathroom. “I wasn’t talking about the fish. I just didn’t know if ten minutes would be enough time for you to do your thing while I’m in the shower.”
I squint in confusion. He attempts to hide his grin by biting his bottom lip. And then it hits me.
“Oh my God!” My skin flames with embarrassment and anger. “You watched that?”
I throw the towel at him, but it only makes it a couple feet. Then I grab my purse and stomp toward the elevator. He hooks his arm around my waist and hauls me over to the bed.
“Let me down!”
Tossing me on the bed he straddles me, pinning my flailing arms above my head. With my eyes squeezed shut, I thrash my head side to side. “Let me go! I trusted you!”
“Darby …”
“We’re over. Don’t Darby me!”
He holds me in place but doesn’t say anymore. After all my resistance siphons the last drop of energy from my body, I open my eyes. “I’m so embarrassed,” I whisper between labored breaths, averting my gaze.
“I’m so in love.”
Damn him!
I look at him and he kisses me. Our tongues slide against each other, soft moans vibrating between our mouths. Releasing my hands and my lips, he sits up and undresses me with hungry eyes but patient hands. My tongue eases out, wetting my lips as he stands to remove his pants.
“Never stop looking at me this way,” he says with vulnerable emotion in his deep voice.
I move my gaze up his body until I meet his eyes. “Never stop loving me this way.”