He watched as Darcy paced in the kitchen as she talked. It wasn’t like he was eavesdropping, but she wasn’t particularly quiet either.
“Are you kidding?” she cried happily. “When?” She paused. “That is amazing! Oh my God!”
If he had to guess, he’d say it was good news she was getting, but in a family the size of hers, Ben would be hard-pressed to figure out what the news would be and who it was about.
Darcy squealed happily, and he watched as she did a little shimmy where she was standing. “This is amazing! No, no, no, I’m on it. I’ll see what I can find, and I promise to let you know as soon as I can.” She paused. “No, no, I’ll be sure to call and let them know right away.” Another pause. “I will, I will. Thanks, Dad!”
He didn’t need to hear the other end of the conversation to know what was coming.
She had to leave.
Soon.
This, what they had, was ending. And a lot sooner than he’d thought.
“I love you too,” she said. “I’ll call you as soon as I have a flight. Bye!” Hanging up the phone, she put it on the kitchen table and then skipped back into the living room with a huge smile on her face.
Ben wanted to speak, to say something, but he couldn’t seem to make himself do it.
“So that was my dad,” she said with a big smile, bouncing onto the couch.
“Everything all right?” he asked, hating how tight his throat felt.
“Everything is great. But I have to head home.” She sighed and crawled into his lap. “As much as I want to stay and was hoping for more time, I can’t.”
All Ben could do was nod. Darcy curled around him, hugging him close. He inhaled deeply, loving the way she smelled and knowing he was going to miss her more than he’d ever thought possible.
She kissed his neck, his jaw, and finally reached up and cupped his face as she claimed his lips. The kiss went from soft and sweet to hot and urgent. Ben didn’t want to hear that she was leaving or what her plans were. He didn’t care that her family wanted her home. He wanted to brand her as his—claim her—and make her want to stay.
His arms banded around her as she straddled him. His hands raked into her hair and gripped it tight as she began to grind against him.
It didn’t matter what they had been talking about. Right now, all that mattered was that he keep touching her, kissing her, having her. He was about to carry her to the bedroom when she broke the kiss and rested her forehead against his.
“Damn, Ben,” she said breathlessly.
He knew exactly how she felt.
“I could sit here and kiss you all day,” she admitted, “but I can’t. I need to find a flight home.”
“You’re not planning on leaving today, are you?” he forced himself to ask.
She shook her head. “No. But probably tomorrow.” Lifting her head, she looked at him, and Ben saw the play of emotion there, the conflict. “You have no idea how much I want to stay here with you—at least for a little longer—but I have to go.”
His curiosity got the better of him. “So what’s going on?”
“I got a job interview!” she said with a big grin. “Apparently, I typed one wrong number for my cell phone in the online application, and they couldn’t reach me, so they called my home number. And yes, we’re totally those people who still have a landline. My dad hasn’t moved completely into this century yet. They’ve been trying to reach me for over a week. That must mean they’re really interested in hiring me!”
He smiled, or at least he tried to smile as he continued to listen to her.
“It’s with the media relations department with a large gallery in Charlotte,” she went on. “From everything I got from the ad, it could be a good fit for me. A really good fit—not too far from home, in a big city.”
Ben could see that she was excited, and he wanted to be happy for her—he really did—but…
“It’s amazing, right? Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I typed the wrong number. I mean, I’m usually such a detail-oriented person, and to go and make a stupid mistake like that is crazy. Thank God I had a secondary phone number on the application, or I would have totally missed this opportunity.”
“That’s…that’s great,” he forced himself to say, still feeling a little bitter that a job opportunity had to happen now and mess up his plans.
“And now I feel like a complete doofus because of the whole phone number thing, and I’ve kept them waiting for a week already, so I need to go call them and find a flight.” She climbed off his lap and noticed his reaction—or lack of reaction. “I need to be there. This could be the job I’ve been waiting for.”
“I know.”
She stood and sighed. “I’m sorry. I…I don’t know what else I’m supposed to do. I can’t be in two places at once.”
“I know that too.”
“You can come with me!” she said excitedly. “Seriously, just come home with me. You can meet everyone and—”
“Darcy,” he quickly interrupted as he stood as well. “I can’t go home with you.”
Her expression fell. “Why not?”
Closing the distance between them, he took both of her hands in his and squeezed them. “For starters, I need to finish the work I have out in the shop. Then there’s some new orders I need to start working on. And on top of that, I don’t think your family would appreciate you bringing me home and dealing with me sleeping with you. Probably not the best first impression to make.”
Frowning, she studied him for a moment. “Damn you for being practical.”
He chuckled. “I can’t help it. And believe me, sometimes I don’t like it either.”
This time when she sighed, it had a sad sound to it. “I’m not ready for this to end.”
Thank God she said it, because it was all he could hear in his own head. “I’m not ready for that either.”
“So where does that leave us?”
Refusing to think or to keep up this depressing conversation, Ben moved swiftly and bent to pick her up and throw her over his shoulder.
Darcy squealed excitedly. “Ben! What in the world are you doing?” Then she giggled as he started to walk toward the bedroom. “C’mon! Put me down! Stop!” She was laughing the entire time, so he knew she wasn’t serious.
“We’ll find you a flight. Later.” He strode into the bedroom and kicked the door closed. “Right now, I want us to forget about everything else—our families, our jobs, our obligations, you leaving—all of it.” He maneuvered her until she bounced on the bed, then he crawled over her and covered her body with his.
“Ben.” It was more of a sigh than a complaint.
Immediately, he began kissing her—the sweet spot on her neck that he knew she loved, then downward. His hands snaked up under her sweater, but she was faster than him, whipping it off and away in the blink of an eye.
Her hands raked through his hair, scratching his scalp. “This doesn’t change anything,” she said, breathing heavily.
“I know. But for now, let’s pretend that the rest of the world doesn’t exist. That it’s just you and me.” His mouth latched onto her nipple through the lace of her bra, and Darcy’s back arched off the bed. She purred with delight.
“Yes.”
It was the last thing she said for a very long time.
Chapter 7
Two weeks later, Darcy was out shopping with her sisters-in-law—something they tried to do at least once a month. Everyone around her was chatting and making plans for the holidays. It was good. It was fun. She had her Starbucks and was looking at cute clothes. That was a good thing, right? She was enjoying herself.
Sort of, she thought with a sigh.
The elbow to her ribs nearly had Darcy jumping out of her skin and spilling her drink. She turned and glared at Anna. “What the hell?”
“That is
, like, the tenth time you’ve sighed in the last five minutes. We’re supposed to be having fun here.”
“I am having fun.”
“No, you’re a total buzzkill right now. I was elected the one who had to come and talk to you about it,” Anna said quietly.
“Great.”
“Have you talked to him since you got back?”
It was pointless to pretend that she didn’t know who Anna was talking about. Nodding, she said, “We talk or text or Skype every day.”
“So what’s the problem?”
Darcy looked at her with disbelief. “Seriously? You have to ask?”
“Okay, fine. You’re on opposite coasts. I get it. But…that’s not a forever thing, right? He can come and see you, and you can go back and see him. Have you made plans for that?”
“No. Well…sort of. Or at least, I’ve been trying. He’s had pieces to finish, then I was waiting to hear on the job at the gallery. Thanksgiving’s coming up, and then there’s Christmas and…” She sighed. “Realistically, it would be after New Year’s before we could work something out. It’s so damn far away.”
“It is, I know, but if you’re really serious, you’ll find a way to make it work.”
It was the same thing she and Ben had been talking about—along with a lot of dirty talk and phone sex—but it didn’t make Darcy feel any better. If anything, she felt worse. If it were up to her, she’d hop on a plane this weekend to see him. Or she’d have him fly here to spend Thanksgiving with her. Actually, the more she thought about it, she had mentioned both of those scenarios to him, and he’d made excuses for each of them.
And some of the other ones she brought up.
She sighed again, and Anna smacked her in the arm. Hard. “Ow! Dammit, Anna!”
“Stop doing that, then! Seriously, if you want to pout or sigh or listen to sad songs while you doodle Ben’s name in hearts, then do it when you get home. Right now, you need to put on your game face, smile, and pick out a dress, because we all decided that we’re going to buy dresses for New Year’s while we’re here. So get moving!”
“We did? When? We’re barely into November, for crying out loud. And I don’t remember—”
“You were too busy moping and sighing over in the lingerie department,” Anna stated, and then they both started to laugh. After a minute, Anna wrapped her arm around Darcy’s shoulders and hugged her close. “C’mon, let’s go get our sequins on.”
“Oh, good lord. Sequins?”
“Nothing says New Year’s Eve like a sparkly party dress,” Anna said as she took Darcy’s hand and led her to the dress department.
Thirty minutes later, Darcy studied her reflection and thought she didn’t look half-bad. The jade-green dress was strapless with minimal beading, and it came to right above her knees. It hugged her curves, and as she did a turn in the 360-degree mirror, she had to admit that she had found her sparkly party dress. When she stepped out of the dressing room, her sisters-in-law—with the exception of Savannah—were all stepping out in their dresses as well.
“Doing this whole girly-girl thing normally annoys the crap out of me,” Anna said as she admired her reflection, “but now I’m kind of looking forward to it.”
Darcy nodded and smiled as her other three sisters-in-law—Zoe, Aubrey, and Brooke—joined them. “I know this is going to come out wrong,” she said as she looked at Zoe, who was trying on a dress in the same color as hers, “but I hate you.”
“What? Me? Why?” Zoe asked with wide-eyed bewilderment.
“You have a killer figure, and that color green looks amazing with your red hair,” Darcy said with mock disdain. “Therefore, I have to hate you.”
“Oh, stop,” Zoe said with a laugh. “You’ve got more curves than any of us, and your boobs haven’t had to deal with the trauma of having a child. You’re braless and look amazing. I’ve got some sort of wonder contraption on under this dress to hold the girls up.”
“Ditto,” Aubrey said.
Darcy looked over as Anna raised her hand too. “Not that I’m complaining. This contraption makes me look better than I ever did.”
Brooke adjusted the top of her dress and frowned. “Why strapless?” she murmured. “My whole life, I never had cleavage like this, and it just feels weird to be so on display. I need to find something else. Besides, I think Owen would freak out if I wore something like this in public.”
They all laughed, and Darcy couldn’t help but feel a little bit better. It was good to laugh. Then she looked down at her own breasts and remembered how much Ben had loved them—the way he’d touched them, kissed them, and… She sighed.
“I swear if you make that sound again,” Zoe began and then turned to Anna. “I thought you were going to talk to her?”
“I did!” Anna cried. She turned to Darcy. “Now what? What could you possibly be thinking as we’re standing here talking about boobs and bras that has you all mopey again?”
Darcy looked at each of them and tried to come up with a reasonable explanation. There was no way she was going to talk about how much she missed Ben’s touch right now in the middle of a department store fitting room.
“I…it was…I mean…”
“Oh God,” Brooke said. “It’s Ben. You’re thinking about Ben again, aren’t you?”
“Um, I don’t know,” she murmured. “Maybe.”
“For crying out loud,” Zoe cried with exasperation. “If I buy you a plane ticket, will you just go back to Washington already?”
“Yes,” Aubrey said before Darcy could come up with anything of her own to say. “I’d be willing to chip in for that.”
“Hey!” Darcy cried. “I haven’t been that bad!”
“No, no, she’s right,” Anna said sarcastically. “We can all remember what it’s like when you’re crushing on a guy.”
“Oh, and she’s totally crushing on him,” Zoe said with a hint of an evil grin.
“Big time,” Aubrey agreed, and Darcy had to wonder why she’d thought having sisters would be better than brothers. At least her brothers scared easily and never wanted to talk about her crushing on any guys.
“She’s a little distracted,” Anna said casually, “and needs to go and call him before we all take turns smacking her.” They all laughed. “Now go. We’ll do a little more shopping and meet up with you in the food court.” Then she sighed dramatically. “The sacrifices we’re willing to make for you.”
“Oh, knock it off,” Darcy said, having heard enough. “You are all just happy to be out of the house and away from the kids and loving the fact that my brothers are having to play babysitter for the afternoon.”
“That’s right,” Aubrey said with a big grin. “Girls’ day out!”
“Woo-hoo!” Brooke cheered.
“It is a beautiful thing,” Zoe agreed. “I find that Aidan is much more agreeable to just about anything I ask for after a day of being alone with his daughter.” She laughed. “He won’t even complain about how much I’m about to spend on this dress.”
Darcy couldn’t help but laugh at that. It was interesting and comical to learn about this other side of her brothers. And if anything, it made her love them that much more, which made her sigh, and Anna, Zoe, Aubrey, and Brooke all turned to her immediately with cries of “Go!,” “Just call him!,” and her favorite, “For the love of it!”
“Okay, okay, I’m going,” she said with a small laugh. “I just have to slip out of this dress and get changed. Geez.”
And as she turned to walk away, she heard Aubrey mutter, “Damn her and her perky boobs.” They all burst out laughing.
Darcy couldn’t help but laugh along with them and then remembered that this was why she’d wanted sisters.
* * *
Ben stared into the refrigerator and tried to will something to come out and make itself. He was tired and hungry and more
than a little cranky because he was missing Darcy. She’d only been in his home for a short time, and all of a sudden, it was like he hated everything about living alone. All the things he used to enjoy about it—the peace, the quiet, the freedom to do what he wanted when he wanted—held little to no appeal.
As if reading his mind, his phone rang, and he saw Darcy’s face on the screen—a sexy picture he’d taken before she went back to North Carolina. Smiling, he reached for it and answered.
“Hey, beautiful.”
“Hey, yourself,” she said softly. “Whatcha doing?”
“Missing you,” he said honestly.
“I miss you too.”
“Where are you right now?” he asked, his own voice going soft.
“I’m at the mall with everyone—the girls. It’s our monthly shopping trip.”
“Monthly shopping trip? Really? That’s a thing?”
She laughed. “It really is. Once a month, we leave all the kids with my brothers and hit the mall.”
“For anything in particular or just to wander around?”
“Normally, it’s just to wander around. Today, we all found dresses for New Year’s Eve.”
“It’s November.”
“That’s what I said!” she exclaimed with another soft laugh. “But I found one, and it’s fabulous, and I also found some amazing lingerie.”
“You’re killing me,” he said as disappointment washed over him. He wished she was alone. Ben never would have thought himself the kind of man who got off on phone sex or that sort of thing, but something about this woman made him feel a bit wild and reckless like that. “Tell me about the dress. And do it slowly and in that sexy voice I love.”
She laughed. “Stop! I’m in the middle of the mall.” She paused. “But I will say this. It’s a jade-green strapless dress that has some sparkly beading on the top. And if I do say so myself, I look good in it.”
“You look good in everything,” he said automatically, but he meant it.
Holiday Spice Page 17
