by Alexis Anne
She came and came and I watched every bit of pleasure as it passed across her face. The relief, the ecstasy, the pain…all of it.
“I want to feel you come, Darcy,” she pleaded, out of breath.
And like always, her words did me in. With three smooth, careful strokes, I buried myself deep and got lost inside the woman I loved.
* * *
“We can go home,” Theo said with a sigh. The man was exhausted.
“I’ve got my guys working every loose end. So far we haven’t had any resistance.” While Theo was getting his security problem under control and arranging Dan Christie’s escape from prison, I’d been tracking down everyone who ever worked with Dan and quietly convinced them to forget any of us ever existed, which was pretty damn easy since he’d been out of the game for so many years.
The cash helped too.
“Good. I’ll keep at the bank accounts. We’re so close.”
“And your father?” I should probably care more about what kind of revenge Toni and Dan wanted for us putting them in prison but I didn’t. I only cared about getting Donald permanently out of Nicki’s life.
Theo rocked back on his heels, sliding some pictures across the table. “You’ve done a fantastic job of fucking with his head. Better than I’ve ever done.”
I picked up the pictures of Duncan Boys in places they had no territorial rights to be. “It’s easier for me to push him since he’s not my father.” I threw the pictures back on the table.
“Just an angry lover. Did you kiss and makeup last night or were you exercising?”
“Fuck off.”
He threw up his hands. “I don’t want to know anything other than if Nicki is happy.”
I had a stupidly cheesy grin on my face. I knew I did. “Yeah, she’s happy.”
“Good. Can I assume I don’t have to worry about where she’ll be sleeping?”
“She’ll be with me. I’ll keep her safe.” There was absolutely no chance I was letting her out of my sight.
“Excellent. I may have you check in on Allison as well.”
His request was a huge one and I took it seriously. “Anytime, brother.” I held out my hand and he shook it. “Until the end.”
23
Nicki
I zipped my bag closed just as I heard the front door open.
“Nik!” Darcy yelled.
“Back here!” I took one last look around the room to be sure I had everything. In a way I was sad to be leaving the bland little safe house.
“You ready, love?” He leaned up against the doorframe, spinning a set of keys in his hand. Oh, and he had the most ridiculous smile on his face.
Talk about happy.
“Ready.”
He pushed up off the door and sauntered toward me. “How about one last kiss before we go?” I didn’t have a chance to answer before one hand was in my hair and the other wrapped tight around my waist. He pulled back to look into my eyes. “Come home with me.”
In a way I wasn’t surprised by the question. I didn’t want to be away from him any more than he wanted to be away from me, and considering what was going on in our lives I wasn’t exactly excited to go home to my empty flat.
“Are you asking me to move in with you?”
“Yes.”
I jerked back. I’d expected him to laugh, to make a joke, maybe to say “for now.” But this? This was blunt and honest to a fault. “What?”
He held me tight. “Move in with me, Nicki. Not just for now, for always. Let’s skip the awkward dating phase and move straight to happy couple.”
This time he let me push him away. “Why your place and not mine?”
“Because Donald bought your place and I don’t want our lives to have anything to do with him.”
Good point. “I’ve never seen your place. How do you know I’ll like it? Maybe I’ll hate it.”
He shrugged. “Then we’ll move. We’ll pick a brand new place together.”
He was being incredibly reasonable for someone who just asked his girlfriend of twelve hours to move in with him.
“I accept.”
He grinned. “You do?”
I threw my hands up in exasperation. “Why not? We both know where this is going. We’ve been in love forever. And just…why not at this point? The whole world is going crazy, let’s throw our living arrangements in with it.”
I was serious. Dead serious. I didn’t want to go back to my flat now or ever. I was sick of putting off happiness because of doubts. And really? I had no doubts left when it came to Darcy.
He yelped and picked me up off the ground. “I like this new Nicki.”
And I liked this new Darcy, too. “So now what? I keep living out of this bag and sketch in your flat until Tad can bring me my stuff?”
As happy as I was to jump headfirst into a new life with Darcy I didn’t like feeling homeless. Or living without my studio.
“I can have Martin send a team of movers there this afternoon and until then you’re coming with me.”
“Movers? What about your stuff?”
He shrugged. “We’ll leave your furniture for now. They’ll pack your clothes, art supplies, anything you wish. There’s plenty of room at my place.”
Okay, well that took care of that… “And where are we going to be all day?”
He took my hand and then, with his free hand, grabbed my bag, leading me out to the car. “To my office.”
“Your office?”
He dropped my bag in the backseat and opened my door. “Yes. My office. I’m not keeping any secrets from you and I want you to be as involved in this process as you want to be. We’ll start at my office.”
I dropped into the passenger seat, dumbfounded.
This was an entirely new and unexpected turn of events. No one—not even Theo—had ever included me in plans before.
He started the engine and flashed me a signature Darcy Higgins smile. “New life, babe. You and me all the way.”
And then he took off down the street.
* * *
I absentmindedly poured a cup of coffee, dumping in a teaspoon of sugar and some cream. I needed caffeine and I needed it badly. My mind was positively spinning. Darcy had been true to his word and walked me through everything I asked about from his clubs to the street teams he employed “in the shadows”. I got a crash course in the Higgins Empire and I was exhausted.
But I was also relieved.
“Scared or excited?” he asked as he poured an identical mug.
“Both?”
The corner of his lip quirked up. “Good. I had a feeling you might be.”
Darcy ran an impressive series of businesses that fed off each other. If nothing else, he’d put that brain of his to good use building a solid company. He was no longer Theo’s sidekick in any sense of the word.
But then there was the other half. The less than legitimate half. The Night.
“You said, back at the safe house, that if I wanted you to get rid of everything you would.”
He studied me carefully as he nodded. “Yes. I will. Is that what you want?”
No. It wasn’t. Not yet anyway. “I don’t want to have anything to do with grey areas of the law and I don’t want you to either.”
“After Theo and I are done, it’s gone.”
I still didn’t know the full extent of Darcy and Theo’s plans because I’d had enough information for one day. I knew the basics: set things right with Dan Christie and end their connection with the Duncan Boys—and my father’s business—so he had no power left. Beyond that I didn’t need or want to know anything else until I had time to digest what I’d already learned.
I’d go mad if I took in anymore today.
“But I’m impressed with everything else. You’re good at this, Darcy.”
His eyes twinkled. “It means a lot coming from you.”
From restaurants to a bookshop to the clubs, he’d slowly built something very few could ever dream of accomplishing.
“Why me? Because you love me?”
He shook his head. “No. Because you’re brilliant.”
I blushed straight down to my toes.
“Hurry up,” he held up his mug. “Caffeinate so I can show you my pride and joy.”
Thirty minutes later we pulled up outside of his bookstore. It was adorable. A lovely older woman worked the front counter and two college students worked the back. There were two levels and everything was black or dark wood with soft armchairs dotted around the bookcases.
Two of my paintings hung on the walls.
“Jenni helped me purchase these under an assumed name,” he murmured in my ear.
These were two I considered outliers. Paintings I’d thrown together in a fury of ideas without any real idea or purpose as to what they’d be. It was interesting to me that he’d picked these two out of everything.
He led me over to a heavy bookcase and grinned over his shoulder. “You ready for the magic?”
Even though I knew the speakeasy was below the bookstore I still felt a thrill of excitement at seeing the bookcase swing open and reveal the staircase inside. “This is hot.”
“I know. People love it.” He led me down the stairs and into the nearly empty club. There were several levels that all faced a large central dance floor with a stage beyond. Booths and tables were set into dark wood, chandeliers dripped from the ceilings, and an old fashioned bar lined the far wall. I could picture how it looked filled with London’s elite dressed in period costume and dancing to a live band.
“You’ll have to take me dancing one day.” My feet itched to move.
“I’ll take you dancing right now.” He pulled me out into the middle of the floor and music suddenly filled the air. “No more one day or soon or tomorrow’s for us, Nicki. We enjoy now.”
And just like that he led me around the dance floor to a slow orchestral song I didn’t recognize. He didn’t have any training but he understood how to move with my body in time to the beat, and really, that’s all you need to dance.
I sank into him and rested my head against his shoulder. Such a simple gesture, but until a day ago it had seemed impossible. And just like he suggested, I relished the moment.
24
Darcy’s flat was kind of amazing and just around the corner from Theo.
Needless to say I sort of fell in love with it the moment we walked inside. Well, not the moment, about five moments later after we cleared the front.
Because at first it’s not at all impressive. Not even a little bit. Actually it’s kind of bland. You walk into a dark foyer that opens into a plain room. There’s a table with two chairs and that’s about it. I found out later that was where Darcy liked to sit and smoke. He tried quitting but usually picked it back up during times of stress and well, you can imagine.
I was prepared for the rest of the flat to look a lot like the safe house after that grand entrance but I was wrong. It was small, well decorated, and a little bit messy—as if no amount of organization or paid housekeeping could keep everything in its place. It felt a lot like what I thought home should feel like.
“This way.” We walked past a long wall of windows, around a corner to a back sitting room that looked out over a park. My art supplies had been set up here. “This is for you.”
“It’s perfect,” I murmured as I stepped up to the window to look outside.
“I’ve pictured you working in here from the moment I saw it.”
I loved it. I loved even more that all of this felt like a natural conclusion to us being a couple—a simple, quiet life together. At least that was what I saw when I looked around. Darcy’s home wasn’t as large and ostentatious as Theo’s flat. This was comfortable, welcoming. He lived here. And while he worked hard, his work was hardly his life.
“I can picture you playing Xbox over there while I paint.”
“Exactly.” He pulled me close and kissed the top of my head. “We can do this.”
* * *
The next day did not go well for anyone. Theo and Darcy’s plans moved ahead, slightly unexpectedly, which of course was both good and bad. Theo was the one worse for wear after a fight left him in need of a few stitches. Mercifully Darcy came out unscathed since he was the one working in the shadows.
He felt bad about that, but at the same time he had a job to do, so he focused on that. Unfortunately that meant he was work obsessed for the next day as things moved forward at a breakneck pace.
I woke the next day to light streaming in through the bedroom windows. At some point Darcy had joined me. He was beautiful. Fully clothed with his shoes still on. His body curled around mine with an arm held tight over my hips.
I studied him while he slept. This Darcy was so self-assured and strength oozed from every glance, every movement. It made me love him even more. If he could do it, I could do it, too.
I didn’t want to avoid love and friendship for the rest of my life and I knew I’d asked a lot of both Margaret and Jenni over the years. It would take time but I was ready to start stepping outside more than once a month.
That’s when my eyes fell on a box. I knew this box.
Slipping out of his grasp I padded silently over to where it sat on his dresser, running my fingers over the edges. He’d had it for as long as I could remember—an old tailor’s box with wood sides and a gold embossed cover.
“What’s this?” I’d asked all those years ago.
He’d immediately looked nervous, like a little boy showing his best friend his prize. “Open it.”
And so I had. Inside were old pictures, scraps of fabric, and a paper award. It was a memento box. My fingers fell on a picture of a beautiful woman and a little boy that was unmistakably Darcy. “Is this your mother?”
He’d nodded.
I’d shut the box, feeling like I was looking at something I shouldn’t.
But then Darcy had come and taken the box to the bed, laying out every item and describing each one, asking me to see every part of him. It had been a huge moment for us.
But why was it here now? I knew it hadn’t been out when I went to bed. With one last nervous glance back at Darcy, still adorably asleep in his clothes, I flipped open the lid.
And I forgot how to breathe.
His old mementos were now covered with us—pictures of our time together, newspaper clippings of my showings at the gallery, the menu from our favorite Chinese restaurant.
“Keep going,” he murmured from the bed. His voice rough from sleep.
I jumped and blushed. “Are you sure?”
His eyes drank me in with a simmer of lust and a lot of love. “Please? I want you to know what you mean to me. It’s on the bottom.”
What on earth had Darcy saved? I carefully collected the pictures and articles, setting them in a neat stack on the dresser, digging through the layers of his life, from to his years with Theo, to his mom.
And then there it was.
Suddenly Darcy was behind me, stilling my shaking hands and dropping soft kisses on the hollow behind my ear.
“You saved it,” I whispered. That was the only sound I could get out between my ragged breaths.
“What I could.”
With very careful hands I slid my fingers beneath the painting of us and lifted it from the box, laying it out on the bed. It was in shreds from the knife Father’s men had taken to it, but Darcy had kept what was left.
It was ruined but somehow still perfect. Every line I’d captured was still there. The look of lust in his eyes and the grip of muscles in his hand. Creating this painting for Darcy had been an act of love and it had broken my heart to see it destroyed.
Except that it wasn’t. Not completely.
“I couldn’t throw it away,” he murmured as I examined the edges. “I loved you. I’ve always loved you. I just didn’t know how to love you until now.”
I spun in his arms, looking up into his eyes. “We were pretty clueless last time, huh?”
He ran the backs of his finge
rs over my cheek, nodding. “Yes.”
“Do you hate me for pushing you away?” I still worried.
“No, darlin’. I don’t.”
“Why?” If he’d pushed me away and refused to let me in for all these years, there was a very good chance I’d hate him.
His eyes dropped to my lips and he froze. “Given the option? I’d never spend a day apart. But that wasn’t an option. We needed different things and to be better people. Sometimes,” he tilted his head off to the side and finally looked up into my eyes, “sometimes two halves don’t make a whole. After a while I realized you needed space to simply exist and I needed to figure out how to be a man.”
A shiver raced over my skin. “A man?” Darcy was all man in my book.
But he was very different from the man I loved back then.
“I needed to learn to accept who I was, mistakes and all. Then be confident that I was enough. Once I had that, all I needed was to create a world big and safe enough for you to come live inside it with me.”
“And that’s what you’ve done with your nightclubs and secret organizations? You’ve made a world just for us?”
“Yes,” he said without any hesitation. “And when Theo and I are done, no part of our pasts—not the Boys, not Donald, and sure as fuck not Dan Christie—will have any way to touch us ever again.”
* * *
I was curled up on the black leather sofa in Darcy’s office at the club looking over the coded spreadsheet of every man and woman he was tracking down in connection with the Christie gang.
“Tell me about your time in Edinburgh.”
He looked up from the papers on his desk and frowned. “Why?”
I shrugged. “So I understand what we’re doing. These people are just numbers and letters to me, who are they to you?”
Theo and Darcy were the brains and technical geniuses Dan Christie needed to successfully rob some of Europe’s wealthiest families, turning that money into a growing black market technology operation…until Darcy and Theo became informants in exchange for their freedom.
