“And what do you think you know?” Her stance turned rigid, all traces of lust and amusement draining from her face.
“You hate this town and everything in it.”
“I love my mom.”
“I know you do, but don’t tell me you can’t see how a house—two blocks from where she grew up, that isn’t falling down around her, with everything brand-new—isn’t the best thing for her. Think about it for a minute. She wouldn’t have to worry about her broken-down appliances, the plumbing that doesn’t quite work, the electricity that shorts every time you plug a hair dryer in. Or that she doesn’t have the money to fix them when they finally stop working.”
Darcy crossed her arms over her chest. “That’s not the point.”
He shrugged. “I think it is. Ask yourself, how effectively can you fight for something you don’t care about? That you want for your mom as much as I do?”
“I care.” A cloud passed over her expression, darkening like a summer storm.
“If you did, it wouldn’t have taken you all these years to come home.”
“This isn’t my home.” Her voice shook, barely expressing the rage she clearly felt.
“Exactly,” he said, his voice matter of fact.
“Fuck you.” The words a hiss, she turned on her heels and stomped away.
The door to the kitchen swung open and back with a thawp thawp thawp.
Great. Christ, he was an idiot.
Chapter Ten
Furious, Darcy slid into an empty chair between Gracie and the sheriff, Charlie, gritting her teeth as she tried to get her rage under control. How dare he? Asshole. Jerk. Bastard.
She let the expletives fly through her head.
Maddie raised a brow. “Is everything okay?”
Griffin slid into the space across from her and she glared at him.
“Everything’s great,” she said, attempting to stem her agitation, considering she was a guest in their home.
Maddie looked back and forth between Darcy and Griffin.
He smiled at her. “Everything is fine.” He crossed his heart with his finger. “Scout’s honor.”
Darcy snorted. “Ha!”
Every eye at the table swung back to her.
Her temper flared and she forgot about propriety. How dare he pretend to be all good and upstanding when she knew the truth?
Calm as could be, Griffin raised a brow. “Have something to say, Darce?”
“Don’t call me that.” Her voice sounding snappish, she glanced around the table expecting to see disapproving faces, but that’s not what she found. If anything, they all looked interested and amused. She turned back to Griffin and huffed. “Like you were ever a Scout.”
He smiled, that slick politician’s smile she wanted to smack off his face. “I am now. An honorary one.”
She threw down cards she hadn’t bothered to look at. “When you were ten you snuck into their camp and sabotaged it.”
Everyone laughed.
“Yes, well, we might have had some differences in the past.” Griffin rubbed the back of his stupid, too gorgeous neck. She wanted to punch him. Break that straight, pretty nose; fatten those lips she’d already thought about sliding over her skin.
Why, why, why did he have to be so attractive?
Out of all the things in the world, why couldn’t that have gone her way?
She narrowed her eyes on him. “You have them all fooled, but I know the truth. You, sir, are no saint.”
The gaze of everyone at the table swung back toward him. He shrugged and sat back on the chair. “Darcy and I have a bit of a past.”
As though that explained everything.
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
“We used to date in high school,” Griff continued, as though she wasn’t throwing a temper tantrum in front of a group of strangers. “It’s well-documented.”
Mitch rubbed a hand over his jaw. “I can see it ended well.”
Darcy drained her drink and put it on the table. Okay, it was time to get back under control. She blew out a deep breath, gathered her cards, and put a pleasant smile on her face. “That was the past and this is now. And since we’re on the subject, maybe you can explain to me why he can take my mom’s house.”
Mitch smiled, his expression appeasing, as though he was placating her. “Why don’t you come by my office first thing tomorrow morning and we can talk it through? I can explain your options, and also tell you why this is a good thing for the town.”
This might not be her town, but it was theirs. Refusing to listen to their arguments didn’t win her any favors. It was right then she realized she’d made this personal. Made this about her and Griffin and their unfinished past. It forced her to confront the truth: A part of her wasn’t over him.
But she’d think about that later.
Right now, she’d listen. She looked at everyone. “Does everyone at this table want the town center project?”
There were a lot of downcast gazes. Gracie shrugged and gave her a sympathetic look. “Sorry, Darcy, but it’s a good project. It will really help the town.”
Harmony Jones spoke up. “If the town’s conditions improve, we’ll be able to revive Main Street. We can open a storefront bakery and other businesses could open as well. With a thriving Main Street and the river we could appeal to tourists looking to get away from the city. There’s a growing trend of people wanting to disconnect and take weekend getaways in small towns.”
Sam Roberts’s head tilted and he narrowed his gaze on Harmony for a fraction of a second before he turned to Darcy. “The economic downturn hit the community hard. Farmers are hurting with the seed programs put in place. People are leaving. This project will help Revival move in the right direction. Your mom will be happier.”
Darcy frowned. “You don’t know that.”
Sam shrugged. “If this doesn’t happen, the town will wither and die.”
“That’s ominous,” Darcy said. How could Sam possibly know that?
Sam looked her dead in the eye and a chill passed through her. “It’s the truth. Griffin will help save the town.”
She could only stare at him. A strange sense of . . . something filling her chest.
Again, Sam gave her a look she couldn’t decipher. “So can you.”
Her throat tightened. On the surface he appeared to be talking about her standing in the way of the sale, but underneath something niggled at her. It was as though he knew something she didn’t.
Mitch cleared his throat. “Come by my office in the morning and we can talk.”
Darcy nodded and finally looked at her cards. Three aces stared back at her. A winning hand, but she felt no surge of excitement. She frowned. The need to explain her actions grew in her chest. She needed these people to understand that she wasn’t being difficult. She was doing this for her mom.
Several moments of silence passed before she said, “She’s my mom. She asked for my help and I couldn’t say no.”
Gracie took her hand and squeezed. “We know. There’s not a person at this table who wouldn’t move heaven and earth for their family. We get it. All we ask is that you think about it.”
Darcy raised her gaze to Griffin, who stared back at her with an intent expression. As though he was trying to peer right into her.
She nodded. “I will.”
* * *
Several hours later, after cards and food and lots of drinking, Darcy stood next to her car in the Rileys’ driveway. The wind whipped her cheeks as she stared up into the night winter sky. Despite the cold, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and the stars filled the inky blackness.
She’d forgotten how beautiful it was. Breathless, she just looked up into the vastness, the millions of scattering dots of lights. When was the last time she’d seen anything like this?
She remembered when. The last night she’d spent at home, her and Griffin under the stars.
Someone came up behind her, and she didn’t have to turn around to
know it was Griffin. The heat of his body was familiar, like a forgotten dream.
Several moments passed before he spoke. “You okay, Darce?”
She pointed up at the sky. “I’d forgotten.”
He wrapped his arms around her waist and she let him. “Do you remember how we’d go to the bluff in the summer and lie out on the rocks?”
She did remember. Their hands clasped, eyes turned to the stars. It’s where they were their truest selves. Where they forgot about causing trouble and making sure the world thought they were rotten to the core. They’d talked, about life and their dreams, about their hopes and desires.
She bit her lip. “What happened to all those things you used to want?”
He was silent for a minute before he said, “I grew up.”
She was slightly buzzed, and all she really wanted was to rest against him. So she did. When she settled against his strong chest, a shot of longing, so fierce it surprised her, made her thighs quiver. He felt so right.
Like coming home after a long journey and finally sleeping in your own bed again.
He pulled her tighter, his lips brushing her temple.
“Did you grow up? Or give up?” She asked the question, not sure if she should. But they’d always been honest with each other, even when it hurt.
He chuckled, not sounding at all upset. “What did you think? That I actually had a chance to be a rock star?”
A smile spread over her lips. “No, but you had dreams of travel. Of going places.”
“Dreams change.” He sighed. “When my dad took off, someone had to take care of my brothers. And, you know, I found I kind of liked it. I like fixing things. I like taking something that is broken and messy and making it work again. Maybe someday I’ll travel the world, and maybe I won’t, but it’s not that important to me. Revival is what’s important to me.”
She pulled away and turned to face him, confused. She shook her head. “But how? Don’t you remember how mean they were to us?”
He gave her a soft smile that made his eyes crinkle at the corners. “No, I remember we were troublemakers and that with the chips we had on our shoulders, we didn’t exactly invite people to like us. I remember we were dumb kids.”
She shrugged. “Maybe that’s true. But I couldn’t stand living here.”
His expression clouded. “Nobody’s asking you to.”
She frowned, and they looked at each other, both of them remembering when he had asked. And she’d said no.
He stood and pulled his keys from his pocket. “Let me give you a ride.”
“I have my car.”
“You’ve been drinking.”
She nibbled her lip. She’d been contemplating a cab. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why’s that?” His attention snagged on her mouth and stayed.
Heat and desire crashed through her. She wanted him. “Are you going to kiss me?”
His brown eyes darkened. “Yes. And probably a few other things.”
“Like what?” Her voice far too husky to sound anything but interested.
He opened the door and stood back. “Get in the car and find out.”
Chapter Eleven
They drove down the stretch of highway, saying nothing.
Darcy clasped her hands in her lap and stared out the window. This life, this road, sitting next to Griffin, a reminder of a lifetime ago, that somehow felt like it happened yesterday.
She turned away from the window to look at him, his features otherworldly in the glow of the car dashboard.
He glanced at her. “What?”
“Why do you have to be so gorgeous?” It was so unfair. “You need to be hideous so I can concentrate.”
He flashed her that devilish smile. “Do you have a hard time concentrating around me?”
She huffed and narrowed her eyes. “Oh please, I’m not falling for that. You already got your compliment.”
“Would it make you feel better that I’ve pretty much thought of nothing but the filthy things I’d like to do to you since the second I saw you?” He put his hand on her knee and squeezed.
It was like a jolt to the system. “It would.”
“I have.”
She bit her lip, resisting the urge to ask what he’d been thinking. “Mrs. Weller says you need a nice girl.”
He slanted a glance, his attention dropping to her mouth, before returning his eyes to the road. “And what do you think?”
His hand slid higher up her leg, and she didn’t care how it looked—she opened. She’d been spreading her legs for him for what felt like a thousand years, and time had changed nothing. When his fingers tightened high on her inner thigh, she sucked in a breath. “I think you’d die with a nice girl.”
He slowed, going well below the speed limit. “You’re right. Sex is one thing I could never reform.”
“Why would you want to?”
“Exactly.” He pulled into a small curve off the side of the road and came to a stop, his expression searching. “There it is.”
“There what is?” she asked, looking into the trees.
He pulled the car up and then turned into a break in the forest, just wide enough for a car to go down. “It’s the service road.”
She raised a brow. “And what are we doing here?”
He didn’t take his eyes off the road as the car bounced and sighed over the dirt leading them deeper into the forest.
He grinned. “We’re going to fool around, of course, just like old times.”
She liked the sound of that. She could think of nothing she wanted more than to feel his mouth on hers. Hot and urgent. But she was a different woman now. She raised a brow. “Do you expect me to be your dirty little secret?”
“No. For the record I don’t even kiss women in Revival city limits.” He pulled to a stop and killed the lights, plunging them into inky darkness. He turned to face her, taking his hand off her thigh and curling his finger around a lock of her hair.
Her vision adjusted to the lack of light, and she blinked, trying not to think about the hot imprint he’d left behind, or how much she missed his touch. He shifted through the strands. “I’m breaking all my rules for you.”
“But you’re not going to take me to your house?”
“You can come to my house.” He smiled at her, stroking his thumb down the side of her jaw. “In the light of day.”
Those feelings of being an outsider came rushing back to her. “You’d better be careful, people might think there’s something between us.”
He laughed and curled around the nape of her neck. “Darcy, darlin’, everyone who comes within fifty feet of us knows there’s something between us. Everybody already knows.”
She shivered at the sound of darlin’ coming from his lips. He used to whisper that in her ear. “I doubt that.”
“This is Revival.” His face came closer, so close she could feel the heat of his body. His hand fell to her leg, burning her through her jeans. “You never answered my question.”
She licked her lips, and he tracked the movement. “What’s that?”
“Did you fuck yourself with your giant dildo and come for me?”
She shifted, tilting her body so she was closer, and tried not to moan. Griffin always had the dirtiest mouth, and nobody else had ever managed to pull it off like he did. She met his gaze. “I didn’t use that today.”
“No?” His palm slid up to curl around her hip. “Why not?”
She put her hand on his shoulder. “Silicone just wouldn’t do.”
His fingers tightened, squeezing hard. “But you did come, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” she whispered into the darkness, arching her body in offering.
He brushed his lips over hers, and it was like home. “Did you use your fingers?”
“Yes.” Her tongue swept over his bottom lip, and he groaned.
He scraped his teeth along her wet, swollen mouth. “Did you think about me?”
She curled her
hand around his neck. “The entire time.”
He growled, and his mouth claimed hers.
It was nothing like she remembered. And everything she remembered.
It was better. Hotter.
His lips were hard, firm, and commanding. His tongue swept into her mouth, tangled with hers.
So good. Perfect. Just like Griffin.
Nobody kissed like him. Nobody’s hands felt the same way on her skin. She moaned, pulling him toward her, wanting him closer.
He wrapped one steely arm around her waist, while his other hand roamed.
He slanted his head, deepening the kiss, and she sank into him. Getting lost in the feel of his mouth and tongue. The scrape of his teeth as he nipped at her lip. She wanted him with near insanity.
The air thickened. Turned hotter.
Their mouths parted and came crashing together again. Practically fighting in an effort to get enough. An impossible task, because with him it was never enough.
His fingers snaked under the hem of her top, and he cupped her breast, his thumb stroking over the pebbled nipple.
She gasped, arched. Wanting more.
He rolled the hard bud between his thumb and forefinger, tugging until she cried out into his mouth.
With deft fingers he unclasped her bra, and then his hand was on her bare skin. Twisting and pulling and stroking.
Driving her out of her mind.
She walked a path down his chest, gathering the fabric of his shirt and raising it up. He did the same to her top, and then her breasts brushed against his bare skin and it was an electric shock to the system. Skin to skin after all this time. After all these years.
He ripped his mouth away and bit her neck. “Fuck, Darce. Do it again.”
She did, her nipples abrading his skin, raking over his.
He let out a frustrated moan and jerked back into his seat, reaching down below. His seat moved and he lifted her up, hauling her into his lap. She scrambled to straddle him. Her elbow knocked the steering wheel. The horn blared but they didn’t even pause.
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