Chapter 24

CHAPTER 24

CODY

A s much as I don’t want to leave Darcy’s side, I eventually have to so that I can deal with the Milo situation. Darcy’s not happy about me refusing to let her anywhere near him, and she had words to say when I announced my decision to see to it myself that he puts as much distance between himself and Darcy as possible. For good. It took a lot of bickering and arm crossing and eye rolls—on her part—but when I finally ride the elevator down to the offices where Ben notified me Milo’s been detained, I get a text from Thommes.

You got in a physical altercation with a guest in the lobby? Christ. What’d I tell you. BAD FOR BUSINESS. Hurry up and get down here. That means NOW, Cody.

I put my phone in my pocket and rub my hands together, nodding sweetly at the little old lady riding in the elevator with me. Looks like it’s time to work the ole Cody Charm.

The back offices of the resort all have glass windows facing out into a narrow, brightly lit hallway. I walk down it and smile when Milo leaps from his chair inside the room we keep the disorderly guests and pounds a fist on the window.

“Let me the hell out of here! Where’s Darcy?!” He’s sporting a black eye, a busted cheek, a split lip, and a bloody nose. I think it’s safe to say he’s a lot worse off than I am. Good. I smile at him and give him a small, two-fingered salute as I pass by. He’ll have to wait until after my talk with the boss.

“I really tried to keep my cool, Mr. Thommes,” I say in my chair across from Thommes desk after he yells at me for five minutes straight about how he warned me I was on my last leg and now he has to cut me loose. “But he was seriously asking for it.”

“You’re not helping your case, son,” Thommes says, all ruddy cheeked and out of breath from all the yelling. I explain my side of the story—in great detail—glad he’s giving me the chance to. When I’m finished, he’s calmed down considerably. We talk it over for a bit, and what do you know—Thommes also hates the prick, who’s not a guest and is trespassing on privately owned property. I was merely protecting the safety of the guests at our resort. I’m a goddamn hero, so my job is safe another day.

It makes it all the more satisfying when the police show up, slap the cuffs on Milo’s swollen wrists, and haul him out of there. Before they left, I made sure to get information from one of the officers about how to go about getting a restraining order placed to keep him away from Darcy.

I don’t sleep much that night. Darcy stays with me, which helps to keep me calm, but my mind is too polluted to rest. I’m anxious, and I can’t place why. But I know one thing.

I’m not running away this time.

I’m going to stick it out and heal with the people who promise that they care about me. Because, at the end of the day, that’s the quickest way to contentment.

Around six a.m., I decide to sneak downstairs and grab some breakfast for Darcy and me. She’ll probably still be asleep for a couple of hours, but I figure I might as well get an early start since today is going to be a hectic day. Darcy and Maya are set to fly out later this evening. The thought of saying goodbye makes me sick, but I’d never tell them that. This trip has already been enough of a mess as it is. I just need to get them home safe and sound, and then I can process my emotions about it all by myself once they’re gone. After all, a man can only change his set-in-stone ways so much in a single day.

I grab Darcy a coffee, some eggs, a bagel, and a glass of orange juice—for good measure. We had a big dinner with Maya last night, so I’m not quite hungry enough for real food. I just get some toast and a cup of coffee for myself.

When I return to my room, I’m surprised to see Darcy awake and sitting up in bed, eyeing me with disdain the second I walk through the door. “I got déjà vu when I woke up and you weren’t here,” she tells me, and I detect just a bit of anger in her voice that I immediately work to soothe.

“I... Shit. I didn’t think about that, Darcypops. I’m sorry. I just went to grab us something to eat.” I lightly jostle the Styrofoam containers in my hands. “I didn’t think you’d be awake by the time I got back, or I would’ve left a note or something.”

Darcy watches me for a moment, her eyes eventually softening. “It’s fine. I’m sorry. Just… paranoid, I guess.”

I chuckle softly and kick off my shoes, sliding back into the bed and settling in next to her.

“ Darcypops ,” she snorts.

“It suits you,” I grin.

“It didn’t suit me when I was 10, it doesn’t suit me now.”

I tap her nose.

“If you say so, Darcypops.”

She narrows her eyes but her lips betray her curling upwards.

I hand her the box of her food and her drinks. She nods appreciatively and takes a sip of the lukewarm coffee.

I watch her eat in silence for a minute or two, taking an occasional sip of my own beverage, when she finally looks over at me and studies me in a way that makes me nervous.

"You didn't sleep," she says. It's not a question; it's a statement. There's no point denying it. She knows. She's too perceptive not to.

"No," I answer matter-of-factly, trying not to deflate when I see Darcy frown.

"Why not?" she asks. "You've got to be half-dead by now."

I swallow thickly. Normally, I could play this off. But at this point, the exhaustion tugging at my brain has lowered my inhibitions, and there's nothing I can say but the truth. "Bad thoughts, I guess."

"Bad thoughts?" Darcy echoes, her brow furrowing with concern. "Do you want to talk about it?"

I hesitate, torn between my instinct to keep my walls up and the unexpected desire to let her in. "It's just... sometimes it feels like everything's spinning out of control. Like I'm barely keeping my head above water."

Darcy nods, her eyes never leaving mine. "I get it," she says softly. "More than you know."

There's a moment of silence between us, heavy with unspoken understanding. Then Darcy reaches out, her hand resting gently on my arm. The warmth of her touch sends a shiver through me.

"I think that's why I let myself get so carried away the other night, you know, with the two of us?" she continues, a hint of a smile playing at her lips. "It's so easy to feel out of control. But one thing I can control..." she trails off, her eyes flickering to my lips.

"Is who you sleep with on a lonely Wednesday night," I finish, feeling a spark of electricity between us. Darcy confirms my suspicion with a naughty smile, her eyes fluttering dangerously between mine.

“You know how it was a bad idea the first time?” she asks, waiting for my nod of confirmation before she continues. “Well, I’m thinking that every time we do it, it’ll become a better idea.”

I can’t help but grin at that suggestion. “I suppose we would need a scientific experiment to prove that hypothesis,” I tell her. “I think we’d better try it out a couple more times. Get a good feel for it.”

Darcy nods with a mischievous smirk. “I like the way you think. For the sake of science, of course.” She moves in closer, her lips pausing just centimeters from mine. I can feel the warmth of her breath on my skin when she says, “Maybe I can finally get you to relax.”

Our lips collide. We collide. It’s as if we can’t close the space between us fast enough. Fucking hell. I have to open my eyes to peek at her while we kiss to make sure she’s real. That this is really happening.

She pulls away briefly when she notices it. “Is this okay?” she asks, still so close that her sweet breath is hot in my mouth, where my lips are still parted, waiting for her tongue to return. Her voice is a whisper and her green eyes are heavy with lust and a dash of anxiety. My dick throbs in my pants, my erection reminding me it’s there, waiting to be freed. It’s telling me not to fuck this up. God, I want to ease her anxiety with all the pleasure I can give her.

This is more than okay.

I don’t bother answering her with words, though. I clutch her fantastic ass tight and pull her even closer against me, bringing our mouths back together in a desperate frenzy. I want her. I’ve always wanted her. Since I kissed her during Spin the Bottle. And every day after that. I think that a part of my brain never stopped wanting Darcy.

I don’t know how the food and drinks I’ve brought Darcy end up a spilled mess on the floor. I don’t know how we got out of our clothes so fast. I have her pinned underneath me in my bed, her fiery hair spilled out softly around her head on my white pillows. She’s in my arms. She’s stroking my face. Looking at me with those deep green eyes. She’s smiling and my heart damn near stops. Her skin is pale. Creamy. So damn soft.

I kiss my way from her lips to her temple, stopping to nibble on her tiny ear before I kiss her neck and squeeze her bare thighs, eliciting the moan I desperately want to hear. I make her sound that way. I’m doing this to her. It’s so fucking sexy and my cock is begging to be inside. Her nails scrape my skin and my entire body tingles with goosebumps. I think I’m even trembling a little with how bad I want her. But I want to touch her. To taste her and it’s worth the agonizing wait to be buried in her.

Darcy sighs as I suck on her neck and then trail kisses over her collar bone before I take her bright pink taut nipple into my mouth and swirl my tongue around the bud of it. Delicious. Her sigh turns into a gasp and she hastily reaches her hand down to?—

Fucking fuck. Her just-firm-enough grip on my dick, so sudden and so welcomed, is going to ruin me.

“Darcy,” I breathe, looking up at her from where my mouth is just centimeters away from her nipple, “If I could go back to when we were kids. I’d tell you the truth.” The words tumble out of me before I can think.

She releases me and brings both her hands up to cup my face and bring it up to meet hers. She places a tender kiss on my lips slowing us down. Things have turned from heated and rushed to tender. Gentle. I should have expected nothing less after my years-too-late admission.

“What are you talking about?” she coos, nuzzling her nose against mine. I breathe into her neck and press my body into her and it feels safe.

“You have no idea how long I’ve wished things could be like this,” I say.

Her eyes widen, and she pauses. “Since—since way back then?”

I nod, my eyes searching hers but also letting themselves be plain and true for her. I want her to see everything I’m feeling, everything I’ve ever felt, for her. For so long.

Her fingers rake through my hair as she gives me the smallest of head shakes. Her body squirms under me, and I know she’s still yearning for me. Burning for me. “I don’t understand, Cody.”

I kiss her softly and slowly before I breathe, “That’s because I was a stupid teenage boy. I got scared. And I will never make the same mistake again.”

“Good,” she whispers back. Then she kisses each one of my fingers before she kisses my lips hard. Her teeth graze my bottom lip, she lets go and utters, “Now please touch me before I scream.”

I give her a smolder. She doesn’t have to tell me twice.

I dive back into kissing her, and my hand finds the exact spot I know she wants touched with ease. My hands know her body. They know where to go. What to do. I feel how wet she is as we kiss and moan and claw at each other. I dip my finger into her folds and bring it from the top, teasing her clit, before I plunge it all the way inside of her, the thrust hard enough to make her cry out and instinctively arch her back. I pull away so I can watch her expression as I move in and out of her. Then I watch my hand, see what magic it’s working on her, and when I press my hard-on against her skin, it pulls away wet from my pre-cum.

“Cody…” she’s gripping the sheets now, tightly, with both hands. Her eyes are closed. I keep thrusting my finger in and out of her, adding a second one, and then I bend my head to run my tongue along her clit.

“Cody, please.” Her body tightens. Coils. I know what she’s asking for. I know she is ready to come undone, to come onto my hand, but that she doesn’t want to.

She wants something else.

I grab her knees and pull her legs apart, taking in every inch of her glistening pussy. Then I lower myself over her, and the second I plunge my cock deep inside her, filling her up, I feel her walls tighten hard around me, and I know she’s so close to coming. It feels so fucking good that I nearly do, too. Instead, I rock into her as she grinds against me, prolonging her orgasm as long as possible. When her moans and cries soften, I kiss her, and she gives me a breathless smile. I clutch her and hold her close to me, and I keep thrusting into her, my eyes glued to hers, my chest against hers, both of them heaving rapidly. She grabs my shoulders, her hands so small around them. They snake around my neck and she pulls me close, whimpering, looking at me adoringly. I think she wants me to stay like this, with slow, full plunges, filling her all the way up, waiting a beat, then gliding back out in her slippery wetness.

But then she bites her bottom lip as she looks at me. And she whispers the word, “Harder.”

She’s done it now.

With a gruff chuckle, I pull away, slip out of her, and then in one swift motion, I turn her over, and she knows just the position to get into. Hands and knees, her back arched. I enter her from behind, squeezing her hips and doing exactly as she’s asked as I pull them into me, hard, with each of my quick, deep thrusts.

“Oh my god!” Her cry is so loud, so aroused, and so unexpected that in mere seconds, I reach my climax and empty myself inside of her.

We both collapse onto the bed, me on top of her back, and after a second or two of frantic attempts to catch our breaths, she rolls underneath me and I slide to be laying by her side. Our arms stay twirled around each other. We look into each other’s eyes, and all I can think is that Darcy has a hold on me. And now, she very well knows it.

When we’ve both cleaned up and caught our breath, and Darcy is lying with her head on my chest, I finally feel myself begin to relax enough to fall asleep. My eyes begin to slip shut, and I think I might feel something close to peace, but before I can completely slip away, I hear Darcy’s voice, and it brings me back to reality.

“We’re leaving tonight, you know,” she says, and I’m immediately awake. Not only am I awake, but I’m also depressed. The thought of Darcy and Maya leaving is utter torture. Now that I’ve had them here, I don’t think I can continue on without them anymore.

“Yeah?” I prompt.

“Well, I was thinking…” Darcy starts, and I’m consumed by impatience. “I don’t really have anything waiting for me at home. My parents both moved away, I’m done with Milo, my job is nothing to me but income. What if… Oh, God, this is going to sound crazy, but what if I stayed? That’s crazy, isn’t it? Yeah, that’s definitely crazy. You know what? Forget I said anything. I’ll just?—”

“Please stay,” the words are choked out. “Please, Darcy. Stay. I want you to stay.”

Darcy pushes herself up onto her elbows and looks at me, eyes wide with hope. “Really? You really want me to stay?”

“Yes,” I come close to shouting. “Are you fucking kidding? I don’t think I could survive if you left. I think it would actually kill me.”

Darcy scoffs amusedly. “Oh, please?—”

“I’m serious!” I swear. “You’ve shown me an entirely new life, Darcy. I was grasping around in the dark at nothing for a long time, and then you showed up and turned on the light. How am I supposed to live it without you?”

“Cody…”

The word has a lack of a backbone, like she didn’t quite mean to say it but it got caught up in the sigh she exhales. A giant smile spreads on her face.

“Okay, so I guess I’m staying.”

I think I could actually jump for joy. She’s staying. Darcy is really staying. I’m not alone anymore.

After Darcy falls asleep, I slip out of bed and grab my phone. It's late, but I know I need to do this now. I step out onto the balcony, the cool night air prickling my skin as I dial my dad's number.

He answers on the second ring. "Cody? Is everything alright? When you last phoned, your mother was worried - I was worried, son…”

"Yeah, Dad. Everything's... actually pretty good," I say, surprised by how true it feels. "I just... I wanted to talk. About everything."

There's a pause, and I can almost see him nodding on the other end. "I'm listening, son."

I take a deep breath. "I'm sorry for shutting you out after... after what happened. I was a mess. I didn't know how to handle it, and I thought running away would fix things."

"Cody," my dad's voice is soft, "you don't have to apologize. We understood. We just wished you'd let us be there for you."

"I know," I say, feeling the weight of my choices. "I should've reached out sooner. I've missed you guys."

"We've missed you too, kiddo. More than you know."

I lean against the railing, looking out at the moonlit mountains. "Dad, I... I need to tell you about me, how I’ve really been doing and why I stopped calling."

I can hear him take a sharp breath. "Go on, son."

Slowly, haltingly, I tell him everything. About the accident, about my guilt, about how I've been carrying this burden alone all this time. About how bad it got and how crippling my loneliness felt. When I finish, there's a long silence.

"Oh, Cody," he finally says, his voice thick with emotion. "Why didn't you tell us? We could have helped you through this."

"I was ashamed," I admit. "I didn't know how to face you guys."

"You're our son," he says firmly. "Nothing could ever change how much we love you. Nothing."

I feel tears prickling at the corners of my eyes. "Thanks, Dad."

We talk for a while longer, about everything and nothing. Then he says, "So, Maya mentioned something about you and Darcy..."

I can't help but chuckle and roll my eyes even though he can’t see. Maya speaks to them basically everyday of course she’s told them about us. "Yeah, that's... that's a thing now. She's been amazing, Dad. She's helped me start to heal."

"I'm glad," he says warmly. "Darcy's always been a sweet girl. Your mother will be thrilled."

"I was thinking," I say, "maybe we could come visit soon? All of us - me, Maya, Darcy?"

"We'd love that," he replies, and I can hear the smile in his voice. "It's about time we had all our kids under one roof again."

By the time we hang up, I feel lighter than I have in years. When I slip back into bed, Darcy stirs, her eyes blinking open sleepily. "Everything okay?" she murmurs.

I pull her close, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Yeah," I whisper. "Everything's perfect."

And for the first time in a long time, I truly believe it.