Page 82 of All For You

Lowering his head, he touched his lips to mine chastely. Then he kissed me, hard and hungry, like he’d been waiting for a thousand years, his head turning until we were sealed together, his firm body rubbing against me. He massaged my neck with his hand as our tongues met, and a groan escaped from the back of his throat.

He lifted his lips away and pressed his forehead to mine, breathing heavily. “Lizzy, I’m falling for you so hard.” His voice was low and deep, his face so close I could feel the flutter of his long eyelashes.

His words were so open and clear and vulnerable. My body ached, need pooling in my belly. We were fully clothed, but I felt stripped of all pretenses by his naked gaze on mine.

A high yapping spiked the air.

He lifted his head. “Topaz?”

“Where is she?” I asked. “She sounds distressed.”

Frantically, we searched the ruins. I rounded a corner. There she was, perched precariously on a broken plinth.

“How the hell did you get up there?” Darcy rushed forward.

I stumbled after him. “Honestly, how did you?”

As soon as Darcy lowered Topaz off the plinth, she jumped up on his legs, clearly wanting to be hugged. He cuddled her, and then she barked again, scrambling against his chest.

“She wants her backpack,” he said.

I giggled that he already knew her signs so well. “Maybe we should head back? It’s been quite an adventure for Ms. LeStar. Even if it’s been a backpack adventure.”

“Topaz, you are the most high-maintenance pain in the arse,” he said as he gave me an annoyed Topaz and hoisted the pack on his back.

I lowered the wriggly Ms. Topaz into her slot. “You did say you’d be happy with dogs, and you didn’t care about having children,” I reminded him.

He grasped my upper arm, a new intensity in his eyes. “I don’t know why I said that. I love kids. Kids are awesome.”

He gave me a kiss, gentle, soft, then exploratory, taking my bottom lip between his teeth, moving his hands down my back, and pulled me to him. We’d agreed at the beginning we needed to spend time getting to know each other. I was happy about that, but that didn’t mean the wait wasn’t painful.

Topaz gave a sharp bark.

“Topaz LeStar, you are such a blocker,” he said, rolling his eyes. He took my hand and led me down the rocky path. “Actually, maybe I’m my own blocker. Believing separate rooms was a good idea, what was I thinking?”

CHAPTER 36

Lizzy

The next day, Darcy entered the library around eleven, carrying a large tea tray.

He’d been in an hour ago on the pretense of finding a book, running a hand along the stacks like a lovelorn teen in a school library, glancing back at me, blushing when I caught him looking, which made me smile so hard for the next sixty minutes.

“Don’t mind me,” he said crisply. “I saw Mrs. Reynolds bringing the tea and thought I’d give her a hand.”

Or was he looking for an excuse to be with me? Certainly, after our walk yesterday, I had plotted all sorts of reasons to pop into his office this morning. “Stay and have some tea with me,” I said.

He put the tray on the side table and pulled it in front of us, arranging the plate of biscuits on the side. Ooh, my favorite variety. But there was only one.

“You don’t like Jammie Dodgers, do you?” I said, reaching for it.

“Love them,” he said.

I hovered my fingers over the lone biscuit. “What? I thought you were a gentleman.”

“Not when it counts.”

There was a smile in his eyes, but the way he looked at me felt like a touch.