"What?" I whispered.

Darcy licked his trembling lips. "Tell me no. I'll kiss you if you don't."

His warning fell on deaf ears.

"Darcy, before I answer you, will you tell me something?"

He blinked. "Yeah?"

The conversation we had the other day was sitting on my mind, and I just had to ask the question that had been bugging me.

"What did you mean when you said I should take you calling me the opposite of Laura Stokes as a compliment and not an insult."

Darcy stared into my eyes, the corners of his eyes lightly crinkled as a smile curved his lips. "Laura, in her own right is sexy, but you... you my Neala Girl are beautiful. Anyone can be sexy, but not everyone can be beautiful."

Oh, my.

My stomach exploded into butterflies and tingles shot up and down my spine.

"Yes," I breathed.

Darcy swallowed. "Yes what?"

"Yes, I want you to kiss me."

I felt Darcy's body shake as he lowered his mouth to mine.

"Don't be scared," I whispered seconds before his lips touched mine.

I opened up all my senses to Darcy.

I could feel him, taste him, hear him, smell him, and see him.

I wanted him.

All of him.

I lifted my arms and slid them around Darcy's shoulders until I clasped my hands together behind his neck. I pulled his head closer to mine until our faces were pressed against one another. I opened my mouth and welcomed Darcy's warm, wet tongue into my mouth. I mimicked his actions with my mouth and tongue. After a long moment I switched things up by nibbling on his lower lip with my teeth and I could tell he liked it because he growled.

Darcy has growled at me enough over the years for me to decipher whether it was a good or bad growl, and this growl was good.

Very good.

I groaned when his arms came around my back and he hosted me up onto his lap. I moved my left leg and turned my body until I was straddling him. Straddling Darcy turned out to not be the best option, because the longer and harder I kissed him, the more a pulsing ache grew between my thighs. I moved my hands away from Darcy to the back of the couch where I gripped it.

"Neala," Darcy breathed against my mouth.

He pulled away from my mouth and kissed along my jaw and down to my neck. He nuzzled my neck for a moment then kissed the spot just under my ear, and it caused me to buck against him. I groaned out loud, and this caused Darcy to latch onto my neck and suck.

"Darcy!" I cried and ground my pelvis against his.

What the hell was going on me with me?

I was acting like a wild animal.

Get some self-control, woman!

It was extremity difficult though because it felt like I couldn't control myself, and that I had to have Darcy in every way possible.

"Neala Girl," Darcy murmured onto my neck.

I moaned in response and pushed my neck back toward his mouth, making him chuckle.

"Are you okay?" he asked me.

I pulled back and growled at him, "If you stop touching me, we'll have a problem."

Darcy blinked at me. "I've never seen this side to you before... It's sexy as fuck."

I grinned. "Not beautiful?"

Darcy reached up and brushed his thumb over my cheek. "You're always beautiful, but baby, you're proving you can be sexy, too."

Baby.

I liked that.

I looked at Darcy and swallowed.

I felt like I was floating only to smack down hard on the concrete. This was Darcy, my Darcy. I loved him a long time ago, and I hated him for years, but I've also had an odd attraction to him for years that solidified into a crush over the past few days. I never realised it, but Darcy was someone who was constantly on my mind, and seeing him made my day - even if it was just going to be filled with the pair of us arguing.

I think I had a serious thing for Darcy.

Shite.

I ground my pelvis against Darcy's once more, and this time I felt him.

"Neala Girl, don't do that. I don't want to upset you, but grinding on me will only make me hard. I know you're excited and-"

"I want to have sex with you," I cut Darcy off.

Darcy reared back and stared at me with wide shocked eyes.

"Neala-"

"Don't. Don't you dare ruin this and reject me."

Darcy looked pained. "I don't want to ruin this, trust me. I would love nothing more than to explore every inch of you, but I want to respect you, baby. I want your trust."

He was killing me.

"Darcy, please, I'm not a little girl. I'm twenty-five years of age, and I just realised that I've wanted you for as long as I can remember. I've waited long enough to have you, don't make me wait a minute longer."

Darcy was torn between doing was his body wanted and what his mind was telling him so I decided to make it even harder for him. Literally.

I stood up and reached down to the hem of my borrowed t-shirt and pulled it up my body, over my head and threw it behind me on the floor. I pushed my trousers down and shimmied my hips from left to right until they gathered in a pool of fabric around my ankles. I stepped out of them and looked up just as Darcy's eyes almost popped out of his head as they roamed over my bare chest.

"Fuck," he hissed.

His look of admiration spurred my moment of bravery onward.

I reached down and slipped my fingers under the band of the boxers I wore and teased him by pushing them down slowly, before pulling them back up. Darcy's breathing had quickened and he sucked his lower lip into his mouth when I smirked and pushed the boxers all the way down, and kicked the fabric away from my feet. I dragged my feet against the floor until my socks slid off, and when the material left my body I stood before Darcy naked as the day I was born.

"Oh, Christ," Darcy swore.

Was that good or bad?

Fuck, maybe this was a terrible idea.

I opened my mouth to apologise, but Darcy silenced me with the heated look he shot my way. He dropped his eyes to my breasts then lower and lower. I was mortified, and just barely refrained from covering myself with my hands. My breathing increased, and my heart kicked into overdrive when Darcy suddenly got up from the couch and stood before me.

He reached out with his hand and brushed his thumb over my left pebbled nipple and hissed to himself. I licked my lips and looked up at him when he slid his hand up my chest and onto my neck then cupped my cheek.

"You're beautiful," he breathed.

All worry and doubt fled my body with that single sentence.

"You're perfect, my Neala Girl."

My Neala Girl.

My.

I suddenly had the urge to cry, but I didn't. I was happy, so happy, and I felt more comfortable being naked with Darcy than I ever have fully clothed with anyone else.

I wanted to tell Darcy to take his clothes off, but I couldn't speak so I reached out and tugged on the hem of his t-shirt. Darcy looked down, then looked back up to me with a grin on his face.

"You have made it impossible for me to be a gentleman and leave you with your virtue in tact."

I felt a spike of sassiness shoot through me.

"In that case you'll just have to tear it to shreds."

Darcy growled, "Don't tempt me. I want to be gentle with you."

Gentle?

Not a chance.

"Fine, you be gentle with me, and I'll be rough with you."

I gripped the hem of his t-shirt and pulled the material up his body. I left it at the point where Darcy's raised his arms, but couldn't see because the shirt was bunched up in his face. I reached out and ran my hands down his chest and over the six-pack I drooled over the day before.