“No, it’s more than that,” he said. “I’m gladyou’rehere. I’m glad I’ve been with you. Everything that felt loud and overwhelming just got... quiet and still.”
Darcy laughed. “Nobody’s ever called me quiet.”
“It got quieter in my head, at least,” Teagan said. “I think it’s because whenever you’re around, all I can think about is you.”
Darcy craned her head around so she could meet his eyes. Her expression was skeptical, but it shifted to pleasure as he stood behind the words. Had he not said it yet? He ought to remember to say it every day.
“Really?” she asked, a bit of swagger entering her voice.
“Really,” he reassured her. “It’s like trying to see anything else after looking right at the sun.”
The expression of delight that bloomed across her face warmed him all the way down to his toes. Darcy’s nose crinkled in a wonderful way before she leaned in to kiss him, slowly and thoroughly. How could he think of anything beyond the woman in his arms? Everything else faded away.
This. This. This. This was worth all of it, the four weeks away, the embarrassment and shame, thelying—
It was an awkward position, with Darcy’s feet dangling and his legs braced to keep them from toppling over, but Teagan made an instinctive sound of objection when Darcy slid off his lap and stood up. He wasn’t done with Darcy sitting in his lap and kissing him. He could have done with a lot more of that.
She grinned and grabbed his arm to pull him up too, tucking it against her body when he unwillingly got out of the chair.
“I want to hear about the house. Give me the grand tour,” she said, waving her other arm.
“You’ve probably seen it all already,” Teagan said, looking wistfully back at the chair.
Darcy dragged him a few feet out of the kitchen. “I mean the amenities.”
“Amenities?”
“I saw the pool,” she said in tones of deep satisfaction.
“Oh, yeah. I need to clean it out, probably, but I can do that for you tomorrow. There’s also a jacuzzi.”
“Amazing,” she singsonged. “This place is amazing.”
“I’m glad you like it,” Teagan said, because he hadn’t been sure she would, or if she’d want to pitch a tent in the backyard to protest the energy inefficiency of the original 1960s windows.
“Do you know what’s the best thing about this house though?” Darcy asked, pointing to the front living room.
“The fireplace?” he guessed, following her glance.
“Wrong! It’s the sex couch,” she said, face spreading into a Cheshire cat grin. It took Teagan a few seconds to follow where she indicated.
“You mean the conversation pit,” he said when he identified her area of interest as the sunken space with built-in seating, padded with red felt cushions and bolsters around a low, marble table. “They were popular in the sixties and seventies. For entertaining.”
Darcy dropped his arm and positioned herself between Teagan and the furniture in question, giving it a thorough inspection.
“Nakedentertaining,” she said decisively. “Why else would you make the seats that wide? Or the back bolster so low?”
“I think that’s how they all are.”
Darcy shook her head knowingly, her long ponytail bouncing. “They’re all like that so that people can fuck on them.”
Teagan laughed. “I promise you, no sex has been had on that couch. Look, it’s in full view of the entire house. And the front windows.”
Darcy took a step closer to him, her hands resting on her hips.
“You’re sure about that?”
“I mean, yeah,” Teagan said. This house was all the way up in Irvington; his mother had rarely even had dinner guests over, let alone men she was dating, and few of Sloane or Teagan’s school friends had cared to make the trip either. “Sloane or I have lived here for more than twenty years now, and—”
