No Vacancy (The Aveline Series Book 2)

Chapter 75

PENN

To my surprise,Darcy wasn’t in Aveline, but the moment I heard the pirate accent from the waitress, I knew exactly where she was. I drove so much over the speed limit that if I had been pulled over, I would have been sent to jail and fined a hefty amount, but I didn’t care. I needed to get to her, and by the slurring of her words, I needed to get there fast. The thought of her dancing and taking shots with another guy was enough to ignite a fire inside me. She owed me nothing, I knew that, and she could dance or kiss or sleep with whomever she wanted, but it didn’t stop me from going to her.

I was at least going to try to win her back.

When I arrived at the bar, I stepped inside and found Darcy on the dance floor with some guy’s hands all over her, and something completely came over me. I walked over and pushed the guy away from her, taking her gently by the arm and walking her to the side.

“What are you doing? Hey! What’s wrong with you?” she asked as we got toward the door. “Who do you think you are, Christian Grey or something? Jesus!”

Jared Leto’s look-alike had followed us, puffing out his chest. “Hey, man. Leave her alone.”

I ignored him, focused solely on Darcy. “Listen to me.”

“What do you want, Penn?” Darcy spit out at me, her face flushed from a mixture of dancing and alcohol. Her words were slurred. “Why did you come here?”

I shook my head. It was unbelievable how stubborn she could be. “Damn it, Darcy. Isn’t it obvious?”

“No.” She shook her head. “No, it’s not fucking obvious, or I wouldn’t have asked.”

“I’m here for you. I’m always going to be here for you. I’m always going to protect you.”

“Well, don’t!” she yelled back at me. “I don’t need your protection. I don’t need anything from you!” She started to walk away, but I caught her arm.

“I never took the bet!” I blurted out. It was now or never, and even though we were surrounded by a room full of people, I didn’t see anyone but her.

“What?” she asked, her eyes squinted in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“I never took the bet, Darcy. I never told Prescott I was going to make you fall for me. I wasn’t pretending. None of it was a game for me.”

Darcy had backed up against the wall of the bar, and I was standing in front of her, closing in on her, not wanting her to leave without hearing me out.

The other guy was still breathing down my neck. I had forgotten he was there and was annoyed when he popped his greasy head back into our business. “You need to leave her alone, bro. She was dancing with—”

“Shut up!” Darcy and I said in unison, and the guy walked backward, hands in the air.

“What do you mean you never took the bet?” Darcy asked.

I put my hands on either side of her, our bodies inching closer together. “It was never a game for me. I meant all of it. I lied about the restaurant, yes, but I never lied about us. Everything else I told you was real, and I was never playing a game, not with you.”

“But Mr. Douche-Scott—”

“Mister what?”

“Prescott...never mind. He said you were just trying to get me to like you so you could land your deal.”

“No. I never said I was doing that. Max is a dick who can’t stand to lose. He only hears and does what he wants. And I don’t care about the operation, whatever you called it. I don’t care about any of it. All I care about is that we give this a shot because—damn it, Darcy—I haven’t stopped thinking about you since the moment I met you, and it’s driving me fucking crazy. You drive me crazy.” I grazed my thumb over her forehead and down her cheek, only for her to shy away.

“And you expect me to just believe you? Why, because you drove over here and acted all macho man and then decided to penetrate me with your fucking ocean eyes and make everything go away?”

“Whoa,” I replied, thinking I could lighten the mood in a very Darcy manner. “No one said anything about penetrating anything.”

Darcy rolled her eyes. “I’m not joking, Penn! You lied.” She tried to push past me, but I blocked her.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have joked. But don’t act like you didn’t lie, too, Darcy. We both fucking lied, okay? But the point is, I didn’t do what you thought I did. The point is I never lied about liking you. I wasn’t just trying to screw you for a bet, okay? I’m sorry if it seemed that way, but it wasn’t. It was never like that.”

Darcy crossed her arms. “Oh, yeah? Then why did you, Penn? What was it like?” She put her fingers up in air quotes on the word like.

“It was real for me!” I ran my hands through my hair, quieting as I asked her, “How do I get that through to you? Are you really so stubborn that you won’t listen to what I’m saying?”

My voice was booming. I was yelling to be heard over the music and yelling because I wanted her to see what was right in front of her. To see me standing in front of her and begging her to understand how sorry I was.

She stood still, staring up at me with her big brown eyes that were filling with tears as she yelled back at me. “I am listening! But I can’t just stand here and pretend like we aren’t doomed. Look at us! We started our entire relationship based on lies, and now we’re standing in a bar yelling at each other! How messed up is that?”

“It’s really messed up! But I don’t care. I don’t care how we started this. We started it, and now I can’t get you out of my head, and, quite frankly, I don’t want to.” I leaned closer, my mouth only inches from hers. “I would fight with you every day if it meant I got to know you. There is something between us, and I can’t explain it. I don’t want to explain it. I just know it’s there. And I know you feel it, too.”

She looked away. “No, I don’t.”

I gently moved her face to look at me. “You’re lying. Admit it.”

“No,” she replied defiantly.

“Jesus, Darcy. You are the most bull-headed woman I have ever met in my—”

She cut me off when her lips met mine in a fury. It was hard and rough, her teeth hitting my lips, but I didn’t care. I only cared that her tongue met mine, and everything felt like it had fallen back into place. I only cared that there were no more lies and no more secrets and that her mouth told me all I needed to know. When she pulled away, her eyes darted from my lips to my eyes, and her chest was rising and falling. I cupped her cheeks in my hands, not wanting to let her go, and after several moments passed, I finally spoke again.

“What now?” I asked.

There were tears welling in her eyes. “No more lies?”

I sighed, taking her hands and bringing them up to the wall. I traced my fingers over her palms. “No, no more lies, okay? This is the truth.”

Her mouth parted slightly as she kept her eyes on mine, never wavering. “I’m sorry, too.”

“It’s fine. It’s all fine, but please,” I pleaded. “Please, can I just kiss you again?”

Darcy freed her hands from mine and ran her fingers through my hair, grabbing hold of it. “You bug me, Penn Murphy. You know that?”

I leaned in closer, our lips only inches apart. “I can live with that,” I replied before I grabbed her jaw and pulled her into me.