Chapter 27
WREN
I let out a loud whistle. “We’re staying here?” I drop my duffle bag in the foyer of a massive mansion in the middle of the woods near Aspen in Colorado.
“It’s the best place to stay for privacy while still remaining connected to the outside world.” Darcy holds up his phone.
“I thought you said we weren’t working this weekend?”
“This is my definition of not working. What if the company implodes while we’re away?”
“What if a meteor hits the side of that mountain, and we’re wiped out by a displaced yeti?”
“I know you’re trying to make the point that I’m being hyperbolic, but at least mine could happen.”
I mock gasp. “You don’t believe in the abominable snowman? This is a bigger deal breaker than you being my brother.”
He winces.
“Still too early to joke about it?”
“I think it will always be too early.”
Well, isn’t that depressing? “Fair point,” I mumble.
I’m delusional when it comes to Darcy and me because nothing will ever change.
Yes, Darcy stood his ground with his mother, and maybe the only reason I’m getting what I want—time away from the real world so I can be with Darcy—is because this is payback for his mother setting him up with Harvey, but …
this is what it’s going to be like with him.
No matter what.
We’ve agreed to be together until it runs its course, but when will that be?
Darcy mentioned one of us or both of us catching feelings, and I know it’s a very real risk, but it’s take the plunge or drive ourselves crazy trying to pretend there’s nothing there between us.
Watching him walk toward the wide glass doors that lead to a balcony and seeing him take in the view of the snowcapped mountains in the distance, something settles over me.
It’s possessiveness and protection. Lust, sympathy, and care are in there too.
It would be impossible to pretend there’s nothing between us because the reality is there might be everything . With an absolute impossibility for a future.
Darcy turns to me, his smile warming me from the inside. “What do you want to do first?”
“I was hoping to go skiing, but apparently, they’re not expecting the first real snow for a few more weeks.” I’m joking. There’s only one thing I want to do this weekend, and it’s him.
Darcy stalks toward me, sounding as exhausted with me as ever. “Wren. I didn’t bring you here to go skiing.”
When he gets close enough, I pull him against me.
“Good,” I murmur. “Because apart from not knowing how to ski, I didn’t come here for that either.”
“We have all weekend.” The anticipation is thick in his words.
Reaching under him, I lift his legs and force him to jump and wrap them around my waist. “We’re going to need every minute of it.”
If this weekend doesn’t get him out of my system, I’m worried nothing will.
“Take me to bed,” Darcy rasps.
“Hope you’re hydrated.” I head for the stairs with Darcy still in my arms, and it always looks so romantic in movies and shit where someone is being carried. But I didn’t anticipate how heavy Darcy could get after climbing a set of stairs with him wrapped around me.
I try not to let it show, but with each step, it gets harder and harder to hold on to him. I’m panting, sweaty, and in need of water by the time we get to the top.
Darcy laughs when I put his feet back on the ground. “Looks like I’m not the one who needs to be hydrated.”
I bend at the waist, wheezing. “You’re walking upstairs from now on. All of them.”
He laughs again. “Poor baby. Here, let me help you to the bed. What can I get you? Water? Ice or heat for your poor back pain?”
We make it to one of the millions of beds in this place, and I sit on the edge.
When I look up into Darcy’s eyes, his amusement shines, and I realize there’s only one thing I want.
Him.
I am so fucked.
* * *
After I manage to recover from hauling Darcy up the stairs, we exhaust my muscles in the best possible way before acknowledging we should probably eat something.
Darcy paid extra to have the kitchen fully stocked when we arrived, so we throw some clothes on—reluctantly, but as Darcy points out, we’re in the mountains in Colorado in October, so it’s cold—and head down to the kitchen to make dinner.
The sun is setting, painting the sky as bright an orange as the leaves on the trees. Some of them are bare already, some close to it.
It’s so picturesque out here.
I take a seat on the barstool and watch Darcy work. “I didn’t take you for someone who knows how to cook.”
“I know how to survive, but I warn you, it’s not the most delicious food I’ve eaten.”
I’ll pass on that. “Why don’t you go light the fireplace, and I’ll cook. Unlike other people in this room, my momma taught me how to take care of myself and not rely on personal chefs or fancy restaurants.”
“Could you teach me?” Darcy’s voice sounds so small.
“To cook?”
He nods. “What’s your signature dish?”
“I make awesome empanadas, meatloaf and veg, or—hang on, I’ll see what’s been stocked.” I turn to the fridge to see what I can scrounge up. “Ooh, chicken thighs. I can cook these and make the skin crispy. Mash potato. Gravy.”
“Stop it, I’m drooling. How long will it take?”
I smile over at him. “I can get it done in about half an hour, but if I’m teaching you, I’m sure you’ll only delay things.”
“Excuse me. I’m an efficient CEO. I work smarter, not harder. How difficult can chicken be?”
“Oh, this is going to be so fun.” I get out everything we need and lay it out on the table. “First thing you need to do is slice the fennel.”
“The what?”
I reach around him and grab the fennel by the bulb. “This.”
“Uh …”
“The non-leafy part is what we want.”
“This is what fennel looks like before it’s food?”
He’s so cute.
I nudge him. “Yes. Get chopping.”
While he does that—poorly, I might add—I toss some olive oil and red wine vinaigrette in a bowl as dressing for the fennel salad we’ll make to go on the side.
We work side by side, Darcy taking to my instructions with hesitance, unlike how he takes it in the bedroom. In bed, I’m in control, and he follows. In the kitchen, it’s like he wants to follow my lead but is worried about fucking everything up.
It probably doesn’t help that when we cook the chicken in a shallow layer of oil in the frypan, it spits oil at him, and I laugh when he covers his arms with oven mitts and wields an extra-long pair of barbecue tongs.
It’s adorable that he’s trying.
“Here, let me take over.” I step up behind him and take the tongs out of his hand.
He leans back into me and turns to kiss my cheek. “Thank you. I’m so out of my element.”
“Now you know how I feel when we’re at work.”
“Wait, really? Still?”
I refuse to look at him, staring only down at the meat sizzling in the pan. “It’s getting easier, but it’s still not coming naturally to me.”
“Do you … do you think you’ll go back to your construction job?”
Is that disappointment I hear? Or is that just wishful thinking?
Since acknowledging that I’m well and truly screwed when it comes to my growing feelings for him, it’s almost like everything he says and does makes me fall a little more.
“I haven’t decided yet,” I admit.
I didn’t expect time to pass this quickly or for me not to have a definitive answer of where I want my future to go. I took this job at the company because I was curious about my father. About my brothers. About what my life could have been.
But the thing keeping me there is Darcy.
It’s his passion for MediaCorp that has me continuing to learn all I can in the short time I’ve been given so that if anything were to happen to him—if anyone were to find out the truth that he’s not really a Ritcherson—I could run the company to keep it from getting in the hands of Junior.
“You’re not enjoying it?” Darcy asks.
I pinch his side. “I enjoy the perks.”
“You know you don’t have to stay if you don’t want to.”
“Hey, if you can devote your entire life to MediaCorp, the least I can do is make sure I know enough not to run it into the ground if …”
“If everyone finds out the truth.”
“We’re in a no-win situation here. If they find out, you lose everything, and the pressure moves onto me to get the company through the scandal. If I return to my old life, you’re going to get married and live the way your father wanted you to while I’ll miss you from afar.”
Darcy turns in my arms. “If you were to go back to construction, that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t be part of each other’s lives. We’re family now. We’re in this together.”
Hurt spikes in my chest. “No. We’re in this as brothers. Do you really think I could stay in your life when you marry Harvey? When I have to watch you walk down the aisle to someone who is far better suited to be your better half than I ever will be?”
Fuck, I’m letting it all out when I’m supposed to be keeping it all in. This is what Darcy was afraid of, and as much as I’m trying to get him out of my system, all I’ve managed to do is crave more of him.
“We’ll learn to deal with the pain,” Darcy says, and it only makes everything worse.
I don’t know how someone completely wrong for me can fit so perfectly, but I’m already dreading the moment we’ll have to say goodbye to each other.
And if his mother has any say in it, that’ll happen sooner rather than later.