Chapter 16
SIXTEEN
RIDGE
T here was a part of me that was a little nervous to have her meet all the guys. Waylon’s “hot nanny” comment being one of the reasons. I roll my eyes at the thought. Deep down, I knew one of them would make a slick comment.
I can’t imagine how uncomfortable she must’ve felt. She was probably like, “Ew, my boss is a creepy old guy who thinks I’m hot.” Well, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration. But still. Who says “hot nanny” out loud like that?
After lunch, we spent the rest of the day doing a few different things. Lou asked if there was a park we could go to, so after a few minutes of research, we walked a couple of blocks to a local park. She spent most of the time swinging, while Darcy and I sat at a nearby picnic table, watching her and talking.
I learned that she’s an only child, that her parents didn’t provide her a stable home, so she went to live with her grandmother who passed away her senior year. I learned that her friend and roommate, Lyric, is a mortician, which is really fucking interesting to me and I have a lot of questions. And then I found out just what kind of cocksucker her ex Tyler is. He sounds insanely manipulative, and he treated her like absolute dog shit. It’s enough to make my hands crave a little violence.
She’s not the only one who shared, though. I felt like it was only fair to tell her about myself in exchange. I told her the story of how I fell into tattooing. And that’s literally how it happened. I excelled in art classes, went to college for fine arts, and was painting. Then, me and a couple of buddies went to a tattoo shop to get our very first tattoos. I was nineteen. I sat down with this guy who just looked cool as fuck. He had ink everywhere. When I walked out with a modest piece the size of my palm, it was instant addiction. I dropped out of school, the same guy who tattooed me took me on as his apprentice, and the rest is history.
Vanessa came up, of course, and I filled her in on the truth of the matter in more detail. We weren’t in love. We had a fling and it was what it was. But we had agreed from the moment she told me about Lou that we were going to co-parent like pros. There was no anger, no animosity, which I will always be grateful for.
And now, after a long day of sharing, we’re stepping back into the one hotel room with the one bed and I’m not panicking inside. All day, I’ve just wanted to reach out and touch her. Tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. Brush my finger along her jawline. Press my nose into her collarbone and inhale her scent. Of course, I don’t think she has a clue, which is a good thing.
“I’m going to take a quick shower before bed, if that’s okay?” Darcy asks.
“Yeah, of course,” I say. “I’m going to get Lou’s chairs arranged and get something on this TV for her to watch while we wind down.”
Darcy nods as she pulls a couple of things from her bag. I’m only a couple of feet away. She turns to pick something up from the bed, and her bag topples over the edge of the mattress, spilling its contents onto the floor.
A bright yellow balls rolls towards me, stopping at my feet. Darcy freezes for a moment as I look from her to the yellow thing and back. I pick it up to hand to her, realizing it’s actually lemon-shaped and silicone. Realization hits me and I swallow hard.
“Oh my god, thanks. Yeah, um this is for my face,” she says, taking it quickly. “It, uh, like exfoliates.” Before I can say anything else, she grabs all her stuff and runs to the bathroom, then closes the door behind her.
I’m not an idiot. That’s definitely not for her face. That was a fucking sex toy. Darcy brought a sex toy, but I can’t read into it. She was under the impression she’d have her own room she could retire to. She assumed she’d have some privacy.
But even so, all I can think about now is how much I’d like to see her use it, even if I couldn’t touch her. I could just watch as her body writhed, like a coil tightening on itself ready to blow. I wonder what her face looks like when she orgasms. Shit, I better stop before I get hard. I have to crawl into bed with this woman in a little while and keep my hands to myself—a Herculean task—and I don’t know if I’m up for the challenge.
The familiar sound of a running shower fills the room, and it hits me like a ton of bricks that on the other side of the flimsy wall, behind that paper-thin door, Darcy is naked and stepping into the water. Her hair is getting wet, mascara running just a little, hot water cascading down her smooth skin.
I really need to stop fantasizing about her. It’s becoming a problem. I distract myself with checking emails on my phone, replying to a few clients, and looking over the work calendar. Time has passed but I can’t say how much. At some point, the water shuts off. The click of the bathroom door opening jolts me, pulling my attention back to the present.
Darcy steps out, her damp hair pulled into a bun high on her head. She’s wearing a long vintage-style Ghostface T-shirt that hits just above her knees. Her choice in pajamas screams, “I thought I was going to be alone,” and part of me feels terrible for this situation. But there’s another part of me—the majority, in fact—that thinks this is great. I don’t know that any other situation would have resulted in me getting to know Darcy on this level, and I like knowing her. Hell, I want to know more. I want to know everything.
Maybe that scares me a little. I don’t know that I’ve ever been so drawn to another person. It’s like there’s an invisible thread wrapped around me, pulling me to her always. Like gravity. And that feels absolutely insane to even think.
“So, uh, which side of the bed do you want?” she asks, drawing me from my thoughts.
“Oh, I don’t care,” I say. “You pick.”
She looks from me to the bed and back, assessing for a moment before pointing to the left side.“I’ll take the left, please.”
I nod. “You got it.” Then I grab a T-shirt and athletic shorts from my bag and head to the bathroom. I take a quick shower, brush my teeth, and emerge to find Darcy already curled up on her chosen side. The sheet and blanket are tucked beneath her arms, and she has her phone in her hand.
She looks up, her eyes sweeping over me before making eye contact. She smiles and I can see a nervousness she’s trying hard to hide. I round the bed to my side, pulling the blanket back but leaving the sheet under me. It’s a small gesture, just something to show I’m creating a barrier between us. You know, the exact opposite of what I want to do.
I switch the lamp next to the bed off and crawl in, adjusting my body to be as far away from Darcy as is comfortable. I don’t want to fall off the edge just for the sake of it, but I definitely give her a wide breadth. She seems to have tucked herself far to the left as well, creating a small chasm between us.
The flicker of the light from the TV Lou is watching flashes bright for a second, illuminating one side of Darcy’s face. She’s beautiful, but I bite my tongue from telling her. She flips to her side and faces me, which takes me by surprise. I follow suit and lie on my left side to face her. We’re staring at each other, saying nothing at all. A strange sort of smile plays on her features.
“I had a really good day, Ridge,” she says, beginning to yawn.
“Me too.”
“Thank you for needing a nanny so I could experience this.” Her eyes are beginning to flutter closed.
“Get some sleep, honey,” I whisper. But I think she’s already succumbed to sleep by the time I say it. Probably for the best since my tongue lets slip a pet name that could make her uncomfortable.
I watch her sleep for several minutes, and like earlier, I don’t know how much time passes before I fall asleep myself.
The last thing I think of—I mean the very last flashing thought in my mind before everything goes dark—is that damn little sex toy.