11. Darby
Darby
Ilied, and I’m an asshole.
But if there’s one thing I’ve learned as the president of a billion-dollar company, it’s that sometimes you have to be an asshole to get what you want.
My car isn’t broken, and my phone isn’t dead. I needed a reason to stay. Selene doesn’t know it yet but will help me fix this PR nightmare. I’ll make sure of it.
The couch creaks as I shift, stretching my legs and leaning back against the cushions.
Her small living room smells faintly of lavender, probably from the candle on the coffee table.
The couch is worn, its fabric soft but fraying at the edges, like it’s seen its fair share of tired nights.
Framed photos of Leo hang near the doorway-one of him grinning wide, missing a front tooth, and another holding what looks like a homemade science project.
Selene pokes her head out from the hallway. Her red hair is loose, falling in waves over her shoulders. Her eyes meet mine for a brief second before she looks away.
“Do you need anything before I head to bed?” she asks.
“No, I’m good,” I say, trying not to notice that she’s braless and wearing a tank top and shorts.
She nods and disappears back down the hallway. My gaze stays fixed on the spot where she stood, the echo of her presence lingering in the air.
I run a hand through my hair and lean forward, resting my elbows on my knees.
This house—her house—isn’t what I expected.
It’s small. The ceilings are low, and the walls have a few cracks near the corners.
The kitchen is visible from where I’m sitting, separated from the living room by a narrow counter.
The fridge is covered in drawings and school schedules.
There’s a pile of unopened mail stacked by the sink, and beside it, a cup holding pens and a pair of scissors.
It’s cozy. Lived-in. But it’s clear she’s struggling to hold it all together.
After looking around, I stand, pull off my dress shirt, and head into the kitchen.
I’m still wearing my suit pants, the belt undone and hanging loose around my waist. The cold air brushes against my skin as I open the fridge and grab a bottle of water.
I take a long sip, and the cool liquid soothes my dry throat.
As I place the bottle on the counter, my hand brushes against the stack of mail. I shift a few envelopes aside and pause when I see it—an eviction notice.
The words "Final Notice" are printed in bold at the top. My jaw tightens as I skim through the details: past-due rent, thirty days to vacate, and the deadline circled in red ink.
I feel something twist in my chest.
Before I can think about it, I hear a soft sound behind me. My body reacts instantly, and I shove the notice back inside the stack.
Selene stands in the doorway, her eyes flicking from the mail to my bare chest. Her breath catches, and she quickly turns to leave.
“Don’t,” I say, stepping forward. “I hate when you do that.”
She stops her back still to me. “Do what?”
“Run away from me.”
“I wasn’t running away,” she says softly. I came to tell you to help yourself to anything in the fridge, but you were way ahead of me.”
“You were running,” I repeat, closing the distance between us. “That’s what you do. You run. You leave when things get hard. That’s why you won’t take my offer.”
Her shoulders stiffen, and she spins around, her eyes blazing. “I’m not running. I don’t want to work with you.”
I step closer, backing her up until her hips bump against the kitchen island. My hands rest on either side of her, caging her in. Her breath hitches, and I can see the way her chest rises and falls, her heartbeat racing beneath her skin.
“That’s not the truth, and you know it,” I say. “You’re scared. You don’t want to be around me because you still feel it.”
Her gaze hardens. “Feel what?”
I lean in, my lips hovering near her ear. “This.” My fingers trail lightly down her arm, stopping at her wrist. Her pulse thrums against my touch. “Your body remembers me, Selene. You can deny it all you want, but it’s there.”
She tries to push me away, but I don’t budge. Instead, I tilt her chin, forcing her to look at me. Her eyes search mine for something- an answer, an escape, maybe both. But I’m not letting her go this time.
Her lips part, but no words come out. The silence between us is electric, and I’m sure she feels it, too. My gaze drops to her mouth, and I don’t wait for permission. I close the distance, capturing her lips with mine.
She stiffens and pushes against my chest, but I don’t budge. I keep kissing her till she melts into me. It’s just like it happened in the hotel in Hawaii. Her body speaks a totally different language from what I imagine is running through her head.
It’s the same with me.
I might be lying to myself that I’m doing this so that she agrees to take the job. But I know the truth. My body wants her. Need her. Craves her. Desperately.
I slide one hand down her back, pulling her closer, and the other tangles in her hair.
I deepen the kiss, and she moans softly against my mouth.
The sound sends a jolt through me, awakening every nerve.
My hand travels down, tracing the curve of her waist, and she arches into me, her breath hitching when I nip at her bottom lip.
My cock is so already so swollen it feels like I’m going to rupture something if I don’t give it a little bit of space. Her needy moans and exploring hands aren’t helping matters.
Gently, I move both of us to the couch and push her down to sit. I reach down and pull my zipper down. The unmistakable sound slices the air, making her gasp and hold me even harder.
I release my aching, throbbing shaft, the broad head already shining with pre-cum. I know I’m moving fast, but it’s been eight years.
Eight bloody years, and this need for her has not died even a little bit. If not anything, it’s worse than I remember. Way worse.
I just wanted to kiss her. To see her reaction. To prove to her that she still wants me. What’s my cock doing out of my pants? Wasn’t I now proving to her how much I still want her?
I ease back a bit, but she reaches up and strokes me. We both gasp at the contact.
Oh. Hell yeah. There’s no fucking way I’m stopping now. Not until I have her panting and begging.
I grab her shorts and slide them off. My eyes immediately zero in on her tiny black satin panties and their alluring glint. It has to be her little hot pussy giving them an extra gleam with her wetness.
Fuck.
I run a finger between her legs, making her mewl in pleasure and confirm my suspicions: she is so slick and warm, her panties are practically melting for me. I bring my hand up to my nose and close my eyes, groaning at the enticing scent of her pussy.
I can’t wait to taste it, and my cock jerks even more upright in approval. I press my mouth to her ear. “Tell me to stop, Selene. It’s your last chance.”
In response, she brings my mouth roughly down on hers and kisses me with everything she’s got. She pulls back and looks up at me. “You have to finish what you started. You know that.”
The last of my resolve breaks at the words falling from her pump pink lips, and the desire seeping through them makes my cock drip.
As I start to pull her panties down, she pulls her legs together, and she looks a little to the side, avoiding my eyes. I cup her face with both hands and make her look at me again. I bend to kiss her, gently encouraging her.
She looks towards the bedroom, and I frown. “I’ll keep an eye out for him. I promise.” I speak gently but with as much certainty as I can, and I smile down at her until she smiles back.
I slowly pull her panties off and gently push her legs open again. I pull her tank top up, and her tits come bouncing before me.
I move my mouth to the side and cover the tip of one creamy mound entirely, teasing the peak with little nibbles and sucks that make her sigh and catch her breath over and over.
I put siege to her breasts until she squirms impatiently under me.
I drop to my knees, my mouth moving lower and lower, my tongue slowly traveling her curves and valleys.
I finally reach the sweet little heaven between her wet thighs.
She has only a little patch of red hair on her. For the most part, her pussy is bare.
Her delicious little clit is peeking out from between her rosy lips, puffy and glistening with her juices.
I swallow heavily, feeling suddenly parched. I’m pulsing with so much need I don’t understand how I went eight years without her. Judging by how wet she is, she must have missed me too.
I delicately part her soaked folds and immediately get a heady whiff of her sweet need. I lower my head and kiss my way up her thigh and to her hot little cunt.
I give her pussy a little kiss and look up. “Are you still going to deny that you’re running from this?”
“And are you going to go this far just to prove your point,” she breathes.
I chuckle. I lower my mouth on her again and give her a few little licks just for the pleasure of tasting her. Then I look up. “You have no idea how far I will go to prove my point.”
I’m pretty sure I’ve never sampled anything more finger-licking delectable than this pretty pink pussy, and I tell her just that, making her blush in the dim light.
I close my lips around her hard little clit and suckle it while flicking it firmly with the tip of my tongue.
Her breaths come in short, choppy pants, and her thighs are squeezing around my shoulders.
She breathes, she sighs, and she trembles. The sound of her muffled moans is sexy as fuck. I look up and see she is covering her mouth with one of her hands.
I reach up and pull at the bud on her breast and then go back to licking her sweetness like a man possessed. I want to see just how much she can hold herself back from moaning.
I thrust one finger as deep as it can go into her tight hot channel, just leaving it there as her cunt clamps greedily on it. I practically growl when I feel another gush of wetness hit my lips and slip down my chin.
I keep at it with all the determination I can call upon while my cock is drenched with more pre-cum, and then I finally hear her heavenly moans as her orgasm crashes over her.
“Oh, oh, yes…” She whimpers. I like how hard she’s trying to hold back. So I curl my finger inside her, stroke her pussy with my thumb and tug harder at her nipples.
“Shit!” she screams, as I keep at it till her spasms die down.
I stand up and kiss her. My cock is so hard it’s almost blue.
The soft sighs she makes just encourage me. My hands roam her back, memorizing how her muscles tighten and relax under my touch.
I kiss her harder, my heart thundering, my pulse wild. I want to sink into her, knowing she will let me. She wants me too. As much as I…’
A sharp noise breaks through the haze.
A phone buzzing insistently, not just buzzing—ringing.
Selene pulls back, her eyes darting to the kitchen. Her cheeks are flushed, her lips swollen from the kiss. She looks as breathless as I feel, and for a moment, she’s confused, searching for the sound. To my disappointment, she pulls on her tank top and puts on her shorts.
“Is that my phone?” she mutters jumping up from the couch. Her legs wobble a little, but she manages to stand.
I’m still trying to catch my breath. She moves toward the table, looking for her phone, but the sound doesn’t come from there.
She looks at me, then down at my pocket—the pocket where my supposedly dead phone is ringing loudly.
Her eyes narrow.
I grab the phone, silencing it with a swipe. The room falls into an uncomfortable silence, broken only by our heavy breathing.
“Your phone’s not dead,” she says, looking at me.
I rub the back of my neck, my gaze shifting to the floor. “I can explain.”
“Did you…did you lie about your phone just to stay here?”
I step forward, reaching for her, but she backs away.
“That’s not exactly how it—”
“Did you lie so you could kiss me?” she cuts in, her voice rising slightly. “So you could do…that?” Her cheeks flush. “Did you think that an orgasm might convince me to take your fucking job?
I close my eyes for a second, trying to figure out how to untangle this mess. “Selene, listen—”
“No.” She shakes her head, her voice trembling now. “Tell me the truth, Darby. Did you plan this?”
I exhale slowly, running a hand through my hair. “I didn’t plan to kiss you,” I say, and it’s the truth. The kiss wasn’t part of any plan. It happened because being around her drives me to the edge. And the other thing definitely wasn’t part of my plan.
I thought I’d stick around for a while, find a loophole, and then use it to my advantage. But that sounds worse, so I don’t say it.
She lets out a sharp laugh, but there’s no humor in it. “Oh, great. So you didn’t plan the kiss, but you planned everything else? The car, the phone—everything was a lie, wasn’t it?”
I can’t meet her eyes.
“Unbelievable,” she mutters, pacing across the small living room. She stops near the kitchen counter, her hands gripping the edge like she’s trying to stop herself from punching me in the face. Her head drops forward for a second, and then she straightens, her gaze locking on mine.
“You’re a liar, Darby Stone. You’re a selfish, manipulative asshole, and I can’t believe I let myself fall for this again.” Her voice cracks at the end, and I hate myself more than I thought possible.
I take a step closer. “Selene, I wasn’t trying to hurt you.”
“But you did,” she says, cutting me off. Her eyes shine with unshed tears, but she blinks them away quickly. “And you always do. Every time I let you get close, you find a new way to make me feel like an idiot.”
My chest tightens. “That’s not what I wanted. I swear.”
She presses her fingers to her temple, breathing deeply. When she finally looks at me again, her expression is stone cold.
“I’m not working for you,” she says, each word sharp and precise. “Nothing on this earth will make me take that job.”
I open my mouth to speak, but there’s nothing I can say. I stand there, frozen, as she brushes past me to her bedroom.