AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I snort at him. “Wanker.”
He takes my hand and leads me over to the too-white couch. I set my hot chocolate down on a glass-topped table before I spill anything and ruin the fairy upholstery.
“I’m trying very hard to be good,” he says. “I’m trying to wait until we’re all ready and our feelings are sorted out but I’m struggling, Teddy. Now that I’ve got you here, all I can think about is fucking you on every flat surface in the place because I’ve been dying to fuck you for weeks, but don’t want to make any more mistakes.”
I turn on the couch and draw my leg up to mirror his position. Our legs nestle against each other, fitting together as neatly as our fingers. “Us shagging is never going to be a mistake.”
“You don’t want to have one date before I mount you like a beast?”
That sends a shiver down my spine and into my nether regions. “Totally happy to jump to the mounting part, mate.”
He chuckles. “I love the way you think. The way you talk. Even when I don’t understand everything you say, I love it. Being with you makes me happy ... even when things are uncomfortable. I haven’t been happy in a very long time, Teddy.”
Dinner with Gabe and Charlie was a little uncomfortable, I’ll admit. Lots of loaded glances. But I wasn’t sorry. Better than the many dinners I’ve suffered through with my family where we plastered smiles over the burns and bruises and pretended nothing was wrong. I’ll take uncomfortable honesty every time.
“What would make you happier?” I ask. “Other than patching things up with Gabe.”
Darwin rubs his thumb over my knuckles and I get the sense he’s thinking. “You won’t judge me?”
“Never, mate. Tell me what’s in your heart.”
He fumbles for his hot chocolate and takes a sip before he says, “I want to get leverage on my father. So I can stop being afraid of him.”
“What if you just cut ties?”
“He’ll never let that happen. I thought coming to America, to Addlestone, I’d be out of his reach.” He shakes his head mournfully, ash-blond strands slipping down to frame his cheeks. It makes him look ten years younger. And so very vulnerable. “But I think he has more eyes on me at Bevvy than at court. He picked my friends for me. They’re all his spies. The only things I’ve had here that he didn’t completely control were Gabe and now ... us. If he hadn’t already approved our match, I’d be panicking, trying to figure out what he’d do to separate us.”
I reach out with my free hand and trace the strands of hair brushing his cheekbones. “If you got the leverage, what would you do with it?”
“Tell him I had it. What else do you do with leverage?”
Use it to crush people. That’s what my Da always did. But Darwin’s not my Da.
“Teddy?” Darwin’s voice is hesitant, and I can tell I’ve let too much of my thoughts show on my face. “Have I gone too far—”
“I can give you leverage,” I say, before he starts spiraling.
“I—you can? You mean by threatening him?”
I shake my head. Once I tell him what I know, there’s no going back. Future-Darwin warned me not to. I understood his reasoning then and I understand it now. But things have changed. I need to be all in with my boys now, in this Time. No secrets. No lies. This is the moment where I choose them. Where I choose us.
As I open my mouth to tell him, an eerie cry ghosts through the cottage.
I snap my mouth shut.
Darwin chuckles. “Loon.”
“You what?”
“It’s a bird. Out on the lake. They make that noise all the time. Finish your hot chocolate and I’ll take you out there.”
I pick up my drink and take a long swallow. It’s sweet and warming and banishes the icy tremor that call left in its wake. It wasn’t a sign. Wasn’t a portent. Just a bird.
Darwin bundles me into a huge, wooly scarf in his family’s tartan. It’s so big, it hangs down to my knees. The scarf wards off the evening chill, which feels even colder than it did at Bevvy.
He leads me down the dock, the worn, wooden planks creaking under our feet. Kneeling, he pulls a canvas cover off a tear-drop shaped boat. Pale wood shines in the moonlight. I expect it to be damp, but the wood’s cool and dry to the touch. Fairy wood, I guess. Darwin opens a compartment at the back and takes out cushions covered in dark blue canvas. He throws them into the bottom of the boat, then sits down and holds his hands out to me. I climb in, settle between his legs, and rest back against that firm, warm chest.
“Where are the, whaddo you call them, paddles?”
