I don’t want to leave. I want to stay here, like this, with Darcy on top of me, writhing and a little bit dirty but beautiful as fuck.

“I’m not that cold,” she says, even though I can see the goosebumps on her arms in the moonlight.

I pull her in and kiss her again, just because I don’t want the moment to end, not yet. I want her naked in the dirt, against the wall, on top of me. I want her wherever, it doesn’t fucking matter. I just want her, like I always have, only now I’m impossibly close.

“I’m not waiting for them to come back,” I murmur into her ear. “Once was enough, don’t you think?”

Darcy sighs, and the sound turns to a gasp as I bite her earlobe, tugging it between my teeth.

But we have to go. The only consolation is the disappointed look on her face, confirmation that I didn’t fucking imagine this, that I didn’t somehow ruin the best thing I have.

We walk the stone wall and hold hands. There’s no cop car, though we walk along the very edge of the driveway, like we can dive into the woods if one comes along. Darcy’s hand is freezing in mine, and every time I look over at her I swear her nipples are puckered harder, just begging me to stop in the road and suck them into my mouth, one by one, just to hear the way she’d gasp.

I don’t. The cop obviously wasn’t lying about the cameras. They knew we were here somehow.

When we finally get to the car, there’s an envelope stuffed under a windshield wiper. Darcy takes it off, looking amused, and when she flips it over she starts laughing.

“Guess how much,” she says, her eyes dancing.

I sigh. No, I didn’t fucking think this ghost-hunting trip through. I came up with it five hours ago because I was desperate to make things better with Darcy, because even though she was right there I fucking missed her.

It did work.

“Fifty bucks,” I say, thinking that Tallwood is a pretty small town, so the parking tickets should be reasonable.

Darcy just snorts, then jerks one thumb upward as I unlock the car.

“A hundred.”

“When was the last time you got a parking ticket for a hundred dollars?” she says as we get in and buckle up. I turn the car on and crank the heater, directing all the vents toward her. She makes a face and turns it down.

“I don’t know the last time I got a parking ticket,” I say.

Darcy rolls her eyes, but she knows I’m not lying. I’ll circle a block for thirty minutes before I risk having to interact with a cop, even parking enforcement.

“It’s not a hundred dollars.”

“Two.”

“Closer.”

I turn on the headlights, splashing a bright pool in front of the car, tree trunks going ghostly in the sudden light.

“Two-fifty.”

“Two sixty three.”

And fucking worth it.

Even if they run my plates and catch me for trespassing, fucking worth it.

I look over at her, dark hair spilling in front of her face, flipping the ticket over in her hand.

“It’s fucking highway robbery. Literally.”

“Darce.”

She looks up, tucks her hair behind an ear.

“C’mere,” I say softly.

Darcy gives me a quick glance, up and down, like she’s not sure what I want, like she’s not sure that I want it, but she leans in and I kiss her again just because I can. Because deep down I’m afraid that between here and the lodge she’ll realize again that this is a bad idea, that she’ll want to turn back the clock because she’s afraid of losing us the way we were.

But then her mouth is on mine. I lick her bottom lip and she lets me in, her hand in my hair, half-turned in her seat, and I’ve got one hand on her thigh and when we pull back she swallows, breathing hard, then bites my lip just for good measure.

I drive dangerously fast back to the lodge. The whole way we talk about nothing, just like we always do.

* * *

It’s late when we get back, well past midnight. The moon has lowered again and the stars are out full force, though I hardly fucking notice.

I kiss Darcy again in the parking lot, before I get out of the car, my fingers wandering down her body. I think about climbing into the passenger seat, on top of her, and just taking her right there because it’s late and no one’s around and I feel like I’m coming out of my skin I want this so bad.

But I can see the window of my room from there. I can put this off for sixty seconds to avoid a public nudity charge.

We walk through the parking lot, my heart pounding, her hand in mine. This time when the breeze moves her hair off her neck and I can see the pink scar of her burn, I don’t stop myself. I lean over and plant my lips right at the edge, where her back meets her neck, and I listen for the noise she makes deep in her throat even as all her muscles tense.

“C’mon,” she laughs.

We’re right in front of the heavy wooden door to the lodge, and I spin her around, push her against it. Gently, because of her back.

“C’mon what?”

Darcy grabs a fistful of my shirt and tugs, tilting her face up toward mine.

“C’mon, we’re in public,” she teases.

“And?”

“And public,” she says.

“It’s two o’clock in the morning,” I say, resting one forearm on the door over her head. “No one’s here. We could get up to anything.”

I swear her breath catches a little at anything, her fist on my shirt tightens, and I push my hips against hers, the pressure delicious on my rock-hard cock. Darcy bites her lip and smiles, her eyes drifting closed.

“Who the fuck are you and what did you do with Trent?” she asks.

I chuckle and slide one hand under her shirt, up her side, her breathing fast and her skin soft under my fingertips.

“What makes you think I’m not Trent?”

“Because Trent is my sweet, quiet, broody, best friend who does a lot of glowering and acts like I’m his little sister,” she says, but there’s a smile in her voice.

“Are you sure he’s not your broody best friend who glowers and thinks about this nearly every day?”

“Not anymore,” she says.

I close the last two inches and kiss her hard, up against the door of the lodge. I move my hand up her torso, past her ribcage, as she opens her mouth into mine and her tongue darts into my mouth. I’m nearly shaking with desire, with the force of finally doing something I’ve thought about for years, and there’s a part of me that wants to tear her clothes off right here, right now. Lift her against this door and take her hard until she fucking screams, her nails raking down my back.

But I don’t. I run the pad of my thumb along the undercurve of one breast and she sighs, pressing her hips harder against mine so I keep going. I run my thumb along her nipple and feel it harden as I do.

Fuck it’s satisfying. Fuck if the way she grabs my hip, pulls me harder against her isn’t exactly what I’ve always dreamed of, so I do it again. She bites my lip, but she puts one hand on my chest. Pushes slightly.

“C’mon,” I tease.

“You know there’s cameras out here, right?” she murmurs, still smiling.

I sigh and lean my forehead against hers.

“Fucking police state.”

“You know someone would pay for footage of us...”

She stops short, blue eyes wide and smiling in the dark.

“Don’t stop there.”

“Getting friendly.”

“You weren’t going to say getting friendly.”

“Whatever I was going to say, someone would pay for it.”

I push her harder against the door, my aching cock pressed between us, my hand still up her shirt, and I put my lips to her ear.

“You’ve got the filthiest mouth I know of and you were going to say fucking,” I murmur, praying I’m right. “Dunno why you suddenly got shy. It’s just me, Darce.”

She swallows so hard I can hear the muscles in her throat move.

“Well, I know where there’s no cameras.”

Darcy slides her hand into mine.

“And?”

“And it’s two hundred feet away.”

“And?”

I close my teeth around her earlobe, just for fun. She inhales sharply.

“And, I propose we go there instead of staying here where your dick is going to end up in the National Enquirer.”

I can’t help but laugh, because there it is, the filthy Darcy I know. I don’t answer her, just yank open the door next to the one she’s up against and we step through, into the lobby, as Darcy pulls down her shirt and runs one hand through her hair.

Sitting in one of the overstuffed recliners by the fireplace, Gavin turns to look at us.

Darcy stops short. I nearly run into her, and for a long moment, we all just look at each other.

“Oi!” Gavin finally says.

“Hey!” Darcy says back, too bright and chirpy. “What are you still doing up?”

Gavin shrugs, standing.

“Couldn’t sleep for shite,” he says. “You had the same problem, I assume?”

He’s giving us both a once over and obviously doesn’t think we had the same problem, given that my shirt is torn and Darcy’s arms are scratched up and we’re both dirty, our pants muddy in spots.

“Something like that,” I say.

Gavin leans against the back of a leather chair and crosses his arms, half looking at us and half glancing around the lodge’s lobby.

“The heroin did help me sleep,” he says reflectively. “Rather too much sometimes, but it was useful for that.”

“It even helped you sleep on stage,” Darcy points out, and Gavin just laughs.

“True,” he says. “Listen, while it’s just us three in the middle of the bleeding night, I may as well apologize for earlier today. I was being a right cock at practice, and I ought to know better.”

Darcy sighs and folds her arms in front of her.

“Yeah,” she agrees. “But there’s been a whole lot of shit lately, between the delay and Eddie’s bullshit and, you know, everything so it’s okay. I get it.”

I shove my hands into my pockets and just nod.

Gavin sighs and rubs his face in his hands.

“Thanks,” he says. “I’m trying to be better about everything, but you know it’s a bit... strange, doing it all like this.”

“You mean not high?” Darcy says, to-the-point like usual.

“I mean not high, not drunk. Fully fucking present.”

There’s a pause. Darcy looks at Gavin and Gavin stares into space for a moment, then looks back at us. I can sense that this conversation is somehow important, that we’re seeing a window into the new Gavin, the post-heroin, with-Marisol Gavin, and I should be treasuring this moment as the beginning of a new kind of friendship with an old friend.

But goddamn it, I was in the middle of something.

“And to be honest, it’s been a year now without Liam and I still fucking make mental notes of the things I ought to tell him sometimes,” Gavin admits. “Christ, it feels like he’s dead sometimes, doesn’t it?”

Darcy doesn’t answer, just steps forward, reaches out and pats Gavin on the shoulder. Somehow, she’s much better at this than me, which is why she’s the glue that holds us all together. Me, I’m broody and I glower too much. Without her, we’d all have scattered ages ago.

“If he were dead, someone would probably have told you by now,” she says, and Gavin laughs.

“Cold comfort, that is.”

“I’m not gonna blow sunshine up your ass.”

“And thanks for that.”

“Look, drink some tea or whatever and try going back to bed. You’ll feel better in the morning,” Darcy says, rubbing his shoulder lightly.

“Yeah, that always helps,” I chime in, because I feel like during this heart-to-heart I should say something. Even if what I want to say is can we please fucking talk about this in the morning.

“You’re right,” Gavin says, and stands up straight. “Shall we?”

Shit. His room’s right across the hall from mine.

“Let’s go!” Darcy says too brightly, glancing quickly at me as the three of us leave the lobby.