Chapter 10

Ten days later, Ben was seriously losing his shit.

The crowds. The noise. The constant everything. This was not a situation he was comfortable in, and no matter how much everyone kept telling him to smile and relax, he couldn’t. It was impossible.

“You’re doing it again,” Darcy murmured beside him.

He didn’t need to ask what she meant. He knew. “How much longer do we have to be here?”

“Ben, we got here seven minutes ago. Relax. All these people are here to see you.” She looked around the room and smiled. “Laura said it’s twice the number of people they were anticipating, and it’s all for you!”

“I think the open bar has something to do with it.” It was supposed to be a small cocktail party with his publisher and a couple of “industry” people. Looking around the room, he could tell it was much more than that.

“Oh, stop.”

A weary sigh was his only response. He was tired, he was hungry, and he hated being on display. What he wanted was to be back in his workshop with country music playing in the background and his tools in his hands. Was that too much to ask?

“Ben! Darcy! There you are!” His editor, Laura, was weaving her way through the crowd toward them. “I have some exciting news.”

“Ooo! Yeah!” Darcy said giddily, practically bouncing on her toes, and it was all Ben could do to hold in a groan. He had a feeling the news wasn’t going to be exciting to him.

“You see that gentleman over there in the gray suit?” Laura asked. “He’s with HGTV. He’s very interested in talking to you about doing a series with them. It wouldn’t be like a typical show. It would be more like six episodes at a shot where you walk the viewers through some special projects, and we do that two or three times a year. Preferably around the holidays. I don’t have all the specifics but—”

“No,” Ben said firmly.

Both Laura and Darcy turned and looked at him, but he wasn’t going to be swayed.

“I’m not interested. Tell him no.”

“But, Ben—” Laura began, and Darcy whispered something to her until she nodded and excused herself.

Doing his best to stay calm, he stood perfectly still as Darcy came to stand in front of him.

“Ben, you at least need to talk to the man.”

He shook his head. “Why? I already know I’m not interested. What makes you think I’m going to want a television crew and cameras watching me work?” He stopped and raked a hand through his hair in frustration. His suit was suffocating him, his skin itched, and his feet were killing him. How much more was he supposed to take?

“We can negotiate a deal that’s not so intrusive,” Darcy countered. “Remember Mark Sawyer who we talked to last night, with the woodworking magazine? We were discussing photo essays and how—”

“When did you do that? I never talked to him about any photo essay.”

“It was while you were talking with Laura and your rep. Anyway, we were talking and—”

“Darcy, stop,” Ben said. “Just stop.”

The look she gave him was patient, but he could see the tension building in her posture. Didn’t she get it? This wasn’t his thing. It was never going to be his thing. He had met every demand they had thrown at him, and he’d smiled and waved and played nice, but now he was done.

“You’re passing up some amazing opportunities. If you would talk to them, you’d see that. I know you wanted to take some time off, and you will. We’ll negotiate it into your contracts, and when it’s all said and done, you’ll be able to take even more time off. It’s a win-win.”

“No, it’s not,” he said through clenched teeth. “And what is this ‘we’ll negotiate’ stuff? Last I checked, this was my career we were talking about.”

All signs of his relaxed and patient girl were gone, and in her place was the intimidating one he had first brought home with him.

Bring it, he thought to himself.

“Yeah, it is your career, but you’re refusing to participate in it right now. But you know what? I can. I can stand here and talk to anyone in this room and make them see how amazing you are, and I can even get them to agree to whatever crazy-ass terms you want. Why? Because I have confidence in you, and I can make them work for it.”

“Oh, so now it’s you with the talent and not me?” he countered incredulously. “Like I need someone to sell me because my work doesn’t speak for itself?”

“Ben, that’s not what I’m saying.” She sighed. “Stop twisting my words. Can we please—”

“You know what? No. We can’t. I’ve had about all I can take here tonight. You can stay and schmooze and kiss people’s asses and do your best to tell them I’m the greatest thing since sliced bread. But it won’t matter, because no matter what deal you come up with, no matter what deal you try to pitch, I’m not going along with it. I want to go to my workshop and sculpt. I don’t want to be on TV, I don’t want to be in a magazine, and believe me, had I known that this was what I’d have to deal with, I certainly would have never agreed to do the book.”

When he turned to walk away, she reached out and grabbed his arm. “You can’t leave! All these people are here for you!”

He cocked a brow at her. “Are you sure? Because for a few minutes, it seemed like you thought they were here for you.”

She huffed with annoyance. “Stop doing that! That’s not what I said.”

People were starting to stare, and she quickly pulled him over to the side of the room. “Please stay. There are some people that it’s very important for you to see.”

“You don’t get it, do you?” he snapped. “None of this is important to me. Do you want to know what is? You. You’re important to me. My art, my home? They’re important to me. Standing here drinking with strangers isn’t!”

“If I’m so important to you, then do this for me,” she pleaded, and that almost got to him. It almost made him change his mind.

“I guess that’s the difference between the two of us. I would never ask you to change who you are or put you in a position where you were uncomfortable for my sake,” he said, his voice deadly calm.

Her lips moved like she was going to talk, but nothing came out.

“Surprise!”

Ben turned and found both of his brothers standing there with giant smiles on their faces.

What. The. Hell.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out who had done this. Who had overstepped her bounds and gone and arranged something he had specifically said he didn’t want.

And without a word, he shoved past his brothers and out the door.

The icy winter air hit him in the face like hitting a brick wall, and in that instant, Ben knew he had overreacted. Yes, he was frustrated, and yes, he was annoyed with this dog and pony show, but that didn’t mean he had to take it out on Darcy.

Or his brothers.

He walked several feet away from the gallery entrance and let out a long, weary breath. How the hell had his life gotten so out of control? The book, this trip, his life… Nothing was going the way he wanted it to, and now he had pretty much screwed up royally.

“Want to explain what happened in there?”

Ben slowly turned around and faced Jack. “Where’s Henry?”

“He’s inside doing his best to charm Darcy so that maybe she’ll forget what an asshole you are.”

Yeah. He deserved that. Raking a hand through his hair, he shivered from the cold. That’s what he got for storming out without a coat. Jack clearly knew what he was thinking, because he was smirking.

“The adult thing to do is go back inside and apologize,” Jack said, sticking his hands into his own coat pockets. “Or you can stay out here and pout.”

“Jesus, Jack, give me a break already.”

“Oh, I should give you a break? I drove for hours to get here, Ben. I left my fiancée at home so Henry and I could surprise you, and before we can say more than one word to you, in typical Ben fashion, you’re pitching a fit about something.”

“Typical Ben? What the hell does that mean?” Ben demanded.

“It means when things don’t go your way, you walk away. Now, I don’t know Darcy at all other than a brief phone conversation with her, but she seems like a nice woman. What the hell she’s doing with you, I don’t know.” He paused. “But I’ll give you this little bit of advice, and then I’m going inside, because it’s freaking cold out here. Go in there and apologize. Even if you don’t think you were wrong, apologize. You made a scene, you embarrassed her, and somehow, I doubt she was the problem.”

“So you get a fiancée and suddenly you think you can dole out relationship advice?”

Jack snorted a laugh. “Dude, I know I can. I may not be an expert, but even I know not to be the guy who creates a scene that embarrasses my girl.” He clapped Ben on the shoulder. “Think about that.”

And then he turned and walked into the gallery.

“Well, shit,” Ben murmured as another chill racked his body. Hanging his head, Ben turned and walked inside. He immediately spotted Darcy talking to Laura and his brothers on the far side of the room. With a sigh of resignation, he made his way over.

He didn’t look at either of his brothers.

He didn’t acknowledge Laura.

His gaze zeroed in on Darcy, and he saw the defiance in her eyes as he got closer. Good. He wanted her to be pissed off, wanted her to make him work at apologizing.

“Excuse us for a moment,” he said as he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her toward the hallway that led to the gallery owner’s office.

“That was rude,” she griped as soon as they were alone. “But I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. You know, you could’ve—”

But he didn’t let her finish. Ben captured her lips with his and kissed her like his life depended on it.

And it did. Because without her, he didn’t have one. At least, not one that was worth living.

He kissed her until they were both breathless and she melted against him.

Slowly, he maneuvered them until her back was against the wall and his forehead rested against hers. “I’m a complete and total jerk, and I’m sorry. I took my frustration out on you, and that wasn’t right.”

She sighed and looked up at him. “I get it. I know you’re hating this, but it’s not too much to ask for you to play nice. At least for a little while.”

“You should have told me you invited my brothers,” he said carefully.

“Then it wouldn’t have been a surprise.”

He couldn’t help but smirk at her snarky comeback. “Maybe I don’t like surprises.”

One corner of her mouth twitched too. “Maybe you need to get over that.”

He drank in the sight of her—her dark hair done up in a messy-yet-stylish bun, the smoky eyes, the red lips. If they were alone and in this position, his hands would be under her little black dress right now.

But they weren’t.

But now he had definite plans for later.

“Maybe you need to stay close to me to make sure I don’t screw up anymore,” he said seriously.

Her smile grew. Just a little. “Maybe you need to behave and trust me when I tell you that you need to do something.”

This game was kind of fun, he mused. “I don’t know if I like having you in control. That’s normally my role.”

And her smile grew a little bit more. “You can have control anyplace else you want. But here? Let this be my turf.”

Yeah, he had some plans for later.

“How much longer do we have to stay?” he murmured against her lips. “Because I can’t wait to see what you’re wearing under this dress, and I want to be in control of finding out.”

She purred against him and made him go hard as a rock. “You’re going to have to hold that thought, because we’ve got at least another hour here and then a late dinner with your brothers.”

“Darcy,” he whined. She was killing him.

Standing up on her tiptoes, she kissed him thoroughly.

“You’re totally not helping.”

“I wanted to give you more to think about,” she whispered softly and then nipped at his earlobe. “Now let’s go and be social and have a nice dinner with your brothers.”

And as she pulled him out into the crowd of people, Ben did his best to paste on a smile and bide his time until they were alone.

* * *

When they finally walked into their hotel suite after midnight, Ben was mentally exhausted. The rest of the cocktail party had been fine—he had spoken to the HGTV rep, he’d talked to about a dozen other people, and he’d been polite to them all.

Of course, he’d let Darcy do most of the talking.

And dinner with his brothers had been fun. It had been a while since the three of them had gone out to dinner for the hell of it, and Ben hated to admit it but he’d had a good time. They were staying in the city tonight since the drive back to Boston was long, and they had all agreed to meet up for breakfast.

They’d caught him at a weak moment, and when Darcy had flashed him a beguiling smile, he would have agreed to anything.

Ben leaned against the door and watched as she made her way around the room—slipping off her shoes, taking off her earrings, and letting her hair down from that sexy little bun she’d had it up in all night. His fingers twitched with the need to go to her and help her remove all those items, but he was biding his time.

She stood by the window and stretched. The little black dress rode up her thighs, and his mouth began to water. He knew she was doing all this for his benefit, and he’d give her a few more minutes to tease him and then…

She was his.

“It’s like Christmastown down there,” she said softly. “All the lights and displays, and I can see the tree at Rockefeller Center from here.” She looked over her shoulder at him and smiled. “If it snowed—even a little bit—it would be perfect.”

“I thought you said you never wanted to see snow again after the storm we had,” he said, pushing off the door and going to her.

With a throaty laugh, she watched his approach. “That was said in the heat of the moment. Now that I’ve had time to think about it, it wasn’t so bad.”

Ben wrapped her in his arms and kissed her. When he lifted his head, he said, “I’m pretty damn thankful for it myself.”

Her cheeks turned a little red. “Me too.”

Her voice was soft and breathless, and he felt as if he’d been waiting forever to get her alone. “I have a question for you.”

Dark-green eyes looked up at him.

“What are you wearing under this dress?”

A slow smile played across those gloriously red lips. Darcy took a step back and out of his arms. Ben thought for sure she was going to tell him what she had on, but instead, it looked like she was going to show him.

Reaching behind her, Darcy unzipped the dress and, with a little shimmy, let it fall to the floor.

Ben forgot how to breathe.

There was so much and yet so little covering her. A red satin bra that barely contained her breasts, an impossibly tiny red lace thong, garters and stockings, and stilettos.

It was as if he had his own Playboy Playmate standing in front of him.

Taking a predatory step toward her, Ben reached out and placed a hand on her hip. “It’s a good thing I didn’t know about all this earlier.”

“Really?” she asked, her expression going coy. “And why is that?”

“Because we would never have left the room.” Pulling her flush against him, Ben heard her soft gasp. Part of him wanted to kiss her, to claim her lips and devour her. But her body called to him.

“I thought the red would be festive,” she murmured. “A little holiday spice to celebrate the evening.”

She was like a present he couldn’t wait to unwrap.

Slowly, so slowly, his hands began to wander. He watched as Darcy’s eyes drifted closed and her head fell back. She sighed his name as his hands gently squeezed her ass and then traveled up to do the same to her breasts.

“Ben,” she sighed again, squirming against him, “please.”

“Please what, baby?” he murmured against her throat, his tongue tracing the soft skin there.

“Take me inside. Take me.”

Scooping her up in his arms, he walked them toward the bed. “Believe me, I will.”

* * *

Breakfast with the Tanner brothers had been interesting. Darcy was intimately familiar with the bonds of brotherhood, but this wasn’t like anything she’d ever witnessed before. There wasn’t a lot of teasing and laughter; it was all very reserved. By the time they said goodbye, it seemed like they were happy, but it wasn’t like watching her brothers, that was for sure.

They’d spent the rest of that day sightseeing, and that night, Ben had another small gallery to see. It had been nice but uneventful. Darcy had had a great conversation with the gallery owner, and they’d gone out for a late dinner with the head of a public relations firm. It had been a perfectly fine way to end the business portion of their trip.

Now as they were packing up and preparing to head to the airport, she felt that same overwhelming sense of sadness again.

“I can hear you sighing,” Ben said from across the room.

“I can’t help it. This has been another amazing week, and now it’s going to be longer until we see each other again.”

“Darcy, I need to get home and do some work, and you’re going to be busy with work and then the holidays. It’s not going to be so bad. You’ll be too busy to miss me.”

She straightened and stared at him as if he had grown a second head. “Somehow, I doubt that. I’m going to miss you because I love you and love being with you and spending time with you. And not having you with me for Christmas? It’s killing me.”

“We’ve been over this.”

“I know,” she snapped and then took a minute to compose herself. “We keep going over it. I want us to be together, Ben. I thought you wanted that too.”

He sighed loudly and shut his suitcase before giving her his full attention. “You know I want that too, but it’s not that simple, Darcy. I can’t just drop everything and stay here and entertain you.”

“Entertain me? You think I’m looking to be entertained?” she cried.

His head hung down. “Okay, that came out wrong.”

“You think?”

When he looked at her this time, he looked mildly irritated. “You know, I flew to North Carolina to spend Thanksgiving with you, and then I flew here to New York and brought you with me so we could spend time together. Why don’t you come back to Washington with me?”

For a minute, he almost sounded hopeful.

“Because I need to focus on finding a job,” she said with annoyance.

“You can look for a job online from anywhere,” he said mildly.

“I need to work, Ben. I know it’s just for Aidan and it’s a temp job, but I still need to make a living.”

“So come later in the month.”

“Then it’s Christmas, and you don’t do Christmas, remember?”

“Then come after Christmas.” This time, it was said through clenched teeth.

They were at a standstill. She knew she was the one being difficult here—she knew that—but for some reason, she wanted to fight with him. It was ridiculous and childish and yet, there it was. She was used to pitching a fit and having people give in to her. But Ben didn’t. He fought back and did his best to make her see how her way wasn’t the only way.

But in this particular situation, there didn’t seem to be any way.

“I guess we’ll just have to play it by ear,” she said and returned her attention to packing. “We’ll talk about it again after New Year’s.”

And right then, the thought of spending the holidays without him hurt more than she’d ever thought possible.

* * *

He’d surprised her.

A week later, with less than a day’s notice, he called and told her he was flying in for the weekend. It had been a flurry of activity to get herself together and ready. She warned him that there was a big family get-together this weekend because Riley was in town for a show, but he didn’t care. He said he just needed to be with her.

That first kiss when she climbed out of the car at the airport was always the sweetest.

The drive to the apartment was always filled with the basics to pass the time.

The frantic way that they reached for each other as soon as they were behind closed doors was what Darcy lived for.

Now, breathless and a little sweaty, she curled up against Ben and sighed. So good. “I missed you.”

He kissed her forehead. “I missed you too.”

“You’re sure you can only stay for the weekend?”

He nodded. “I’ve got a client coming to the studio on Tuesday for some work on a custom home he’s building. So far, I’ve managed to put him off about three times. I can’t do it again.”

She sighed again. “I understand. But I hate it.”

Hugging her close, he murmured, “Me too.” He wished they could stay like this, tangled up together with nothing to do but catch their breath until they could start all over again. But they couldn’t.

Family dinner.

Great.

He couldn’t complain too much—she had warned him, and he figured he could give up an hour or two of having her to himself.

Just as long as they could come back to the apartment, be together, and be left alone for the rest of the weekend.

Two hours later, however, he began to wonder if he had completely miscalculated. It wasn’t just a get-together; it was dinner. For twenty people. There was no way they were going to be in and out any time soon. With a sigh, he looked around. How do people stand it? Ben wondered, and not for the first time that evening.

Darcy looked up at him. “I can see that you’re miserable and not having a good time—”

He immediately put a finger over her lips. “Don’t. Whatever you’re thinking, not today. Or tomorrow. We only have the weekend together, and I’m just happy to be with you,” he said softly, and only when she nodded did he remove his finger. Then he kissed her, slowly and sweetly, on the lips. “I love you.”

With a shaky sigh, she melted against him. “I love you too.”

“It looks like dinner is being served,” he commented as they walked toward the dining room. Everyone seemed to know where to sit, so he just followed Darcy’s lead and was somewhat relieved to find them sitting next to Riley and Savannah.

The room was so loud. There were about ten different conversations going on and kids were crying—it was a lot to take in.

I can do this for one meal, he chided himself. One meal and then we can go.

“Ow!” he hissed and then looked over at Savannah. “Did you just stab me with a fork?”

With an evil smile, she nodded. “I did.”

“Why? Why would you do that?” he asked quietly, doing his best to sound menacing.

“Because you’re frowning. Now smile and relax, or next time, I won’t be so gentle.”

Unable to help himself, he laughed. Then, leaning back, he caught Riley’s eye. “Is she this evil at home?”

Riley laughed. “Sometimes more. But I’m sure you’re used to it. Savannah’s a day at the beach compared to my sister.”

“Hey!” Darcy chimed in. “Watch it! Just because there are two people separating us doesn’t mean I can’t get even with you.”

Riley continued to laugh. “Bring it. Although I heard a rumor that someone was trying to be a little more mature,” he taunted. “Ring any bells?”

Ben laughed at Darcy’s muttered curse.

“Oh, just shut up,” she warned her brother right before she took her first forkful of salad. “Jerk.”

Leaning over, Ben kissed her on the temple. “That’s my mature girl.”