not_an_oreilly (not_an_oreilly) wrote in the_dome, @ 2013-09-17 00:38:00 |
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Entry tags: | 04-11-2017, darcy, darcy and noah, noah |
Runaway
Who: Darcy and Noah
Where: Noah’s house
When: Dawn
Darcy left Patrick and headed home, not sure what to do with herself. She’d paced around the room, trying to get her brain around what she’d been told and what they were going to do. And the part where Patrick thought she needed to move in with him. Then she’d tried for sleep, but that had failed too and she’d spent most of the night staring at the ceiling, waiting for the night to end. Then the night started to end and she gave up.
She’d started with grabbing her backpack, but before leaving threw a couple of changes of clothes into it. Maybe she didn’t really plan on staying, but grabbing her toothbrush and hairbrush on the way out was a good way to be prepared.
Noah’s house was easy to get to and outside Darcy considered knocking, but wound up just digging in her bag to find something to pick the lock with. It took longer than she would have liked because she was out of practice, but it clicked into place after a moment and Darcy let herself into the house. Aidan would be proud that she’d remembered that skill. She wandered slowly until she found his room, deciding to knock on that door. She could have just gone in, possibly even crawled into bed with him, but that didn’t feel right. Not just yet.
Noah's day had felt twice as long as it actually had been. He'd spent so many hours searching for Sylvia in the forest, starting at her house and fanning out southward because that was as good a direction as any. He'd looked for so long and found nothing so he was exhausted mentally and physically by the time he got home. He knew that if Darcy had looked for him today, she would have been disappointed and he might have missed his chance with her. And that was disappointing but he had to find Sylvia.
He was tempted to go to sleep without a shower but his own smell was enough to convince him otherwise. After showering he'd dropped into bed and fallen immediately asleep before he could even put pajamas on. He was sleeping like the dead, not even dreaming, when a sound woke him with a start. His eyes darted around in the dark. His first thought was that maybe Sylvia was here. He quickly pulled on boxers and pulled open the door to his room.
"Holy shit, Darcy," he said. He breathed out and half smiled. "You scared me. Is everything okay?" he asked, taking in the fact she had a bag with her and that it was the middle of the night. How had she gotten in the house?
Oh wow. Darcy had forgotten how distracting Noah in his underwear was. The first time he’d been dressed and wound up in his underwear, but now he was just already in a pair of boxers and she had no idea what to do with him. “I...uhh…” Words weren’t coming right away and she wound up chewing on her lower lip. “Found you.” It was weak though, as if she didn’t know what to say otherwise.
Noah was still exhausted. He hadn't gotten enough sleep yet so he let it go that she was in his place when it had been locked. He showed her into his room which was mildly cluttered since he hadn't really cared about being neat when he'd gotten home. Then he sank onto his bed and rubbed his fingers over his eyes and back through his hair with a yawn. Not that he wasn't happy to see her. He was. "You're the unexpected one, aren't you, Darce?" he asked with a bleary smile.
Darcy didn’t get much further into his room than the doorway. She was tugging at the hem of her shirt, just a simple tank top over her jeans. She’d been sleeping in it, but hadn’t actually slept. When he said she was unexpected she was looking at the floor, something different than she’d been with him before. “I couldn’t sleep.” It was quiet, barely there.
He watched her, wondering what was going through her mind. What had her unable to sleep. At least, he thought that's what he'd heard her say just now. He stood up, went to her, and pulling her gently to him, he wrapped his arms around her. For some reason, maybe the way she had looked, told him there was maybe something more happening than insomnia.
Darcy leaned into him, but didn’t more than rest her cheek against his chest, not wrapping her arms around him yet. She wanted to, but she didn’t trust herself to not break down completely. She felt like a live wire, raw from all sides.
Noah wasn't sure what was up with her, but he stayed quiet, holding her. If she talked, she talked. If she was silent, he was okay with that too. He gently rubbed her back and waited to see what she needed next. This was a very different encounter from the one he'd envisioned having with her when they'd parted the last time but it wasn't disappointing. In fact, it felt more important. Or maybe he was just really tired.
That he was quiet helped. It kept her from really falling apart. After a moment she wrapped her arms around his middle, dropping her bag on the floor in the process. She didn’t care. She just wanted to be here. “Can I stay?” she said softly, not looking at him, worried he’d say no.
He nodded, feeling a strange sense of relief that she'd put her arms around him as well. Had he been worried she was angry with him? Some part of his mind thought maybe he had been. "You can stay," he said quietly down to her. "As long as you need to." That bag said to him that it might be a little while at least. He only hoped her family wouldn't come looking for her and think he'd lured her away or something. It'd be worth it though.
That helped. The invitation. She hadn’t meant to run away from home, but Darcy needed some time. Some space to deal with how they had made her feel in the past day. “Why didn’t you tell me about her?” she asked him, not pulling away, but ready for it if he did.
Noah frowned slightly though she couldn't see it. He wasn't sure what she was asking him about. He figured it had to do with Sylvia, but there were so many things she could be trying to get at. He really hoped it wasn't that she'd somehow found out about Sylvia's vampirism. "Tell you about what?" he asked back, his voice low.
“What she is,” Darcy clarified, then pulled away, heading towards his bed. “That you let her bite you.” She looked at him, eyes darker than usual, confused and maybe a little hurt.
He sighed as she walked away, as he heard her clarification. His shoulders slumped some and he rubbed his chest with his hand. He briefly considered asking her what she meant but he didn't think patronizing her would end well. "Well," he said evenly. "For one, it sounds insane to say, 'Can you not test her sun allergy because really she's a vampire.' And because she's scared of you and I knew she'd feel betrayed if I told you." He walked closer to the bed but didn't sit down. "I let her bite me because she thought she'd put Aidan under a spell and I wanted to prove her wrong. She was wrong."
“It is insane. I’m still not sure we all aren’t insane.” Darcy let out a sigh and ran her hand through her hair. She still hadn’t showered. It was fine, but not as clean as she would have liked it. “She’s scared of me? That’s ridiculous considering she’s the vampire. She could kill me.” Dary didn’t quite look at him. “And what if she’d been right? How are you so sure?”
Noah nodded. "Yeah, she's scared of you. You could kill her too and she doesn't know if you wouldn't try to because of the confrontation you two had. She's gone, by the way. Went into hiding." He left off the part that he'd been out all day looking for her. Not the time. "I guess," he paused and sighed. "I guess I wanted to also prove to her that people, besides me, could genuinely like her. And I'm sure because I don't have any stronger feelings for or about her than I did before. Thank goodness." He still hadn't entirely sorted out his feelings but he was pretty sure there was no spell involved in that. Just some confusion.
“Try and kill her? Jesus Noah, what do you think I am?” Darcy asked, surprise on her features when she looked up at him. “Some sort of killer? She’s a vampire! I’m staying the fuck away from her because she’s sort of built to kill humans. Which I am. Even if I could, which I’m pretty sure I can’t, I wouldn’t.” She got up from his bed, not able to sit there and be with someone who thought she was a killer. “How strong are the feelings you have? And thank goodness what? That you don’t want to bone her too? Don’t have to fight with my cousin for who gets to be with her on what days?” She moved past him, grabbing her bag. This was stupid. Why had she come here?
Noah looked as if he'd been slapped for a moment and he took a deep breath, sitting down on the chair beside his desk. "Whoa, no, I didn't say you would. I said you could. As in she knows it's possible to be killed." He shook his head, trying to clear the sleep from it because this had escalated pretty quickly and he wasn't sure he could keep up if he was half asleep. He watched her grab her bag and wondered what the hell had just happened. Part of him was pissed she would just take what he said, paint him in the worst possible light, and then attempt to leave. "Thank goodness it wasn't a spell because I'd have to give you up." It was all he could think to say right then but he wasn't sure it mattered. He sighed for the third time, unsure why this all had to be so fucked up.
“How?” Darcy insisted. “She’s a vampire!” How had Darcy even landed the punch in the first place. The stupid vampire was paranoid, running off with the thought that Darcy had nothing better to do than stalk her and try and kill her. Lucky for Noah, what he said did matter enough to slow her escape. Darcy turned back to look at him from near the door. “You thought of me?”
"She thought you would test her 'sun allergy.' Which could kill her. I told her you weren't like that. And yeah, I thought about you." He didn't see her turn back because he had his head in his hands, rubbing his face with both palms. This was a lot to handle right now. "I think about you a lot," he said, looking back up and expecting to still see her back. So she got a look of the quiet disappointment on his face.
“I don’t want to test anything. I don’t want to be around her.” Darcy didn’t know what to make of the fact that he wasn’t looking at her, or what his face was saying when he finally did. Swallowing hard, she fought the urge to look away from him. “You don’t sound very happy about that.”
"I didn't think you did. I don't think of you like that," he said quietly. Suddenly he felt the cold around him with no shirt in the middle of the night and he glanced around to see if there was one handy now the warmth of sleep had worn off. Pulling on the first one he could find, he'd given himself another few seconds to collect his thoughts. "I'm not unhappy to think about you a lot. I … didn't like you were leaving."
Darcy wanted to protest him dressing because it wasn’t as nice a sight as he’d been shirtless. Still good, but without the shirt was better. She looked back at the door, then him. “I wasn’t sure there was a good reason to stay. Not if you thought I was that kind of awful. Or you wanted to be with someone else.” Which was a complete and blaring double standard considering Darcy hadn’t broken things off with Liam, but she couldn’t help it. She didn’t want to be here if Noah wanted to be with Sylvia.
He shivered, his scarred forearms filling with goosebumps as though she'd touched them. "My invitation is still open. You can stay if you want to. I don't think you're awful." Maybe really quick to judge and fly off the handle, but he didn't think she was awful. He tilted his head, looking at her then, almost a hint of mischief in his eye. "You were jealous?"
She knew she was quick to fly off the handle. That was how she was. And her temper flared hot when it was really set off, but it always burned out. Just like now she was hesitating, not feeling as angry as she’d been moments before. “Maybe. Or maybe just thinking I can’t compete with some vampire chick.”
Some vampire chick. Darcy really didn't seem to get it and he was too tired to explain. And too tired to respond to another outburst like that one with any clarity. He wanted to avoid that as much as possible so he shook his head. "You're in a class all your own, Darcy. You don't have to compete with anyone."
Darcy bit at her lip, watching him, not sure if she believed him. “No?”
Was Darcy, like Sylvia, truly unsure that people could actually like her? "No. I can give you five reasons why if you need them."
Darcy reached for the door, but instead of leaving she just pushed it shut, even if there was no one to close out. “What are they?” she asked, turning to look at him and setting down her bag again.
A ghost of a smile traced his mouth as she closed the door. He counted off the reasons on his fingers starting with his thumb. "You're passionate, unpredictable, emotional, you have the best smile I've ever seen, and you're a really good kisser. Oh, and beautiful." He held up his other thumb. "Guess that's six."
“Unpredictable made the list?” Darcy asked, but there was a ghost of a smile on her features too. Who wouldn’t smile at someone saying all those things about her? “And how good is really good?”
"Newly added tonight," he confirmed and shook his hair out of his face. "Really really good. It's half of what I think about when I'm thinking about you," he answered more truthfully than he would have had he been on more hours of sleep. He looked a little sheepish.
Darcy nodded, feeling like that might not be a good thing, but if he was calling it that she would too. For now. Drifting a couple of steps closer, she watched his eyes, stopping much closer to him to toe out of her shoes. “What’s the other half?”
He'd been thinking of the fact she'd shown up at his door in the middle of the night when he added unpredictable. He liked that about her. He watched her come closer and knew she'd made her decision to stay at least a little while. And since he'd opened the door himself, he figured he might as well spill the rest so he said, "The other half is imagining when you'll find me next and will happen when you do."
“I found you,” she reminded him. “What did you have in mind for me, now that I’m here?” Because that was a nice distraction from everything else. And somewhat more than she usually got from Noah.
Noah hadn't actually been prepared for her to find him. Though he supposed he should have been because that was the game. They'd never set times. And if he hadn't been out all day running around, this would have been the best surprise. It still was, but he was a little off guard just then. "What does your heart desire this evening. Rest or play?" he asked, leaving the options purposely open so as not to give any idea what either would entail. “I need to know at least that to answer your question.”
Darcy was warring with the answer. She was exhausted too, running on almost no sleep, but play sound so distracting. “Both?” she wound up answering.
Noah nodded with another ghost of a smile. "I think I have something you might like." He stood up and went to his dresser. He pulled open the top drawer and slid out a dark blue bandanna. He moved toward her then and offered it to her. "Blindfold," he said.
Darcy looked at him like he was insane. "You want blindfold me?" She asked, taking the bandanna. "And do what?"
"Well it hadn't been to hurt or kill you, that's for sure," he said not sure why the idea was so crazy she'd look at him like that. But maybe he'd finally reached the limit of what she'd accept. He figured there had to be one. "You could always blindfold me."
"I know you wouldn't." She looked at the bandanna, knowing it was giving him control. "No...only good things right?" She said pulling the bandanna up to out it around her eyes. It was hard, but at the sand time, she wanted him to have that control.
"Only good things," he promised. As soon as the blindfold was up to her eyes he waved a hand slowly in front of her face and checked that it was tied. He stood beside her a long moment, saying nothing, doing nothing. Just watching her. Then lightly with his fingertips he traced up the length of one of her arms. "Comfortable?" he asked quietly.
Once in the dark she couldn't help but worry he'd left. There was too long between not being able to see and touching her that when he did touch her she jumped. It was definitely more intense. "Somewhat?"
He left his fingers on her shoulder and kissed her cheek near her ear. "Sorry," he whispered though he wasn't completely sorry. He'd been curious if she'd jump though he hadn't wanted to really scare her. He had promised only good things. He really wanted to touch her but not have her know when or where. "Would it be easier to lie down?"
"I'm just anxious," she told him about why she wasn't comfortable. His kisses on her skin were warm and left a little tingle in their wake. "Whatever you think is best."
"No anxiety." He wasn't instructing her more than he was hoping to put her at ease. He led her to the bed so that her knees were against it but not fast enough to set her off balance. He pressed a kiss to her shoulder. "Rest and play," he murmured, encouraging her to lie down.
Darcy hesitated when she was but the bed, but wound up sitting then sliding back and laying down properly. Rest and play. She could do this. As soon as she got her heartbeat to slow down.
Noah watched her, helping as he could, smiling secretly because she couldn't see him. When she was settled he lay on his stomach at an angle to her and traced circles on the inside of her wrist then across her hip, one finger slipping under the edge of her shirt to halfway trail across her stomach. "Tell me a lie," he said.
A lie? Darcy was shivering under his touches. She thought about it. "I've never been drunk."
He pulled his hand slowly away across her side. He watched her tremble some and couldn't help enjoying the sight of it. Then carefully with one finger he traced the line of her throat to its soft hollow where he placed a kiss before withdrawing again. "Tell me a truth."
Darcy trembled again as he kissed her, letting out a soft sigh. “I didn’t want to be anywhere but here.” Truths were easier, but at the same time, she was sure that what she said was giving him more than she should.
Noah's eyes traveled her face, looking at her and taking her in. He was still marveling that someone he'd merely sat behind, counted freckles, not really crushing on per se… was here with him, prone, beautiful, and telling him she was where she wanted to be. He cupped her cheek lightly, brushed his thumb across her lips. "I'm glad you're here."
She turned into his touch, finding his hand with her fingers and gripping his wrist. “Please,” she said softly. “I didn’t want to be alone.” She felt alone. She was being run out of her house, likely to end up somewhere with no freedom whatsoever.
He moved closer, his upper body resting gently against her side. He twisted his hand in hers, gently taking her wrist and pushing it against the pillow beside her head. "You're not alone," he said quietly and kissed her.
That was surprising enough to get another gasp out of her, feeling pinned and not hating it. What he said and the kissed helped and Darcy was answering it quickly, reaching for him, finally catching his shirt and holding on to it.
Noah wondered what kind of rest Darcy actually needed. It sounded like soul rest to him if she was willing to say what she did out loud. Her response to his kiss was intense and he made a sound of approval against her lips. Maybe a little distraction would be good for her. For them both.
She was more than pleased that blindfolded she could still get that noise out of him, turning towards Noah, trying to get him closer. This might be what she needed, being with him, letting him make her think about things that weren’t her family and that nonsense.
He felt her insistence that he be closer and let go of her wrist to slide his arm under her, pulling her up against him. As always, she felt so good there in his arms. Still she was blindfolded and he pulled back slowly from the kiss, teasing her with his breath softly on her cheek. "And here is passionate Darcy."
Despite not being able to see she found her hand in his hair, twisting in it. “Oh?” She supposed it made sense. He brought that out in her.
"Mm," Noah affirmed, pausing a moment to simply enjoy the relief and pleasure she was providing by pulling at his hair. He breathed a laugh. "Maybe I should have said 'sensual' instead."
“Aren’t they the same?” she asked, pulling at his hair again, smiling. She didn’t feel sensual, but if he wanted to say she was, she could go along with it.
"Don't make me go nerdy on you and explain the hair of difference. Might ruin the moment," he said, his voice barely a whisper but his smile very evident in it. She had decided to take the reins and he was enjoying that. "Perhaps I should call you Painkiller Jane."
“You’re kind of cute when you’re nerdy,” Darcy told him, finding his mouth and kissing him again. “Painkiller Jane? That doesn’t sound good. Sounds like a drug.”
He fairly grinned against her mouth, turning slightly to half pin her with himself. "You're a kind of drug, sure," he said and kissed her again. "And when you play with my hair you take the pain away."
Darcy gasped at being pinned, still holding on to him. She couldn’t see, but she could feel and hear as if it was ridiculously loud. “A good kind of drug?” she asked, pulling at his hair again. “You like that?”
He was always careful to be gentle, take his weight, keep her from being hurt but she had such enticing responses to the varying levels of pinning her he did. He loved it. "That remains to be seen. I'm guessing very good though," he said and nipped lightly at her jaw and all but purred as she pulled. "I do. I always have a headache. You're relieving it."
"You do?" Darcy asked, surprised to hear that. She pressed her fingers along his scalp, trying to alone him. "Don't let me be a bad drug."
He nodded, then remembered she couldn't see him. Though, she could feel him. And that was something new and interesting entirely. "Constant and unrelenting,” he said about his headaches. “Until you do that. You're the only one who does." It was true. He hadn't even told Sylvia about it. Not that he would have asked her to pull his hair. That didn't seem normal in the realm of their friendship. But with Darcy… "Never," he replied and kissed her again.
She did feel the nod, which was both strange and exciting. Only her. That helped soothe some of her earlier concerns and she tugged at his hair more when he kissed her, leaning up into the kiss eagerly.
It never occurred to Noah to wonder if it was "only him" with her. In the moment with her, there was only Noah and Darcy. Nothing outside of them and he needed that. He sighed softly as she tugged, wanting to touch more of her so he slid his hand just under the back of her shirt as he held her to him, fingers pressing into her skin.
In the moment he was right to think that, because it was just them, here together. No one else mattered. She arched into his touches, moving closer and letting out a sigh of her own.
Noah kissed away from her mouth along her cheek as he slid away from her. She was still wearing the blindfold after all and now, no longer pinned. So beautiful there on his bed. He only stayed away long enough to take off his shirt and use the edge of it to tease along her arm.
She whimpered when he left, just having gotten used to that safe weight of him there. Waiting was harder than usual, but she his short touched her arm she jumped, pulling it away. Then she giggled at herself. "Sorry."
He breathed a soft laugh that turned into a little bit louder one when she giggled. "You're cute when you startle, by the way." Only good things. He brushed her hair away from her face, barely touching her cheeks with his fingertips.
"That's not an excuse to scare me more," Darcy warned, leaning into his touch with a soft smile. Then her fingers reached for his, pulling them closer to her cheek. She wanted him there, touching her, making the hard things go away.
"I don't think scaring you is a good thing," he said quietly though his smile was implicit in his tone. No one had made him smile even half as much as she did. He let her press his fingers to her face for a moment, she was so soft. Then he was trailing his finger down her chin, along her throat, and in a straight line in the center of her chest until he reached her waistband. Action and reaction. This was a fun experiment.
If he was going for reaction he got one. Darcy arched again, into his touch until she shivering at the end of it. It was infuriating almost, being able to hear his smile, but not see it. To know he'd touch her, but not being able to guess where. Though as infuriating as it was, it was also thrilling, and she wasn't about to stop him.
Noah had the reaction he'd wanted and it was like dancing and somehow erotic too. As she arched, his hand and arm slid quickly over her side to catch her up against him again. He rewarded her with a slightly possessive kiss that left him breathless by the end.
The change in positions and the kiss had her reaching for him, one hand finding his hair again and the other gripping his arm. The kiss was different than he normally gave her, but she like it, a soft noise, something a little needy, slipping out into it.
Noah was particularly enjoying keeping her on her toes, so to speak. She'd wanted rest and play together, after all. He held her close, letting her fingers work their relief in his hair. Maybe he was feeling a little needy too whether he was consciously thinking on that or not. Having her close felt good. "Very good drug," he whispered.
Darcy couldn't stand it anymore, not with that admission. She pushed at the blindfold, moving it off her eyes so she could see his. For a moment she blinked, everything too bright, but then he was there, in focus, and all hers. "You too," she told him before pulling him in for a crushing kiss.
Darcy quickly become a large part of his thoughts and what he wanted for the foreseeable future. His admission was as close as he came to admitting to any of that even to himself. When she pushed the blindfold away he hadn't expected it and she may have seen a bit of it on his face before she kissed him. Her intensity had him kissing her back as though he couldn't get enough of her, his fingers in her hair now.
This time Darcy let out a low moan, holding herself pressed against him. This was why she couldn't decide, why she'd wound up dating both of them. Liam, was adorable and sweet and kind, but Noah made her feel things she'd never felt before. He ramped up everything about her to eleven and there was no relief from it in sight. All she knew was that she wanted more, no needed more of him.
His fingers tangled in her hair and gently pulled. He caught his breath softly at her moan. It sent a shiver through him and he echoed it quietly against her lips. He wanted her closer but she was already impossibly close, still his fingers at the small of her back pressed in. He was calling on energy reserves he really didn't have but it didn't matter.
Darcy gasped at him tugging on her hair, but wound up grinning as the kiss broke off. She pulled at him, fingers of one hand hooked in the waistband of his boxers, to get them back on the bed properly, him over her. It was probably a recipe for disaster, but her fingers were exploring his hips in places that the boxers covered, smiling turning playful, but still intense.
Noah was a little surprised when she started to take the reins yet he followed her lead, positioning himself over her where she wanted him to be. He glanced over his shoulder to where her hand was and then back to her, grinning as he scooted a little out of her reach. He lowered his face then, one hand lifting the bottom edge of her shirt so he could press a line of kisses along her waistband.
That was cheating and everything on Darcy's face said it until he was kissing along her stomach and hips and she let it go. It got another set of shivers and a happy sigh out of her, fingers in his hair still tugging and pressing.
He breathed a laugh at her expression, he loved finding new ways to make her move or make noise. This was the best game. He kissed upward along one of her sides, pushing her shirt up with his nose and bringing himself closer to her reach.
As he got closer, she smiled at him. "Is this what you were thinking of? Or was there more?" Once she could her hands were along his sides, tracing his ribcage then heading lower.
He brushed his lips against the edge of her ribs and then looked up at her with a half smile. "Well, we're playing a game, right? Neither one of us has said we wanted to play for keeps." Yet.
Darcy hesitated, looking at him and biting her lip. "Is it just a game?" She hated the question and shook her head as if to shake it away. "What does playing for keeps mean?"
He slid his hand across her stomach and moved up and over so he was beside her on his side. "Isn't it?" he asked, his tone inviting her to disagree if that's how she felt. "Use your imagination," he replied to her second question, not wanting to put too fine a point on "sex" because it seemed a little crude right then.
She twisted a tiny bit of his hair around her fingers. "I...I guess it is. Does it have to be?" Was it not more now? Should she have not shown up her feeling vulnerable? She could use her imagination well enough, to figure out the mehcanics of it, but there was something else there. "Does it mean more though? The keeping part? If it went...there?"
"What would you like it to be?" he asked, feeling her breath rise and fall beneath his fingers. After a long pause, trying to sort out his thoughts, he finally answered, "That's what I would want, I think, if it went there... To keep you." And he knew that could be the deal breaker for this thing that had started as a game but he didn't want to lie to her.
That was the question, Darcy didn't know what she wanted. She wanted to be here when she had nowhere else to go. "What would keeping me mean?" She asked instead, focusing on what he wanted instead.
Noah's smile slowly slipped away. He didn't exactly frown but he was serious and he looked away for a moment. "We stop looking for each other and just stay together," he replied, a little reluctant to answer his side of this before she'd answered hers.
She propped herself up more on her elbows, looking at him, something glinting in her eyes. “Stay here?” Because that sounded serious, but at the same time, she was looking for somewhere to go. “Or...something else?” She ran her fingers through his hair to get him to look at her again.
He wondered what that look was she was giving him now that he was looking at her again. It unsettled him slightly. "You can stay here. I already said that. There's two other rooms," he said evenly, just re-confirming that was still on the table no matter what. But she was asking him to define what they might be if things went further and he wasn't sure if he wanted to keep answering her when she hadn't. "Something else. What do you want it to be?" he repeated.
“I wouldn’t want to stay in another room,” Darcy said quietly. She was wondering if he was upset with her, if she’d said the wrong thing. Leaning closer, she kept her fingers in his hair, tugging gently. “It doesn’t feel like a game anymore.” She paused for a moment, tilting her head. “I’m okay with that. What more?”
This itself felt like a game, but not a fun one. Trying to communicate about this. It was easier when they were just doing. Noah closed his eyes both because she was pulling his hair and because he needed to look away again. To think. "No, it doesn't, does it? Probably because I really like you at this point." He sighed.
He wasn’t looking at her. That hurt her so badly. She leaned in closer, kissing his jaw. “I like you too Noah.” Her voice was soft, just for him. “I like the game, but I think I do because I like you.”
His mouth quirked up at one corner as he felt her kiss. His eyes remained closed and he asked, "Yeah?" He peeked at her from under one eyelid. "Wouldn't want to play this game with someone else?"
That was a harder question to answer. “No one else could keep up,” she told him, kissing the part of his mouth that quirked upward a little. The hard part was that if he meant just being with someone else, she had been going out with Liam. Still, as far as the game went? She didn’t want to play with anyone but Noah.
That was as good an answer as any at this stage in the game. "You're probably right about that," he replied with a bit more of a smile, wanting another kiss. He didn't want anything casual from Darcy at this point and that was the trouble, he supposed but he didn't want to think about it anymore. He opened his eyes all the way to look at her quietly.
She leaned into kiss him again, rewarding that smile. “I am right.” When he looked at her she smiled a little, laying down to snuggle closer. “I had a bad day and I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t think of anywhere else to go but right here.”
He kissed her back that time and touched her cheek. He liked knowing he was maybe some kind of refuge for her. "You're always welcome here. And you only have to stay in another room if you want to."
She ran her fingers along his chest, then kissed the bare skin there. “I want to stay here.” With him, close to him. Darcy leaned back, kissing him again, harder than before. “And I’d like to play for keeps,” she admitted because she wanted to be with him, his hands on her, bringing back those feelings she’d had earlier.
Noah let out a soft sigh as she kissed his skin. "Mm then stay here." And just like that, unpredictable and passionate combined in his favorite version of her so far. He found her hand and thread his fingers through hers in what might have been a sweet gesture had he not maneuvered her hand behind her back. "Okay then, I'm keeping you."
Darcy gasped when he moved her hand back like that, shock running through her, but it was Noah. And she was fine with being at his mercy. That made it better right? “Okay.”
He heard her gasp and he hadn't wanted to startle her. He wasn't holding her hand tightly so he let it go to chuckle softly into a kiss just as forceful as he one she'd given him.
Hand free, she tangled both hands in his hair, pulling herself closer to him. That kiss was amazing, making her toes curl. He could keep doing that for sure.
Noah paused for just a moment to breathe, relish her fingers in his hair, and say, "Probably won't have a headache for week now." Then he was going for losing himself in her. His lips were swollen but he wasn't done kissing her - not by a long shot - his fingernails trailing upward along her back.
"Good," Darcy said with a grin. She could feel that change though, falling into his kisses and arching into his touches. She matched it with her own nails pressing into his shoulder.
He shivered slightly at her nails, forgetting everything all over again. His fingers sliding down over her hip, pulling her closer there as well. After a few minutes his pace slowed some, kisses becoming more gentle, his hands a little less insistent.
She was doing her best to keep up, but when his pace shifted she let out a soft sigh against his lips. She finally slowed and looked at him, keeping him there against her for a moment before snuggling in closer.
Noah's eyes had been closed while they were kissing but he opened them a moment when she sighed and smiled at her. He was certainly where he wanted to be right now. He ran his fingers back through her hair and then left his arm resting gently across her. Not clinging any longer but keeping her close. He closed his eyes again and whispered, "Is it my turn to find you?"
Darcy laughed a little, running her fingers through his hair before sitting up and moving out from under him. “You won’t have to look far,” she told him, undoing her jeans while she watched him. Once she was out of them she went for her phone, then headed back to the bed, punching out a text to Avery and after a moment Liam before leaving it on the nightstand. “Just wake up.”
He felt her moving and opened his eyes, about to protest but saw what she was doing and quietly watched her instead. He wondered who she was texting at this hour and why but decided he didn't care right now. Maybe she was letting her family know she was safe and that was a good thing. "If I wake up," he murmured sleepily.
Darcy hadn’t slept either and at this point, morning was upon them. She reached for the blankets, pulling them up before crawling next to him, pushing against him to find a space in his arms. “You’ll wake up, but you won’t be alone. And I won’t have to run before your roommate wakes up either.” No, she could stay right where he wanted as long as she wanted.
Noah opened his arms for her, grateful for the warmth of her body and the blankets too. He smiled faintly as she fit into him and he put his arms around her. "Sounds like a good deal, not waking up alone. Waking up next to a beautiful girl," he said quietly.
She rested her head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat and wrapping one arm around his middle. She felt beautiful around him, not awkward and too skinny. “I thought so,” she told him, pressing another kiss to his chest before closing her eyes. “It’s nice to feel safe.”
He began to drift, but he gave her a light squeeze and kissed her face or hair or wherever it was his lips happened to fall. "Mm, yes, safe."
She was nodding, smiling at the kiss to her forehead before closing her eyes and feeling sleep tug at her as well. Before, when she’d just laid there, seemed so far away and that she’d had any trouble sleeping at all seemed ridiculous. It was such an easy thing now, just sighing and falling into it.