THANE & DARCY
Thane
Lila's car was in the driveway next door, so I headed over. My baby sister had lived there with her friends until she had gotten married and moved in together with Evan Prince—my ex-best friend and Navy SEALs buddy. I was sorry of how things had gone awfully wrong for us. It had started with us fighting over Candiss Wakefield (the blonde goddess who wreaked havoc on both our lives) but had ended with me trying to oust him from the business we owned together. Luckily, Lila and Evan were still talking to me. Now, don’t get me wrong, Lila loved me dearly; however, I may have done some things that made her question if shelikesme. The jury was consistently out on that one.
Lila’s friends, Shellene, Darcy, and Remi, still lived there, and I wasn’t sure if they would be counting their lucky stars that I was moving next door or hoping a meteor would drop on my house. Likely the latter, if I had to guess. After the way I had behaved, I knew I deserved nothing better, but I was hoping I could redeem myself by being the best neighbor they’d ever had. Of course, convincing Darcy of that would be my hardest task. Of all of my sister’s friends, oddly, she was the one that mattered the most. Then again, she was the one most likely to snipe me in my sleep—I might have to consider changing all my windows to bullet-proof glass.
I reached the front door, knocked, and waited. No answer. I stood there for a few minutes before knocking again. What the hell? Why is no one coming to the door? My sister's car was right here. Could they be out back and no one heard me?
Suddenly, a blood-curling scream sounded from somewhere in the house. It was faint, but it was perfectly audible. Scared out of my mind that someone was hurt or worse, I reached in my jacket pocket for my set of keys. I had never been happier to own this piece of property. When Lila had wanted to move out of our parents’ house, I had suggested this place as it was my nicest property and right on the beach in Miami, Florida. I wanted my sister to be comfortable and I knew she would love it here. My only demand was she pay for the utilities. Since it was a little too much for her to handle alone, she had asked her friends to move in with her. It was a perfect solution for everyone.
I slid the key into the keyhole and opened the door looking all around to see if I could identify where that scream had come from.
As I entered, my mind was racing. Where the hell is everyone? And what the fuck am I doing? Isn’t this an invasion of privacy? Didn’t I learn anything from my recent blunders. Respecting other’s boundaries? Not trying to ruin my friends’ life?
But that scream…
Being in Evan’s shadow for so many years really screwed with my moral compass. I was betrayed so many times, it was almost justified to do something about it.
I did regret it, though, the lying, the scheming, trying to ruin him. Especially after learning this was all based on a misunderstanding. I thought Evan had stolen Candiss from me. She had been my first and only love. I was shocked to discover she was playing Evan and me against each other all along.
I had only started to realize how bad I had become. I always had to be on top of others to be the best. I was obsessed with success no matter who got in my way. However, it was not an excuse to treat other badly, but I hadn't been able to help it.
The panic subsided as blaring heavy metal music pulled me from myself. Well, that explained both the scream and why no one had come to the door. I chuckled at the familiar “The Devil You Know” tune by Anthrax that was now playing. I went into the kitchen, expecting to find someone there, but it was empty.
The shower was running but that wouldn’t be Lila since she didn’t live here anymore. Judging by the music, it was probably Darcy.
I should have left but I had to see if my sister was okay. The scream still haunted me, even if the music was a plausible explanation now.
Following the hallway to the living room, I found it empty too, so I retraced my steps to the kitchen, looking out into the backyard. There was no one swimming or lounging beside the pool.Where’s Lila?It was unlikely she’d be upstairs, but I might as well make sure, since I was already inside, right? As I passed by the bathroom, the dark clothes on the floor confirmed it was Darcy in the shower. Lila was all about color, so they wouldn’t be hers.
Darcy Blackwell. She would be the bee trying to sting me if I was allergic to them. Ever protective of Lila, she didn’t approve of me as a human being. I had to think of something to putMiss High-and-Mightyback in her place—but what? Darcy and I were forever trying to outsmart each other in our tactics to get back at one another. I can’t even remember why or how that started.
Childish? Maybe, but Darcy knew our deal and she loved the attention.
I bit my tongue. Her last prank consisted of moving every single object in my house just a quarter of an inch to the left--she knew it would drive me mad. I spent days trying to move everything back in place and it was still bugging me just thinking about it. I was obsessed with order, especially since it had meant life and death for me for a long time. An unorganized SEAL is a dead SEAL. I had learned this lesson the hard way. I was a happy civilian now and happier than ever to have some levity in my life with someone like Darcy, but some things stuck. Not all of them bad, but not all good either.
Shaking myself from the past, I checked each of the rooms but found no Lila. Going to the window in the last room, I looked out. Her car was still in the driveway. But no other cars and no Lila meant that I was in the house alone with Darcy.Oh, this will be good. There I was, playing villain again. You’re really a shithead, Thane Erikson.But this was Darcy, and I couldn't pass on this chance, soI stood outside the bathroom door staring at her clothes on the floor, and an idea popped into my dark mind. I was ashamed of myself even as the twisted thoughts materialized into action as I grabbed her clothes and put them in her hamper. I walked back to the bathroom and looked at her towel.
No—I couldn’t do that.Could I?
I could. I promised myself that this would be the last time I would be that kind of guy; I wasn’t proud of it, but I was tired of her judging me all the time and I just wanted to embarrass the hell out of her one last time. She needed to loosen up and to get over herself.
I grabbed all the towels I could find and took them downstairs, laying them on the kitchen chairs, far out of Darcy’s reach. When I made my way back upstairs, the shower had stopped. I froze and crouched on the staircase, hoping she couldn’t see me. I suddenly felt like one of the characters in my video games stalking my prey, which took me back to my Navy SEAL days—though Evan was much better at stealth attacks than I was. It was something I had always been jealous of.
“What the hell?” I heard Darcy say. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. Not again.” There was the trucker mouth I knew and loved. That was Darcy for you.I’m not going to lie; it turns me on.
I waited on the stairs, repressing an urge to laugh with both hands, until I heard her go to her room. I moved up a couple more stairs until she was in my view. She couldn’t hear me because Anthrax was now belting out “I’m Alive.”
Wow. Now, I’ve seen lots of women, but Darcy’s body was a 10. I was taken aback by it and almost forgot what I was doing until she grabbed a blanket from the bed to cover herself. Her athletic body was the perfect finish to her dark features and intense brown eyes.
What happened next wasn’t something I planned on doing; it just happened. Darcy grabbed her hairbrush and used it as a microphone as she began dancing and singing to the song filtering through the air. Her long brown hair swished from side to side as she moved with a sexy grind to the beat. Grabbing my phone, I clicked the camera icon and switched it to video. Immediately, I started recording the half-naked, dancing beauty. I couldn’t take my eyes off her sexy body and managed to get about 30 seconds before she looked up and saw me. Her eyes grew big, then flashed from dark brown straight to black while her jaw dropped.
“Thane!”
Our eyes locked, and she started running toward me, dropping the blanket. “I’ll get you, Thane Erickson, and you’ll regret you ever met me.”
Stopping the video, I clutched my phone, and bounded down the stairs two at a time, Darcy in pursuit as I ran down the hallway to the sliding doors in the kitchen. “I’ve been regretting that for some time, actually,” I yelled back at her. I looked over my shoulder; she was right behind me, so I opened the door and ran out into the backyard. I stopped before I got to the pool and felt a thud against my back as Darcy slammed into me, still naked. She didn’t seem to care. I held the phone high, and although Darcy was tall, she wasn’t as tall as me. She tried to reach my phone but failed. I tossed my phone onto the grass, and when she turned to chase it, I went after her, picking her up and bringing her to the pool’s edge, tossing her into the pool effortlessly.