Page 1 of Third Time is the Charm (Passion and Perseverance #3)

Darcy

“What the fuck?” Darcy cursed noticing that the door to his apartment was cracked open, as Charles and he exited the elevator.

“Is someone here?” Charles asked, concerned.

“Not that I know of…” Darcy responded, trailing off as his heart picked up speed at the thought of one person who did have a key, who could be here looking for him.

Beth.

He glanced over at Charles, who from the looks of it, was thinking the same thing. Pushing through the open door, he moved quickly into the apartment, eager to see her, to apologize for what he had said.

“Beth! Are you here?” he yelled as he strolled purposefully through the apartment looking for any sign of her.

When he walked into the bedroom, he stopped in shock, seeing the state of his bed, a bed that had been made yesterday morning when he left and should have still remained that way considering he spent last night at Charles’ place.

“ What the fuck…” he muttered as he saw the definitively feminine clothes strewn about his floor. He followed the trail of clothes into the empty bathroom, Charles not far behind him.

“What happened?” Charles asked, looking around him in complete confusion.

“I have no fucking clue. This was all clean yesterday when I left for work, and I haven’t been back since, but clearly, someone has, and whoever let them in is going to have to deal with me.” Darcy threatened in response, his mind already making its way towards the correct conclusion.

These weren’t Beth’s clothes and he had an unfortunate suspicion to whom they belonged.

He turned abruptly and stalked passed Charles, his angry footsteps falling hard on wooden floors as he walked straight towards the room he knew would contain the answer to this mess.

He clenched his jaw, seeing the door to his studio wide open. Rage blurred his vision at the invasion of his privacy; he didn’t even hear or realize Charles’ footsteps following not far behind him.

Walking into the room, he turned to see the image he had begun to dread - Caroline.

She was lounging on the couch, naked, giving him a coy smile.

Anger radiated off of him as his eyes met hers; he could almost feel the rage burning through his gaze. There was no possibility of her thinking that he was happy or aroused to see her, that was clear.

“Get the fuck out of my house,” Darcy said, his voice low and deadly, making it clear who was in charge.

God, how he was so close to picking up the stool next to him and throwing it across the room, especially when her response to his order was a throaty laugh as if he were just a little boy throwing a fit.

The amount of pleasure that he got by what happened next is impossible to describe.

“ Caroline?! Oh my God,” Charles’ shocked voice exclaimed from the doorway, as he turned his face away shielding his vision from looking at his sister lying naked in his best friend’s house.

Her confident smirk had been effectively wiped from her face once she realized that Darcy hadn't come home alone. She quickly sat up and covered herself with the sheet she had left draped on the couch.

“Charles, what are you doing here?” she spat, vehemently.

“ Me? What are you doing here? And why are you naked?” Charles asked in confused disgust.

Darcy let a smug smile spread across his face, his eyes still sending Caroline the message of complete and total disinterest, mixed with humor at her embarrassment. He enjoyed the dark scowl that she sent back.

Now, that was the Caroline that he knew; the one who was always using you as a part of her plan.

For how much work she put into her facade in order to get her away, he was always so shocked at how quickly it crumbled when something truly unexpected happened to thwart her.

That was always her downfall; all of her best laid, most well-executed plans disintegrated at the shock of failure as her anger consumed all of her emotional capacity, preventing her from keeping up her ruse.

He watched her with narrowed eyes as she stalked over to him, stopping right in front of his face to whisper, “We aren’t done…”

With those parting words, she sidestepped him and walked to the door, ignoring her still-shocked brother as she moved right past him without any further acknowledgment.

“Caroline,” Darcy called to her, his voice menacing, “we’ve been done for a long time. Don’t come back.”

If this were Ancient Greece, her stare would have turned him to stone, but, as it was, her enraged look only brought a bigger smile to his face. Turning, she left the room, slamming the door behind her.

The sound of the door shook Charles from his shocked stupor as he looked at Darcy for a brief moment before turning toward the door to go after his sister.

“Caroline, what the hell is —” Charles began to yell before Darcy grabbed his arm and interrupted him.

“Let her go,” Darcy said calmly. “I can explain.”

“Well, someone had better!” Charles exclaimed, his voice bordering on anger, which was a rarity for him. At least he had stopped from leaving the room to pursue his sister for answers.

God only knows what she would have told him.

Darcy waited for another thirty second, even though Charles was staring at him impatiently.

When he heard the front door close as Caroline left, Darcy walked over in front of Charles and opened the studio door, exiting the studio into the hallway.

Charles followed him as he walked into the dining room.

“Darcy, what is going on? Why was Caroline here, like that?” Charles asked again.

Ignoring the question for the moment, Darcy pulled out two glasses from the bar, tossing them carelessly onto the countertop as he grabbed the bottle of scotch and pulled the stopper out.

“Scotch?” he asked Charles.

“Shit… make it a double,” Charles responded, the disbelief and astonishment over what he had just witnessed still having trouble sinking in.

Darcy quickly poured them each generous glasses of the liquor, taking a deep swig before addressing his friend again.

“I have all the answers that you want and I will explain everything to you, but you have to promise me one thing,” Darcy said, his voice deathly still with the gravity of what he was about to ask.

“Ok, sure, anything,” Charles said quickly, willing to do anything at this point to understand what had just happened.

“I need you to promise me that you won’t tell Jane about what just happened,” Darcy began.

“Don’t worry, she knows most of what I’m about to tell you, but after everything that happened with Beth last night, after everything that you know that I said to her, I don’t want her to ever know that Caroline was here. ”

“Ok…”

“I need to make amends for what I did last night and I don’t want her to ever have to walk into this apartment and imagine me coming home to find Caroline, naked, in my studio.

I can only imagine what she thinks of me right now; I can’t bear the idea of her having even the smallest thought that there is still something between Caroline and me. ”

Even just saying the words out loud sent a shiver of dread through him; his heart, an organ that he had all but given up on, clenching painfully at the thought of hurting Beth even more than he already had last night.

“Ok, I promise,” Charles agreed softly. “Now, what do you mean by ‘still’ something between you and my sister?”

Darcy took a long drink of his scotch, preparing for the long, much-overdue explanation that was about to follow.