Sold #2 - A Desperate Love

Chapter 14

It was a long flight, and after spending most of it either talking together or sleeping, Michael was happy to finally land and make their way to collect their luggage. It had been a long, hard flight and Darcy had been doing nothing but teasing him with sweet smiles and words of affection, admitting that she was more excited about their holiday the closer they came to landing and had thanked him numerous times for even thinking of inviting her to go with him. But he didn't see that he'd had an option. He loved her and after spending their first night together and having everything be so perfect between them, he hadn't even had to think twice about taking her with him. She was everything to him, even from the first second he met her and he had known he wouldn't have been able to leave her all alone to waltz off on a twelve day trip to the other side of the world, without missing her and feeling guilty for not being with her. He could only imagine how unbearable it would be and couldn't help but smile as he watched her talking with one of the security guards, arguing that the items in her make up bag were not dangerous weapons but necessary to her beautification techniques. It was amusing to hear her insisting that her nail file was nothing more than that, that she found it impossible to imagine that anyone would use tweezers as a weapon.

Michael was glad to see that, although she was frustrated by his insistence that her entire make-up kit should be confiscated, when she walked back over to him, she had nothing less than a smile of contentment. "Did you win?" He asked, thoroughly amused by how much trouble she could get into when left on her own. It seemed that no matter where he took her, she always managed to get into trouble, but he loved her for it. And Darcy had to admit, it was funny and she couldn't help but laugh.

"Yes I did. He wasn't happy about it but I won in the end." She smiled, slipping her hand into his as she sidled up to him, glad to see that he wasn't annoyed with her for delaying their move from the airport but seemed to feel that he had been given the chance to call Ben and tell him that they had arrived, without leaving Darcy hanging at his side. It was just a little after four o'clock when their plane landed and it was almost a relief to finally get out in the fresh air as Michael hailed a taxi to take them to their hotel near the airport, suggesting that he should hire a car the next day to save on taxi fares and waiting times. He had already talked with her about where he wanted to take her and it seemed much easier to have their own car where they could go wherever they wanted, whenever they wanted to without having to wait for someone else to take them there, following their own schedule and not the one they had planned.

"You know, tomorrow I think we should take the guys out and let them spend some more time with you." Michael thought to himself as they rode in the taxi to their hotel, hoping that although she would be nervous at the first meeting with his friends over dinner, a second night in a more social environment would allow her to be herself and he only prayed that she didn't feel offended by the suggestion. "That way we could all hang out together and it wouldn't have to feel so stressful. And you love to go dancing, so we could go to a club or something, maybe get some dinner...?" He wanted to make sure she was okay with the plan first, before going ahead and mentioning it to the boys when they arrived, in case she decided that she wouldn't be able to decline and admit that she didn't want to go, just because he had made up his mind.

"That sounds nice." Darcy agreed to it easily, happy to know that he didn't expect her to bond well with his friends on the first meeting and that he knew how nervous she was going to be. It was nice to know that he didn't expect her to bust her ass trying to impress his friends just because they were going to meet for the first time and because she very badly wanted him to have a girlfriend, or wife as she was going to be one day, that could get along with his friends and not create problems when they either wanted him to visit or came to see him. The last thing she wanted was some kind of tug of war, catching him in the middle of her and his friends. "Maybe we could go to that club you like? You said you wanted to take me, so what better chance would we have?" She smiled up at him softly, his nod of agreement assuring her that he would do whatever she wanted them to do in order to make sure she was as comfortable as she could be when she met his friends and before she could even think of being as open with them as she was with him. Her personal life was everything to her and Michael knew that it had taken every ounce of trust that she had in her, to be as honest with him as she had been on their first day together, but doing so with his friends was an entirely more complicated thing when she knew nothing of them or of what they thought of her.