'She looks prettier when she smiles!' he praised inwardly, afraid that if he were to say it out loud, he wouldn't be able to see her smiling genuinely like that.
"I know and I am glad that you trusted me enough to bring me here!"
Facing away from him as she drew her last smoke, Darica closed her eyes as she felt the nicotine spreading into her body.
So, what if it was dangerous to her body? She was used to it already and at least she had reduced significantly the number of cigarettes she smoked in a day.
Duke watched as Darica blew out the smoke without responding to him. Darica threw the cigarette butt on the ground before stepping on it to douse the fire.
After that, he watched in awe as she crouched on the ground to pick the butt off the ground, making him wonder why she was overexerting herself like that.
"You are my boyfriend and that's the least I can do," saying that to him, Darica began to walk towards the hall.
Duke followed behind her as he didn't want to remain standing there on his own. And judging from the way Darica does her things, sometimes her commands were not outrightly spoken out loud.
One needed to decipher them by watching her reactions, otherwise it was easy to fail to get what she truly wanted to convey.
"It's late now. Let's go to bed. We have things to do tomorrow!" Darica said after throwing the cigarette butt into the trash bin.
Looking at the dark sky, Duke also acknowledged that it was late, though he wasn't feeling sleepy yet.
He wanted to spend more time with Darica but from her tone; he knew that he was getting dismissed.
However, he wouldn't be called a shameless boyfriend if he didn't take advantage of such a wonderful time of the night before going to bed.
Darica looked at her boyfriend with warmth in her eyes.
Although it's been a few days, she was finding him more pleasing to the eyes. Not only did he manage to win over those two crazy uncles of hers, but he was also at peace in her home.
Those two were enough to make her like him more.
She didn't know if her feelings were that of love yet since everything was still new. But she knew that she really liked him and didn't want to lose that great feeling just yet.
As she was looking at him, she saw how his eyes suddenly carried slyness in them in just a short time.
Seeing him changing like that, she couldn't help but wonder what mischievousness he was up to again.
After getting pursued by him for over a year, she had seen so many sides of the man that she was now wondering how many more were in hiding.
"Babes!" Duke, who seemed to be plotting something, suddenly called her.
Darica had already been used to being called with such endearments. And no longer felt awkward upon being called in that way.
She felt very sweet, actually, and she loved the feeling.
"What is it?" tilting her head to the other side, she asked as she looked at Duke, who was now covering the gap between the two of them.
It didn't take long before Darica and Duke were standing so close that there wasn't any gap between them.
Duke's hands slowly reached out to hers, which were on her hips.
Being curious as to what schemes he was up to, Darica just let Duke do whatever he wanted. She was also interested in what he was about to do if that was indeed what she was thinking about.
Darica's hands were placed on Duke's waist. And Darica feeling that waist that was lean and just right for her hands, suddenly wrapped her hands around him as she pulled him further to him.
That was her greatest problem and advantage. Whenever her mind thinks of something, then automatically her body would follow.
Just like in this case. It was Duke who wanted to seduce her from what she was seeing and yet she ended up being the initiator. Not that she minded it or cared.
Since she wanted to go for it, she did.
And that's the situation Duke found himself in.
Who would have expected that Darica would go into her dominant mode and flip the roles unexpectedly like that?
However, since the result was the same, he wasn't one to complain. Especially after fully accepting that there would be moments like these in his relationship.
The second those soft lips he had missed so much landed on his, his right hand automatically found its way behind her head as he drew her close for an intense kiss.
Kissing under the moonlight with the stars as witnesses, the couple didn't care about other people at all.
And the two caught up in their world simply had no idea that they were being watched as well.
"Don't you think that we have stooped so low to act like this?" Craig asked as he felt embarrassed by his actions.
Travis scoffed as he responded, "If you hadn't stopped me, I would have gone outside and beat the crap out of that lad. How dare he eat our baby in our own home ground?" obviously very angry about what he was seeing.
Hearing the shamelessness of Travis, who was obviously biased toward his niece when they both saw that the initiator of the intense moment was Darica herself, Craig began to get a headache.
Dragging him off the window, Craig furiously looked at Travis with a warning gaze and said with gritted teeth, "It's late. Let's go to bed now or you will be sleeping in another van for the next two months!"
Sometimes what was needed was a threat, for its effect was always magical.
Travis being a wife slave as he was, upon hearing that, he shuddered with fear.
The wife was too scary, and he knew that very well. Craig was resolute with what he wanted, and he wasn't one to go back on his words that easily.
And at the thought of sleeping somewhere else that wasn't by Craig's side, Travis decided that dealing with Duke no longer mattered at that moment.
"Hehe, dear, let's sleep. Those two are adults and since our niece wants to swallow him up, then let's give them some privacy!" as he pried himself reluctantly from the window, Travis proved himself to be on another level when it comes to shamelessness.
Seeing him acting like that, Craig didn't feel repulsed, but actually smiled, for that was the man he fell for.
The man he pursued persistently despite the several obstacles that were on their path when they were in prison.
It was his shamelessness that won him over, and Craig loved Travis like that. At least he was like that only when he was with him. Otherwise, he would have skinned a lot of people that got in his way.
Taking a last look at the kissing couple, Craig turned to look slyly at Travis, who was completely unaware of what was coming to him.
'Since you love gawking at others, it's time for you to learn a lesson. How long has it been?'