“Why is it so hot in here?” he complained, sitting on the edge of the bed.
“You had a fever, remember?” I rolled my eyes. “I’ll turn the air down to normal.” I moved to do that, but he caught my arm and pulled me so I was standing between his legs.
“Thanks for all of this, Elizabeth,” he looked almost shyly up at me. “I know I’m not the easiest person to take care of.”
“You’re not the best,” I smiled teasingly, running a hand through his hair, “but you’re not the worst.”
“I don’t get sick often,” he went on. “And when I do, I’ve never really had…”
I frowned as he trailed off, looking embarrassed; I remembered when I learned through Georgiana how young he had been with their mother died, how their father had dealt with his wife’s death by throwing himself into work and just about forgetting he’d had kids. Later, Darcy told me that he and his father had reconciled before the older Darcy had passed on, but that couldn’t have made up for the neglect he had experienced as a child.
I leaned down and kissed his forehead, suddenly very sorry for the times I had lost my patience with him that weekend. My mother was far from perfect, but she knew how to baby us when we were sick and for perhaps the first time ever, I wished I was more like her.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t nicer,” I said with regret. His head, which I had pulled to rest against my chest in an embrace, snapped back.
“You were perfect,” he said, disbelief clear in his voice.
“I wasn’t perfect,” I admonished lightly, a smile tugging up at my lips. “We’ll just do better next time, okay?”
“Next time?” he asked with a smile. I blushed, pushing at his shoulder and leaving the room to adjust the air.
∞∞∞
We fell asleep in his bed that night, but when I woke in the early morning before the sun had even risen, he was sitting up with his back against the headboard and his computer in his lap. I had been on my side facing away from him, but when I half turned to see what he was doing, I frowned.
“What are you doing?” I asked, attempting to sound disapproving; all I heard was the sleepiness in my voice and I wasn’t sure it was conveyed.
“Just catching up on emails,” he said around a mouthful of cough drop.
“Darcy, you’re still sick,” I told him, turning my body so I faced him.
“I feel much better this morning,” he replied. “And I’ve been sleeping all weekend, my brain needs stimulation.”
“Fine,” I huffed, tucking my pillow under my head and attempting to return to sleep. “Undo all my hard work. When you relapse, you can be the one to call Gigi and tell her it’s your fault, not mine.”
“I highly doubt answering a few emails is going to push me over the edge, but duly noted,” he replied with amusement.
I fell back asleep for a few more hours, but awoke to the sound of my cell phone’s alarm going off. I reached over blindly, thinking I was at home in bed and almost poked Darcy in the eye.
“Lizzy,” he grumbled, grabbing my hand and bringing it down so it rested on his chest instead. At some point he had apparently put away his laptop and fallen back asleep.
“Sorry,” I yawned, curling into his side. “Hit snooze, will you?” I didn’t open my eyes, but felt him shift and then the room was quite once again.
“Why did you set it so early?” he wanted to know.
“I still have to go back home before work,” I reminded him, dreading the early morning rush that was about to happen. “I don’t have any clothes here, remember?”
“I feel like we’ve had this conversation before,” he replied. I didn’t bother reminding him that it had been at the hotel when I’d had to sneak back to my room to change rather than join him, as he had requested, in the shower. “Just bring a few things over so we don’t have to keep running into this problem.”
That had made sense to my sleep-addled brain at the time, and I remember murmuring some kind of agreement.
∞∞∞
I had returned home, showered and changed, and then turned right back around and left for work; it was on the way there when I realized that Darcy asking me to keep stuff at his place might be one more indication that we were more than secret sex partners—or, not so secret anymore as the case may be.
We were still consummate professionals at work, and only Charlotte and Jane knew we were anything more than that outside of it; George too, I guess. I was relieved when he hadn’t spread the word around that I was sleeping with my boss. I mean, he may have tried and no one may have believed him, but I’m sure I would have heard something about it, even if a coworker was only telling me because they thought I’d get a kick out of the rumor.
Charlotte and I had gone out of the office for lunch, which is why I felt comfortable bringing up the subject of Darcy and our unusual relationship.
“Uh, yeah,” she said, as if stating something obvious. “He’s definitely your boyfriend.” She must have seen the look on my face because she added, “Sorry?”
“You’re just saying that because our relationship,” I hesitated, wishing I had used a better word. “Sex partnership, whatever, isn’t secret anymore.”
“No, my dear.” She shook her head. “I am saying that based on the evidence.”
“Which is?” I prompted. She set her fork down, clearly having been ready and willing for this conversation.
“Okay, in most relationships, your boyfriend does not allow you to see other men, yes?”
“Allow…” I hedged, but at her exasperated look, I nodded. “Okay, yes.”
“And you, girlfriend, do not allow him to see other women,” Charlotte went on, emphasizing the word to prove a point.
“Okay, but that just proves we are casual—we never sat down and said we were exclusive.”
“No,” she laughed. “He just hijacked the date you were supposed to have gone on with George, and you told him Caroline Bingley wasn’t allowed to flirt with him.”
“So?” I shrugged like that was no big deal. “That’s only two people, not the entire human race.”
“Okay,” Char narrowed her eyes at me. “So if any other woman started coming onto Will, or if you found out he was taking another woman out to dinner, that wouldn’t bother you.”
I didn’t have to think long. “Shit.” I sighed. “Okay, point for you.”
“Next,” she was clearly on a roll and not ready to give up, “you exchanged Christmas gifts”
“I bought you a present too,” I pointed out.
“I am not a guy, nor is there any chance we will have sex,” she said dismissively.
“I bought Charlie and Richard presents, both of whom are men and, while I’m not going to ever sleep with them—” I replied, but she cut me off there.
“Exactly. You are never going to sleep with them. You might as well have been buying presents for your brothers. Strictly sexual relationships do not exchange gifts,” she explained sagely. “Strictly sexual relationships meet up for sex and then go their separate ways. Do you stay over at each other’s place after the sex is done?”
“So we’ve fallen asleep and suddenly it’s morning,” I frowned. “It’s not like we ask the other one to stay the night.”
“Of course you don’t ask,” she rolled her eyes. “I’m beginning to realize you two don’t talk about anything. But fine, I’ll counter with this then: Is there cuddling?” she raised an eyebrow. I flushed and she nodded, taking that as an answer.
“Four,” she held up four fingers. “You went and took care of him when he was sick.”
I knew this would be a point against me, although I did try to argue that I would have done the same for her.
“That’s very sweet, but we’ve already established there is a different meaning when sex is involved,” she reminded me.
“We didn’t have sex all weekend,” I eagerly pointed out. She looked at me sympathetically. “No, don’t, I hear it.” I held up a hand, then turned my palm
and rested my face in it.
“Now he is asking you to bring your things into his apartment.” she sat back with a flourish, clearly feeling like she’d won this debate.
“You’re making it sound like I’m moving in,” I said with renewed vigor. I wasn’t done arguing yet. “He said a few outfits. Which, you know, makes sense if I’m over there some nights anyway. I could have gotten a few more hours of sleep this morning if I had only brought a change of clothes.”
“Sure,” Charlotte nodded. “A few outfits make sense.” I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at her suddenly agreeable tone. “And, probably an extra toothbrush for the same reason, a few toiletries; he’ll probably have your favorite breakfast cereal on hand, and he’ll TiVo your favorite shows just in case you stop by.”
“Who uses TiVo anymore?” I asked. She rolled her eyes, and then leaned forward.
“Truth.” She paused until I nodded reluctantly. “Does all of that sound plausible, if it hasn’t already taken place?” I thought a moment; it was especially easy to imagine after having spent the whole weekend there.
“Plausible.” I finally answered.
“You, my dear, have a boyfriend.” She sat back again with the same triumphant smile.
“Well, shit,” I sighed.
“What is the problem?” she asked, clearly amused at my defeated tone. “He’s hot, he’s rich, and, apparently, he’s a dynamo in the sack.”
“We have nothing in common,” I said. “And he’s my boss. Eventually we are going to break things off, and then what am I supposed to do?”
“Nothing in common.” Charlotte echoed. “So, the whole time you spent at his place not having sex, you must have been bored out of your mind.”
I started to agree, but then I flashed back to all the conversations, jokes, and teasing we had done when Darcy had actually been awake; how we hadn’t even needed to debate what to watch on TV; how, when he was sleeping, I picked up his kindle and chose a book from his library with ease. “Er, well,”
“Yeah, I thought so.” She smirked.
“Stop looking so smug.” I tossed a crouton at her and she laughed.
“Since we solved your boy problem, can we talk about mine?” Char asked.
“Billy Collins?” I proposed and she gasped, exaggerating shock.
“Bitch!” she said, throwing the same crouton back at me.
“How are things with Richard?” I asked more seriously.
“You want to talk about casual,” she rolled her eyes. “He’s kind of a slut. But I think I’m winning him over with my charm and good looks.”
“How can he resist?” I grinned.
“Full disclosure?” She gave me a playful grin. “The sex is amazing.”
“Best ever?” I prompted knowingly.
“I think so,” she said, nodding. “I don’t know what’s swimming around in that family’s gene pool, but it sure knows how to please a lady.” We both burst into laughter.
“You know, Richard has an older brother,” I said. “It would be interesting to know…”
“If the whole family shares that particular talent?” Charlotte helped finish my thought.
“For purely intellectual curiosity, of course,” I clarified.
“Of course,” she nodded, and then tapped her finger to her lips in thought. “How to come by this knowledge?”
We left that thought unresolved, as we had to make it back to the office.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The Mystery of Henry
Next Friday, however, the four of us happened to all go out for dinner. We were walking around downtown afterwards when, with a meaningful glance at me, Charlotte asked Richard about his brother. I couldn’t help the smirk that came onto my face, and I could see Darcy notice it.
“Is he married?” she asked.
“No,” Richard replied slowly, clearly curious about her line of questioning.
“Girlfriend?” I added, glancing at her though my question was directed to him.
“Not at the moment,” he replied, frowning at Darcy as if he could shed some insight.
“Too bad,” I tsked and she nodded solemnly.
“Yeah, really, too bad,” she added.
“Why is that, exactly?” Richard wanted to know.
Neither of us answered for a moment. We each, I think, hoped the other would be able to come up with a legitimate reason why we were curious about the love life of someone we had never met.
“We have a friend,” Char finally jumped in. “Whom we were trying to set up, and we thought who better than a Fitzwilliam man?” Richard preened a little bit at the compliment, but Darcy kept his head.
“Then why are you disappointed to learn he’s single?” he asked. Char hesitated, so I jumped in this time.
“Oh, wait, you said he didn’t have a girlfriend?” I asked.
“Oh!” Char shook her head. “Didn’t. Well, that’s great.”
“So, you’ll be setting this friend up with Henry then.” Darcy clearly saw through us and was calling our bluff.
“Of course,” I challenged, and then slid my gaze to Charlotte, hoping she really did have a friend who needed and wanted to be set up. From the deer in the headlights look she was giving me, however, I had to conclude that she didn’t.
“Henry lives on the other side of the country,” Richard finally pointed out.
“Oh darn,” she said with more relief than disappointment.
“Oh well,” I shrugged indifferently, and then wrapped my arm around Darcy’s. “Anyone else in the mood for ice-cream?”
“Me,” Charlotte chimed in, leading the way into the ice-cream shop we were just passing.
We picked out our treats, and then went back outside to keep walking while we ate. Charlotte and Richard soon ducked into a store, but Darcy and I decided to wait outside for them. It was packed, and neither of us had any interest in looking around that particular store.
“Are you going to tell me what that whole conversation on Henry was really about?” Darcy asked after a moment of silence. I couldn’t help but laugh, but I knew he would be embarrassed if we began discussing the sexual prowess of all the men in his family, so I shook my head.
“Trust me,” I said with a grin, “it’s stupid, and you don’t want to know.” He frowned at that, so I shrugged. “I’ll tell you,” I offered. “But I’m serious, you don’t want to know.” He seemed to think this over.
He looked so adorable, dressed in his three-piece suit, looking so serious and thoughtful even as he held a plastic cup of melting ice cream. I took a step towards him, my hand going to the back of his neck as I guided his head down so our lips could meet. His mouth was cold, and he tasted like chocolate and mint.
“Mmm,” I said approvingly when we broke apart, “much better than Scotch.”
“You’re trying to distract me,” he accused, though he followed up that statement with another kiss.
“No I’m not,” I defended myself when he pulled back. “You’re just so handsome sometimes; I can’t help myself.”
He looked exceedingly gratified at this comment, though he did furrow his brow after a moment and say “Sometimes?”
I rolled my eyes, though a huff of laughter escaped me as I head-butted his bicep. “Darcy.”
Charlotte and Richard came back out of the store, and we all continued walking. Richard and Darcy got into a discussion about cigars, and Charlotte hung back so she and I had a bit of privacy.
“Richard wants to know why we’re so interested in his brother,” she murmured to me with an amused smile. I laughed lightly, hoping not to draw the attention of the guys.
“Darcy too.” I replied. “I told him he didn’t want to know.” She giggled, which set me off.
“I guess we didn’t exactly throw them off the trail with our totally believable story about setting him up with my fake friend,” Char commented.
“No, they seemed to see right through that somehow,” I replied dryly.
“I’m com
mitted now, I need to know,” she said with a bit of feigned desperation.
“Well they’re not going to know,” I pointed out.
“Men talk about sex all the time,” she reminded me.
“Sure, but when men talk about sex, they’re never truthful about it. Or, if they are, not when it’s bad.”
“Hey, I’m the know-it-all when it comes to men and sex.” She poked me playfully in the side. “If you steal my niche, what good am I?”
“Sorry,” I laughed. “I’ll leave it in your capable hands, my guru. How do you propose we solve this mystery?”
“That is tough.” She furrowed her brow in a look of deep concentration, her eyes on the ground in front of us. I saw the cousins stop and wait for us to catch up. “I mean, we either need to find someone with the right experience, or bite the bullet and do the research ourselves.”
I was relieved she had worded that in such a way that Darcy and Richard, who had turned towards us when we finally caught up, would have no idea what we were talking about.
“Might be interesting,” I said, trying to keep my tone nonchalant now that we were in their company again.
There was a mischievous grin on Charlotte’s face; I should have known then that she was about to say something terrible, but it wasn’t until it was too late that I realized she hadn’t noticed the boys were close beside us once more,
“I’ve never been with brothers befo—”
“Charlotte!” I cut her off, wincing and laughing at the same time, my hand covering my mouth as I elbowed her and looked at Richard, who looked both unsure and startled.
“What was that?” Richard asked, his eyes narrowed.
“Nothing,” Char giggled, a mixture of nervousness and amusement.
“Okay, what the hell? Is this still about Henry?” Richard demanded.
“Uh,” Char hesitated.
“How could it be?” I asked, trying to help her. “We’ve never even met Henry. He lives thousands of miles away.”
“Right,” Char nodded.
“You said you would tell me,” Darcy reminded me. He looked curious as well, but hesitant.
“You did not.” Char seemed scandalized.
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