I was very tempted to make a comment about how, in my experience, ‘‘those type of women’’ were rarely sleeping while staying in bed all morning, but I saw Jane anticipate my remark and, for her sake, bit my tongue.
Gigi caught my eye and I knew she was eager to hear how my conversation with her brother went last night. I couldn’t exactly yell across the table that she was allowed to invite her boyfriend, but when I nodded I knew she got the message by the shocked and hopeful look in her face.
She quickly turned to her brother who only scowled at her. I saw her balk at his expression, so I put my hand on his knee under the table; he turned his head towards me. I tried for a reproachful but sympathetic look and only knew I’d I pulled it off when he swallowed his sour mien, turned back to his sister, and nodded.
She leapt out of her chair, came around to hug him, and left to make a quick phone call.
As soon as she was gone, the sour look was back. I was starting to feel bad; he had been looking forward to a relaxing weekend with those rare friends he was actually comfortable around and he was now stuck with Caroline Bingley and his baby sister’s new, and from the sound of it, first serious boyfriend.
I hadn’t had a full idea formed on how to cheer him back up, but I hated to see him so miserable, and so I decided to push forward anyway.
“What’s the plan for today?” I asked the table.
Through much discussion and, I have to admit, a bit of prodding on my part, it was decided that we would fend for ourselves for the rest of the morning. Charlie and Jane wanted to head over to the stables and take a ride around the grounds, which I was told was as extensive as it was beautiful.
Charlotte and Richard wanted to check out the game room; this, I was informed, was full of board games, video games and Richards’s newest purchase –-a VR machine. Gigi said she would join them and when Darcy told me about his favorite game on it, I said I would love to check it out; Caroline suddenly expressed interest too.
“I think I want to check out the stables first, though,” I commented, turning to Darcy. “Will you walk me over there?”
“Of course,” Darcy replied easily.
I saw Jane give me a funny look, but I knew she wouldn’t call me out on my unusual request. Our mother’s brother owned a farm. We had gone there every summer and every summer I had steered clear of the horses after having a bad experience with a particularly nasty horse when I was eight. It wasn’t the horses I had a sudden interest in, however.
I could tell that the only reason Caroline had agreed to join everyone else in the game room was because she believed that was were Darcy would be, and she looked a little annoyed at my sudden change of plans. I was also fine with this.
We went back to change. I put on a button-up flannel that tied at the waist and showed off a little bit of midriff and combined it with a pair of jean shorts. Darcy came out of the bathroom just as I was finishing a small braid in the back to pull my curls away from my face.
I would have preferred to have time for Jane to come French braid the whole thing, but it seemed a waste of time when I didn’t anticipate it being tied back for very long; Darcy had a habit of tangling a hand in it and undoing whatever style I managed to get it into.
“This is a new look,” he murmured, coming up close behind me and wrapping an arm around to land, coincidently, exactly where there was a patch of skin exposed on my abdomen. Reflexively, my stomach muscles restricted and I leaned back against him more. He grinned when he felt my reaction and I huffed in feigned annoyance, ruining it by smiling and putting my hand over his while I admired us in the mirror.
“You’re so beautiful.” He was suddenly serious, meeting my eye in our reflection.
“Thanks,” I whispered back, a shy smile.
I knew I would never be as beautiful as Jane was, and coming to terms with that at an early age combined with my tomboyish childhood meant I never got used to the idea that I could be beautiful in my own right. When someone as handsome as Darcy said it with such feeling… I loved it, but I didn’t think I would ever get used to it.
We held hands on the walk to the stables. He questioned me again about Gigi’s boyfriend, but I was able to get him talking about his childhood home. This subject he took up with aplomb. I realized that if I hadn’t known him as well as I did now, I would think this was his pride rearing its ugly head. It was pride, though not at all misplaced or tied to his vanity. This was pure pride in his home, in his family, in being able to share it with me. By the time we got to the stables, I felt like I knew and understood him more than I had ten minutes ago.
He showed me around the stables, which were a lot more modern and clean than I assumed they would be. He introduced me to the few horses that were left after Jane and Charlie took theirs out for the ride and asked if he should saddle a few more up for us. He seemed curious but not put out when I declined. Someone who worked in the stables stopped him for a quick chat and I let him know with a look that I didn’t mind the interruption.
When he was preoccupied though, I slipped away to find a secluded spot. The stables were out-– there were too many people working in and around there. Luckily I found an older, smaller barn or stable, or something farm-like, about a hundred feet away which seemed to be full of hay and old farming equipment. I left the door open a crack, made sure the place was truly abandoned, then climbed up into the hayloft.
Darcy came in to find me just as I made it to the top.
“Elizabeth, what are you doing?” he seemed genuinely perplexed.
“I’ve never been in a barn before,” I lied, keeping my answer simple on purpose and staying back away from his line of sight. Soon I heard him climb up to follow me. It felt a little empowering to have someone like Darcy following me around without being prodded and I almost teased him about it. There was little time for what I had planned, however, and by the time he reached the top I needed to have a few things done.
“Why is it,” I heard him say, “that whenever you go off on your own, I always find you with less clothes on than when I left you.” I had untied the shirt from my waist and unbuttoned it so it flowed open. My jeans I had also discarded, which, to be honest, I was regretting as sitting on a bale of hay was so much more itchy than I had imagined it would be. From the distance he was at I couldn’t be sure, but I strongly suspected his eyes were darkening to black.
“I guess you shouldn’t keep leaving me alone,” I smirked, reaching for his belt as soon as he was close enough.
“Or do it more often,” he countered with that special grin of his I only ever saw when we were alone and teasing each other.
“That,” I replied, slipping his belt off and tossing it aside, “would not work well with the things I have planned.”
“Planned?” he asked, his voice dropping an octave as he pulled me up to stand next to him. “What, exactly, have you got planned?”
“Wouldn’t you love to know?” I whispered with a grin. He was already sliding a hand towards my back under the open shirt, his hot kisses trailing lazily from my neck down towards my collarbone. The scruff of his beard marked my skin and I shivered compulsively.
“I would,” he murmured against my skin. His tongue darted out to taste just before he purposefully ran his rough cheek over the sensitive skin of my neck. This move in particular always drove me a little wild, a fact he was well aware of. “Very much so,”
“Well,” I sighed, slipping a hand between us so I was able to pull his t-shirt up enough to run my hands teasingly over his chest. “I had planned on revisiting your office.” I punctuated this statement with my own taste of his neck and loved hearing him groan in response. “I think we should recheck on the stability of your desk,”
“Did you bring that white, lacy thing?” he asked, his grip tightening in anticipation.
“I guess you’ll have to let me go off on my o—.” I bit down on my lip midsentence as he unexpectedly pulled my hips flush up against him and I felt that wonderful friction
between us.
“That will be difficult,” he didn’t let me finish. “I don’t think you realize how difficult it is to let you go off on your own as it is.”
It was hard for my brain to focus on his words as well as his actions, but I was hanging in there. The desperation in his voice made me think of times when I just had to say something whether the person wanted to hear it or not.
“To see you with other people, around other men, and not be able to walk up and claim you.” He scraped his teeth on my neck softly, but a moment later I gasped when he bit down.
It wasn’t hard enough to hurt, but I suspected there would be a mark. This wasn’t the first time I wondered if he did this kind of thing purposefully and now, with his words, I had my answer. We separated momentarily as we shed the rest of our clothes and my heartbeat doubled as he pulled me into this uncharted territory. He had somehow snuck past our lighthearted flirting into something more raw.
As much as it terrified me –even if I couldn’t give meaning right now as to why– I needed to hear what he had to say. With my back against the barn’s wooden wall, he was very much in control and took full advantage of that. He knew all of my secret spots, exactly how I loved to be touched, and I was already putty in his hands. I had wanted this to be about him, but any effort I made in trying to take control and do the things I knew he liked was firmly rebuffed.
“I know you’ll call me possessive, and controlling,” he told me, although I hadn’t had enough time to really process how I felt about what he was saying.
“But it’s you,” he lifted me easily, and then he was inside me. I cried out with no thought to the outside world and I didn’t think I had ever needed to feel him more.
“It’s you,” he repeated, his voice strained. “The only woman I’ve ever wanted… to give anything and everything to,” he paused his strangled speech to kiss me, and I clung to him. “And the only woman… who doesn’t want anything my money can buy,”
“Will.” Despite my earlier plans, I dug my fingers pretty deeply into his back and couldn’t take the time to regret it now.
“Lizzy.” We were both so close to the edge; I wanted to simultaneously freeze time so this moment could last forever and climb that peak with him. “What do you want? What can I give you?”
“You,” my answer came easily, if breathlessly. “Will, I’ve only ever wanted you.”
That was the last thing besides grunts and sighs and a certain calling out of names that happened for several minutes. When I came back to reality, we were lying down in a pile of hay, the sweat cooling on our bodies.
“Will,” I nuzzled his neck. I could tell he was afraid of what my reaction to his, most likely unplanned, speech would be, but I was feeling particularly brave and needed him to know something. “You’re so much more than your wealth.”
“I don’t think anyone outside close friends and family has ever believed that.” The vulnerability in his voice broke my heart, and I pulled him closer.
“Anyone who’s ever met you could see it,” I assured him, “and anyone whose interest in you stops at your bank account has something wrong with them. You’re smart,” I kissed his jaw, “and funny,” his cheek, “and sweet,” his lips.
“You’re the smart, funny, sweet one,” he replied softly.
“Hush.” I narrowed my eyes with a disapproving look, then kissed his surprised lips again. “Thank you. But don’t deflect.”
“Yes ma’am.” He smiled shyly – his rarest smile.
We were quiet for a moment; for me, it was a matter of how much I was willing to tell him right now. He must be well aware by now that emotional talks sent me running in a panic and had been incredibly patient with me on that respect, but I also felt he deserved to be convinced that anyone who only showed interest in him to gain access to the things he could financially provide was shallow, stupid and despicable.
In all honesty, at times his wealth was a barrier between us. I wouldn’t want him to lose the lifestyle he had grown up with nor the bank account he rightfully deserved from all his hard work, but I almost preferred he was simply well off rather than insanely rich.
His pants pocket buzzed, and the moment passed. We took this opportunity to reluctantly get dressed. “Richard says James is here,”
“Come on.” I pulled him close, pulling a few stubborn strands of hay out of his hair. “I’ll teach you the subtle art of torturing your sister’s boyfriend.”
“I’ve never seen you torture Charlie,” Darcy pointed out as we made our way back to the main house.
“Charlie,” I rolled my eyes with good humor. “How can anyone torture him? He’s like a big golden retriever puppy.”
“A puppy?” Darcy’s lip quirked at this description.
“From the moment I met him, that’s all I’ve seen. Even more so around Jane,” I confessed with a smile.
“And me? What did you think of when you met me?”
“A kitten, of course.” I turned to pinch his cheek and he stopped walking, a look of shocked horror on his face.
“A kitten?” he repeated incredulously.
“Well,” I shrugged, leaning close. “A kind of cat. A panther. Dark, sleek…” I trailed off, running a finger up his chest but rolled my eyes at his look of smug satisfaction. “And totally arrogant.”
∞∞∞
We all met up in the game room. Jane and Charlie weren’t back from their ride yet, but no one begrudged the newly engaged couple some alone time. Richard practically had James cornered, his arms crossed and seemingly in the middle of an interrogation. Charlotte looked amused, Caroline indifferent, and Gigi on the verge of panic. Her eyes swept over to us as we entered the room and she looked a little relieved to see us.
“James, you remember Lizzy. This is my brother Will. Will, this is James.” Gigi pulled James away from her cousin and towards us.
“Nice to meet you, Will. I’ve heard a lot about you.” James smiled charmingly at Will, holding his hand out to shake. There was a tense pause; the boy’s smile faltered. I rolled my eyes and non-too subtly elbowed Darcy. He winced, then gripped his sister’s boyfriend’s hand, from the looks of it, rather tightly.
“I cannot say the same, I’m afraid.” Darcy – for this was definitely not the easy going, relaxed Will of only a few moments ago – spoke with a soft, dangerous voice.
This somewhat distantly familiar Darcy stood intimidatingly tall with a closed off, unapproachable look on his face. All in all, he was just about the spitting image of the man I had first met over a year ago at Dr. Bingley’s practice. With sudden clarity, I knew why I was having such trouble connecting the Darcy I know now with the one I had first met, the one I had almost instantly so disliked.
This was that Darcy, but he had changed so much since then. Or, if I was being honest with myself, it was probably my own perception that changed with a more intimate knowledge of him, Either way, I couldn’t help but crack a smile, glad I was not in James’ shoes this time.
“I was saying the same thing,” Not one to be left out, Richard sidled up to James; they essentially had him surrounded as Richard had deftly pushed his younger cousin aside to stand between them. Personally, I was torn. Did I help the brother or the sister? Gigi met my eye with a pleading look and I had my answer.
“Okay boys,” I teased with a smile, putting my hands up in a placating manner. “Easy. This is not how we behave around new people.” I first ushered Richard back to Charlotte with a look to her that I hoped conveyed my intention of having her help out the ladies of the room in keeping the men peaceful. She cracked a smile as well, but took Richard’s arm and led him to a large table that I assumed was the place for board games.
“I think Will has every right to be upset at having this stranger in his home so unexpectedly,” Caroline said; of course, she couldn’t miss an opportunity to support Darcy. I rolled my eyes, turning to Gigi and I also led Darcy off to the table.
“Traitor,” I whispered to her about Carol
ine. Gigi giggled with a bit of relief.
“How about we play a nice game of cards while we all get to know James a little better?” I suggested, practically pushing Darcy into the seat opposite Richard before turning to grab a deck of cards out of the cabinet full of board games. By the time I had found the cards, everyone had arranged themselves at the table. On one side, Charlotte, Richard, James and Gigi sat. Opposite Charlotte was Caroline, who put herself right next to Will. I sat on his other side opposite James.
We spent a good moment discussing which game we all knew how to play, and finally decided on gin rummy. It was not so fast paced that we would be distracted by conversation and, most importantly, everyone already knew how to play it.
“So James, what do you do?” Richard began.
“I play in a band, he said easily, then gave a bit of a self-deprecating smile. “But to pay the bills, I also bartend.”
“Where at?” Richard fired off another question before anyone had time to comment.
“Respectables,” James replied. “Off of Clematis Street.”
“I know it,” Richard informed us with a bit of a frown.
“Richard owns Club Rose, Nello, and Lady Vivien,” Gigi told James, who looked impressed.
“Lady Vivien…” I rose an eyebrow at Richard. “As in Lady of the Lake?”
“A King Arthur fan?” Richard looked immensely pleased.
“My father is,” I said.
Gigi looked like she was just starting to relax when her brother reentered the conversation.
“How long have you two been dating?” he said the last word with a bit of a hesitation, as if he wished there was a better word to use.
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