by Wells, Linda
“Lust, Lizzy, pure lust!” His eyes twinkled and drawing her dress down to her waist, he watched with delight the blush spreading over her breasts and up her throat. “Do you know how much I wanted to climb after you?”
“When was this? How long had you known me?”
“Perhaps a fortnight? We had interacted several times by then.”
“Fought.”
“Courted.” He laughed as her eyes rolled. “I wanted you.”
“Not to marry, but to have.”
“Did you want me?” He whispered and stroked back the curls around her face. “You know what the ache in your loins means now. When I touch you, is it what you imagined then?”
“I was hardly thinking of you touching me.” She looked down and tried to ignore the shivers travelling over her body. Darcy watched her nipples tighten as her desire grew. She licked her lips and gooseflesh covered her arms. He turned her face and his soft, warm mouth found hers. Clasping her to him, he lifted her onto his lap and they curled together, his hand caressing over her breasts as she clung to his shoulders and wound her fingers into his hair. “Willllll.” She whispered at last when his mouth trailed down her throat and his hand bunched her skirt up over her waist. Elizabeth watched as he drank from her breasts again. His nose was pressed into the soft flesh and his long lashes brushed her skin. “Ohhh.” Elizabeth’s head fell back when his tenderly probing fingers slid between her thighs. “Willlll.” She let go of him and opening his breeches, held onto his shoulders and slid down, encompassing his rigid pole.
“Oh yes!” He moaned and laid his head back against the tree. Looking down, he found that his view was obstructed by the gown, and quickly it was lifted up and away. Darcy stared, gripped by absolute possession as he watched his erection disappearing, inch by awesome inch into her body. When she had all of him, he lifted his hips. Elizabeth gasped, but held his eyes. “How do you feel, dearest?” He growled
“Sated.” She murmured and holding his shoulders, kissed him hungrily.
Darcy grasped her head and met her insistent, rampant kisses stroke for stroke, then breaking away, pressed his palm against her tight flat belly and felt himself move within her. Closing his eyes, he groaned.
Elizabeth moved with him, resting her head on his broad shoulder while his hands gripped her hips and lifted her up and down to the rhythm his body demanded. Letting go he wrapped his arms around her and found her mouth, and it was while locked in their kiss that they fell over onto the blanket. Darcy’s mouth rested on her head. Hot pants mixed with his steady low groans, filling her ear as he thrust in and out. Elizabeth clasped his bottom, whispering his name between cries of pleasure. Darcy’s moans became erratic and letting go of her, he pushed up so that the only point of contact between them was their pounding, grinding hips. He nearly forgot to breathe as suddenly a surge of intense power shot through his groin and up his spine. When his eyes opened, he swallowed and gazed upon the sleepy, glowing woman below.
Darcy drew a deep breath and laughed. “You look how I feel.”
“I feel like I am floating.” She whispered and watched him slowly withdraw. Darcy looked down at himself and back up to see where she was focussed. Her bottom lip caught in her teeth was nearly enough to send him plunging back in again.
Darcy collapsed beside her with an elated smile. “I certainly was not able to dream of loving you like this when I stared at you in Hertfordshire. I was in enough trouble with the thoughts I did entertain.” He leaned and kissed her laughing lips. “I could not imagine bringing you such satisfaction either. I would not know how until I loved you.” His palm passed over her belly and he asked softly, “I did no harm?”
“The farthest thing from it. You are always so worried for me, Will.”
Darcy read her smiling eyes and shrugged. “I think of those broken condoms and wonder how you can tolerate me. And then when we are joined, all I want is more and more. It was … I cannot describe how good it feels to … How do you fit him into your slight body?”
“Who?” She laughed when he nodded shyly at his groin. “Oh Will! It has a name?”
“No.” Darcy’s cheeks were flushing. “You have to understand that … well this part of a man is quite independent in nature and … demanding. Marriage is truly a godsend.”
“Is that so?” Elizabeth rolled onto her stomach and propped her head up with her hand. “Do tell?”
“Oh, what have I done?” He laid his head on his arm. “My blasted tongue is loose again. I thought I had learned to control it at last. You see what an affect you have on me?”
“I happen to love your blasted tongue.” She stroked her finger over his lips and then touched the soft hair on his cheek. “Is this what you thought lovemaking would be like?”
“No. I …” He stopped, becoming lost watching the play of sunlight over her glowing skin. “Lovely …” He whispered, caressing his hand over her. The breeze ruffling hair reminded him of their location, and it was only with extreme reluctance that he reached for her dress. Helping her to pull it over her head, he buttoned his breeches and they curled back together. “This was a dream fulfilled today.”
“No, it was not. Your dream had us in a meadow full of flowers.” Elizabeth hooked her hand behind his neck and drew his face down to kiss his mouth. “We are beneath a tree.”
“I have always admired your powers of observation, my love.” He murmured against her lips.
“So we will have to repeat this.”
“Soon.”
“Oh yes.” They kissed again.
“And wear fewer clothes.” He waved his hand over the mess around them and laughed. “Too much time is wasted disrobing.”
She caressed his hair and he missed the change in her tone, “Will you answer my question?”
Darcy kissed her temple and closed his eyes. “What did you ask?”
“When you were with other women, was it like this?”
His eyes opened. “That is not what you asked.”
“It is what I am asking now.” Darcy said nothing and watched her take his hand and trace a finger over his ring as she spoke. “I am glad that you are not immediately trying to placate me with a resounding no.”
“Are you? I am wondering why you would bring up the question at all.” He asked softly, “What do you really want to know?”
Hesitating, she kept her eyes on her tracing finger. “You spoke of watching and desiring me, and I wondered what you thought you would feel if you climbed after me at Oakham Mount. We were not together and certainly we had no expectations of ever being together. If your experience then was only of courtesans, did you think that being with me would be different? Or better? Could you imagine what it would be to … embrace someone you loved? Or did you think of me like those women you … paid.” She was blushing, but she finally raised her eyes.
Darcy considered the questions, and she appreciated the thought he was putting into his answer. “Those rare experiences with courtesans were … good for a brief release but always they were followed by great emptiness. That is why I stopped going. Well, that and not wishing to risk my health.” He shrugged.
Elizabeth’s hand went to her mouth, “The condoms did not fit … Oh, thank heaven!”
Darcy laughed and blushing, shook his head. “Yes … well, I remember a certain night at Darcy House when we were cursing that very fact. That is why I worry about being too much for you, even if I do lose all sense of restraint when I feel you.” He caressed his hand through her hair and smiled when she did, “When I used to watch you … and you know that I watched you a great deal.”
“I do.”
“You see, even then you were bringing me comfort.” Elizabeth smiled and they kissed. “When I watched you, not once did I ever imagine being with you,” he looked down to his lap and back to her eyes, “without it being … an act of love. Not even when I let my thoughts go to my wildest fantasies, my appetite for you to be,” He blushed anew but ploughed on, “bent over a billiar
ds table, or up against a tree with your leg high in the air, or … Oh my … swimming naked in Pemberley’s lake in the moonlight.” Elizabeth’s hand was to her mouth and he laughed and nodded. “Yes, Lizzy. Yes, I do think about these things and so many more. But always … Oh Lord, always, I wanted it to be just as thrilling for you. I guess … I always just wanted to love you. My heart knew long before my head.”
“How do I respond to that?”
He laid his head back against the tree. “Am I shameless?”
“No.” She hugged him tighter and laughed. “Adventurous, maybe.”
“I told you that I have a very active imagination.”
“Still waters run deep.” She caressed back his hair and smiled.
“Passion runs deep.” Their eyes held and drawing a breath, he blushed, “I also think about loving you slowly before a fire, or all night long in our bed, over and over.” His hand waved. “Under a tree on a blanket.” His head shook while he played with her hair. “I do not know. When it comes to you, I am insatiable. It has always been this way.”
Shyness overcame her and she became just as flustered, “Oh my, well … I am glad that I have learned of seemingly effective means of hindering pregnancy.” Elizabeth bit her lip and seeing his creased brow she laughed. “Fitzwilliam, I want to share your fantasies as much as you do, but I would rather not have thirty children in the process!”
“You want me as much as I want you?”
“Well that is a foolish question! I do not recall ever rebuffing your advances, do you? Have I not instigated our play as well?”
“Yes.” His face lit up with a great smile. “Did you dream about me? When we first began to know each other?”
“You were rarely far from my thoughts, but I did not really understand what I wanted.” She blushed and looked down at their clasped hands.
He stroked a finger down her throat. “Did your loins ache for me? Did you wish to feel us joined together …?”
“I blamed it on my intense dislike of you.”
Darcy threw his head back and laughed. “Well, I can accept that. Both are passionate.” Their eyes glowed and he hugged her closely. “I love you.”
“I love you, dear man.” They kissed and she snuggled back into his arms. “So this is what it is like to be married.”
“Have we not been married for almost eight months?” He whispered.
“Not without some terrible drama occupying our every thought or directing our activity.” She looked up at him. “Everything now is just what it should have been, ages ago.”
“Do you like it?”
“I know that more days than not will be spent as we did our morning, separated and working on our responsibilities, but I believe that our reunions will always be sweet, even if it is just … reading our letters together, or falling asleep with no more than a kiss goodnight.”
Darcy smiled and nodded, then lifting his head, grinned with a twinkle in his eye. “Will we be dressed?”
“Fitzwilliam Darcy!”
“The question begged to be asked!”
“By whom?” She demanded.
“The interested parties!” She whacked him and immediately he started tickling her until they fell over onto the blanket. Darcy touched his forehead to hers, “And I am very interested.”
“You have changed so much, Will.”
Darcy relaxed his grip and hugged her. “Have I? I cannot remember so much of who I once was. I suppose that I will have to rely upon old acquaintances to tell me if I have really changed, or if this is all for you alone.” He kissed her and smiled. “I suspect that I am the same at heart, and you just have shown me how to be myself.” Elizabeth’s eyes began to shine and she blinked. Caressing her hair he searched her face, “Sweetheart, what did I say?”
Resting her ear over his heart, she hugged him. “Something wonderful.”
Chapter 22
“Elizabeth …” Darcy laughed. “You are going to have to open it sometime. Surely you are not afraid of Aunt Catherine! How many times have you stood up to her? She calls you Niece, for heaven’s sake!”
“I am not afraid of anything!” She said defiantly. “I am just … appropriately cautious.”
“mmhmm.”
“Why would she write to me, after all?”
“If you would break the seal, your question would be answered, would it not?” He looked over to her from his comfortable seat beneath the portico just beyond the breakfast room. Folding his paper, he set it down and held out his hand. Elizabeth placed the letter in his palm. “You were just waiting for me to ask?”
“It took you long enough to puzzle that out.”
“You know, there is some merit in simply telling me what you want rather than leaving me to read your thoughts.”
“I am sure that there is, however, I look forward to the day when your skills in discernment are honed.”
“As I do for you.” He murmured as he examined the letter in his hands. Looking up, he grinned at her gaping mouth. “Then again, you may not always care to know what I am thinking, love.”
“I think that you had better read your letter, Mr. Darcy.”
“Your letter, is it not?” His lips twitched and he broke the seal. “Let us see.” He scanned the page. “Anne and Albert are getting along tolerably well. He is still prone to fits of despondency …” He looked up, “She has the laudanum under lock and key.”
“That is probably wise.”
“She recommends the same to you.” His smile at her rolling eyes changed to a frown as he read on. “She suggests that as Uncle Harding has a proven taste for the substance that I am likely to develop one as well. A prudent wife should take charge of all medications and dole them out only as necessary to family and staff alike.” Darcy spoke incredulously, “She treats medication like the tea leaves and chocolate you lock up in the dining room.”
“Can you imagine a poor maid having to beg Lady Catherine for a dose of laudanum when she has a bad head?” Elizabeth sighed.
“Likely brought on by the dowager, herself?” He coughed when she laughed. “Poor thing.”
“I wonder how she heard of Uncle Harding’s problems with it?”
“I imagine Mother told her.” Darcy said softly and reading on, sat up. “Ohhh, here we go.”
“What is it?” Elizabeth moved his paper aside and slid next to him to look over his shoulder. Darcy held the pages to his chest and looked down at her with one eyebrow cocked. “Oh, hush. Read!”
“Which is it to be, then?”
“Fitzwilliam!”
Clearing his throat, he chuckled. “Aunt has been interviewing candidates to take Mr. Collins’s position. A reverend came last week, accompanied by his young wife.”
“He is married? He has a living already?”
“He is a curate, but his father was hoping to hold the living on the estate for him. Something happened and he is looking for something far from home … sounds like a falling out.”
“It does not sound good, whatever it is.”
“No.” He read on. “The wife was properly demure and dressed modestly, except for one thing that caught Aunt’s eye. A ring, the woman’s wedding ring.” He shook his head and spoke almost to himself, “Damn it.”
“Will?”
“Aunt is positive it belonged to Mother.” He waved his hand at the letter. “From the description, I am as well. I gave it to Georgiana on her fifteenth birthday, just before she left for Ramsgate.” He closed his eyes.
Elizabeth wrapped her hand around his arm and spoke softly, “I suppose this is one of the things that Wickham sold …”
“I suppose so.”
“What should be done? It was not stolen, but it is an heirloom …”
“Dearest, I am hardly going to rip this woman’s wedding band from her finger. Her husband was probably thrilled to find her such a beautiful ring at a bargain price. And it is surely treasured by them both. Clearly it was meaningless to my sister.” He cleared his thro
at and moderated the bitterness from his voice. “Leave it be.”
“I am proud of you.” Elizabeth smiled and he entwined their fingers to rub his thumb over her ring.
“I see no reason to retrieve it.” Returning to the letter he nodded. “Aunt says that she questioned the girl extensively on the ring … I can only imagine what that entailed … but she only gave seemingly honest replies, as did her husband. She still believes it to be Mother’s ring and asks that you investigate. Also, she directs you, Mrs. Darcy, to be wary of your servants as you likely have a thief in your household. She recommends that a system similar to the one to lock away the laudanum be applied to your jewels.” Darcy let the letter fall to the ground and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, pulling her tighter to his side. “So that was the terrible letter.”
“She was trying to be useful, I think.”
“Of course she was. Perhaps she could travel to Longbourn? Such advice she could give! And you know that Mr. Collins would bend over backwards to heed her!” Darcy smiled when Elizabeth giggled into his waistcoat. Resting his head against the back of the chair, he looked up at the Wisteria vine twisting over the arbour. “There was one more thing.”
“Oh?” Elizabeth tilted her head, trying to see the fallen pages.
“She demands that you exercise your clearly proven wiles upon me.”
“My wiles?”
He returned his gaze to her eyes. “She did witness a kiss in the snow.”
“Ohhhhh.” She smiled and holding his face, tenderly traced her tongue over his lips. “Like this?”
“Mmmm.” Darcy tried to draw her closer, but she remained stiffly in place. “Lizzy … come here …” He urged.
“Why is she meddling with my wiles?”
“Maybe because she wishes she had some of her own?” He suggested with a smile and sighed with Elizabeth’s refusal to play along. “She says you are to convince me to come to Rosings and examine the books, she is concerned about the way Albert is spending the money.”
“It is his money to spend, is it not?”