He gets it Right the First Time

"You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you."

Elizabeth's mouth fell open.

"I cannot fix the hour or the moment that I realized I was in love with you. I simply knew it. You have bewitched me body and soul."

Elizabeth stood blinking. Suddenly her mouth shut with an audible snap! Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, Master of Pemberley and half of Derbyshire, was in love with her!

"I am sensitive to the high compliment you pay me Sir, but I am unable to accept your offer…"

"Might I enquire as to why I am refused the honor of your hand, Elizabeth?"

"I cannot imagine that you would be interested in marrying a woman from the same family you discouraged your friend from."

"I can assure you, Elizabeth, that Bingley is a man of his own regard. While I pointed out the potential for a mercenary mother-in-law, I did not call your sister, Jane, mercenary. She has every sweetness about her that repulses the idea of seeking anything other than someone's good opinion."

"Caroline Bingley doesn't seem to share that opinion."

"That harpy will do anything!" Mr. Darcy slammed his fist on the mantle. Elizabeth started to her feet instinctually sought to comfort him in his distress. "As if I would give precedence over you or Jane. My only negligence can be that, in my effort to discourage her, I claimed no attraction to you. Her barbs were becoming less veiled by the hour. I stand by the statement that a mercenary woman is most abhorrent and I never wish for a compromise."

"Ah, but Sir," came a soft voice, "you are compromising me."

Darcy turned from the mantle to find Elizabeth not a foot behind him. Shocked at her proximity, her scents of jasmine and something he couldn't quite capture, Darcy's senses went reeling. As Elizabeth reached up to take hold of his lapels, Darcy felt a sharp intake of breath and wondered if his heart couldn't be heard in the next county.

"Then you do not find me only tolerable?"

"Dearest Lizzy, I could not find words to describe how beautiful, womanly, and intelligent I find you..." Darcy got not another word in as Elizabeth's lips met his.

Time stood still for the moment of their first kiss.

And promptly resumed to find both flushed face and shocked.

Darcy wasted no time encircling Elizabeth in his arms, drawing her ever closer. As her hands slid under the lapels of his coat and over the soft white linen of his shirt, Darcy was sure he had died and gone to heaven. The spark of the moment grew ever stronger as Darcy lowered his mouth slowly to capture Elizabeth's lips for a second time.

"Please tell me you will accept this love struck man as your husband. For me, no other woman shall ever touch my heart and soul as you have."

"Yes Fitzwilliam, I am yours."