"So," said Elizabeth, giving Richard a deliberate once-over, "are you the more charming, slightly less handsome cousin? Are you in finance too?"
"No, marketing." Richard corrected her, grinning in appreciation. "Where did Darcy find you? And do you have any sisters?"
"Four, actually," Elizabeth shot back. "But why ask about them? I'm standing right here."
"Well, you seem to be taken."
"What, by this stiff suit? I'm just using him for his body." She slapped Darcy's arm and turned to him, giving him a saucy smile. "Aren't I, sexy?"
Darcy looked uncomfortable. "Actually, I wasn't aware of that, no."
"Oh come on," Elizabeth teased. "I'm way out of your league."
Darcy looked so surprised at this bald statement that Elizabeth laughed and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Relax and live a little, Darcy." She turned and grabbed Richard's hand. "While I go dance with your cousin."
Richard followed Elizabeth eagerly to the dance floor, looking back uncertainly over his shoulder at a scowling Darcy. "You sure he's okay with this?" he asked Elizabeth as she placed his hands on her hips and reached up to encircle his neck.
"Oh, I know he's not," she smiled. "But you would not believe how hot jealous sex can be. Put your hand on my ass."
Richard hooted with glee. "I wouldn't dare. But tell me more about your sex life. Do you often find ways to make him jealous?"
Elizabeth sighed. "The opportunity doesn't come up as often as I'd like. I'll only do it when I know it's safe, and some of the rich guys I meet at Darcy's work shindigs seem distinctly sleazy."
"Flattered to hear I don't seem sleazy."
She smiled. "No, I can see you're all talk. You'd never make a move on your cousin's girl."
"Hey," he protested in mock affrontery, "What do you call this?"
"This," she explained, "is me making a move on you. A completely harmless move. I'd never encourage a guy who I thought might get the wrong idea. Which results in very little amusement for me."
"And fewer jealousy-fueled interludes of a passionate nature?
"Sadly yes, but there are so many other fuels one can utilize to light that particular fire." Elizabeth glanced over at Darcy, who was still leaning against a high table, sipping indifferently from a tumbler of whiskey expensive enough to expect better treatment.
Richard followed her line of sight. "If you were mine, I'd be watching you just as jealously."
"I'd never cheat."
"Does he know that?"
"I'm not sure." Elizabeth's eyes twinkled. "That's what makes this so much fun."
Darcy couldn't take much more of this. It was torture to watch her dancing with Richard, so light-hearted, so effervescent. Her beautiful brown hair swaying with the music and tickling her naked back, the emerald silk cocktail dress hugging her figure deliciously, the strappy black heels elongating her tanned legs. He wished he were the only one allowed to see so much of her.
Finally, when he saw Richard lean down to whisper in her ear, and saw her throw back her head with laughter, he'd had enough. He set down his single malt with more force than necessary and stalked across the floor.
"Mind if I cut in?" he asked unnecessarily. Grabbing her slim, elegant hand, he tugged a happily compliant Elizabeth off the dance floor while she laughed in apology over her shoulder at his damned cousin.
Darcy strode out of the room and across the hotel lobby, pulling a laughing Elizabeth behind him. "Slow down, tall dark and handsome. Your legs are longer than mine. And I'm in heels."
Darcy slowed, apologizing. They got into the elevator, still silent, both breathing hard. He from a simmering anger, she from the brisk run and anticipation.
He couldn't take his eyes off her, but didn't trust himself to say a word until they were safely inside the room. He hardly waited for the door to shut behind them before he had her up against the wall, his hands everywhere, his mouth silencing her delighted squeak of surprise.
"God, woman," he groaned into her neck after a few minutes, when his frenzy had died down a little, and his hands had slowed, though still roamed deliciously around all the right places. "You'll be the death of me."
"Will I?" Elizabeth snaked a hand down to finger a very specific part of him. "Yes, rigor certainly seems to be setting in –"
He grabbed her hand away, pinned it above her head, and ground his pelvis against hers.
"I can't stand watching you flirting with other men." He growled, biting down on her shoulder.
She tugged hard on his hair in response. "Are you afraid it will lead to something?"
He found the zipper at her back. "It always leads to something."
She started on his collar. "To what?"
He let down the zipper. "Ideas."
She laughed, slipping off his tie. "On whose part?"
He scowled, removing the dress from her shoulders. "Plenty of ideas on their part. But I'm more concerned about yours."
She undid his top button. "You think I'm scoping out other options?"
He let her dress fall at her feet in a pool of emerald silk. "Perhaps."
She continued down his shirt. "Is that what this is? Trying to keep me too satisfied to stray?"
He picked her up and stalked to the bed. "Perhaps."
She held onto his wide shoulders and squeaked as he threw her onto the large bed. "Or just venting your jealousy?" she asked breathlessly.
His heated gaze surveyed her, propped up on her elbows, glossy hair fanned at her back, black lacy underwear hugging luscious curves. "Definitely."
She stretched deliberately, accentuating her assets, as he shucked his jacket and removed his shirt. "What gives you the right to be jealous?"
He put one knee on the bed as he removed his belt and held it menacingly in his hands, eyes flashing. "You're mine."
She laughed and nudged his leg with one manicured toe. "I'm no man's."
He grabbed her foot and slid her towards him roughly, bending over her and rasping out clearly. "You're. Mine." He swallowed her responding laughter with his mouth, plunging and overwhelming her, precluding speech.
She desisted, deciding she had goaded him enough, and spent the next hour enjoying all the masterful ways a jealous man could stake his claim. But at length, when they'd finished, and he lay collapsed on top of her, breathing heavily, his large muscled body pressing her into the mattress, she spoke again.
"All fantasy aside, Darcy," she said softly, "I'm not yours."
He lifted himself onto his forearms and looked down at her, brow furrowed, recalling their previous conversation. "It's no fantasy. We're together."
"In a way. For the time being," she conceded.
"What does that mean?" His hips flexed but he stayed where he was.
"It means that I don't belong to you," she clarified firmly but gently. "I'm choosing to be with you now, and am enjoying it immensely, but you know it's not going to last."
Darcy looked more annoyed than surprised. "I don't know anything of the kind."
She tilted her head. "Come on, Darcy. How do you envision this ending? I want to settle down one day. I can't keep fooling around with you much longer."
He was nonplussed. "Fooling around? How do you know it's not me you'll settle down with?"
Elizabeth raised her eyebrows. "Are you serious?" She laughed and smacked him on one sweaty, well-defined shoulder. "You're not the settling kind. I'm not holding out for you."
"Are you…" Darcy looked at her in consternation. "Are you breaking up with me? While I'm still inside you?"
Elizabeth flexed her pelvic floor and he groaned. "Get out of me, then, so we can have a serious conversation."
He leaned over her to grab the tissue box from the nightstand, then levered himself onto his knees and pulled out. She grabbed a few tissues, then scooted back to sit against he headboard, pulling a crisp white hotel sheet up to her chest.
She looked at him seriously, all traces of her usual light-heartedness gone. "I want a family one day, Darcy. Children. A husband who's around. Not a jetsetter who runs international companies and is never on one continent for two consecutive weekends."
"I want a family too," he protested.
She sighed. "You're not marriage material, Darcy. Not as you are. And not for me."
His brow clouded again. "Why not for you?"
"We want different things," she tried to explain. "I don't care for high society life. I want hearth and home. My career allows me to prioritize family and relationships. Yours doesn't. I want to live in one place. I want to have fun, sure, but on a backdrop of security and stability. Your life is too scattered and unpredictable. That's no life for a family, Darcy. You know that."
Darcy was thinking fast. "I can change things around. I can live in one place, take fewer trips. Delegate more. I can create that stability."
Elizabeth scoffed. "You'd never give up Pemberley."
"I won't be giving it up. I'll take a different role. Step back. I've got good people in place. They'll be happy to step up."
Elizabeth pursed her lips. "Even if you did all that, you'd never be a normal family man, a present father." She took his hand. "This has been fun, Darcy, but I want a normal life. Nothing about you is normal."
Darcy swallowed hard. "But I love you."
Silence. Elizabeth opened her mouth but couldn't formulate a response. "Oh, Darcy," she finally said, almost with tears in her voice. "I'm so sorry. I care about you. I really do, but it was never like that for me. I thought that was apparent to you from the very beginning."
He looked so stricken and dejected that her heart went out to him. "I've loved you for months," he admitted, voice hoarse. "Should I have led with that?"
"No," she shook her head softly. "Nothing you say can change the truth. There's no future for us."
He released a long breath. "Well, I guess that's final enough." He got slowly off the bed and began pulling his clothes on. She watched him, biting her lip.
He didn't bother with the top button of his shirt, and rolled his sleeves up to his elbows. Throwing his jacket and tie carelessly over his arm, he turned to look at her. "I fully understand your feelings. And can now just be humiliated by what my own have been."
She held out a hand in protest but had nothing to say.
He came slowly toward her and brushed his hand through her hair for the last time. "Good bye, Elizabeth." He leaned down and kissed her gently, almost chastely, on the lips. "I wish you the very best of health and happiness."
The hotel room door clicked behind him as he made his way unseeing down the hall. He rode the elevator, crossed the lobby, all in a daze. As he made his way out into the cold night, he faintly heard the doorman call after him, "Hope you enjoyed your stay at the Hunsford Lodge!"
Author's Note: My first modern fic! Also the most graphic. Whaddaya think?
A. Success! Post more!
B. Stick to Regency, ye amateur.
C. No HEA?! We've been had! Your days are numbered.