a/n: Wow. You guys did a fantastic job reviewing last chapter. I really wanted to update sooner to reward you guys for it, too. But I had trouble getting the chapter just right.

I am compensating this late update with the longest chapter I've ever written as a token of my appreciation to all who reviewed and read. I hope you enjoy, because this took me quite some time to write.

"This, dear brother, is the lovely Miss Elizabeth Bennet," Gia chimed, gently pushing Elizabeth a bit closer to her brother. "And Lizzy, this is Will Darcy," she finished with a bright smile.

Gia cast Elizabeth a glance as if she was anticipating Elizabeth to make the speech she previously did. Elizabeth caught Gia's expectant look and forced a smile across her face.

"It is both a pleasure and honor to be working in your company, Sir," Elizabeth addressed with a slight touch of sarcasm she hoped nobody would notice.

Will merely nodded and returned the slightest hint of a smile Elizabeth could barely make out. He seemed a bit perturbed, though his countenance reflected a great effort to appear calm and unaffected. Uncomfortably, she shifted her feet and glimpsed a few women staring at her, their eyes seething with envy. To her side, Gia blinked rapidly, trying to think of something to fill the silence with.

A few awkward moments later, Sean popped up behind them. Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief. As long as Sean was there, she knew there would be at least some sort of conversation.

"So I see you've finally met your boss," Sean began. Turning to Will, he added, "Lizzy's been very anxious about meeting you."

Will returned his cousin's comment with a stiff nod.

"Oh for heaven's sake, please tell me that your vocabulary consists of something more than a few nods. You're putting an awful shame on your professors at Harvard," Sean scolded disapprovingly.

"Oh really?" Will responded nonchalantly.

"Ah," Sean began with a wink at Elizabeth, "this is why my dear cousin will grow old by himself."

Turning to Will, he added, "If you ever become one of those old and sadistically paranoid men ready to take a whack at anyone with your cane, I'll have to—"

"Sean!" Gia interrupted, casting a glare at her cousin.

"Oh sorry," Sean muttered, slightly blushing in embarrassment as he quickly glanced from Elizabeth to Will. "Right—err…so I'll leave you guys to it and drop by later."

Passing Elizabeth, he murmured into her ear. "Twenty bucks if you can make Will crack a smile."

Elizabeth smirked. "Deal."

A few moments after Sean left, Gia excused herself to find her husband, leaving Elizabeth and Will alone.

Elizabeth's eyes wandered around the room, momentarily pausing longingly at the dancing room where all the fun was taking place. After a couple seconds of hesitation, she ventured a proposal.

"Do you want to go in and dance?" She winced, half afraid yet half curious to see what his reaction would be.

"No." he replied stiffly.

At Elizabeth's raised eyebrows for an explanation, he added, "I don't dance."

"And what a shame that is," she replied. "You should try some time. It's fun."

Will shrugged before fixing his gaze somewhere beyond her. "I'm not the type."

"So then what type are you?" Elizabeth questioned before narrowing her eyes. She forgot all about Sean's bet and turned to Will with biting cynicism.

"Wait, no need to tell me, because I already know. You're one of those types who wouldn't give a damn if the sky came crashing down. Armageddon could plague the world and you won't even notice."

"Ouch."

For a split second, Elizabeth thought she'd offended him. But after studying him closely for a brief moment, she realized that he was merely amused. Angry that he was speaking with a mixture of sarcasm and indifference, she narrowed her eyes again.

"I'm not a circus animal who's going to do flips for your entertainment. Will Darcy, watch yourself, or I am seriously going to piss you off."

Silence passed between them and Elizabeth was left once again to search for another topic.

"So…you graduated from Harvard?" she asked, trying to make her tone sound as amiably as she could.

"Yes." Although his answer was short, Elizabeth caught a sense of pride that echoed in his answer. Apparently, Will was proud to be associated with the school.

"And I'm sure that your highly sophisticated monosyllabic answers made you top of your class," she remarked, sending a quick glance towards Will's direction.

He shrugged. "If you say so."

Elizabeth crossed her arms and a scornful look crossed her face. "If only you talked as little in court as you are now, you would have saved me a lot of trouble," she said.

"Well, seeing as though I'm not in court, I'm free to act as I please," replied Will, wincing when he heard Elizabeth mention him being in court.

Elizabeth clapped her hands in mock approval. "Bravo, Mr. Darcy. I see that you have finally decided to move beyond three worded answers. You have no idea how honored I am to be present during this rare occasion."

She eyed Will and saw that his lips slightly quirked.

"Ah, so you aren't totally immune to some sense of humor," she observed, chancing a glace at Will. "Hard to imagine that you just might be capable of a smile or laugh."

Will shrugged. "If it's something worth laughing at, I will."

"Well, I'm sorry if nothing I've said this evening deserved a laugh," said Elizabeth sarcastically, "I will be more than happy to give a grand salute to the next person who can."

"And I'm sorry if everyone you talk to has to constantly be either smiling or laughing."

Elizabeth snorted. "Better talking to those people than to a wall."

"Yeah, because it's just so fun talking to delusional people in great need of narcotic treatment," he replied, his eyes daring Elizabeth to throw another retort back at him.

At that very precise moment, the lights flickered and the music in the other room faded. Something was wrong. Elizabeth and Will consequently forgot about their bickering and turned their heads toward the banquet hall.

A few moments later, someone was heard making an announcement in the room. Outside, Will and Elizabeth listened with curiosity. Apparently, the power outlets had gone out for a reason unknown, and the guests were urged to amuse themselves while the problem was being fixed.

Elizabeth, stunned that such an unexpected thing could happen, stared blankly at Will. Immediately, she was drawn in by his shade of light blue eyes. Will, who was as equally surprised, looked straight back at her.

They locked their gazes until Sean turned up by the door again a few seconds later. He glanced nervously from Will to Elizabeth, wondering why they were looking at each other like that. Finally, he decided to speak.

"Ahem…either you guys have decided to engage in a staring contest or—"

"What do you want, Sean?" Will questioned, breaking the eye contact with a roll of his eyes as he unceremoniously cut his cousin off.

"You to come and join the festivities," he promptly replied before continuing. "It looks like Monica, Daniel, and some others have taken charge of the entertainment section while the problem's being figured out."

Will scoffed. "You're kidding."

Monica and Daniel were notoriously known for embarrassing people without hesitation or thought.

"Nope." Sean shook his head and gave Will a crooked smile.

"So what am I supposed to do?" Will asked, lifting his eyebrows.

"Join," Sean said, "Like any proper gentleman should."

"Who said I was a gentleman?" Will asked with a snort, looking away as if he didn't want to speak to Sean anymore.

With a sigh, Sean turned to Elizabeth.

"What say you, Lizzy?"

Elizabeth's mouth slipped into a sly smile. There was no way she'd skip out on a chance to make Will miserable. It was never too early to start pay back time.

"Sure, sounds like fun," she answered with an innocent shrug, silently enjoying her taste of victory when she saw Will's grimace.

"Ah, the date has spoken," said Sean with an appreciative nod towards Elizabeth's direction. "It's necessary for Will to join anyways. He's head of the company, and it's only polite if he cooperates with the rest of us."

Will groaned.

"No way," Will said, crossing his arms with a frown on his face. "No way Jose."

"Yes way." Sean laughed. "Too bad Jose can't save you, 'cause you're going in."

Shoving a very reluctant Will through the door, Sean began to explain the activities while Elizabeth followed closely behind.

"So they've split people up into two different groups. One for couples, the other for singles. You guys will be joining the singles group unless you want to—" Sean stopped, a smug look overtaking his face.

Will shot Sean a nasty look. "Just get to the point, will you?"

"Well I'd get there if you'd walk faster," Sean retorted, giving Will one last push. "Okay, here you are. Monica will take care of you now. Have fun," he finished with a big wave of his hand.

"What?" Will asked, whipping around. "Where are you—"

It was too late, for Sean had already disappeared into another crowd.

"The idiot ditched me on purpose, he's supposed to be here. He's single," Will muttered angrily to himself.

As a crowd of singles gathered and sat themselves down in a big circle, Will realized that Elizabeth had left his side to sit on the other side. Ignoring her actions, he decided not to join her.

Soon afterwards, Monica arrived with an excited look on her face. As soon as Will saw her walking in with a big empty bottle of wine in her hands, he made a mental note to hold off her promotion.

"A big bottle and a circle full of people…this better not be—"

"Spin the bottle," Monica began, "Is what we're going to play."

Will's eyes widened and his jaws nearly dropped. A mixture of cheers and groans echoed throughout the crowd. Will found himself resisting the urge to hide his head in his hands.

"Come on, people. This is a year-end party, not middle school," he thought with disapproval, his mind turning back to the last time he played the game.

An unpleasant sensation crept up his body as he remembered a demanding Caroline Bingley purposely shifting the bottle so that it pointed directly towards him. Grimacing, he shook the memory out of his mind and drew his attention to Monica.

Monica had put the bottle in the center of the circle and sat herself down next to Elizabeth. Will glanced at Elizabeth to see her reaction. Although she first seemed surprised that such an adolescent game would be played, she soon looked open to the idea.

Sitting on the far side of the circle, Elizabeth did a quick surveying scan. To her surprise, Charlotte was nowhere to be seen. Concluding that Charlotte probably joined another group instead, she looked up at Monica to hear what she was saying.

Apparently, her version of spin the bottle was going to be different. Instead of having everyone kiss the person the bottle spins to, different activities were to be drawn out of a bag. The two people would have to act accordingly to whatever command was drawn.

Starting a couple people away from Elizabeth, Steve was the first one to go. When the bottle stopped in front of Laura, the pair watched anxiously as a piece of paper was drawn from a bag.

Monica flipped the paper around and showed it to the crowd. Written clearly on the paper were the words 'Cha-cha'. The crowed hooted and cheered, egging the pair on. Flustered and embarrassed, the two shyly danced to a subtle rendition of the cha-cha.

Such went on, and Elizabeth watched with good humor. She was amused on how different each activity was. All one lucky woman had to do was give a simple hug, while a short and tiny man had no choice but to carry a plump woman around in a big circle.

Laughing uncontrollably at a guy who had to get on his knees and passionately perform a serenade, Elizabeth barely noticed how quickly it was getting to be her turn. Before she knew it, a hand tapped on her shoulder and the bottle was being shoved towards her.

Elizabeth took the bottle, closed her eyes, and spun it clockwise with as much strength as she could. The bottle twirled 'round and 'round in mesmerizing whirls with Elizabeth squirming excitedly in wonder of who it would stop at. As the bottle slowed, Elizabeth held back a squeal. The bottle's spinning momentum was quickly diminishing, and every twirl slowed its rotation. Elizabeth followed the bottle's movements, holding back her breath. Looking up, she saw that the tip of the bottle was not far away from a particularly good-looking guy.

"Just a little further," she urged, finding herself crossing her fingers.

Taking one more detailed glance at the handsome man, she soon realized that he was seated right next to Will. Before long, she found herself wishing for the opposite.

Elizabeth's eyes widened with horror as realization struck her. The bottle was going to go right past the hot guy and…

"Stop," she heavily muttered under her breath. "Stop, stop, stop, please stop."

And after a short pause, "Oh, shit."

The tip of the bottle pointed to none other than Will Darcy.

Elizabeth's mouth fell open and Will looked flabbergasted. In a crowd of thirty people, it never crossed Elizabeth's mind that the bottle could land on the one person she wanted to avoid. If the situation had been less serious, Elizabeth would have laughed at the irony of it all. Her plan of forcing Will into doing something he didn't want had backfired magnificently on her.

Maybe, she thought bitterly, the next activity would include some roundhouse kicking.

When people saw that their executive manager had been chosen, they began to shout and cheer as loudly as ever. Elizabeth reluctantly stepped into the circle and saw Will being half pushed into it.

Slowly, Elizabeth saw Monica reach into the bag. When the paper was drawn, she saw Monica's face turn into a sly grin as the crowd loudly demanded to see the activity.

When the paper was turned around and made clear for everyone to see, Elizabeth's knees nearly gave out on her. Written unmistakably in ink were four letters Elizabeth never wanted to see again: Kiss.

Dumbstruck, Will glanced at Elizabeth and saw that she had the same stunned expression plastered on her face. He shot Elizabeth a hopeless look as the crowd began to chant, "Kiss, kiss, kiss," loudly with enthusiasm.

Will narrowed his eyes. Didn't his employees learn a while ago not to mess with him? The only people who dared to tease him were Sean and on rare occasions, Gia.

Their noisy cheers soon caught the attention of neighboring groups and the circle got bigger as people tried to squeeze in to see what was going on. Elizabeth's face drained of color and she stood in the center of the circle, unable to move. Her ears pounded with the beating of the heart as the 'ooh's and 'ahh's got louder and louder. She turned her gaze to the floor and shook her head violently, trying to filter out everything that was going on around the room, everyone's attention focused entirely on her and Will.

Suddenly, she felt a strong hand gently touch her arm and looked up to find Will Darcy standing right in front of her. She gasped and involuntarily withdrew her arm. She'd never stood this closely to him before. Meeting his eyes, she found herself taking in every bit of Will's facial features. Although his face was not completely flawless, it was lined with all the right kinds of masculinity along with a slight hint of innocent boyishness.

For a split second, Elizabeth almost found herself completely willing to kiss the man before her.

Will, looking as flustered as she was, opened his mouth nervously to speak.

"Well—err…if you don't want to, it's perfectly okay with me," he managed to say, his face turning bright red.

Elizabeth thought hard for a moment, hearing the intensity of the cheering crowd significantly increase as more people continued to join. She'd always hated people who were bad sport, and she certainly didn't want to be thought of as a party pooper. So then she came up with the conclusion: one kiss was not going to kill her.

"Let's just get it over with," she breathed, eyeing Will closely.

She could have sworn she saw the corners of his mouth threatening to crease into a smile. However, he appeared to have caught himself and gave her a curt nod instead. Her heart pounded furiously in her chest and she was almost certain that Will could hear how fast it was beating.

Slowly, he leaned in and dipped his head down. Elizabeth held her breath. She closed her eyes and allowed his lips to meet hers. His lips gently brushed Elizabeth's and their chaste kiss lasted for a fleeting second. Cheers and yelps erupted from the crowd, but Will didn't seem to notice. When they pulled apart, Elizabeth noticed something different about Will's face.

He was smiling.

There was something special with Will's face when he smiled, Elizabeth observed. Every part of his face seemed to go along with it, brightly illuminating the bit of boyish pertinence that was once hard to distinguish. Will looked like a completely different person, his usual sharp and piercing eyes softening into playful twinkles that bounced radiance off his face. Elizabeth wondered why he didn't smile more often.

For a moment, Elizabeth had almost forgotten her contempt for Will—he seemed like a totally different guy outside of court. But when raw memories surfaced in her mind again, she reminded herself who and what he was, and became resolute on biting back her smile. Instead, she gave a quick nod to him and turned to exit the room.

Unfortunately, Sean thwarted her grand escape and caught her. Sean had seen it all, and immediately tugged on Elizabeth's arm as she walked away from the crowd, turning her around so that she was facing him.

"Well, well, well," Sean began with a smirk. "Not bad for a first date, eh? Not bad at all," he finished, clucking his tongue.

"Shut up," Elizabeth irritably answered, epiphany dawning on her that everyone had seen her kiss the CEO of the company.

"You want me to shut up about all of this? Hah. This is the best thing that's happened all year. You're going to be the talk of the century."

"Why?" Elizabeth asked, defiantly crossing her arms.

Sean laughed. "You've got to be the first girl Will's kissed in let's see…half a decade?"

"So?" asked Elizabeth with a roll of her eyes. "It's not my fault no one else wants to kiss him unless they're forced to."

"Or maybe I just keep away from women who do nothing but offend me," said a deep voice behind her.

Elizabeth held back a glare and breathed heavily. Why was Will following her around?

"Oh, then what a perfect match; we share the same talent of insulting people," Elizabeth scoffed, "Although you have a particular talent on eavesdropping."

Sean glanced back and forth between Elizabeth and Will before finally declaring, "What an interesting way of flirting you guys have got going."

Will and Elizabeth both shot Sean a shut-up-or-die look. Clearly, Sean was misunderstanding the entire affair. Elizabeth was not flirting with Will; she was working hard to keep her cover intact and remain cool in her temper. Elizabeth had no idea why Will had decided to join her again, but decided to keep silent.

Soon enough, Gia made her way through the crowd and found them. When Elizabeth saw Gia, she immediately found Charlotte standing a little beyond Gia talking to someone. Who she was talking to, Elizabeth could not tell. But that didn't stop her from calling out Charlotte's name.

"Charlotte!" Elizabeth called, waving her hand over her head. "Over here!"

Upon hearing her name, Charlotte turned her head and her eyes lit up when she saw her friend enthusiastically waving. Elizabeth smiled as Charlotte made her way over. Her smile, however, promptly disappeared when she saw the man trailing behind Charlotte.

"Miss Bennet, it is a pleasure to see you again."

The voice that spoke sounded all too familiar. Soon enough, Elizabeth found herself face to face with Mr. Collins. Before Elizabeth had the time to respond, Collins had already moved on to someone else.

Elizabeth gasped. Collins had seen Will.

"Mr. Darcy! What a surprise to met you here!" Mr. Collins exclaimed, excitedly sticking out his hand.

Will looked at Collins and his face drained of color as he completely ignored Collins's offer to shake hands.

"You do remember me, don't you? In court?" Mr. Collins continued on, oblivious to Will and Elizabeth's wide-eyed expressions.

Charlotte smiled at Collins and turned to Will. "You guys know each other?" she asked, pointing back and forth between the two men.

Will nodded hesitantly.

Elizabeth held her breath. She had a feeling that it was coming. The delicate bubble was about to break.

"I'm Miss Bennet's divorce lawyer," he began with a heavy sense of self-importance, pointing pompously to himself. "Mr. Darcy is the lawyer of Mr. Wickham, Miss Bennet's ex-husband."

Gia gasped and Sean's froze, both aghast.

Will looked away and Elizabeth groaned. The stupid old dingbat had blown it all.

As the truth slowly sank into Sean, he returned to his senses and pointed a finger at Will.

"You're the asshole?" he asked unbelievingly, narrowing his eyes. Gia stood silently next to Sean, afraid to speak.

"I—what—I beg your pardon?" Will asked, clearly confused until he realized that Elizabeth must have told Sean and Gia some level of her situation.

Sean ignored his cousin's remark and turned to Elizabeth.

"Lizzy, he's…is he really…"

"Yeah." Elizabeth answered, cutting off Sean's stuttering. "Now the cat's out of the bag."

"And you," Sean gasped; now pointing at Elizabeth with his eyes widening significantly.

"You kissed him?"

"Yeah. Bad luck on my part." Elizabeth shrugged and looked hopelessly at Charlotte.

Sensing that the situation was about to get out of control, Charlotte caught Elizabeth's eye and nodded. She immediately pulled Collins away to another room, saying that she wanted to dance now that the music was back on.

The three of them stood, staring at each other, not knowing what to say. Finally, Gia decided to say something.

"Lizzy, you went on with this the entire time? You should have said something."

Elizabeth sighed.

"I know. But you both just seemed so excited for me to meet him, and I didn't want to disappoint you guys. Plus, I didn't want to ruin anyone's night."

"Lizzy, don't be afraid to say anything next time. Gia and I totally would have understood," Sean said, his tone softening.

When he addressed Will again, however, his tone was harsh.

"Is it true? You helped that George Wickham?" he demanded, glaring at Will.

Will had not choice but to nod. "You don't understand," he began, trying to ease his cousin's anger. "I did it for a reason."

Sean snorted. "There will never be a reason good enough to help George Wickham."

"Come," he said to Elizabeth, "You can be my date for the rest of the night."

Sean shot a dirty look at Will before wrapping his arm around Elizabeth and leading her into the dance room.

Alone in the room with Gia, he attempted to clear himself from blame.

"Listen, it was something that I had to do, I—"

"You helped him." Gia cut him off, sounding hurt.

Will heard the tremor in his sister's voice and winced uncomfortably. He didn't mean to hurt her. He'd only meant to protect her.

"What were you thinking?" she asked, throwing him a tearful glare.

Seeing her brother's inanimate reaction, she turned and stalked off into the crowd.

Will stood alone in the corner of the room, arms crossed defensively. He wanted to leave, but knew that it would be impossible. As the CEO, he still needed to make a speech towards the party's end.

For the rest of the evening, he busied himself conversing with his board of business advisors, not bothering to show interest in any other matter.

Sean and Gia stirred Elizabeth cleanly away from him the rest of the time, though Will still saw Elizabeth dancing with Sean a couple times throughout the evening.

Despite the miserable night she must have had, Will was surprised to see that she continued to smile and laugh. She was dancing in a carefree manner, as if nothing had gone against her wishes that night. As if her night had been perfect. Will took note of it as a pang of guilt and regret coursed through him.

Sighing heavily, Will tried to shake it off the best he could. What he did was necessary. Gia's reputation had to be protected at all cost. There was no way he could let one man tarnish the Darcy name even in the slightest. The Darcy name was something he'd always fight to uphold.

And that was that.

a/n: I hope nothing was too unrealistic. The one big debate I had was whether or not I should have put the 'spin the bottle' scene in there.

Leave a review and tell me what you think, please! As always, thanks for reading.

And I'm also getting a bit tired of editing everything on my own. I think I'm going to start looking for a Beta reader. If anyone's interested, please PM me.