Chapter 17

In the darkest hour before dawn on Monday, Lizzie sat up in her bed, she'd startled herself awake and she was overheated and hypersensitive… 'Oh no!' she thought, throwing off her blankets, 'I did NOT just have a sex dream about Darcy!'

She fell back into her pillow, defeated, because that was exactly what had just happened. She had dreamed about the night that Wickham attacked her, and Will had saved her, bringing her back to the safety of her apartment. But instead of sitting patiently with her on the couch until she'd fallen asleep like it had really happened, he'd taken her in his arms and held her tightly against his long lean body, and he'd pulled back his head to look into her eyes, before dipping his head to kiss her.

Dream Lizzie, being the wanton hussy that she was, had kissed him right back and pulled him into her room when he'd pushed her down onto the bed and ravished her, slowly and gently, as if he was claiming her, which she supposed he had been… or so her subconscious had decided. She'd woken up shuddering when her dream self reached the peak of the encounter, so yes, she had most certainly had a sex dream about Will Darcy.

She groaned into her pillow,

'What on earth does that mean then?'

Seeing him at work today was definitely going to be awkward now.

Unable to get back to sleep, she finally relented and went to take a long hot shower. Lizzie spent longer than usual selecting her work outfit that day. She wanted to look nice, maybe nicer than usual, and she felt like she needed to put in the extra effort. Although she'd never admit it.

She picked out one of her more feminine work outfits, it wasn't exactly a suit, but it was business casual and softer than the harsh blacks most women she knew wore to the office. Making sure they didn't need ironing first, she changed into her olive green pinstripe dress pants and a V-neck cream blouse with a cinched waist and cap sleeves, and a pretty bow on one side. She chose to wear her hair down today, since she'd had time to properly blow dry it and it was straight and styled. On her feet were matching wedges that gave her a few extra centimetres height, and lastly she threw on some chunky beaded necklaces, a real difference for her because she generally didn't wear much jewellery to the office.

When she was finally dressed she opened her bedroom door and hollered down the hallway for Katie to hurry up, before searching her bed covers for her mobile phone. Out of habit she turned the screen on to check for messages and nearly dropped it again when she saw the alert '1 New Message from Will Darcy' flashing on the screen. She opened it apprehensively, worried about what a text from her boss could mean so early on a Monday morning.

'I'm hoping we could talk today, but I have meetings all morning. Will you be in the office this afternoon?' she read, and subconsciously gnawing on her bottom lip she opened a reply, but didn't get to write anything before she was interrupted by Jane, laughing at her from the doorway and looking far too graceful and elegant to be on her way to teach high school kids.

"You look awfully nice for a Monday, special occasion?" Jane asked teasingly, Lizzie, being the mature person that she was, poked her tongue out.

"Trying to impress your boss or something?" She asked, laughing at her own 'cleverness'. Lizzie tried not to give Jane the satisfaction of seeing her blush.

"Be quiet you," she said tossing a pillow at her elder sister. Jane dodged the attack and the pillow bounced off the doorframe and landed on the floor.

"I'm only teasing Liz," she said, retrieving the pillow and returning it to the bed, "I think it's great that you're, what? Getting along? I'm not even sure what to call it," Jane admitted.

"Yeah, well neither am I," Elizabeth agreed, "He wants to talk to me today, so maybe we'll find out," she shrugged holding up her phone. Jane smiled,

"I hope so, anyway, I have to go. Have a nice day at work," She left the bedroom with a wink and Lizzie chuckled. She waited until Jane had hollered 'Good Luck' to Katie in the bathroom and the front door slammed shut before she turned to her phone again and tapped out a reply. Hitting send quickly then shoving her phone into her purse and trying not to think about how nervous she was, checking the time she was stunned by how late she was. Lizzie rushed out of her room, and went to hurry Katie out to the car. She was driving into work today. Even though she usually got the tube, with Wickham still running around, she'd decided it was safest to stick to driving and horrifying traffic until she knew he was out of her hair.

Because Georgiana needed to use his car, Will was waiting for Charlie to get to his townhouse on Monday so that he could get a lift into work. Charlie was running late, as he usually did, so it was at a quarter after eight, that Darcy found himself pulling out his phone and texting Lizzie before he lost his nerve, to ensure that he could see her at some point during the day.

When she didn't immediately respond he got self-conscious again and had to remind himself that she was probably busy getting ready for work. But that still didn't stop him from repeatedly checking his phone. It was fifteen minutes before the thing buzzed in his hand with a reply, one that warmed him inside and left an inkling of hope.

'I have a lunch meeting at 12.30, I should be back in the office by two. I'll come and find you =) Have a nice morning.'

She'd come and find him. Something about that phase made Darcy extremely happy, and he was still grinning a few minutes later, which was probably why Charles was giving him a strange look when he climbed into his car. If he could just endure his morning meetings and the teleconference with Richard before lunch, then he'd finally get to talk to Lizzie and start to work out all the stuff between them. The prospect of moving forward was enlightening for him, so his cheery disposition remained with him all morning.

On his way back in from lunch, Darcy was crossing the main lobby of the office building that housed Darcy Enterprises Headquarters when he was surprised to see Elizabeth standing over by the reception desk, her back to him. She was talking with the concierge, Caleb, and seemed to be listening intently to what he was saying as he approached her.

Caleb had left just as Darcy reached her and Lizzie had turned her attention to a large folder that lay before her on the counter.

"Elizabeth," he said, reaching out to touch her shoulder and gain her attention. She turned to face him with a smile, but he was taken aback for a brief moment.

"Oh, sorry, you're not who I thought you were…" he trailed off, the girl laughed.

"I'm Katherine," The girl said, "Or Katie, I'm Lizzie's sister,"

"Oh, right! You started working here today, it slipped my mind, I'm very sorry,"

"Oh, it's no problem!" She laughed again, "Everyone always seems to mix us up at first, Lizzie and I do look very alike,"

"Yes, at first glance," He laughed, "Well, sorry to interrupt you, I'm William Darcy, Lizzie's boss."

He held out his hand to shake hers and the girl nervously returned the gesture.

"It's nice to meet you Mr. Darcy," she said.

"Please, call me Will. You're Lizzie's sister after all and Mr. Darcy is much too formal. I'll let you get back to it, and I hope you enjoy working here Katie,"

He left with a smile and headed to the elevator bank while Katie Bennett returned to her folder.

Twenty minutes after he'd met Katie in the lobby, Elizabeth, true to her word, was leaning against his office doorframe, looking absolutely enamouring and wearing a cheeky grin on her face.

"Found you," she said, pulling Darcy's attention from his email and he couldn't help but grin back, her smile was infectious. He stood up from his desk and came over to the door, gesturing her inside. She stepped over the threshold and he leaned out the door.

"Phoebe," he said to his assistant, "Hold all my calls, Miss Bennett and I have an important meeting, I don't want to be interrupted,"

"Yes sir," the younger girl said with a nervous smile, and Darcy closed the door, shutting them away from the noisy outer office.

"You look lovely today," he said once his attention returned to her. She blushed slightly, but smiled.

"Thanks," She said, nervously twirling her hair. He smiled back at her, and then got down to business, as he was determined to finally have his say.

"So, there's a lot we need to talk about," he started.

"Yeah, I guess there is," she agreed, she stopped her hair twirling and straightened up a little.

"First, let me apologise, I've been such an ass all these years, you don't deserve to be treated the way I treated you and that kills me Elizabeth. I never wanted to hurt you, but I fear that I have," his expression was laden with guilt, which warmed Lizzie's heart, but she couldn't let him take all the blame, she certainly wasn't innocent in all this.

"My behaviour hasn't been the best either Darcy, I'm sorry too," she said, and smiled again. There was a long pause in which neither was sure what to say next, Darcy broke it.

"I suppose I should start at the beginning…" He said after the too long moment of silence. Lizzie didn't speak, afraid to interrupt him, lest their talk be put off again.

"Elizabeth," he said reaching out for her hand and pulling her closer to him as he leaned back against his desk. In this position his height dropped and their eyes met at the same level.

"When you first started working here, I realised very quickly that there was something more to you than just being one of my employees. You… intrigued me," he paused to smile at a memory, "At first I let myself play along with it, even though you were my employee and I knew it was totally wrong of me… I just couldn't stop. But everything changed, which was probably my own fault, I shouldn't have let it…"
"The benefit…" She interrupted, "What changed Darcy, why did you suddenly seem to hate me? What did I do to…?"

The intercom on his desk rang interrupting Elizabeth's sentence. Darcy turned around to the desk and jabbed at the answer button.

"What?" he growled.

"I'm sorry to interrupt Mr. Darcy" his assistant replied, somewhat timidly.

"I told you we were not to be disturbed!" he barked back.

"I know Mr. Darcy," she said "But there's a gentleman on line one, he says there's an emergency with your sister."

Darcy glanced quickly up at Elizabeth who'd taken a step closer at Phoebe's last words, she nodded quickly and Darcy snatched up the receiver.

"This is William Darcy," he said, and Elizabeth waited anxiously while Darcy listened to the call, his face paled and she took another step towards his desk so that they were only standing a foot apart.

"I'll be right there," he said hanging up.

Elizabeth searched his face questioningly and finally his lost eyes met hers.

"Georgiana…" he paused, "She's been in an accident. She's in the hospital."

He looked away again, and she could tell he was trying not to panic, but his hands were shaking, and Lizzie grabbed the one that wasn't grasping the desk in her own. He looked between their joined hands and her face, this was the closest they'd been since that night at her apartment, and just holding her hand comforted him for a moment.

"Come on," Lizzie urged, tugging him slightly towards the door, "I'll drive you to the hospital."

She led him from his office, grabbing his coat from the hook behind the door as they went.

"Wait here," she said, stopping at his assistant's desk, he nodded numbly and she dashed into her own office three doors down and grabbed her own coat and bag, fishing out her car keys as she hurried back to him. He hadn't moved. Phoebe was working, or pretending to work, at her desk, looking anxious that Darcy was standing over her.

Lizzie approached her and lent down to talk to her quietly.

"Mr. Darcy and I are going to be out of the office for the rest of the day, his sister has been taken to hospital. Please cancel all of Darcy's appointments for today, and tell Lily to do the same for me."

She didn't wait for a response before she grabbed Darcy's hand again and led him to the elevator, wanting to get to the hospital and Georgiana as soon as possible.