The noise around his head began to fade. Will blinked at her and his heart gave a lurch.
“You’re really here.”
Elizabeth nodded.
“You’re not going anywhere?”
“Not unless you want me to.”
He shook his head. “Stay,” he said, the word half a prayer, half a plea. “Stay.”
She smiled and a tear skated down her cheek. There was a lot yet to discuss, he knew, but at the moment none of it mattered. All that mattered was that she was here, and she wasn’t going anywhere.
“Okay.”
31
By the time Will awoke, the sun had begun its descent, casting long shadows into the room. His head felt oddly light and the pressure that had set up camp in his temples the day he’d drafted that email had nearly faded. It took a few seconds through the pleasant post-nap fatigue for his mind to fully kick-on, but when it did, a burst of adrenaline kicked in and forced him into action.
Will sat up and looked over his shoulder.
It hadn’t been a dream. Or a hallucination. Or if it had been, he was still in the middle of it. Elizabeth lay curled on her side beside him, naked and, from the looks of things, in the middle of a really nice dream. Her mouth was curved just enough to give the illusion she was smiling. Ribbons of thick brown hair spilled across his pillows, mussed in the best possible way. The sheet he now remembered pulling over their bodies had slipped during their nap, exposing the artful curve and rosy nipple of her right breast.
Will swallowed and blinked.
She was really here. Elizabeth Bennet naked, in his bed. In his home.
He released a ragged breath and tore a hand through his hair. Obviously, they had a lot to talk about. Or that they should talk about, unless this entire thing had been an aberration and she intended to scamper the second she awoke. Hell, maybe she hadn’t meant to fall asleep in the first place. She’d left in a hurry the last time they’d fallen into bed together, after all. There had been no morning after, no pillow talk—nothing until the explosion that had followed that evening.
At once he didn’t want her to wake up. He wanted to freeze this moment before he had the chance to pick it apart or find out just how right he was. Because no matter what, he hadn’t been able to stop loving Elizabeth—not when he’d written that email or any of the days following. No matter what he’d told himself, no matter how much it bothered him that she’d been that open and intimate with someone she hadn’t cared for. Her hotheadedness was one of the things he loved most about her. She hated being wrong almost as much as he did and fought tooth and nail when she believed she was right. She was fiercely loyal to those she cared for and didn’t give a damn about his bank account—or anyone’s, for that matter. None of that had stopped being true when she’d broken his heart.
Will was in the middle of debating whether or not it was better to postpone the inevitable awkward wake-up or start getting dressed so at least he’d have one layer of armor between himself and Elizabeth, when she made a soft noise and opened her eyes. And caught him staring at her rather unrepentantly.
He forced a smile, heat rising to his cheeks. “Hi.”
The world seemed to hold its breath for the next second.
“Hi,” she replied, then to his astonishment, turned a fetching shade of pink and buried her head in the pillow.
“Elizabeth?”
She responded with a sound he supposed might have been a word, but was too muffled to discern.
“What was that?” Will’s grin turned genuine. He leaned closer, his pulse racing as he drew a lock of hair over her creamy shoulder.
She turned to peek at him, her face still pressed to the pillow. “I said what?”
“Did you? In what language, precisely?”
“Shut up.”
“No, I don’t think so. You’re blushing.”
She gaped in him and covered her cheeks with her hands. “I am not. Stop looking at me.”
“That’s impossible.” Will scooted nearer, an electric shock buzzing through his veins when he encountered the bare skin of her legs. She seemed to start too, which only encouraged his bravado. “This is the first time I’ve seen you act shy.”
“I am not shy,” she said, still hiding from him.
“Yes, I can’t imagine where I must have gotten that idea.”
Elizabeth sighed and lowered her hands, revealing a face that was now almost beet-red. “Well, the next time you’re on vacation touring places, let me know how you react when you accidentally screw the owner. I’ll take notes.”
Will swallowed. “Accidentally? Like you fell over something?”
At that, she released a snort of laughter and dragged the sheet over her head. “Yes,” she agreed. “I tripped and fell on your dick. Repeatedly.”
“If it makes you feel any better,” Will said, “I really didn’t mind.”
“I can see that,” came Elizabeth’s dry reply. The next second, he felt her hand close around his swelling cock. “You really rose to the occasion.”
He tried to laugh but then she squeezed him and the sound came out a moan. “Ahhh… That was terrible.”
“The pun or the dick stroking?”
“The pun. I am more than fine with the latter.”
“Really? I wouldn’t want to be more of an inconvenience.” Elizabeth peeked her head out from under the sheet and gave him a wicked grin, her eyes dancing in ways he’d never seen before. In ways that made his chest ache with how much he loved her.
Will leaned in and kissed her before he could do something stupid, like tell her how he felt. When she sighed and opened her mouth for him, the last of his worries melted away.
And maybe it didn’t matter if they didn’t discuss the things they weren’t discussing. Maybe he shouldn’t stop to check the gift horse’s teeth because some things were just obvious. Whatever else, Elizabeth felt differently about him now and he figured he knew why.
He’d be happy with that for now. As long as it kept her here.
The thought jumpstarted his mind. “Stay,” he said.
“Stay?” she echoed, grinning.
He nodded. “When do you check out of the Collins’ place?”
“Tonight was supposed to be my last night. I was going to head back to campus.”
Will frowned. “What about Christmas?”
“What about it?”
“I just… I thought you’d be with family.”
Elizabeth lifted a shoulder, her smile dimming a bit but not disappearing altogether. “Christmas has never been a big thing in my family,” she said. “My mom’s going out of the country and my dad… Well, it’s a big mess and that’s really not worth getting into.”
He nodded, ran a hand up her arm. “And Jane? I’d imagine she’d have you over in a heartbeat.”
“She would, but her family doesn’t know me and I don’t want to crash their holiday cheer.” She was quiet a moment, struggled to bring her grin back to where it had been a moment ago. “I’m fine.”
And though he could have seen it coming a mile away, somehow Will was still surprised when he heard himself blurt the words. “Stay with me.”
“What?”
“Have Christmas here. With me.” He paused. “And my sister.”
“Will—”
“Don’t think. Just say yes.”
She gave him a look. “Likelihood of that happening, one to ten.”
Will grinned. “A guy can hope, can’t he?”
“Like I said…my family has never been one that the holidays were all that important for. We didn’t have a ton of money so my folks couldn’t afford to do the big shebang, especially when they were paying for me to go to private school there for a while. Our Christmas tree was always of the Charlie Brown variety.”
He pressed a kiss to her brow.
“But,” Elizabeth continued softly, “I’ve seen enough movies to know that Christmas is a big deal for other families. And if the missing Macy’s department
downstairs is any indication, the Darcys do Christmas in a big ole way. I really don’t want to intrude on that.”
“It’s not intruding if you’re invited. Which you just were.”
She worried her lower lip between her teeth. He followed the movement with his eyes, which just made his mouth crave hers again.
“You’re not just inviting me because you feel sorry for me about spending Christmas alone, are you?”
“I’m inviting you because I want you here. Stay,” he said, leaning close.
“Will…”
“Stay.” He sealed the space between them and did his best not to whimper when she softened under his kiss. It was meant to be soft and reassuring, but when Elizabeth wrapped her hand around his cock again, he lost all illusion of control over his baser hormones and rolled her under him.
“You’re dangerous, Miss Bennet,” he murmured against her lips.
“You have no idea.”
“I think I have some.” Will pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth.
She grinned and parted her legs to accommodate him, and the next thing he knew, his prick was cradled between her pussy lips and every inch of him was on fire.
“Fuck, you feel good.”
“You really need to say that word more often.”
Will arched an eyebrow.
“Fuck,” she replied. “It’s sexy as hell.”
“That’s…weird.”
Elizabeth giggled, her cheeks flushed. “I think it’s because I haven’t heard you say it much, except when I’ve had my mouth on you. It makes me think you’re losing control. Which, again, sexy as hell.”
“I’ve been conditioned to not swear in front of women. With you, I have no control.”
“And I happen to find that sexy.”
“You’re…unlike any woman I’ve ever known.”
“Good.” She linked her arms around his neck and drew him down for a kiss, and there was hunger behind the strokes of her mouth. The thought that she might want him as badly as he did her was enough to unmake him completely.
Elizabeth reached between them again to seize his cock, and then he was parting her slick flesh and beginning to sink inside her when the lusty fog thinned long enough for him to realize she felt a little too good.
“Fuck.”
“Uh huh,” Elizabeth said against his mouth.
“No, I mean, condom.” Will shuddered and gave his head a shake to clear it. That had been close. “Let me—”
The sound of a heavy door opening from downstairs cut him off, and his pulse quickened for an entirely different reason. He froze, hand outstretched toward the box on his nightstand.
A beat. Then another. And—
“Will!”
The undeniable wail of Georgiana Darcy.
“Shit,” Will swore, rolling off Elizabeth and bounding to his feet. He spun around the room for a moment, trying to gather his bearings, but the world seemed lopsided and he couldn’t quite keep his balance. “Shit, shit, shit.”
Elizabeth drew up to a sitting position and wrapped her arms around her legs. Though her face was flushed and tense, he saw her eyes were dancing with amusement. “Going to hazard a guess…”
“My sister,” he said as his gaze landed on his dresser. Yes, that was where he kept the clothes. “I’ll…be back.” Will paused and looked at her. “Don’t go anywhere. Please.”
Elizabeth favored him with a soft smile and raised her hands. “If anyone asks, I’ll say you rendered my legs useless.”
“Good to know.” He raced over to the dresser and dragged out the first article of clothing that wouldn’t scandalize his sister—the pajama bottoms that she had given him last year for Christmas. Flannel, navy blue, and decorated with floating Rudolf heads.
“Will Darcy!” Georgiana bellowed. “Don’t make me come up there.”
Will swore again after dressing, started for the door, then decided—just on the off-chance that he’d been lulled into a false sense of security and Elizabeth was an incredibly vivid hallucination—that he might as well get the most out of it. He doubled back to the bed, captured her face between in his hands and took her mouth in a fierce but all too brief kiss. “I’ll be back.”
Her eyes had this heated quality that made him wish more than ever that he’d been an only child. “Promises.”
Will forced himself away and hurried out of the room just as Georgiana began to shout again. He paused at the top of the stairs, prepared to chastise her for very good reasons, but felt his stomach drop when his gaze connected with hers.
Nothing good ever happened when Georgiana Darcy looked that smug.
“Oh, there you are,” she chirped happily, one hand behind her back, the other on her hip. “What took you?”
He blinked at her, his mind racing. “I was…sleeping.”
“Sleeping.”
“Yes.”
“In the middle of the day.”
“It’s called a nap, Georgie. Look into it.”
She just beamed and arched an eyebrow, drawing his attention for the first time to the stairs. Where his pants were strewn and a pair of jeans had been kicked off. There was a boot on step third from the top, and another five steps below it.
“Colleen has really gotten sloppy,” Georgiana said, rocking on her heels. “Look at this mess.”
“I was doing laundry,” Will blurted, because that was incredibly plausible, considering that the only time he’d done his own laundry in this house had been, well, never.
Georgiana nodded as though this wasn’t the most ludicrous thing she’d ever heard. “Laundry. Going up the stairs.”
“Things fall out of laundry baskets all the time.”
“Yes, and rather than pick up after yourself, you decided the stress of washing your own clothes was too much for you and a nap was in order?”
At this point, he was only fighting for the sake of pride and they both knew it. Will lifted his chin in defiance. “Yes.”
“Uh huh.” Georgiana lifted the arm that had been behind her back, revealing a scrappy lace bra that looked way too familiar. “I honestly didn’t see white as being your color.”
Will opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again. “I—”
“You. Are. So. Busted.” Georgiana tossed the bra over her shoulder and tore up the stairs.
“Georgiana, don’t—”
She cackled. “Yeah, that’s happening.”
Will wasn’t sure why, but his feet chose that moment to stop listening to his brain. He stood there like an idiot as his sister stampeded her way past him; she was halfway down the hall before the numbness melted and his legs kicked back online.
If Georgiana scared Elizabeth away…
The thought made his head begin to pound. Will thundered after her, willing his heart not to leap to freedom when a shriek pierced the air, followed by the never-good sound of Georgiana’s laughter.
He skidded to a halt outside his bedroom and found Elizabeth where he’d left her, only she’d drawn one of the oversized pillows to her chest in an effort to conceal her nudity.
“Hi,” Georgiana said with a little wave, “Laundry, I presume?”
Elizabeth looked to Will, her eyes shining with something between mortification and stupor. Had the circumstances been different, he would have enjoyed that quite a bit.
“It’s not what it looks like,” she said, then winced because Elizabeth was many things, but a fool was not one of them—he saw plainly she knew how dumb that had sounded. But bless her, she decided to stick to it. “I…uhh… There was a clothing malfunction and your brother was nice enough to let me rest in here while he…did laundry.”
Georgiana rolled her eyes and looked at Will over her shoulder. “Oh my god, you’re perfect for each other.”
Great, now his face had gone hot. He was going to throttle her. “Georgie, will you just—”
“You’re Elizabeth, aren’t you?”
Maybe he had died and gone to Hell. This seemed li
ke the sort of thing that might happen in Hell.
Elizabeth blinked at Georgiana before shifting her gaze to Will, and the question he saw there cemented that his little sister was going to be grounded for the next eternity.
“I am,” she said after a long moment, surprise evident in her voice.
Georgiana nodded and flashed another killer smile. “Awesome. Super stoked to meet you. I’ll let you guys get dressed.” She turned to Will. “Bought some sugar cookies. And by some, I mean all the sugar cookies. Plus some snickerdoodles because I am only human. Plan is to watch Elf and eat all my Christmas feelings.”
At that, Will softened, mortification taking a backstage to the part of him that was the perpetually concerned older brother. “All good?”
“The best.” Georgiana winked at him. “I’ll save you and your girlfriend at least one snickerdoodle apiece if you want to join me.”
And without anything further, she turned and promptly flounced from the room.
Will stared after her for a moment. When he felt it was safe, he looked to Elizabeth and didn’t release the breath he’d been holding until he saw the warmth in her eyes.
“So,” he said, drawing out the word. “That was my sister, Georgiana.”
Elizabeth burst out laughing, and the sound made him feel invincible.
32
Mortifying introductions aside, it took Elizabeth about ten minutes to fall head over heels for Georgiana Darcy. The girl was the physical embodiment of charm and sass.
She was also a cutthroat gamer.
“And suck it,” Georgiana said with a wide grin as she mowed down another poor red avatar. “That flag is mine.”
“Glad someone’s on our team,” Elizabeth replied, then winced. Another wipe out. “This used to be so easy for me.”
Georgiana straightened her shoulders. “I am used to carrying the team. Just keep ‘em busy and I’ll do the rest.”
From his seat by the window, Will gave a small chuckle. He had been mostly silent since coming downstairs and fumbling through the awkward conversation with his sister—whose enjoyment of his embarrassment couldn’t have been more obvious if she’d taken out advertisements. When Georgiana had asked Elizabeth if she wanted to kill things on X-Box, Elizabeth had jumped at the opportunity to cut the tension.
A Higher Education Page 35
