Page 42 of Bitten By Mr. Darcy
But not the rest of his,said a voice in her head and she shied from it, not wishing to think of that harsh truth.
“Aye,” he said. “Equals.”
“What can make us feel that way?” she said, shaking her head. “I am beneath you in every way that we can reckon such things. You are older and stronger and you have so much more wealth and status than I do. You are a man, and I am a woman. You—”
“Yes, but you have bewitched me,” he said with a smile. “I am slavishly devoted to you, as you well know, and this is something you may use to tip the balance between us. I would do anything for you, Elizabeth.”
“No, you would not! You do exactly as you like, no matter how I beg or how it breaks me or—”
“You mean, because I left,” he said with sigh. “Are we to quarrel about this for our entire marriage? I came back. Does that not mean anything?”
“We are not equals,” she said. “And you would not do anything for me.”
“Well, I don’t wish to harm you, my love. I don’t know if you can see this, but I did what I did out of concern for you. In a way, it was for you. But it wasn’t about giving you what you wished.Anyway, it was all foolish, because I could not continue on the wise and noble path I had set for myself, in the end.”
She glared at him. “And you still call that wise and noble, sir?”
“I know not, I suppose,” he allowed. “The idea of you married to Mr. Collins was rather unbearable, I must say. I thought of feeling you in the bond, surrendering your virtue tothat, of his sullying you, his unworthy self touching you, and it was insupportable. So, I don’t think it would have been wise or noble to subject you to him, no.”
She smiled a small smile, because she was glad her stupid little scheme had worked. Perhaps she knew her husband better than she might be giving herself credit for.
“I don’t know that subjecting you to me is much better, of course,” he said. “For I am not worthy of you. I am a creature of blood and want and sin, and I…” A long pause. “But I’ve already tainted you in many ways, I suppose.”
“Yes,” she said archly, “you are a fiendish thing that waits in the dark shadows for me. You are ever so awful, Mr. Darcy.”
“I said to call me Fitzwilliam,” he said.
“What if I call you Ty?” she said. She did not think she could manage the guttural “G” noise in her chest. “And you may call me Lizzy, so we are both calling each other nicknames.”
“Lizzy,” he repeated in a low and reverent voice.
She grinned, quite pleased at the sound of it.
“Are you quite finished eating?”
She laughed. “Eager for something, then, Ty?”
His mouth curved into a gentle smile. “It’s nice to hear that name again, actually, I find. And yes, of course I am eager for something. I had all the intentions in the world of actually deflowering my perfect and lovely human bride last night, but then I couldn’t stop drinking you. So, we must remedy that oversight, I think.”
Her heart began to beat more quickly. “Oh, I see,” she said, taking another drink of ale.
“Yes,” he said, his voice a lilt. “The marriage won’t be legal until it’s consummated, of course. It’s quite important.”
Her breath caught in her throat. She was nervous, more nervous now, because some part of her had sort of thought maybe it wouldn’t happen at all when it hadn’t happened last night. “I didn’t know if you could,” she said.
They’d spoken of it, but he hadn’t specifically confirmed or denied what vampires could do.
“I definitely can,” he said in a low voice. “In fact, I am quite rising to the occasion at the moment. If you’re finished eating, come here and I shall show you what you do to me.”
She set down the ale and stood up, her heart beating quite very fast in her chest and at her temples. “I… I don’t know a lot about it, truly. You ch-charmed my mother before she could give me any kind of talk, and I have only ever once seen horses bred and I—”
“Nothing to know,” he interrupted. “It’s all very simple. I can feel through the bond that your excitement and curiosity is overpowering your fear. Come.” He beckoned.
She crawled into the bed with him and he kissed her.
She liked it here, against his body, in this darkened cocoon here, just the two of them. She liked it rather a lot.
He stroked her face, breaking the kiss. “I thought it had gone to sleep, actually. I hadn’t used it for a single thing in decades. Then… my Lizzy appeared, bright and beautiful and smelling delectable, and it stirred.”
