Page 58 of Bitten By Mr. Darcy
Her hands shook as she took her own tea cup from its saucer to drink. She set it back down. “I think you were right that you have no call to speak of things that are none of your concern, colonel.”
He nodded. “Yes, I should have kept my own counsel. I do apologize, Mrs. Darcy. I am likely imagining anything between the two of us.”
She nodded sharply.
Soon after, he excused himself. On his way out, he said that she should not worry, that there would be no renewal ofthis subject between them, that she should consider the matter closed.
“I don’t know what I was thinking anyway,” said the colonel. “You are a married woman, and your husband is a monster. I doubt he would like it.”
“Yes, sir, for your own safety,” she said softly.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
LATER, WHEN HERhusband awoke, he commented that he had felt her agitation through the bond, and she said it was nothing, and then he found the documents the colonel had brought, and he asked her if the colonel had caused her agitation, and she fiercely denied it.
Mr. Darcy blinked at her.
She threw herself into his arms, though it was before dinner, and though he often liked to do this sort of thing later in the evening, and she thrust her neck against him and begged him to bite her, and he held her against him and groaned and protested and then gave in.
At dinner, she was lightheaded and the wine was going to her head, and he sipped his own wine and tutted at her, saying that she didn’t know what was best for her, that she should not ask her husband for bites when he had not already fed for the night.
She pressed into that for some reason. Maybe it was the wine, or maybe it was the interaction with the colonel bubbling at the edge of her consciousness. “Why do you think it is sometimes a certain way with blood drinking, and not always that way?” she asked.
“I have no notion what you even mean by that,” he said, chuckling into his wine.
“I mean, sometimes it’s romantic, and it’s like you and me or Louisa and Mr. Hurst, but sometimes, it’s the way it is when you take men from the taverns, and it is nothing but drinking for thirst,” she said. “Why is it different?”
“I suppose because sometimes you are attracted to someone, and sometimes you are not,” said Mr. Darcy. “And who can say why that is, hmm? There are times when a personisattractive, but you do not feel the draw, and there are times when a person isn’t that attractive, but you do. It’s something ephemeral, I suppose.”
“And with me, it was because I am your sirensong,” she said.
“Likely,” said Mr. Darcy. “However, you should know this is different, Elizabeth. I’ve had sirensongs before, and whatever we have, it’s quite intense.”
She drank more wine.
“Ought you go easy on that, my love? I took a good bit of your blood, you know.”
“You felt romantic attraction for your sire,” she said.
“Well, I don’t know if I’d call that romance.” He sat back in his chair, a mischievous little smile on his face. “I felt lust for that man.”
“Lust,” she repeated, nodding. “So, is that what you felt for me, then?”
His gaze met hers, more mischievous. “Oh, I have lusted and do still lust for you, Lizzy, as you well know.”
“So, there’s nothing stopping you from lusting after one of those men from the taverns you drink from.”
He drew back. “I feel vaguely as if you’ve just trapped me, as if I’ve been led to a place so that you can be angry with me. Are you angry with me? Is that what the agitation was today? Or is it something else to do with Colonel Fitzwilliam?”
She drained the rest of her glass of wine and got up from the table. “No, no, never mind.” She quit the dining room entirely, going off into one of the sitting rooms to pace.
He came after her, standing in the doorway to watch her. “You are pacing, my love. Last time you were pacing, you wanted me to take you to bed. Can I solve this problem the same way?”
She continued to pace.
“Do you lust after the colonel?” His voice had a lilt to it, a permissive lilt, and it jolted her.
She stopped and turned to him. “No.” A pause. “Perhaps. In a sort of way. I do not know.”
