Page 53 of A Searing Acquaintance
She was too late to avert the first stepsister disaster, cringing when Lydia sashayed out of the house in a skimpy thong bikini. Elizabeth prayed the cheap fabric wouldn’t disintegrate in salt water. Charles quickly averted his eyes, but Elizabeth and Jane watched a suddenly wide-awake Herb Hurst ogle the teenager as she skipped down to the water. Their stepmother, Barbara, looked irritated with Lydia’s display but said nothing. Instead, she insisted on extra sunscreen for Mary, who wore an oversized men’s Oxford shirt as a cover-up for her one-piece suit.
Darcy greeted her family and quickly disappeared inside. That was a good thing since Lydia—once she picked her jaw off the ground at the sight of him in that wet T-shirt and swim trunksandheard his voice—immediately expressed her amazement at Pemberley and its owner.
“Where’d he get that accent? It’s so cool. But I don’t get it. He’s rich and pretty hot. Where’s the girlfriend? Guys like him date supermodels, and he’s not even short, fat, and bald like lots of millionaires.”
“He does seem a bit antisocial,” Mary added, frowning. “But very, very smart.”
“Must be the accent. All hoity-toity and such. But he sure didn’t set off my gaydar alarm.” Lydia laughed off the angry look Elizabeth sent her way and speculated that “Sir Hottie” had good taste in friends. “Charles is cute and super nice. Too bad he doesn’t have any brothers. Does Sir Hottie have any?”
Barbara shushed her daughters. “Fitzwilliam Darcy is a well-known name in New York, and he’s awfully gracious to put up with all of us. Mind your manners.”
Elizabeth shot Jane an encouraging smile, and the two went off to the outdoor shower. They returned in time to find Caroline instructing the new arrivals in everything that was remarkable and important about Pemberley and its owner. Ted Bennet leaned against the wall, his arms crossed and his eyebrows raised while his wife listened intently.
“My goodness, Caroline, you certainly know all things Darcy,” Barbara said. “Should we be expecting another engagement soon?”
Lydia tittered, earning a glare from Caroline. “Darcy darling and I are simply good friends,veryclose friends,” Caroline asserted. “We knoweverythingabout each other.”
“Friend with benefits, you think?” Lydia whispered loudly to Mary. Caroline narrowed her eyes even more.
Jane clutched Elizabeth’s hand, leaning close to whisper, “Do not leave them unattended again!” She steered the conversation onto safer ground, asking about the drive from Queens. Darcy reappeared a few minutes later, announcing a catered lunch would arrive shortly. Charles stepped over and spoke to him quietly, but Darcy just patted him on the back and muttered, “Don’t worry about it. You’re back on barbecue duty tonight.” He looked up and spoke to the group. “I apologize that Pemberley and its kitchens are understaffed for the weekend. The housekeeper is at her niece’s wedding in Panama, and Alice Reynolds, my New York assistant, is attending to family issues. We’veset up catering, however, and the rooms will be cleaned.” He smiled briefly and wandered back into the house.
His unease in her family’s company was unmistakable. Elizabeth envied Darcy his escape while despising him for doing so; she was annoyed with herself for wanting to do the same thing. She walked into the kitchen where she found him staring into a cupboard.
“Um, do you need help with anything?” she asked.
“What!” He turned around quickly, knocking his forehead against the edge of the cupboard door.
Oh, crap.“I wondered if you needed any help. Are…are you okay?”
“Fine, fine,” he said tersely, his face bright red. Elizabeth knew it wasn’t from the sun.
“Um, okay…well, please let me know if I can do anything.” She headed back outside, wondering whether either of them would ever feel comfortable around the other.
Idiot.Darcy held a bag of frozen peas to his head and winced.Just snap at her. Lovely way to show her what a gentleman you are.
He was so tired—exhausted really—of holding himself in and trying to maintain some semblance of control around Elizabeth Bennet.Strike that—Elizabeth Bennet in a bikini.He had barely slept last night knowing she was in a bedroom just down the hall, and he’d spent an eternity today trying not to completely lose it on the dock where he sat next to Caroline Bingley. It was the sweetest of nightmares. Elizabeth had a beautiful body, stunningly athletic and fit. He’d stared at her through his sunglasses but kept his mind occupied on anything else. He’d even hopped in the water once or twice to keep his temperature down.
He wanted to talk to her, to ask her whether she had enjoyed the library and found something to read. He’d barely been able to stop himself from joining her, but he’d fought his impulses; after all, he’d told her no one would bother her. So how could he, the one person in this house who’d inspired her anger and vitriol, impose on her just when they seemed to be inching toward some kind of…détente? Ease? Tentative friendship? Whatever it was they had established after dinner, he couldn’t risk ruining it.
And then her family arrived, and he could see how uncomfortableshe was. He was uncomfortable too; all he could think about was unwrapping her from that damp towel.
Thanks to the Gardiner children’s chatter, things seemed a bit calmer around the lunch table. Mary ate slowly and talked rarely, her attention absorbed by what she referred to as her eighth annual reading ofThe Hobbit. While Herb answered every question Lydia could muster about Big Pharma, his pregnant wife chewed on cheese and crackers and stared at Ava and Alex, seemingly fascinated yet repulsed by their every word. Caroline did all she could to ignore the children and instead focused on expounding again on her knowledge of Pemberley.
“How many bedrooms does this house have?” Barbara asked.
“Nine,” Caroline immediately replied. Barbara looked at Darcy, his mouth opened to respond, and he nodded curtly.
“That’s a weird number,” Lydia said.
Mary looked up from her well-thumbed book. “Interesting,” she murmured. “Lots of meanings in that number.”
“Nine, indeed. As in Dante’s nine circles of hell?” Ted looked around the table speculatively. “Let’s see, we have limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, wrath?—”
“Dad!” Jane shrieked. Elizabeth smacked his arm. “Enough.” She saw him eyeing Herb when he said gluttony and was pretty sure he glanced at Charles when he said lust.
“But girls, I haven’t gotten to heresy, violence, fraud, treachery?—”
Charles cleared his throat. “Nine men on a baseball team, isn’t that it?”
