Page 95 of A Searing Acquaintance
He was going to have pull over and take her in the backseat if she kept touching him that way. He cleared his throat, but his next words still came out hoarsely.
“Are you sure you can’t stay with me tonight?”
She sighed. “I can’t. I have to do things at home, and I have to be at the office really early.”
“Oh. Right.”
“Um, you could stay with me.”
“Are you certain?” He heard the hesitation in her voice. Although she’d insisted she felt fantastic and hadn’t held back in expressing her desire for him, he’d noticed her walking a bit gingerly. And he wondered whether she needed a night to rest and to process all that had occurred over the weekend. He’d happily do all of his processing at his desk tomorrow if it meant another evening with her.
“Yes…I mean, I need to check about Jane’s plans. She sometimes comes home Sunday or Monday night to get fresh clothes. I don’t know why she doesn’t just move in with Charles.”
Darcy sensed her hesitation. “You know what?” He tried to bury his disappointment. “I have an early meeting too. Dinner tomorrow, though? I’ll send a car.”
“I’ll pack a bag.” She squeezed his hand in reassurance.
Odd how they could be nervous after a weekend exploring each other’s minds and bodies, but reality was setting in. They needed to discuss various and sundry things they’d been avoiding. Elizabeth finally took the plunge.
“Um, when do you think I’ll need to meet with the lawyers about Wickham?”
“The next few weeks, I think.” He squeezed her hand and lifted it to his lips. “I’d like to be there with you if that’s all right?”
Elizabeth nodded, grateful for the support but wondering how his travel schedule would allow it.
“What if he’d planted drugs in my purse?” she suddenlyexclaimed. “Do you think he planned to? If I’d ever been anywhere alone with him, he might have, but?—”
“But you were smart, Elizabeth. You didn’t trust him. You sensed that he wasn’t right.”
“I did,” she said after a deep breath. “As I knewyouwere. I denied it, but I knew you were a good man.”
“Well, I suppose I owe it all to my excellent nursing skills.”
She smiled, her eyes sparkling behind her sunglasses. “I believe your bedside manner, and all that it entails, is unparalleled.”
Within two hours of dropping Elizabeth off at her apartment, Darcy received a plaintive text. “Home alone. Wanna come over and play?”
He was at her door in just over an hour.
The next day, within minutes of his walking back into his office from a board meeting, Sara let him know that Rich had called twice. Darcy rolled his eyes. His cousin had texted him three times last night, and he’d done little beyond acknowledging that yes, he was alive and well and happy and they could talk the next day. His evening had been busy, focused on helping Elizabeth soothe her muscles by giving her a gentle massage.
He made it clear he knew she was worn out, and just being with her, holding her, was enough. If holding her had been all she’d wanted at Pemberley all weekend, it would have been enough. Thank God it wasn’t. During that Sunday morning’s thunderstorm, he’d noticed her rub her leg where the scar was, and he now asked her about it.
“It aches when it’s really humid or when a storm is rolling in,” she explained. “Titanium pins are a bit sensitive to weather patterns.” He traced the scar with his finger and then his lips from her ankle to her shin and asked for the full story.
“I was a sophomore. Field conditions were awful, and I was running full bore down the field when another player ran toward me. I turned to run the other way, but my spikes were planted in the turf. My foot didn’t follow my ankle. Broke the tibia in two places and torqued it.”
She saw his grimace. “It’s fine. I’m fine. It was horrible at the time, and I missed a week of classes, but I made it up. Spent six weeks on crutches taking sponge baths.”
He gazed at her, awed by her calm, matter-of-fact explanation.
“My soccer career ended, but shit happens.” Self-consciously, Elizabeth rubbed the scar and wiggled her toes.
“My sexy philosopher.”
“That’s an oxymoron, Mr. Cambridge Grad.”
He pulled her close. “Your family took care of you?”
