To Conquer Mr. Darcy

in the night attire that he knew so well how to remove.

She dropped the cravat on the floor, and proceeded to his coat. “I am undoing the buttons of your coat, sir.”

“I am aware of that; my question is why.”

Elizabeth hid a smile. “My proximate goal is to remove your clothing. Following that it is my intention to seduce you, sir.” She paused briefly in her endeavors to kiss his neck lightly.

“Elizabeth, it was my intention in coming here tonight to demonstrate to you I can be trusted not to take advantage of you again, and you are making it extremely difficult!”

She finished with his coat and began on his waistcoat. “I cannot see why. You have made your point admirably, and now the question is whether I can be trusted not to take advantage of you, and I fear the answer to that question is no.” Realizing that she would need at least minimal cooperation from him if she were to have any success in removing his coats, she slipped her hands inside them and tried to tempt him by caressing his chest through the fine lawn of his shirt. Moving to press her body against his, she felt the evidence of his arousal as she opened the collar of his shirt and kissed the exposed hollows of his neck.

“Elizabeth,” he groaned. She continued to spread kisses across his neck while she pressed her hips against his provocatively, until with a moan he captured her mouth with his in a kiss that spoke of undeniable hunger. She took advantage of the moment to slip his coats off his shoulders, letting them drop to the floor.

The process of seducing him, she was fascinated to discover, was at least as exciting to her as the known delights of his touch. In the past, he had always taken the lead in touching her, and she was finding this reversal a heady experience. She ran her hands lightly across his shoulders, and drew them tantalizingly slowly down his back before beginning the process of extricating his shirt from his breeches. She had just managed to slide her hands onto the warm skin of his waist when he raised his mouth from hers. “Well, my love, if you are bent on this process of seduction, perhaps I should mention to you that removing your own clothes would be at least as effective in that regard as removing mine,” he said.

“I appreciate the intelligence, sir,” she said teasingly as she explored the warmth of his chest. “Perhaps I should investigate the truth of that hypothesis, once I have had a chance to enjoy myself with this.” Although somewhat reluctant to give up the pleasure of touching him, she removed her hands and stepped back. With a seductive smile playing across her lips, she untied her dressing gown and slipped it off, allowing it to fall to the floor in a pile of silk. Aroused by the expression on his face as he watched, she undid the ties of her nightgown one at a time, making the discovery that he seemed even more affected by the process as she proceeded more slowly. Finally she slid first one shoulder, then the other out of her nightgown, so only her fingertips were holding it up, and then she let that drop as well.

It was beyond understanding, she decided, how he could excite her so much simply by looking at her. “Pray do not forget your hair, my love; that is a very effective tool in seduction as well,” he said, his voice hoarse. She obligingly undid the braid she had made for the night, and shook her long curls loose with a beguiling smile, looking up at him as she touched the tip of her tongue to her lips enticingly.

Darcy had reached the end of his endurance for this delightful game. He strode toward her, his hands going to tear at the buttons of his breeches until, with a muffled curse, he discovered just how extraordinarily painful the process of dealing with buttons was likely to be for him for the next few days. Elizabeth, recognizing his difficulty, pushed his hands away, and said with a flirtatious smile, “Please allow me.” She undid the buttons, though at a far slower pace than he would have chosen, and had the inspiration of interrupting that activity periodically to stroke the bulge in the front of his breeches, enjoying the sense of power she felt when he moaned her name pleadingly.

“I am simply doing everything within my power to make it difficult for you to refuse me, William,” she teased him provocatively.

“Believe me, I could not refuse you if I tried at this point.” He kissed her neck and nibbled at her ear. “And you have me at a distinct disadvantage, madam, since I am unable to use my hands as effectively as I would like to make you suffer as much as I am suffering at the moment.”

She smiled wickedly at him as she continued the process of removing his breeches. As soon as he was free of them he said with a roguish look, “There is, however, nothing wrong with the rest of my body!” He propelled her backwards to the delightful accompaniment of her laughter until she was forced onto the bed. Holding her shoulders down with the backs of his hands, he kissed her greedily, then sought her nipple with his mouth and suckled her until she writhed and moaned beneath him. Once he was certain she was ready for him, with a passionate demand quite different from the gentleness he had shown the previous night, he thrust himself deep inside her, and possessed her with hard, rapid strokes that demonstrated the strength of his desire and drove her to the peaks of arousal until she was engulfed by waves of exquisite pleasure. Triggered by her moans of ecstasy, his release followed almost immediately.

When he at length surfaced from the oblivion to which she had led him, he said with concern, “I apologize for my loss of control, my love. I hope that I was not too rough with you?”

She shook her head. “I found it very… exciting,” she said, smiling with the memory. “I believe I enjoyed seducing you, as well.”

“You, my love, are a menace!” exclaimed Darcy.

“Is that a complaint, sir?”

“Not at all! I am quite content to have been seduced so effectively. And, as Shakespeare says, ‘Therefore ’tis meet that noble minds keep ever with their likes; for who so firm that cannot be seduced?’”

“Sir, I cry foul; learning quotes on seduction is not a part of a young lady’s education. You shall have to choose another topic.”

“Perhaps it should be part of their education—there are many gentlemen who would think it a good cause.” He caressed her cheek.

“Then seduction, perhaps, is one of the skills a truly accomplished young lady must possess, along with a thorough knowledge of music, dancing, and singing?”

“I would say so,” he said with mock gravity, “though I might point out that if you wish to truly excel at seduction, you will need, as my aunt Catherine would say, to practice it quite constantly.”

She nipped his shoulder affectionately. “I will have to consider how to obtain my practice, then.”

“Solely in the interest of furthering your education, I will volunteer to be the subject of any further experiments you choose to undertake.”

“That is one of the many things I admire about you, William—your constant attention to the improvement of my mind.”

“‘Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediment,’ my love.”

“A much fairer subject, sir. ‘Young men’s minds are always changeable.’”

“But hardly a kind response! Let me see—‘Nature that framed us of our elements, warring within our breast for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.’”

Elizabeth smiled mischievously. “‘Beauty stands in the admiration only of weak minds led captive.’”

“Unkind again! I shall refrain from continuing this battle, and kiss you instead.”

Elizabeth had no objection to this plan. “I wish that I could stay with you like this forever, and never have to leave to face the world.”

“I believe that I could find it in my heart to share that sentiment, but is the world so difficult to face?” He stroked her hair, enjoying the fine texture of it, and wound a curl around his finger, thinking of all the nights he had dreamed of tangling his fingers in her tresses. He still could hardly believe that she was his.

Elizabeth colored, not wishing to burden him with her daytime distress, especially as she could hardly claim any lack of responsibility tonight. “Not so difficult, no,” she said. In the silence that followed, she realized that some of her comfort had been lost with her misleading words, and thought of her resolve to share more of her thoughts and feelings with him, as she wished he would for her. Before she could think better of it, she divulged the truth. “But I had a difficult time of it today. When you are with me, this feels so right, so… predestined, but when we were apart today, I felt…” She could not quite bring herself to say the words.

He caught the serious intent in her voice. “What did you feel?” he asked gently.

Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes, and she turned her face into his shoulder, shaking her head in response.