He stilled immediately; completely naked, Elizabeth’s body felt soft and inviting. Instantly, the arousal returned.They had never lain together without clothing between them. What is she doing to me?

Growling back profanity, he lifted his weight to move away from her, sliding as far to his side of the bed as possible. Elizabeth did not move; she remained facing away from him, so Darcy fluffed

Twenty minutes later, feeling relaxed at last, Darcy let his eyes close naturally, although he kept the distance between himself and Elizabeth.

Elizabeth had waited quietly for Darcy’s reaction when he crawled into the bed. She had never done anything so bold in her life.Turning down the lamp so Darcy could not see her embarrassment was the only way she could go through with her plan. Her husband desired her; of that, she was absolutely certain. She had simply decided to remind him of that desire on a regular basis. He had controlled their relationship to this point, but now she would take it over.That is, if she could overcome feeling like a complete wanton. Thankfully, Aunt Merry had explained how some men expected their wives to wear nothing when making love. Her aunt feared the rich to be more “experimental” in their relationships, and she offered Elizabeth a warning. It had seemed scandalous at the time, but now it felt more like freedom.

Gauging the evenness of Darcy’s breathing, Elizabeth smiled confidently before she moved. Rolling casually over, as if in deep sleep, she cuddled into Darcy’s side and draped her left leg over his body. Pretending to be in the nearly waking stage of sleep, she lightly kissed the side of his cheek and muttered something unintelligible in a seductive breath. She briefly arched towards him and then settled her head in the curvature of his shoulder.

Darcy stiffened, but, intuitively, his arm came around her, and he held Elizabeth tightly to him. Eyes now wide open and heart pounding, he oscillated between wanting to run far away from her and desiring to lose himself in Elizabeth’s body. His chest rose and fell in shallow bursts as he closed his eyes and moaned her name. Her hair draped across his arm and chest—the same chest where

Elizabeth relished how Darcy’s fingers began to trail fire down her spine and across the rise of her hips, but she did nothing more than snuggle closer and brush her lips across his chest. She played at being asleep and let her husband explore her body at his own pace.

Mystified by his inability to stop, Darcy saw himself as disengaged from his own body; his mind fought for control, but, unfortunately, his body overruled his mind’s every objection. Elizabeth would not deny him his perverted pleasure. They had married a month earlier, and his resolve not to have her weakened by the moment. When he thought to die in Wickham’s cellar, his one regret was that he would never know the pleasure of Elizabeth’s love. Someone else would claim her after his death, and the thought nearly drove him insane. Now she lay in his arms, and all he had to do was commit himself to loving her completely.

Impulsively, Darcy rolled her to her back and hovered over her, burying his face in Elizabeth’s hair.“God help me, Elizabeth. I surrender.” His lips found hers in a deep, passionate kiss. “Tell me again. Is this what you really want? If you have any doubts, we should not go through with this.”

“I have more love in my heart for you, Husband, than the dear Lord should allow a woman to feel. I want to be yours, Fitzwilliam, in every way possible—for a lifetime.” Elizabeth did not breathe; she knew Darcy still wavered.

They remained staring into each other’s eyes for several long moments.Then Darcy lowered his mouth to hers.This kiss spoke of hunger and need.“You know,Vixen, once I have you, I will want you again and again. I am a starving man.You will need to suffer my attentions for a lifetime.”

Elizabeth stroked the side of his face with the back of her hand. “I want to feel your skin touching mine—to not know where either of us begins or ends,” she whispered.

Two heartbeats later, Darcy stripped away the shirt, and then he

Passion flared between them as heat rushed to their every pore. Darcy drew Elizabeth closer to him, realizing she hungered for him as much as he did for her.The smell of the lavender oil she had used in the bath clung to her skin, along with some other undefined bouquet, one of wild desire and excitement, and it inflamed him as his fingertips traced a line from her temple across her jaw and down her neck.

His mouth followed his fingertips until Darcy sucked gently at the vein throbbing at the base of Elizabeth’s neck. He nipped at her gently and then moved to the swell of her breasts.

He would make love to his wife—he would give himself completely to her—would forget his perverted sense of honor and responsibility and welcome hope, commitment, and love into his heart.

Elizabeth splayed a hand across his chest and pressed herself against him, robbing Darcy of breath and of any coherent thought. “I love you,” she whispered close to his ear, “for an eternity. I am yours, Fitzwilliam.” The ache of desire became a longing—a craving for what Elizabeth offered him, and intuitively his hands began to search her body, the need to know all of her overwhelming his senses.

“I will be gentle,” he murmured.

“I do not fear you, Fitzwilliam. How could a person fear love?”

“Look, Mama,” the girl called as she twirled in place.

“You are an excellent dancer, Lydia.” Elizabeth sat on a blanket and watched the child playing barefoot on the bank of the lake. The day was sunny, and it called to them to be outside.

The girl stepped left and right and pretended to curtsy to an unknown partner.“Come dance with me, Mama.”

Happily, Elizabeth rose to stand with the child in the clearing. Taking the girl’s hands, she began to count,“One and two and three and four,” as they sidestepped over the carefully manicured lawn.

The girl’s curly auburn hair bounced in ringlets as they bobbed and twisted to the imaginary music, and soon they were in fits of laughter.

“Would you prefer to dance with me, Miss Lydia?” Darcy stepped from behind one of the nearby trees. He was covered in road dirt, but his appearance pleased both the ladies; he was pure masculinity.

“Papa!” the girl’s arms came up in a hug as he scooped her into his embrace.“I am so glad you are home.”

He planted a kiss on the side of the child’s cheek. She might have her mother’s hair and build, but Lydia Darcy was his child, right down to her icy blue eyes.

“Will you dance with me, Papa?”

“Allow me to greet your mother first, Child.” He leaned to the right and placed a lingering kiss on Elizabeth’s upturned mouth. “Did you miss me also, Mrs. Darcy?”

“From the moment you rode off to Matlock.”

Darcy smiled that smile he always gave her right before he seduced her.“The Earl and Her Ladyship send their love.They plan to visit at Michaelmas.”

“Excellent.” Elizabeth moved away to the blanket. “Mr. Bingley and Jane will come next week. They are most eager to meet their nephew.”

“How is James?” he asked as she picked up the squirming infant.

“Damon is perfect,” she corrected as she brought the child for his father to admire.

Darcy rolled his eyes. “The child was named after my father, Elizabeth.” He turned back the corner of the blanket to look at the screwed-up face of his son.

“After your father and your cousin. I just prefer to remember

“Will I ever win another argument?” he asked good-heartedly.

Elizabeth laughed lightly.“Probably not, but I promise you will not suffer from the defeat.”

Darcy bestowed another kiss on her lips.Then he turned to the child he still held in his arms. He placed her little feet on the tops of his boots. Lydia’s head barely came to his knees. “Would you hum for us, Elizabeth?”

She began to sing “Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender.” Darcy’s head shot up in surprise, but his daughter sang the words, too, and so he, dutifully, stepped into a sweeping waltz. Lydia, happy to be the center of attention, laughed and sang until he lifted her to him, and she combed the air with her chubby legs.

“I love you, Papa,” she proclaimed, her declaration of love mixed with wet kisses on his cheek and a giggling fit of joy.

“You were laughing, Sweetling.” Holding her to him, Darcy kissed the end of her nose.They had made love twice, and now he wanted her again.

“Mmm.” Her sleepy voice made him feel guilty about his hunger for her.

“You were laughing in your sleep. It was a good dream, then?” He kissed along her neck and shoulder.

Elizabeth rolled into his embrace and slipped her arms around his neck.The image of their children safe in their arms stayed with her, but Elizabeth did not share what she had seen. She just silently hoped that this dream came true, as had her others. “We were at Pemberley, and we were in love.”

“We are in love,” he corrected. “Now, in the present; and in the future. The past belongs to Ellender and Arawn. Ours will be the new legend.”

“Then you are happy, my Husband?”

“Well, I would not mind being allowed to win an argument

“You never stood a chance, you know.”

“I know,” he said with some resignation.

“It was a glorious battle, though, do you not think?” Elizabeth wriggled her body against his.

Darcy’s every sense was lost to her.“I succumbed too easily,” he chastised himself. “However, I should make note that you do not play fair.”

“It would bode well for you to remember that in the future, Mr. Darcy. I thought that you had learned your lesson long ago, during the snowstorm.”

“In my defense, you distracted me both times.” By now, his mouth had drifted down the front of her body. “You realize that you will pay for such treachery.” He brushed his mouth over the swell of her breasts. Needing to mark her as his own, his mouth returned to hers, and he spoke only inches from her lips. “I never thought I could know contentment. You changed my life, Elizabeth. You made me whole.” The kiss deepened, and the hunger of a lifetime settled between them.

REFERENCES

Adams, Cecil.“What’s the Best Way to Kill a Vampire?” The Straight Dope. 16 Jul 1982. Creative Loafing Media. 1996-2009.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/37/whats-the-best-way-to-kill-a-vampire.html.

“Baobhan Síth.” Mysterious Britain and Ireland.

http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/Scotland/folklore/baobhan-sith.html.

Barber, Paul. Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality. New Haven, CT:Yale University Press, 1990.

“Cernunnos:The Horned One.” Hawthorne Grove, Inc. 1994.

http://hawthornegrove.Faithweb.com/writings/horndgod.htm.

Dundes,Alan, ed. The Vampire:A Casebook. Madison,WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998.

Evans, Dyfed Lloyd.“Iarlles y Ffynnon.” Celtnet. 2005-2008.

http://www.celtnet.org.uk/gods_i/iarlles.html.

Greenleaf, Elisabeth Bristol. “LordThomas and Fair Elender or the Brown Girl.” Folk and Traditional Lyrics. Traditional Music Library.

http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk-song-lyrics/Lord_Thomas_and_Fair_Elender_or_the_Brown_Girl.htm.

Heldreteth, Leonard G., and Mary Pharr, eds. The Blood Is the Life: Vampires in Literature. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Press, 1999.

“Holy Island, or Lindisfarne.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition. Online Encyclopedia. 2009. http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/HIG_HOR/HOLY_ISLAND_or_LINDISFARNE.html.

MacCulloch, J.A. The Religion of the Ancient Celts. Mineola: Dover Publications, Inc., 2003.

“Marmion: Canto the Second.” The Literature Network. Jalic, Inc. 2000-2009. www.online-literature.com/walter_scott.

Matthews, Caitlín and John. The Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom. Shaftesbury, Dorset: Element Books Limited, 1991.

Nelson-Burns, Lesley. “Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor.” Contemplator. http:www.contemplator.com/child/Thomas.html.

Ogden, Daniel. Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds. New Haven, CT:Yale University Press, 1990.

Perkowski, Jan L., ed. Vampires of the Slavs. Cambridge, MA: Slavica Publishers, 1976.

Preston, Cathy Lynn.“The English and Scottish Popular Ballads by Francis James Child.” The Internet Sacred Text Archive. 2008.

http://www.sacred-text.com/Neu/eng/child/ch073.htm.

OTHER ULYSSES PRESS BOOKS

DARCY’S PASSIONS: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

RETOLD THROUGH HIS EYES

Regina Jeffers, $14.95

Profound and amusing, this novel captures the style and humor of Jane Austen’s novel while turning the entire story on its head. It presents Darcy as a man in turmoil. His duty to his family and estate demand he choose a woman of high social standing. But what his mind tells him to do and what his heart knows to be true are two different things. After rejecting Elizabeth as being unworthy, he soon discovers he’s in love with her. But the independent Elizabeth rejects his marriage proposal. Devastated, he must search his soul and transform himself into the man she can love and respect.

DARCY’S TEMPTATION: A SEQUEL TO JANE

AUSTEN’S PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

Regina Jeffers, $14.95

By changing the narrator to Mr. Darcy, Darcy’s Temptation turns one of the most beloved literary love affairs of all time on its head, even as it presents new plot twists and fresh insights into the characters’ personalities and motivations. Four months into the new marriage, all seems well when Elizabeth discovers she is pregnant. However, a family conflict that requires Darcy’s personal attention arises because of Georgiana’s involvement with an activist abolitionist. On his return journey from a meeting to address this issue, a much greater danger arises. Darcy is attacked on the road and, when left helpless from his injuries, he finds himself in the care of another woman.

THE LOST YEARS OF JANE AUSTEN: A NOVEL

Barbara Ker Wilson, $14.95

There was an interval in Jane Austen’s life, before any of her novels were published, when she disappeared from sight. This book seeks to fill those missing months with a visit from England to the colony of New South Wales, where the dashing Mr. D’Arcy Wentworth has settled at Homebush, a convict revolt is brewing at Castle Hill, and no one is quite certain whether the Napoleonic War has ended or not.

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