Sitting up on my elbows, his green eyes focused on to me.
“What?”
“When I was sixteen I attended the Juilliard Pre-College Division for music and dance, but that fall during break, my boyfriend, his friends, and I went to Los Angeles. It was just supposed to be for the weekend. We got wasted, and I thought that out of all of them, I was the best one to drive. We made it a mile—I made it a mile before—before I hit a woman and spent two years in Nidorf Juvenile Detention Facility. That’s it. That’s my past. Are you satisfied now? Or do you want my social too?”
He stared at me for moment before rolling over and reaching for something on the floor… a cell phone. Without speaking to me, he put it on speaker and lay back next to me. It only rang once before someone picked up.
“Yes, Mr. Darcy?”
“All the information you’ve gathered on Felicity Harper… get rid of it.”
“Of course, sir.”
He hung up and dropped the phone to the floor before pulling me to him. He placed a hand on my ass, and I touched his chest, entwining our legs together.
“When I said your past be damned, I meant it. You didn’t have to tell me.” He kissed me.
“I know.” I sat up and shifted to straddle his waist. “But it’s easier now that you know. Besides, this way we won’t miss out on sex, and I’m not forced to kiss men I’m not interested in.”
He flipped me over and pinned me under him. “Why did you kiss him at all?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I kissed him goodbye. It was the least I could do for shooting him down.”
“So you’re a heartbreaker, Ms. Harper.” He grinned as he pressed himself against me.
“What can I say? I’m hot.” I wrapped an arm around his neck. “You’re one lucky man, Mr. Darcy. You know that?”
“I’m starting to,” he said, and as he was about to kiss me, his phone rang. He made no move to get it.
“Answer it. I need a shower anyway,” I said, trying to get out of his arms. The after-sex haze was gone.
He reached for his phone again. “Darcy,” he said with his cold work voice. I threw my hair over my shoulder and picked up his shirt and my bra off the floor.
“Shit, I forgot. Tell Mother I can’t make it tonight, and I’ll make it up to her next time. I’m very busy right now.” He stood up, and my eyes traveled down his abs to his cock, which was now saluting me proudly.
I dropped the shirt. The moment I was close enough I jumped up on top of him and wrapped my legs around him as he snaked his arms around my waist, the phone now forgotten.
“Walt, I need to go.” He didn’t bother waiting for his brother’s reply before hanging up. Focusing solely on me, he cupped my face and kissed me as he took us back to bed.
5:17 p.m.
“When I say I’m busy, that means I’m busy,” I heard him say as I opened the door to the bedroom.
He had gotten a call his brother was coming up to the penthouse and tried to stop him before he made it inside. Apparently he’d failed. Back in my clothes, I came out and stood at the top of the stairs. Walter was below, dressed in white slacks, a dark-blue button-down shirt, and a blazer. His dark, curly brown hair was down instead of in a bun, and next to him stood his wife, Tori, dressed in a light-pink lace dress, her blonde hair in beach waves.
“Mom said not to take no for an answer. She wants us all there,” Walter replied, already heading toward the kitchen. “You wouldn’t happen to have Junípero Gin, would you?” He saw me. “Felicity?”
“Hi.” I waved as I walked down the stairs.
“Hi,” he said before glancing at Theo, who was in jeans and a basic shirt. “Very busy, huh?”
“What my husband is trying to say is hello, Felicity. We didn’t know you were here.” Tori came over and gave me a small hug when I got down.
“It was a last-minute thing. Theo was trying to coax me into composing more,” I lied. I wasn’t sure what he was telling people about me, but I doubted it was anything close to the truth.
“You compose upstairs?” Walter’s eyebrow lifted as he looked at his wife. “Why don’t we do that?”
She smacked his shoulder. “We’re sorry for interrupting. It’s just that Lorelai is having a dinner party tonight to celebrate her new book.”
I glanced at Theo, who was at the bar in the corner of the room.
“Theo, you should go. I’m going to head—”
“Here it is. It’s the last bottle I have. Remind Dad he can’t mix it with anything else.” He cut me off as he moved back toward us with a bottle in his hand.
“Theo, you should go celebrate with your mom,” I said, and he gave me a look like he didn’t want talk about it.
“We weren’t done composing yet.”
“Just so we’re clear, composing is code for hot sex, right?” Walter spoke up, and again Tori smacked him.
“Very hot,” Theo replied, and I wanted to hit him. I kicked his foot, but he didn’t even flinch.
“Felicity, excuse them both. Neither of them has a filter. I’m sure Lorelai would love for you to come over. The more the more the merrier when it comes to her celebrations.”
“No, I couldn’t—”
“Fine. We’ll be there. Will you get out of my house now?”
“Isn’t hot sex supposed to make you mellow?” Walter laughed, and Tori had to drag him to the door.
“We’ll see you there!”
He shook his head and sighed. “Sorry. They’re like a side show.”
“I kind of like him. They remind me of my roommates. But am I going to meet your parents now?”
“They aren’t my birth parents, if that makes it any less awkward for you,” he said casually as he moved to his kitchen, knowing full well I would follow for an explanation. So I didn’t ask for one. Instead, I took a seat on a bar stool as he took a bottle of wine, making sure to obscure the label. He poured me a glass of the white wine. My gaze never shifted from his as I drank in the scent of it before taking a small sip.
“Coche-Dury Les Perrieres, Meursault Premier Cru?” I asked him.
He looked at me oddly. “How did you know?”
“What, a working-class girl like myself can’t know wine? I thought I made it clear I can be a little bit showy too.”
He fought an urge to smile. “Fine. What year is it?”
I took another sip. “Nineteen ninety-five?”
“You are one of a kind, Felicity Harper. Wrong, it’s nineteen ninety-one, but still close enough that I’m impressed.” He grinned as he drank.
Rolling my eyes, I changed the subject. “Do I still get to hear your story?”
“I’m shocked you’re interested.”
I shrugged. “Normally I wouldn’t be, but you piqued my interest. Are you a tortured soul, Mr. Darcy?”
“No, just a kid who was raised by a loving, hardworking single mother.” He laughed as he leaned against the counter next to me. “My birth father was the rich and notorious playboy, Charles Darcy.”
“The photographer?” I’d seen a few of his nude works in magazines.
He nodded. “They met while my mother was a bartender. She also worked as a part-time housemaid and even a hotel maid. I grew up not knowing who my father was. The moment he found out she was pregnant, he walked out on her. She never wanted me to meet him anyway. She said he smelled like an ashtray and looked like gum on the bottom of her shoe.”
“So did your looks come from her, then?” I grinned.
“She would like you.” He laughed. “If she were still alive. She died of Huntington's disease when I was ten. The last memory I have of her was when she dropped me off at the Darcy Mansion. It was about a four-hour drive from our home. My father lived only four hours away. She stayed that night and then gave me a hug before she left for an experimental treatment. My father never wanted me, but he does send me an expensive gift every year on my birthday. When I was twelve, he gave me a motorcycle. Eventually my aunt and un
cle became my parents. I love them, but whenever I’m around them for too long, I remember I’m the black sheep. I’ve been bored out of my mind for the last twenty-one years, but you’ve made things interesting.”
I couldn’t see how, and I didn’t ask. He finished of the rest of his glass as he waited for me to say something. But I drank casually as I leaned back. I was in no mood to meet his family. Just thinking about having to force a smile, be polite while eating caviar, and listen to a rich woman talk about her book sounded like a nightmare. Then I realized that was his life. He had been born and raised with nothing, then forced to adapt to that type of world. On the outside he looked the part, but on the inside, he was like me.
Damn it. I could feel myself already giving in.
“You’re going to have to buy me a dress.”
“Absolutely. Just as long as I get to peel it off you.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Not a Princess
Theo
“At this rate, we’re going to be late,” she said when she came out of my bedroom wearing a red cocktail dress. It looked more like a sexy slip than a dress. It wouldn’t work. I would spend the whole night with a hard-on, thinking of different ways to get her out of it.
“We will arrive fashionably late, and I’m sure the dinner will just be getting started.” I reached for another outfit from the rack they had brought up for us. “Try this one.”
She snatched it from my hand. “I swear to God if you don’t like this one, I’m going naked.”
“Stop looking so fucking beautiful in everything, and we wouldn’t have this problem¸” I said. She glared at me, and I glared back, trying my best not to touch her. If I did now, we would never leave.
“This is the last outfit I’m parading myself in for you.” She lifted the dress between us.
“Nothing in life is final. But we’ll see.”
The corner of her lip turned up, but she looked away and shook her head as she headed back upstairs to the bedroom. We’d picked up right where we left off, and I’d lost count of the number of times we had fucked each other in the last few hours. She was frustrated I kept making her change, and I was frustrated that everything she wore turned me on. You would think I had never been with a woman before. But there was something about her that kept drawing me back. The way she felt against me. How she moaned out my name. Not knowing what she would do or say next. She seduced me just by breathing.
“I like this one, and it’s staying on!”
Nothing is staying on for long. “Fine.”
When the door opened, I had never regretted a word more than I did then. She wore a white bustier top and a navy skirt that was short in the front, exposing her long, smooth legs, and long in the back. She had pinned her hair up, exposing her neck. She… I… fuck, why had I chosen that?
“Felicity—”
“Not changing,” she said as she took a pair of heels from the rack, along with earrings and a single ring. The moment she stepped into the heels, I bit back a groan as my eyes freely traveled over every curve of her. This was insane.
I knew it, yet the only thought going through my head was mine. She is mine. It wasn’t in a sweet way. It was in the I need her under me now kind of way, preferably with those heels still on.
Stepping behind her, I pulled the pins out of her hair, letting it fall down in waves. Brushing it to the side, I kissed her neck and pulled her close, touching her breasts through the material.
“Theo, we can’t,” she said, even though she tilted her neck to the side for me.
“I know.” I kissed her jaw before letting go. “I was just giving you some incentive to keep your hair down.”
It took her a moment to realize what I meant, and then she reached up and clapped her hand over her neck. “You son of a bitch.”
“You could make it even.” I tilted my neck, and she glared. “I thought so—”
Gripping my tie, she pulled me close to her. Losing it and undoing the top buttons of my shirt, exposing my neck, she kissed me hard.
“Fel….” I tried to say her name, but I couldn’t trust my voice. My dick hardened, and she rubbed herself against me more. Just when I was about to wrap my arms around her, she pulled back and innocently smiled at me.
“We really ought to be going.”
I opened my mouth to say something but decided against it, opting instead to take her hand and walk her to the door.
“You know that you—”
“I know,” I answered, knowing full well she was talking about the hard-on I was currently sporting, thanks to her.
She giggled softly as we stepped into the elevator.
“Oh, I will get payback, Ms. Harper.”
“What are you going to do? Tie me to your bedpost again?”
I grinned. “Who said it will be here? God knows how long we will be stuck at this thing. I’m thankful you chose that dress.”
“Do your worst, Mr. Darcy, but remember that I never have to see these people again so I can moan as loud as I want,” she said shamelessly, and as the doors opened she stepped out with confidence to the front entrance, where my driver was waiting.
I couldn’t help but smile.
She was the gift that kept on giving, and I was eager to see just how loud she could really moan.
Felicity
7:00 p.m.
“Let’s see if I’ve got this,” I said, trying to remember the rundown he’d given me of his family. “Your aunt and uncle’s names are Lorelai and Arthur Darcy, but you call them Mom and Dad. They have two sons. The first is Bartholomew, but everyone calls him Arty. He’s a few months younger than you, and everyone says you both look similar, but in your opinion he’s the less attractive one?”
“Yes.” He winked and leaned back in the chair. “He’s also the one who threw that party at my house.”
“So he knows about me?” Well, at least that was one less person to lie to, I thought. “And your other cousin-slash-brother is Walter or Walt. He’s five years younger but is the only one who is in a stable relationship that isn’t solely based on sex.”
“I sense judgment.”
“From the woman who let you tie her up and then begged you to smack her?” I gasped, shocked. “Never!” He laughed, shaking his head at me, so I went on. “He comes off the most immature, but I guess he’s grounded in some aspects.”
“Are you finished with your questions? Because we’ve been parked out here for at least five minutes. I’m sure the butler has told them we’ve arrived.”
He didn’t wait for me to answer before he opened the door, took my hand, and pulled me out.
The first thing I noticed was just how big the mansion was and how it looked more like a classic château than anything else. The front of it appeared to be made entirely of white stone. The second thing I noticed was it didn’t seem like this was just a family gathering, based on how many people were walking into the house, dressed way more elegantly than I was.
“This is just a dinner?”
“In the Darcy family, nothing is just a dinner.” He sighed, still holding my hand as we entered inside.
This was a bad idea.
This was a very bad idea.
I should have run away.
But I held on to his hand and followed him inside, going straight into the lion’s den, or the backyard. It felt like it stretched on for acres. There was a large pool close to the house, where a private orchestra played. It was exactly what you’d expect a rich people’s dinner to be. Servers going about with trays of champagne and appetizers, single men laughing loudly together in one corner of the pool, single women in another, while the married folk either danced or spoke among themselves.
“An hour tops and then we make our escape,” Theo whispered.
I leaned in. “I’ll hold you to it.”
“Theodore!” a woman with curly, light brown hair exclaimed. Her long green dress shimmered under the lighting in the backyard as she came up to Theo with her arms extended
.
“Hi, Mom,” Theo said as he gave her a hug and kissed both her cheeks.
Mom? What?
“You’re tired, sweetheart. You need to rest.” Her gaze drifted to me—well, our clasped hands—then to my face. “And who is this?”
“The reason I haven’t been sleeping.” Theo chuckled, and this time I really did smack him as I let go of his hand to shake hers.
“Hi ma’am. My name is Felicity. Felicity Harper.”
“Welcome, Felicity. Felicity Harper,” she repeated, and I didn’t realize how dumb it sounded to repeat my name like I was James Bond or something. Two minutes into being here, and I was already in the negatives.
“Please enjoy yourselves. Now that you are finally here, I can give my speech.” She petted Theo’s cheek. “Don’t leave too soon.”
I knew he was going to say something dirty, so I spoke for him. “He won’t. I’m looking forward to your speech.”
She nodded to us both before heading back to her guest.
“If you’re embarrassed when I tell her you’re the woman in my bed at night, how embarrassed will you be when my hand goes up that dress?” he whispered into my ear before turning to a guest who called to him.
“Just do it already, so we can leave in shame. I already feel out of place,” I said softly as his hand moved around my waist to hold me tighter.
“Just stay close, nod and smile, and before you know it, we’ll be out of here,” he said seriously as we moved toward the crowd.
I did a mental yawn at the sight of them, but where else was I going to go? Especially with the dirty looks I was getting from more than a few women. Jealousy written all over their faces. However, there were some women who didn’t seem to care at all, more interested in who I was than jealous over who I was with. I could hear them as we walked.
“Mr. Darcy, it’s a pleasure.”
I focused my attention to the four men, most of them around Theo’s age. All of them held either a cigar, which was so cliché it was almost comical, or a glass of champagne.
“The feeling is mutual,” Theo said, but it didn’t sound like he was pleased at all. I couldn’t tell if that was because he disliked them or if it was because he really was a block of ice when it came to his work. “Gentlemen, my date for the evening, Felicity Harper.”