While at Netherfield, Elizabeth plays cards with Mr. Darcy and finds herself with a debt to pay.

~~<>@<>~~

A Debt to Pay

"You win again, sir." Elizabeth looked across at her opponent, spreading her hands in defeat.

He shrugged. "It appears that the cards were not with you this evening."

"A gentleman would have let me win one hand at least."

Mr. Darcy did not appear offended in the slightest by the intimation in her words. Instead he sat back in his chair, a hand resting in his breeches pocket as he stretched out one long leg to the side of the table. "You must know that disguise of every sort is my abhorrence. Besides, had I played badly just so you could win, you would consider my actions dishonest, and it would lower your opinion of me. Is that not true?"

He was perfectly correct. Elizabeth would not have appreciated anyone manipulating the game just to allow her to win, but that did not stop her from teasing him, especially when she knew how much it would infuriate Caroline Bingley.

That woman was playing cards with her brother and sister at another table, careful not to appear as though she were listening to every word they exchanged, although Elizabeth knew better.

"You are probably right," she sighed. "Although acknowledging it does not make the losing any easier. I suppose I should be grateful that we were not playing high."

"You admitted from the first that you had not played this particular game in a while. A gentleman would not dream of taking advantage of a lady in such a way."

"So you are saying that even though you did not let me win, you still consider yourself a gentleman?"

He frowned a moment, but his lips curled into a satisfied smile as he followed her logic. "Well ... yes, I suppose I am."

Elizabeth looked down at the small slips of paper lying on Mr. Darcy's side of the card table; evidence that, although they had not been playing particularly high, her losses had amounted to a great deal more than she had initially thought. "It appears that I might have become carried away by my enjoyment of the game."

"You mean your indomitable will to win? I have never known a lady more determined to defeat me."

"Perhaps. Whatever the reason I fear you will have to wait for payment, for I can not afford to redeem any of those notes at this precise moment."

Mr. Darcy's eyes grew dark and he leaned across the table, lowering his voice to a whisper. "You do mean to tell me that you cannot repay your debts? Were you a man I might call you out for less. It seems that you are attempting to take advantage of my good nature."

"Good nature? I was not aware you possessed such an admirable trait," Elizabeth snapped out before biting down on her lip to hold back any further invectives.

His eyes fixed intently on her face. "Would you care to retract that comment?"

The condescending tone in his voice caused her to bristle. "I will not," she hissed.

Sitting back, he collected the slips and flicked through them, adding the amounts up in his head. "Not an inconsiderable sum. If you have no money, how do you propose to repay it?"

Elizabeth had to acknowledge it a fair question, but one to which she could not return a definitive answer. "It is true that I have no money. Perhaps once I have returned home ...?"

"I am not prepared to wait that long. What do you possess of value?"

"Mr. Darcy!"

"Answer the question, if you please. This is a serious situation. You must be aware that gaming debts have to be settled immediately, or your honour is forfeit."

She thought quickly, making a mental inventory of every possession she had bought to Netherfield. "I have very little here. I will go upstairs and fetch—"

"No, you will not," he replied coldly, cutting off her words. "You will go to the library. I will meet you there and we can continue these negotiations in more private surroundings."

Embarrassed that he felt so strongly about the money she owed, and with no easy way of paying it, Elizabeth removed herself from his presence without another word; only stopping to explain to her companions that she intended to retire and wishing the Bingleys a good night. However, instead of climbing the stairs she walked somewhat nervously across the silent hallway until she reached the library. At least she had not met any of the servants on her way. That would have been too embarrassing!

He had chosen the perfect location, she had to admit. The library at Netherfield was little used except by herself and Mr. Darcy, who she had often met in this room when looking for something to read during her stay.

Elizabeth walked across the richly woven carpet until she reached the tall shelves, looking for some poetry to calm her nerves. She had no idea what excuses or apologies she could give to Mr. Darcy that might satisfy him. The only item of jewellery she was wearing was a simple cross that her father had given to her many years ago and she did not wish to lose it.

She had been perusing the books for five minutes without finding anything of interest when she heard the door open, and her heart began to beat faster. It would be mortifying if the extent of her debts were revealed to the others in the house and she could only hope that she might convince him in some manner to wait for payment.

"Ah, here you are. I wondered whether you would honour our agreement."

"You think I do not take my responsibilities seriously? That shows how little you know me." Elizabeth took a deep breath to calm herself. "Earlier you mentioned some negotiations. I must tell you that I have little to negotiate with. This cross is all I have with me."

He held up the cross and studied it as it hung around her neck. "You undervalue your own worth? I have no interest in jewellery. I want you in payment."

"Me? Surely you jest."

"I never joke about money. If you please me this evening I will consider your debt to be paid."

"What happened to a gentleman not taking advantage of a lady?"

"You are the one who is unable to pay your debts, not I."

Her breath caught as he reached out to her, running his fingers along the bare skin of her throat and over the soft swell of her breast. "But ... but surely a man whose income is reputed to be ten thousand pounds a year has no need for a paltry few pounds won at cards?"

He stepped closer, reaching around to the back and undoing the first few buttons. "It is the principle of the thing," he replied, his breath ragged as his hands pushed the dress over her shoulders before drawing her breasts out of their confinement. He stared at her body in frank appreciation before cupping one in each hand and squeezing them gently. Bending his head he kissed the soft, creamy skin and the dusky pink nipple before making Elizabeth gasp as he took one of the peaks into his mouth, sucking and licking it until she felt like she was melting from the inside.

Elizabeth had hardly began to master her embarrassment as Mr. Darcy released her from captivity and started to unfasten the buttons on one side of his breeches, allowing the flap to fall forward. Pulling his shirt out of the way he revealed his erect manhood in its full glory, its base surrounded by rich brown curls.

Elizabeth's heart pounded and the heat exploded in her face as she examined the appendage he now held proudly towards her. "I cannot agree to this seduction. I thought you to be a gentleman!" Elizabeth cried, shocked by his unexpectedly rakish behaviour.

"Oh, I most certainly am a gentleman. Were I not, you would now be stripped naked before me, but I prefer to savour my conquests slowly."

"Is that all I am then? A conquest?"

"I cannot deny that, watching you sign each of those vowels, I had hoped for you to lose, just so I could enjoy this experience." His hands pressed heavily on her shoulders, forcing her down onto her knees until the glorious sight of the smooth, pink flesh was standing vigorously just inches from her. "Take me into your mouth, Elizabeth." He wrapped her hands around his hard shaft before guiding his body closer towards her.

Licking her lips she reluctantly opened her mouth wide and accepted the smooth head, moving her tongue almost involuntarily around it, exploring its size and shape and discovering the sensual combination of softness and strength. The taste was not quite what she expected; it was slightly salty and not at all unpleasant. While the act itself might be considered shocking Elizabeth had to admit to feeling a familiar thrill at becoming so intimately acquainted with this most private part of a man's body. She would have never dreamed that she would have done something quite so wanton in so public a location.

Hearing a groan from above, she looked up to see Mr. Darcy's eyes closed in blissful contemplation. In fact, she could hardly remember ever seeing him more pleased. Whatever sensations this was creating in him seemed to be very satisfying indeed.

Elizabeth experimented further, moving her mouth up and down his length, taking more of him in as her tongue danced around the incongruous object that was currently lying between her lips. Mr. Darcy's reaction to this change was even more surprising, as he gasped and groaned in direct relation to whichever parts her tongue lingered over, giving her a definite sense of control over him. She could not deny that it felt good, and it was also creating a tingle somewhere deep inside her which, she had to admit, felt very nice.

He soon began to thrust his hips back and forth, his vocalisations growing louder and more demanding. "Oh God! Elizabeth! Yes ... yes ... you must ... don't stop!"

Elizabeth had no intention of stopping and would have continued to the last had he not pulled himself out of her just before his warm sperm erupted onto her bare chest. "Oh, Fitzwilliam! All over my yellow satin," she complained peevishly.

It took a moment before he was able to reply. "I will buy you another. In fact, my dear, I will buy you two." He fell onto his knees beside her, as he surveyed the scene of devastation he had wrought to his wife's dress. "Anyway, only a little of it actually went on your dress. Most remains here." He bent over her, licking the seed from Elizabeth's soft mounds, and perhaps doing a more thorough job of it than was absolutely necessary.

Elizabeth ran her fingers through his hair as he teased her nipples with his tongue. "Oh please, don't, or you shall have to take me here and I would much prefer the comfort of our own bed! My knees ache!"

Fitzwilliam laughed. "I should have fetched a cushion."

"I will have to remember that for next time."

Fitzwilliam tucked his shirt as best as he could into his tight breeches before securing the buttons once more. "I assume that tomorrow night when we play cards your skill will have miraculously returned. Then it may be I who will incur the losses."

"Oh, my Love, no one will believe a man of your stature would be unable to pay such a trifling sum, unless you raise the stakes."

Her husband pouted. "Not even if I say I have lost my pocket book?"

Elizabeth pretended to think about it for a moment. If Fitzwilliam were to be indebted to her at the end of the evening, who knows what pleasures might unfold. "Very well. We will play again tomorrow night, and again the loser will have to submit to whatever deeds the winner deems necessary to repay the debt. Agreed?"

"It sounds like a perfectly reasonable arrangement to me."

"Then we have only one thing left to do. Let us go to bed now, my dear, and finish what we have started. I find myself unaccountably anxious for your attentions this evening."

Her husband's smile was hungry, and she saw a feral light in his eyes. "I thought you'd never ask."

~~<>@<>~~

Web design and content © 2007 by Heather