Page 59 of Saved By Mr. Darcy
“It is not…it is not pain. Discomfort.”
“Shall I…”
He shifted his hips back, the delicious drag of friction making him groan. Elizabeth gasped beneath him, her fingers digging into the taut muscle of his arms. She pulled him down until he sank back inside her.
“Do that again.”
He did as she bid him, pulling back and surging forwards slowly. She closed her eyes, her breathing heavy and uneven. He waited for further instruction, his movements still.
“I do not know much of the marriage bed,” Elizabeth whispered. “I know how it feels to have you touch me and this…I believe this could feel just as wonderful.”
“I will spend my life making you feel wonderful,” he whispered in her ear, bearing down on one arm as he caressed her hair. He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I am sorry if this first time pains you.”
“This does not pain me,” she smiled. “Having you here, close to me, inside of me…I do not think I could ever grow tired. Take me, husband.”
He groaned, crashing their lips together as he sank into her as he so longed to do. She felt like heaven, molten heat around his hardness. Every move he made sent a pulsing wave of pleasure through him. He would not last long, his release already building fast as he thrust into her. He moved faster, desperate for some release from this pleasure that was so consuming he could not think.
Lizzy gasped beneath him, her own hips rising to meet his as he took her. They moved as one, pleasured gasps mingling in the heated air between them. With one final kiss and a desperate stuttering of his hips, he spilled himself inside her. It was an exquisite pleasure that bordered on pain, the longing for her sated at last.
“My God,” he panted into her shoulder, his body drained and pliant against her. “How I love you, sweet Lizzy.”
“And I love you,” she murmured, fingers tracing idle circles on his back. “But you are heavy.”
He rolled away from her, tucking himself against her. Her bare skin was impossibly soft as he lay his head on her chest, herheart beating quickly below his cheek. She stroked his hair, and in that moment he felt like an entirely different person - Elizabeth’s husband, not Mr Darcy at all.
“Will you stay with me?” she asked after a while, a hint of worry to her voice. “You will not leave to go to your own bed?”
He could not imagine another moment without her. Social convention called them to sleep apart. He had almost lost her forever and had spent weeks pacing the floors outside this very room in his longing for her. Leaving her now felt impossible.
“I will always be beside you, Mrs Darcy. Always.”
Epilogue
Lizzy sat in the window seat of the Blue Room, staring out at the wonderland that had been created before her. The snow had been falling for hours, coating Pemberly in a thin, white blanket. Still more fell from the sky, showing no sign of stopping. Christmas was just two weeks away, and the house was preparing for guests. A small part of Lizzy hoped that the snow would halt their travel. Her first Christmas as Mrs Darcy would be spent entertaining her new found relations, when she would much rather be huddled by the fire with her handsome new husband – preferably in some state of undress.
“You will catch a chill by that window,” his deep voice interrupted her thoughts. “I thought you would be resting.”
She still tired easily, her body growing heavy with fatigue when she exerted herself too greatly. She had been told she should try and walk a few steps by the doctor three months before. Upon hearing this news, she had been presented with a fine wooden cane carved with a winding trail of exquisite flowers to mark the occasion by Fitzwilliam. He had watched with trepidation as she took those first careful steps. When she had stumbled, he had surged forward to catch her and carry her back to her chair without a word. She had managed a little further each day, andthough she still utilised the wheeled chair for long distances, she could now walk the lengths of the house without assistance.
“I am quite well. I cannot look away; it is beautiful. Is there any weather that does not suit Pemberley?”
“I have yet to see it. Something is troubling you, my darling.”
Lizzy sighed heavily; there was no hiding anything from him. He seemed to understand her far more deeply than she thought possible. Six months of marriage had passed in a blissful whirl. Reality, however, had an irritating way of arriving by post.
“Mamma has written to me.”
“Oh?”
“My family will be unable to join us for the celebrations. She bids us to travel to Longbourn. Her nerves cannot stand another journey north, particularly at this time of year. She says that the roads are too unreliable in the winter, and that with Jane’s wedding to be in January, nothing can go wrong.”
She could see the irritation at her mother’s selfishness clear as day on Fitzwilliam’s face. His dislike of her mother was a poorly concealed secret, one he did his best to keep to himself. In truth, she herself had seen the true extent of her mother’s cruelty. Any desire she had to return to Longbourn was for the love of her sisters and father more than any obligation to her mother.
“I see.”
“I…” Lizzy paused, trying to find the words. “I cannot. I would dearly like to go, for I do miss my family. And Hertfordshire is always so lovely at Christmas. If we were there, then we would stay for Jane’s wedding, and that would be wonderful too! But I do not think it wise, Fitzwilliam. The roads…”
As much as she adored Pemberley and the sweet cocoon of married life they had created here, Longbourn would always be a part of her. The thought of being trapped in a carriage for days on end made her stomach turn. They had tried all manner of carriages, but none made any difference. It was not only the enclosure, but the turning of the wheels, the sound of the horses’ hooves against the dirt, the rocking of the carriage. The mere mention of travelling made her skin prickle and her chest burn. Whenever Fitzwilliam had to leave for business, a chore he avoided as much as possible, she could not sleep until his safe return. It was not just her leg that had been injured on that terrible day, but her mind too. She wondered if she would ever be truly healed.
