Mr. Darcy's Kiss: A Contemporary Pride and Prejudice Romance Read online

  His eyes met mine. His expression was unreadable, yet it made my stomach do flip-flops. I couldn’t help it, but I felt stupid. I felt like I didn’t measure up to his standards. I didn’t understand how I could feel like this, since I didn’t care about him or what he thought of me. I didn’t have to measure up to him at all. I didn’t like him, and I certainly didn’t care what he thought.

  Yet, somehow, I couldn’t take my eyes off him as he walked away.

  Chapter 5

  Jane waltzed around the kitchen, humming a happy tune to herself the next morning when I woke up. She was walking on air, and I couldn’t help but smile as I watched her.

  She was as twitterpated as Charles had been.

  I went to the coffee pot to find it empty. The bag of coffee next to it was empty as well.

  “Where’s the coffee?” I asked, opening a cabinet to look for more.

  “We’re out,” Jane said, still dancing around the kitchen with a goofy-happy smile on her face.

  “And you’re still happy?” I asked. “With no coffee? He must be a heck of a guy.”

  Jane grinned. “He texted me this morning. We’re discussing watercolors.”

  I shook my head. Only Jane would be over the moon about discussing watercolors at eight in the morning with no coffee in sight.

  “Jane, I need coffee. I need caffeine,” I told her. “I’m going to order some from the cafe. Want to come with me to get it?”

  Jane spun around the kitchen to pick up my phone. She curtsied as she handed it to me. I wished I could be in that good of a mood without coffee. “Make sure to order one for Lydia,” she reminded me.

  I chuckled and opened up the phone app for our local coffee shop. It was just down the block, so if we ordered now, by the time we got there, it would be ready. I put in our traditional to-go orders and put on a pair of jeans. I kept my pajama top on since I’d have my sweatshirt over it anyway. It wasn’t like we were going to run into anyone I needed to impress.

  I threw on my sweatshirt and checked outside. It was early November, so the sweatshirt should be enough to keep me warm. Besides, we weren’t going to be outside very long. Jane had a light jacket on as we left the apartment and headed to the elevator. Somehow, she managed to look put-together and elegant without any effort at all. I looked like a comfortable train wreck.

  Jane giggled and grinned at her phone as we stepped into the elevator.

  “Watercolors?” I asked, smiling at her.

  Jane just beamed at me.

  “You like him,” I told her, pressing the elevator button for the ground floor. This was the happiest I had seen her in a long time.

  “I do,” she agreed with a happy sigh. She bit her lip and looked over at me. “Do you think he likes me?”

  I thought back to the conversation I had overheard the night before.

  “He’s talking about watercolors at eight in the morning,” I told her. “And, I don’t think he spoke to another person except you all night. He definitely likes you.”

  Jane blushed as she grinned. She put her phone in her pocket as we stepped out of the elevator and out of our building.

  “It’s nice that he’s rich, too,” I commented, looking up at our building toward the penthouse. I wondered if he was up there, smiling and giggling at Jane’s messages.

  “That has nothing to do with it,” Jane assured me with a glare. She couldn’t hold the angry look for long, though. “It is nice to know that he can afford my expensive art tastes, though.”

  I laughed and bumped her shoulder. “That is definitely a perk.”

  “Did you know he’s been to Paris three times?” she asked. “Do you know what I would do to go to Paris? The art they have there...”

  “I know what you’d do,” I told her. She looked over at me, waiting. “You’d do him.”

  Jane made an exasperated noise and rolled her eyes at me.

  “And what about you?” Jane asked, changing the subject. “I saw you talking to William Darcy last night.” She waggled her eyebrows at me. “I know you like tall, dark, and handsome.”

  “Him?” I scoffed. “Ugh.”

  “What? Really?” Jane shook her head. “Charles said he was his best friend. He had only nice things to say about him. I thought you’d like him.”

  “He said those nice things because Mr. Darcy is his friend,” I told her. “Did I not tell you what happened last night with him?”

  Jane shook her head. “You were going to, but Lydia was too much of a handful. I could have sworn you said something like you got kicked out, but that doesn’t make any sense.”

  “I slapped Mr. Darcy,” I informed her.

  “What?” Jane stopped short and stared at me. “You slapped him?”

  I nodded.

  “He called me a gold-digger in a dress I couldn’t afford and bidding on items for attention. Then he said I looked like I would be up for a shag just to be able to brag about it,” I told her. Somehow, I managed to imitate his British accent on the word ‘shag’ as well as Charles had last night. “So, I slapped him. Not my best moment, but it felt right.”

  Jane stared at me open-mouthed.

  “He’s an ass,” I explained. I gave her a gentle push to keep walking. I wanted my coffee.

  “Okay, two things. One, why do you keep calling him Mr. Darcy?” Jane asked, finally moving her feet again.

  “He told me to. I called him William, and he corrected me. He is forever now Mr. Darcy,” I explained.

  “Okay.” Jane took a deep breath. “And second, do you know who he is?”

  I shrugged. “Some British rich guy with no class?”

  “You don’t know who he is?” She grinned. “Let me savor knowing something that you don’t for just a moment. This never happens.”

  She closed her eyes and took a deep, contented breath. It was my turn to roll my eyes this time.

  “So, who is he?”

  “He’s the biggest name in the airline industry. He owns and runs Oceanic Airlines. He’s worth billions of dollars, and you slapped him in the face,” Jane informed me with a chuckle. “Nice going.”

  I stopped short and stood in front of the coffee shop just blinking for a moment.

  “Are you serious?” I asked her, my heart stalling out a little bit. “I slapped a billionaire?”

  Jane nodded. “Yup.”

  I shook my head and went to open the door to the coffee shop. The smell of freshly roasted beans was heaven.

  “That does explain the bodyguards, then. I can’t believe he has all that money and still is a terrible person,” I said to Jane.

  “Who is a terrible person?”

  I spun to see Charles come up beside us. I was suddenly happy I hadn’t said Mr. Darcy’s name.

  “No one,” I quickly lied. “Just speaking in generalities. Work thing.”

  “Okay,” he replied with a small head shake. Then his smile focused on Jane, and my words were forgotten. “Jane. What a wonderful surprise to see you here.”

  The way he said her name held such warmth that even I felt it.

  “I didn’t know you were getting coffee,” Jane replied. She was blushing hard as she smiled at him.

  “It’s the closest coffee to me now. Join us. We have a table,” Charles said, motioning to a spot on the side of the shop.

  And just guess who was sitting there.

  Mr. Darcy.

  Of course he was.

  I looked down and noticed a new stain on my sweatshirt. Plus, now I had no makeup on, and my hair was up in the messiest ponytail ever. I didn’t know why it bothered me so much that he was going to see me like this. This was more my natural look, and besides, I didn’t like him. I shouldn’t care what he thought.

  Luckily, I had an escape route.

  “Actually, we pre-ordered. I’m just going to grab mine and go. I need to bring some back for my sister,” I explained. “Jane can stay, though.”

  Charles grinned at Jane before looking back at me. “Of course.
How is your sister feeling?”

  “Hungover and a bit embarrassed,” I told him. The first part was true, even if the second part was a stretch. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen Lydia embarrassed.

  Jane and Charles walked with me up to the to-go counter. All I had to do was grab my sister’s coffee, and then I could leave the restaurant without having to say a word to Mr. Darcy. I could merely wave and politely disappear before he could find out I still had my pajama shirt on and hadn’t brushed my teeth yet this morning.

  “Are you Elizabeth?” the employee asked as we came up.

  I nodded. “That’s me. I should have three coffees.”

  “We’re really sorry,” the barista said. “Our machine needs to be reset, so it’s going to be a few extra minutes. Coffee’s on us. I’m really sorry about the wait.”

  And my easy escape vanished just like that.

  “Come sit with us,” Jane told me. “We’ll wait with Charles.

  Charles just beamed at Jane, seeing no one else in the world but her. He motioned over to the table again. “Please, come have a seat.”

  I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. The coffee would only be a couple of minutes. Maybe I’d get lucky, and he wouldn’t even bother to look up from his phone.

  Jane took the seat across from Charles, which of course meant I was across from Mr. Darcy. He looked up from his phone as I sat down, his expression unchanging.

  I fidgeted for a moment, his eyes on me. I had no makeup on, so maybe he didn’t recognize me.

  “You’re not going to hit me again, are you?” he asked after a moment.

  “Not as long as you watch what you say,” I replied.

  There was a long, awkward silence. Next to us, Jane and Charles were having an animated discussion about some art thing that I didn’t understand. There was no way for me to join in on their conversation. I was stuck with Mr. Darcy.

  I fiddled with the string on my sweatshirt and sent a silent plea to the universe to fix the coffee machine as quickly as possible. This would be awkward regularly, but I hadn’t had a single cup of coffee yet, which just made it all the worse.

  He typed one more thing into his phone before setting it down and looking me over. His eyes were so blue and sharp. I felt naked under his gaze. For a moment, I wondered what it would feel like to be naked in front of him for real before remembering that despite his good looks, he was an absolute jerk and I had vowed never to even think of sleeping with him.

  “I’m really sorry about last night,” I finally said, trying to break the tension. “How’s your cheek?”

  “Fine,” he replied. He turned to show me that there wasn’t a mark.

  I should have hit him harder.

  “I was actually curious, though,” he continued. “Why were you at the fundraiser? What’s your affiliation with the hospital?”

  I decided to ignore the implication that I obviously didn’t belong at the fancy party. It was true, but that didn’t take any of my indignation away.

  “I work at St. Austen’s. I’m an RN in the Cardiac ICU,” I explained. Then I remembered how he said I hated my dead-end job, so I added, “We actually just won an award for being one of the best ICUs in the nation.”

  “The best?” He raised his eyebrows. “Even against St. George Hospital?”

  St. George’s Hospital was the main competition for my hospital. They were the two hospitals that had teamed up to run the fundraiser.

  “St. George is known for their cancer research. St. Austen is known for our amazing cardiac outcomes,” I explained. “I’m sure their CICU is good, ours is just better.”

  He made a thoughtful noise and took a sip of his coffee. He smiled slightly like he was making fun of me.

  “What?” I asked, trying to keep my temper.

  “Nothing,” he said, shaking his head. I gave him a disbelieving look, and he smiled. “You surprise me. Not many people contradict me.” He paused. “Or hit me for that matter.”

  “I am sorry about that,” I told him. “I don’t usually hit people.”

  “Why the ICU?” he asked, ignoring my apology again.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Everyone has a reason for the work they’re in,” he explained. “Why the ICU and not surgery or pediatrics?”

  I thought about giving him a flippant answer. I thought about giving him the answer that it was just what was open when I applied, but I didn’t. I decided to be honest with him.

  “My grandmother,” I told him. “She’s the reason I’m a nurse in the first place. She was a nurse, and I wanted to be just like her. She was this vibrant, sassy woman that loved the hell out of my sister and me. She had a heart attack while I was in nursing school.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” he replied politely.

  “I spent a lot of time with her in the ICU. I knew then that it was where I was supposed to be,” I continued.

  “I imagine she’s proud of you,” he said. It almost sounded sincere.

  “I hope so. She died a year after I graduated with my master’s degree.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said. It sounded more sincere this time.

  “So, now you’ve heard my life story,” I replied, not liking the way his eyes softened when he looked at me. I didn’t want his pity. “What about you? Why airplanes?”

  “I inherited the business,” he said with a shrug.

  “But you could have done anything you wanted,” I told him. “If you didn’t want to run the company, you could have sold it or made yourself just a figurehead so you wouldn’t have to do the hard parts.”

  “Who says I haven’t done just that?” he asked, looking rather pleased with himself.

  “The fact that you’re doing business at eight in the morning on a Saturday,” I replied, motioning to his phone. “Plus, you keep checking the news channel in the corner like your life depends on it. You obviously care about your business.”

  A flicker of a smile touched his face. “Is that so?”

  “Besides, everyone has a reason for the work they’re in,” I quoted back to him, accent and all.

  He took a sip of coffee to hide the small smile I had earned. “It was my father’s company. My family expects me to do it. It’s our family tradition, but even then, I couldn’t let anyone else run it.”

  “So we’re both in our line of work because of family,” I said with a smile. We had something in common. “I love my work. Do you enjoy yours?”

  He frowned. “It’s my life.”

  “Okay,” I replied after a moment. So much for making a connection. I looked over at the coffee counter to see they were still working on our order. No coffee yet. “So, what else do you do?

  “What do you mean?” he asked with a frown.

  “What hobbies do you have?” I asked. “I personally like to go dancing. I like going to Jane’s art shows and my sister’s off-Broadway plays. And I mean, really really off-Broadway plays.”

  He nodded. “I go flying with Charles,” he replied.

  “You own an airline and flying is your fun?” I asked. If that wasn’t a workaholic, then I wasn’t sure what else qualified.

  “I don’t have time for other distractions,” he informed me. “My business comes first. Excuse me. I need to reply to this email. It’s my COO.”

  “COO?”

  “Chief Operations Officer,” he replied. “My aunt Catherine runs the day-to-day. She has for years.”

  And he picked up his phone and quickly typed something in, completely ignoring me.

  “Oh.” I wasn’t sure quite how to reply to that. I folded my hands in my lap, unsure of what to say next. Apparently, we didn’t have as much in common as I thought.

  “Your coffee is ready, by the way,” he informed me, not looking up from his phone. I looked over to see the barista setting three cups out on the counter.

  “Oh, thank you,” I told him, rising from my chair.

  “You’re welcome to stay longer if you’d
like,” he said, looking up and locking me in the blue tractor beam of his gaze.

  I wasn’t sure what to think of that. Now he was polite? After the things he said last night? We were having a nice conversation, but it wasn’t exactly riveting.

  “Um, thanks,” I replied. “But I really should get this coffee up to my sister.”

  “Of course. She must have a hangover,” he said with a small nod before going back to his phone.

  I shook my head a little before putting my hand on Jane’s shoulder. It took me a moment to get her attention.

  “Jane? Are you staying?” I asked her. “I’ll go grab your coffee and bring it back if you are.”

  “That would be wonderful,” Jane replied, barely looking away from Charles. “Thank you.”

  I went over and picked up the three drinks and brought them back over to the table. I set Jane’s down beside her, and she looked up at me with a giant grin.

  “Charles has invited us out tonight,” Jane explained. “To Lux. The new dance club.”

  “I thought that place was impossible to get into right now,” I replied. Lux was the hottest new dance scene in the city.

  “I own it,” Charles explained. “Well, partial owner. I need to make an appearance, and it would be wonderful to have you. Bring your sister if you’d like. William and I need beautiful women on our arms.”

  “Oh, wow.” I looked over at Jane to see her mouth the word, “please.” I was rather surprised by that as she usually hated dance clubs and the crowds that came with them. I gave her a questioning look, and she nodded toward Charles. She wanted to go because he had asked her.

  “Please come,” Mr. Darcy said. I looked over at him surprised that of all people he was asking.

  “Um, sure,” I replied, checking in once more with Jane. I couldn’t believe she wanted this. Crowds made her anxious, and that’s all a dance club was. She nodded again, so I smiled. “We’ll all come.”

  Charles grinned. “Excellent.”

  “Okay.” I wasn’t sure what to do next, so I just picked up my and Lydia’s coffees. “I’m just going to bring this home now. It was nice to see you both. Thank you for letting us sit at your table.”