“I’ll stay with Charlotte,” Alex told the room. Caroline nodded.
Elizabeth stood up with the others and gathered her bag. She was silent, but inside her mind was reeling. She wanted to stay with Charlotte, but when she thought back to their last meeting, she feared she would not be welcomed.
Then she brushed against Darcy as they entered the elevator, and a new wave of questions overcame her. What had she just done? She glanced out of the corner of her eye at Darcy, but he was looking straight ahead. She wished she knew what he was thinking. Her lips were still tingling as the group traveled to the pair of limos that were waiting for them in the front of the hotel. She forced her hands to keep from touching them.
There was small talk in the cars, but Elizabeth didn’t hear any of it. Her thoughts were too full. She kissed Darcy, oh God! She struggled to make any sense of it. She knew she desired him, almost since their first meeting. She never tried to deny it. At first she thought he was completely uninterested in her. Clearly that presumption was incorrect. She shivered as she remembered the feel of his mouth working against hers.
But what did it mean? If he was attracted to her, why did he pick this time—when she was feeling horrible for her friend—to show it? A cold, still feeling overcame her as a dark part of her mind whispered, “Because he knew you were vulnerable.” Her eyes tentatively glanced at him again. He was wearing his sunglasses, but his head was turned in her direction, and she could feel his gaze upon her. She could feel her pulse quicken.
Had he taken advantage of her distress? She was so upset when he came to her that she would have turned to anyone for comfort at that moment. And he did call her into her bedroom. She wondered if she had made a grave miscalculation in trusting him.
Yet, at the same time, she didn’t really believe it. It was hard to believe that he could be interested in her, but when she remembered the kindness he had shown her, offering advice on the tour and comfort when Jane was injured, she couldn’t believe he was that deceptive. Besides, she reasoned, he was Fitzwilliam Darcy; he received a dozen letters each day from women who would be happy to be used by him.
No, she couldn’t believe he was just taking advantage of the moment. Besides, she admitted, she was hardly an unwilling victim. Her mind replayed once again the memory of kissing him. Maybe it was possible that he was attracted to her, just as she was to him, and in a moment of weakness, those barriers broke down?
She didn’t know what to think. The idea that he was taking advantage of her seemed cruel, unfair, and wrong, yet the idea that he, Fitzwilliam Darcy, could be attracted to her seemed the height of vanity and foolishness.
The limo stopped and they exited. Elizabeth stopped to look up at the restaurant and was so struck by the absurdity of the situation that she laughed out loud.
“Don’t you like Japanese?” Darcy asked, his voice so low that only she heard it.
“No, actually, I love it. It just seems like a weird place to be after,” she shrugged, “everything.”
Darcy took a casual look at the street and then his eyes met Rebecca’s. He shared a nod with his security expert then said to Elizabeth, “Come on,” guiding her into the restaurant.
The Osho was crowded, with a long, narrow dining room. The sushi bar was at the front, before a large bay of windows looking out on to the street. Long rows of tables lined the walls of the restaurant toward the back.
Elizabeth drifted away from the group to look appraisingly at the sushi counter, where rows of brightly colored fresh fish sat under glass.
“I hope you are not planning on eating that bait again, Will.” Charles’s voice rang out in her ears.
“Maybe if you tried it,” his soft voice answered enticingly.
“Oh no, I like my food cooked,” Charles laughed in reply.
“Do you like sushi?” Darcy’s voice was suddenly much closer. Elizabeth looked up to find him staring over her shoulder at the selection of fish.
“Yes, I do,” she answered. “But I usually don’t order it. It bothers Jane.”
Darcy removed his sunglasses and his eyes flicked over a small empty table in the window nearby. “We could sit here and have some together.”
Elizabeth was torn. She still didn’t quite trust him, yet at the same time, she wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. It was the sushi in the end that won her over. She had not had it in so long, and she found it just too appealing to pass up. With a nod she agreed.
Darcy turned and put a word in Caroline’s ear, and a minute later, the two of them were seated together at the lone table. “What do you like?” he asked her as they examined the menus before them.
Elizabeth’s eyebrow arched. Here was where she would be able to tell if this was a sincere offer of fish or just a ploy to get her alone. “I usually prefer nigiri-zushi to maki,” she said, deliberately using the Japanese words.
Darcy didn’t react at all. “Do you like hako-zushi?” he asked, his eyes not leaving the menu.
Elizabeth remained indifferent and returned his serve. “I love hako-zushi unagi. It’s one of my favorites.” She waited to see if he would react to her preference for grilled eel.
He didn’t. “I always order unagi at a new place. I find it’s one way to judge the restaurant’s quality.” It was his ball and a tiny curl of his mouth told her that he knew it. “So, we’ll have some unagi—how do you feel about tuna, salmon, yellowtail, mackerel?”
Elizabeth nodded to all of this. “Oh, do they have toro?”
Darcy’s eyebrows shot up. “I’ll check,” he answered in a pleased voice. Then both sides of his mouth curled and Elizabeth knew he was leveling a big gun at her. “How do you feel about uni?”
Elizabeth grinned lightly. Truthfully, the ground raw sea urchin had never been something she could tolerate, but her honor was at stake. “I only like it if it’s exceptionally fresh,” she bluffed convincingly.
Darcy nodded once, satisfied. “Do you mind if I order for both of us and we can share?”
Elizabeth smiled, pleased in spite of herself. Whatever else he knew, Darcy at least knew sushi, and she was looking forward to it. “That would be nice,” she answered.
The waitress came and Darcy ordered what seemed to Elizabeth to be a vast quantity, but she knew she could eat a disgustingly large amount of sushi, given the chance, so she didn’t care.
The waitress came back a moment later with green tea for both of them. Elizabeth picked up the thick, handleless mug and blew across the hot brew. Her feelings were still jangled from before, but the tea helped her to relax. Darcy watched her silently and then asked, “Are you okay?”
Elizabeth smiled bitterly and shook her head no.
Darcy frowned, looking down at his teacup, then back at her. “I’m sorry, Elizabeth.”
She wondered what exactly he was apologizing for.
“I should have dealt with Collins back when you told me.”
Elizabeth ignored the uncomfortable sensations of relief that he hadn’t apologized for kissing her and focused on his words.
“I had thought a warning and taking him off the tour would be enough. Apparently not, and I’m very sorry.”
Elizabeth was touched by the sincere contrition in his words. “It wasn’t your fault,” she said, unable to meet his eyes. “It wasn’t even your problem.”
“If it happens on my tour, it’s my problem,” he said simply.
“No, it’s not,” she objected. “Look, he was our A and R executive. We should have been the ones to deal with him.” She sounded angry, even to her ears.
“How?” he asked bluntly.
Elizabeth opened her mouth to respond, then closed it with a snap and a hard look at Darcy.
“The fact of the matter is there was nothing you could do, Elizabeth. You have no power over De Bourgh, and unless you wanted to take this public…” He lifted an eyebrow suggestively.
Elizabeth frowned at that idea.