Page 46 of Stuck

“Your lovely young lady is not just a pretty face, I see, Bingley,” he said.

“No, indeed not,” Bingley replied, following it up with a nervous chuckle as he glanced at me, clearly struggling to catch onto the conversation.

“Miss Bennet is an exceptionally talented engineer.”

Every inch of my skin tingled at the familiar deep voice, and I turned as Darcy arrived at my side. He had two glasses of champagne in his hands, and he passed one to me.

“You’ve been without a drink for a while now. I thought you might be thirsty.” He shot his friend a dark, disapproving glare as he spoke, but yet again, the admonishment went over Bingley’s head. Even with his phone back in his pocket, I could tell he was still distracted by it from the way he was tapping his fingers against it.

“Thank you,” I said to Darcy. “Mr King was asking about the impact of rising energy costs.”

Understanding immediately that I was handing him the reins Bingley had obviously dropped, Darcy started talking—and he was fascinating. I probably asked far too many questions, but I didn’t want him to stop, because in the same way that he had during our lunch dates, this brooding, taciturn man became almost animated when he was knowledgeable about his subject matter. He used hand gestures where he was usually still; he smiled where he was usually frowning; and his voice! Hearing him talk, in depth and eagerly, about something I loved in that deep, velvety baritone was like ear porn.

I worried I’d asked one too many questions when King abruptly interrupted me to call two people over. “Allow me to introduce my son and second in command at King Ventures, Fred, and my niece, Mary.”

A tall stocky man who looked to be in his mid- to late twenties joined us, along with a young lady I instantly recognised from her beautiful dark freckles.

“Mary!”

Her face transformed into a beaming smile. “Elizabeth! I didn’t recognise you. You look amazing. I didn’t know you’d be here tonight.”

“You two know each other?” her uncle asked, startled.

“Yes, we met through George,” Mary replied. “He and Elizabeth were at university together.”

“Is he here tonight?” I asked, looking around for him.

“He was supposed to be, but something came up at work at the last minute.”

King let out a disgruntled noise. “You don’t know anything about that, do you, gentlemen?” he asked Bingley and Darcy. “Mary’s boyfriend is one of the engineers at Vertex. I hope this emergency isn’t anything that will affect the buyout?”

They exchanged a look, then both shook their heads. “Nothing that we’ve heard about,” Darcy said, “and at this stage, it’s unlikely they could hide much from our lawyers.”

“I told you, Mary,” Fred said in a voice lacking any subtlety. “If there was a problem at Vertex, we’d know about it. George isn’t working—he’s stringing you along.”

Mary blushed bright red. I offered her a sympathetic smile but didn’t say anything to contradict her cousin. Much though I’d have liked to call Fred out for his insensitivity, it wouldn’t be the first time George had ruined a relationship with needless lies. I was surprised to hear that he was working at Vertex. Both because of the coincidence linking our two jobs and because, when he’d dropped out of university, he’d been adamant he wanted to retrain as a solicitor.

“Excuse me,” Mary said quietly. “It was nice to see you again, Elizabeth, but I… I need to…” She ducked her head and hurried away.

“Girl’s too soft,” King said, shaking his head. “Now, where were we? Ah, yes. Fred, you must offer Miss Bennet a dance. Bingley, Darcy, and I need to talk business, and we don’t want to bore her.”

Oh joy. Fred had just been a total bellend to his cousin, and now I was supposed to dance with him?

“I don’t mind,” I said, smiling broadly. “It’s refreshing to be included in the conversation. It’s nice to meet a man who recognises that women can be experts too.”

When King continued to gesture at his son to take me away, I nudged Bingley, hoping he’d lean into the jealous-boyfriend act and get me out of the dance, but he was looking at his phone again and hadn’t been paying attention.

“Pardon? Oh, yes, of course. Be my guest, Fred.”

I glared at him, but he only smiled aimlessly. There was nothing I could do that wouldn’t cause a scene, so I kept smiling and took Fred’s outstretched hand. He led me into the next room, where a live band was playing the kind of nondescript jazzy groove that gave you no choice but to slow dance. I sighed and stepped into his hold.

It was a hold that slid progressively farther down my side as the minutes ticked by. I tried to distract him by asking questions, hoping that talking about himself would be reward enough to deter his wandering hands. It wasn’t, but as his palm found its way past my hip and onto the curve of my bum, it was unceremoniously yanked away, and there were suddenly two yards and another person separating us.

“Mind if I cut in?” Darcy asked.

Fred looked as though he did in fact mind, very much, but I wasn’t surprised when he gave a submissive nod and scurried away, because Darcy looked about ready to tear him a new one. As soon as he’d gone, I was pulled into a far more gentlemanly hold, Darcy picking up the dance as though nothing had happened and he’d been my partner from the start. I felt that same solidity in his arms as when he’d hugged me, the same restrained strength beneath the gentleness. And even though his hands were exactly where they were supposed to be, I felt his touch in all the most inappropriate places.

“Thank you,” I said over the rampant beating of my heart. “That was far more diplomatic than the knee to the groin I was contemplating.”