Chapter 20

Will was eventually pulled away from me. A million reporters had a million questions for him. And his teammates wanted to celebrate.

"Go, it's fine," I laughed at the way he was literally being dragged away from me.

"Have Charles bring you back to our house," he shouted over the chaos, "I need to see you."

"I'll be there," I smiled from ear to ear as I watched the press shove cameras and microphones into his face. I swear I even heard one of them ask: "Will, who's the girl?"

I searched for Charlotte and Charles in the celebratory madness, finally finding them with the brightest expressions I had ever seen plastered onto their faces.

"It's not a big deal," I brought my hand to my cheek, hoping the flush wasn't as noticeable anymore.

"Right," Charles laughed incredulously, "that's why you can't stop smiling."

"Lizzie," Charlotte was squealing again, "you are my hero. I've never been more proud."

"Thanks, Char," my smile did seem very permanent at the moment.

"Now, Charles, hand it over," she turned to a disgruntled looking Charles, hand extended. I watched, offended, as Charles handed her two twenty dollar bills.

"Forty dollars? For what? That we'd get together by the championship?" I asked, my smile now slightly less prominent.

"No, of course not," she waved the bills, dismissing me, "forty dollars on who would be the first to say it."

"Say what?" I placed my hands on my hips looking between my friends.

"'I love you', duh," she shrugged like it was the simplest thing in the world, "or, of course, 'I wanna bang you' but love came first."

"Why would I ever say 'I wanna bang you'" I shook my head in disbelief as Charles chuckled.

"You think it enough," she mumbled but I was supposed to hear.

I just rolled my eyes.

"So, you just knew Will was gonna say it first?" I asked her, eyebrows raised.

"Well, you sure as hell weren't going to be the first," I gave another eye roll in her direction.

"And what about you?" I cornered Charles, "you were so sure that I would be the first?"

"I underestimated your stubbornness," he shrugged, "I never thought Darcy would be beat when it came to that. But low and behold -" he gestured to me as if presenting me as the most stubborn person in the world.

"Why were you both so sure it would happen period?" I questioned, "how did you know -"

"Everyone knows, Lizzie," they said it in total unison, shutting me up.

I paused just to glare at them, attempting to be annoyed but failing due to the fullness of my heart at the moment.

"Whatever," my smile returned, "Charles, take me back to you and Will's place?"

"I thought you'd never ask," Charles grinned and pulled out his keys, spinning them around on his finger, "I'll step on it."

All I could think is that he could never drive fast enough.

Pulling up the drive of the small two-story house, I had the door open before we even stopped. But I hesitated before exiting the car, the sight before me leaving me frozen.

The house looked almost identical to how it did the night of the "greatest keggar ever" or, as I remembered it, the first night Will kissed me.

Couples were groping each other on the porch, red solo cups decorated the front yard and the music visibly vibrated the whole house.

"Um, Charles," Charlotte said from the back seat, "were you aware of this."

"Um, no way," he look as awestruck as I felt.

"So," I attempted to understand, "this party just...happened."

"I mean," Charles shrugged, seemingly more okay than he initially seemed with the madness that was occurring at his home, "it looks like all the usual people we invite are here. They must've just wanted to celebrate."

"Great," Charlotte and I said in unison, however, she seemed to genuinely think it was great as she immediately jumped out of the car. I took my time. My "great" being extremely sarcastic.

The alone time I was so looking forward to with Will seemed close to impossible now.

Will.

It still seemed unreal. Being in love. I knew absolutely nothing about it, yet, I was sure that it's what I felt for Will.

I needed to be with him somehow. I knew he probably wouldn't arrive for a while and even then he would preoccupied with the surprise guests. So, I pushed my way upstairs and found the door I recalled as his.

I turned the doorknob and entered his room, only to find a couple making-out quite aggressively on Will's large bed. Why is locking the door so difficult for drunk people?

But I was grateful for their level of inebriation, as it made it that much easier to get the couple off the bed that I would just be making out on top of from now on.

"Oh my God," I feigned my best girly, excited voice, "you will never believe who's downstairs?"

The couple broke apart, looking startled that I was suddenly there.

"Seriously, guess," I said, clapping my hands together.

The shaggy-haired guy rolled his eyes, seemingly less drunk than his blonde partner. She responded, eyes bright with curiosity.

"Who?"

"RYAN GOSLING," I shrieked at the loudest decibel I could manage.

The blonde's jaw dropped. Another eye roll from shaggy-hair.

"You're kidding," she began fanning herself.

"I swear," I answered, walking closer and cupping my hand around my mouth as if to tell my new friend a secret.

"And," I whispered, "I heard him say that he was looking for a hot blonde."

The girl's eyes widened an inhuman amount.

"But you better hurry," I said even lower, holding in my laughter, "because that Caroline girl is already 'marking her territory', if you know what I mean."

"Oh, hell no," the girl's expression turned violent, nodding to me in thanks before she sprinted out of Will's room.

I turned to shaggy-haired dude as he glared at me for spoiling his 'sure-thing'.

"She's gonna need consoling when she finds out he's not really here," I shrugged.

He considered for a moment before nodding in assent and followed the blonde girl into the hallway.

I locked the door after them, smirking proudly.

I paced quietly around the room, trying not to pry yet also desperately curious about every little trinket in the room. I smiled when I reached his desk, noting the numerous crumpled pages on it. I'm guessing the first drafts of what eventually would become my letter. My heart swelled at the thought of Will putting so much effort into something he knew was so important to me.

My hand hesitated over one of the crumpled papers but I stopped before picking it up. My letter, the one Will meant for me to see, was perfect. Everything else was irrelevant.

My eyes ventured, as they did the last time I was in his room, to large bookcase placed on the far wall. I ran my hands over the tattered spines and smiled warmly with each title I recognized and with every one I did not.

I came across a particularly rough-looking cover, so faded that I couldn't recognize the title on the spine. Pulling the old book from the shelf, I read the cover. Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. Flipping through the pages, I discovered highlighted passages and dog-eared corners. I smiled to myself with every note jotted in the corner in handwriting I could now recognize easily as Will's.

If it wasn't his favorite, it was most definitely one of them.

I stretched comfortably onto Will's large bed, curling up with his book and starting to read from the beginning. I last remember reading Stiva announcing the coming of Anna.

I was awoken, maybe minutes or maybe hours later, by someone leaning over me.

"Well, well, well," I recognized the playful tone, "she's awake."

I opened my eyes wider to see him, only inches away from my face and smiling in amusement. He had showered, his hair still a little damp, and changed into a white pinstriped button down. He smelled amazing. It was a hell of way to wake up.

"Hi," I smiled mid-yawn, stretching my arms upward and then bringing them to rest on his shoulders.

"You're cute when you sleep," he leaned in, placing a soft, chaste kiss on my lips.

"You drool," he chuckled, leaning in for another kiss but I rejected him by hitting him playfully on the arm.

"I do not!" I wiggled to get away from him but his arms were already around my waist, holding me where I was.

"I said it was cute," he laughed at my attempts to get away, "don't get soft on me."

"I'm soft?" I questioned in disbelief, holding up Anna Karenina which had fallen next to me, "that's why half these pages have tear stains on them?"

"That's a lie," he grabbed the book from me hurriedly, but I noticed his small grin when he noted the book I had chosen. I knew it was his favorite.

"I don't cry," he laughed, "and tears don't even stain."

I simply gave him a knowing look.

"It's ok, Will," I brought my hand to his face, feeling the slight stubble that had already began to grow there, "I like a man who isn't afraid to express his feelings."

"Yea," he rolled his eyes, hearing my slight tone of sarcasm, "because I'm so great at that."

"You were in my letter."

The energy between us shifted to a much more serious one as I continued to caress his face and look lovingly into his blue irises.

"Yea, well," he looked away embarrassedly in the direction of his desk, "that took me a while."

"Will," I gently turned his head so he was looking into my eyes again, "it is the most beautiful thing I have ever read."

"Thank you," I whispered, glancing longingly at his slightly parted lips.

He needed no more of an invitation. Our mouths met passionately as they did on the field hours earlier. Except now I felt the full weight of the man I loved on top of me. I realized, as Will ran his large hand down my body, that this was the first time he had ever kissed me horizontally.

The thought was thrilling and I felt a warmth spread all over my body.

Will ran his hand even further, moving over my thigh down to my knee where he grabbed hold and hitched it so that I spread my legs and he was pushed even more flush against me.

I broke our kiss, in desperate need to catch my breath. Will took the opportunity to place hot kisses at the hollow of my neck, causing me to let out a small moan of pleasure.

"Will," I breathed, encouraging him. I felt a familiar instinct that had once overcome me in the cab of his blue pickup. My hips moved of their own accord, thrusting upward into Will's hard lower body.

Will let out a low growl and took cues from my primal action. He slowly moved his pelvis over mine, creating a friction that sent electricity over my skin. I felt the entire length of him through his jeans, the physical manifestation of his want for me.

It was too much to take.

Again, acting on instinct, I rolled over, straddling him before he even knew what happened.

"Lizzie," he said it in a low husky voice, laying back as I moved my hands up and down his wonderfully sculpted upper body, "you drive me crazy."

"Do I?" I asked mischievously, knowing he didn't just mean my infamous stubbornness.

"Yes," he grinned, grabbing hold of my hips, "I can't tell you all the times I wanted to just..."

He trailed off, dragging his eyes up and down my body. My face flushed but not out of insecurity. It felt amazing to know how much I turned him on.

"Just what?" I asked in the most sensual way I could muster.

"Just...take you. Right there."

He said it with lust in his eyes, the way I had always read about a man who wants a woman would say such a thing. The warmth in my center grew to be fire. I leaned forward, kissing him and tracing his swollen lips with my tongue.

"I know the feeling," I whispered against his mouth.

"Really?" his tone was one of actual questioning.

I paused, pulling away so that I could make eye contact with him.

"Of course," I said it matter-of-factly, "why such a tone of surprise?"

"Well, because," he shrugged, "I knew I wanted you from that first day at the activities fair. I just assumed you took much longer to...warm up to me."

He smiled saying the last part, obviously finding it ironic considering how hot it was getting between us now.

"Well, Mr. Darcy," I laughed, "you seem to be underestimating just how extremely sexy you are."

Will looked away as I saw the quick reddening of a flush on his cheeks. It was so uncharacteristically sweet of him that I found myself warmed even further. I pressed a soft kiss on the base of his neck.

"I felt it when you hugged me that night in the bar."

I kissed him again on the sensitive part of his neck just underneath his chin.

"And when I was drunk and you wore that blue shirt," I paused to look him in the eye, "I love that blue shirt."

He chuckled as I placed a few hot, wet kisses on his jawline.

"And when you punched Wickham," I glanced at him again, a sensual glint in my eye.

I moved so that we were eye to eye again. My lips poised to meet his.

"And every moment in between," I smiled, rubbing a thumb along his cheek, "I've never wanted anything more. I'm sorry it took me so long to realize it."

He brought his hand to my hair, brushing stray pieces from my face while pulling me to kiss his mouth tenderly.

"I love you, Elizabeth Bennet," he whispered against my lips.

"I love you, Will Darcy," I smiled, truly never feeling so whole.

I kissed him deeper, my tongue massaging his and my hips resuming their rhythmic motion.

But Will turned us over gently, giving me a tender kiss and then moving to sit next to me on the bed as he began.

"Will," I said after a moment, confused, "what are you doing?"

"I'm...cooling down," he let out a long breathing, shifting his jeans awkwardly.

"Why?" I asked, attempting to not sound as exasperated as I felt.

"Because it's what you want," he looked at me, not masking his exasperation.

"I wasn't informed of this," I said, sitting up so that we were on the same eye level, "what else do I want, tell me."

"C'mon, Lizzie," he looked at me, showing he didn't appreciate the mocking, "you told me you wanted to take things slow."

"Maybe pre-letter but post-letter -"

"Lizzie," he laughed, cutting me off, placing a loving kiss on my forehead, "don't tempt me. I'm trying to do the gentlemanly thing here."

I rested my head on his shoulder in defeat but deep down, beneath how much he had just turned me on, I knew he was right. This way we would have things to look forward to. And, yes, I loved Will and trusted him completely, but that doesn't change the fact that having sex for the first time still terrifies/excites me.

"Fine, be a 'gentleman'" I feigned pouting, "we both know that won't last long."

"Oh, really?" Will laughed. Before I even realized it, he was tickling me. I laughed uncontrollably, trying in vain to get away from him. It was at that moment that I heard the open and shut of the door to Will's bedroom.

We both turned to look, seeing Charlotte enter, one hand covering her eyes, the other outstretched to feel for her surroundings.

"Hi," she called, "is sex happening?"

"Nope," I said, giving Will a disappointed look from his lap where I had ended up after his attack. He simply chuckled.

"Good," Charlotte removed her hand from her eyes, straightening herself up.

"What's up, Char?" Will asked, curious but obviously angry that she was cutting into our alone time. Which, of course, made me happy.

"I know this is probably a bad time, considering it's the whole honeymoon phase and everything," she gestured to our lovey-dovey position, "but it's everywhere and I thought it would be better if you heard it from me."

"What?" I asked, concern furrowing my brow.

Charlotte pulled out her phone and handed it to me. On the screen was an article from some gossip site I'd never heard of. Large and colorful at the top of the screen was a full length picture of me straddling Will after the game. The headline read simply:

WILL DARCY'S NEW GIRLFRIEND: SLEEPING HER WAY UP THE MERYTON TOTEM POLE

I gasped, scrolling down further to see another picture of me kissing. But not Will. Wickham.

Someone had leaked my relationship with Wickham to the press. To hurt Will's reputation or maybe to just embarrass me. The motive didn't really matter. The question truly was:

Was it Wickham or Caroline?

A/N: SO SORRY ABOUT RESPONDING TO REVIEWS Y'ALL! I know I've been horrible. I'm going to get better, I swear. Next chapter :) Please forgive me, you don't know what they mean to me! So, please, continue. Hope you're enjoying. Let me know if you want to see any certain types of fluff in Lizzie and Darcy's relationship. Really excited I can finally write with them together!