Undressing Mr. Darcy (33 page)

But it didn’t have to be this way. She could be near him, and she could make it happen! She didn’t have to be the one who left. She could choose to be the one who pursued—the one who . . . chased.

Something Jane Austen could never do, but any modern woman could.

And suddenly she couldn’t wait a minute more. As Lexi would say, why wait? How much time had she lost? How much time did she have left?

Before the devil at the bar could track her down, she’d tracked down Chase, thanks to the locational social network. He was at a little amusement park just outside the city, called Haunted Hollow.

She stuffed her tricorn pirate hat in her messenger bag and, on her way to the parking lot, she walked right past a white Chase Bank sign all lit up in the night. A
CHASE
sign. Maybe she did believe in signs after all.

The amusement park happened to be packed, dark, and resounding with howling and screeching sound effects and machine-made blue fog. He could be anywhere—at the mini-golf course pulsing with bloodred water fountains, in the haunted house, on the go-cart track. She had no idea where in the park he could be, so she texted him.

wassup? what cha doin?

As she waited and hoped for his text back, she scoured the park looking for him for what seemed like forever, finding only zombies and Frankensteins and vampires and kids until, finally, a text from him pinged in:

great 2 finally hear from u! u won’t believe it but i’m in line for bumper cars I’ll call u when I’m home

No pirate girl had ever in her life run faster to a line for bumper cars. Tipping her hat down over her eyes, she climbed into one of the last available bumper cars in her little pirate skirt and buccaneer boots. She heard his voice across the way but couldn’t see him; he must’ve been behind one of the support poles. He was joking around with some kids, from what she could hear. Another birthday party, possibly.

As soon as the bumper cars had been activated, she accelerated toward where she’d heard his voice. There had to have been at least fifty cars in the place, but at last she spotted him, and yes, he had his pirate costume on. This time, she made sure it was him, and then, as if out of nowhere, she floored it and rammed right into him head-on, with a smile.

“Vanessa!”

He was surprised. She could see it in his lopsided grin.

“So glad you bumped into me like this,” he said.

He looked better than she remembered, even in heavy kohl eyeliner.

A few boys crashed into him, too, and he acted all goofy, trying to escape. Then an extremely gorgeous blonde, also dressed in a pirate outfit, crashed into him and Vanessa at the same time.

Then wham! Kid after kid bumped into Vanessa’s car.

Of course. Why hadn’t she thought of it? He could be here on a Halloween date. With a girlfriend—or fiancée. It was a Saturday night, after all.

“Vanessa,” Chase laughed, “you have to meet Caitlin.”

“Hi, Caitlin.” Vanessa forced herself to lift a hand and wave. Someone bumped her car again.

Caitlin looked like fun. She had on a sexy pirate blouse very similar to Vanessa’s, and she even had an eye patch. Her blond curls bounced as she laughed when the birthday party boys crashed into her. “Shove off, mateys! Or I’ll make ye walk the plank,” she said. In fact, she exuded playfulness and sexiness. Vanessa wouldn’t expect Chase to date anyone less than the perfect combination of fun, sexy, and smart. She did seem a little young, though.

“Hi,” Caitlin said to Vanessa. “How cool to finally meet you! Chase has told me so much about you.”

“He has?” Vanessa accelerated but had no idea where to turn. She wished she hadn’t come. It was so impulsive! This was what she got for forgoing the safety of a text! And why had he been telling his girlfriend about her?

Chase took the opportunity to really gun it, and he hit Vanessa’s car on the side, spinning it around. “Caitlin’s great fun, isn’t she?” He smiled.

“Yeah.” Vanessa flashed a smile.

“I’m so glad you two have finally met.”

“Yeah. Me, too!” Vanessa put the emphasis on the exclamation point.

“Well, it’s really nice of my baby sister to help me out with the kids. It’s a party of twenty tonight!”

“Caitlin’s your—your sister?”

He bumped her car again, softer this time. “Of course she is! What did you think? If she were my girlfriend, I don’t think I’d be telling her about you!”

“You’re not kidding about her being your sister, are you?”

“No!” He laughed. “Why would I?”

Vanessa couldn’t believe her luck. She couldn’t wait to tell Lexi.

Then his sparkling brown eyes lasered right in on her cleavage. “You make a hot pirate, me beauty!”

He turned to bash into Caitlin’s car, and she hadn’t been expecting it. “Chase Henry MacClane! You’re in for it!”

“Your middle name is . . . Henry?” Vanessa asked.

“Yes,” Chase said quite seriously. “After my father.”

It brought to mind Henry Tilney from Austen’s
Northanger Abbey
, the Austen hero with the best sense of humor. Now she knew his middle name.

Several boys crashed into their cars. Bumper cars buzzed around; sparks flew from the contact points on the ceiling; kids laughed and screamed.

“Why did you show up here, Vanessa? Just to find out my middle name?”

She laughed. “Yes. And because I missed you, okay? That’s all I’m going to say for now.”

She felt exposed, revealed,
undressed
, even though she was fully clothed—or mostly clothed—in her pirate costume.

He bumped her car. “That’s all you need to say. It’s a start.”

It was more than a start.

He smirked. “Do you want to do the go-carts? You can chase me all around the track. I really enjoy having you pursue me for once,” he said as he sped off.

She accelerated and buzzed after him. “Haven’t I chased you around enough?”

“It’ll never be enough for me.”

She laughed.

“I like to make you laugh,” he said over his shoulder, with bumper cars all around them. “To make you happy.”

She found all this hard to resist.

“You know what I like about us?” he asked as he turned his car around to face her. “We make each other better. We’re better together than we are alone.”

The birthday party kids found them and cajoled them into going on the go-carts after all, where yes, she chased him and realized she hadn’t had this much fun in a long time.

Chapter 22

A
fter weeks of dates: walking along the beach in the unusually warm month of November, evenings at the theater, the orchestra, and hot new restaurants, and even a night spent on a historic Chicago gangster ghost-hunting tour—and with a trip to San Francisco in the offing—Vanessa couldn’t get enough of Chase and his lust for life.

These days, she had incorporated some new hobbies into her life and was now part of an acting troupe called Babes with Blades. And when she wasn’t wielding swords or saving cats, she could often be found in the park, on a bench, reading Jane Austen.

Laughing and kissing, their hands all over each other, he hurried her onto his boat after the Swashbucklers’ Ball.

Chase should’ve taken in the boat weeks before, but he’d gambled on the warm weather, and now he sailed her out onto the lake.

He’d just managed to raise ten thousand dollars for the third year in a row during the pirate ball for Chicago area—cat shelters. Whether it was the cats or the man, Vanessa wasn’t quite sure, but they’d been told by Chase’s friends to “get a room.”

One of his friends let it slip that Chase had already had her engagement ring made! He’d designed it himself.

Much as she liked his friends, she’d been looking forward to getting Chase all to herself. He’d be flying out the next day for some auctions in Prague, and this time she couldn’t go with him—she had a presentation to give and clients to entertain for her new job.

As soon as he dropped the anchor, she kicked off her boots and he kicked off his.

She put her hands on his stubbled jawline, brought him in toward her for a hungry kiss, and took off his dreadlock wig. She loved his hair, she loved the way he kissed her, she loved the way his mind worked and how he played around with her. She loved the way he made and followed through on plans with her both now and into the far future. She loved—him.

He reluctantly pulled away to dot her neck with kisses and licks. He landed on the laces of her pirate vest, and with one end of the lace in his mouth, he untied the vest and relieved her of her blouse and skirt.

“Ah, you wore the corset.” He smiled as he deftly freed her. “And nothing else. I guessed right.” He grew harder against her back.

“I didn’t want any panty lines showing.” She arched an eyebrow at him. She felt good in her skin around him.

She unbuttoned his ruffled shirt, and with a flick of her wrist she removed his belt and unzipped him as quickly as she could.

He pulled a condom out of his pants pocket before he flung his pants over the boat’s steering wheel. In one smooth motion he lifted her up and carried her to the starboard side padded deck bed. She was out on a boat on a November night with a man who loved cats and wore eyeliner, not to mention a fake beard with beads in it, which he now peeled off.

He sensed her momentary hesitation. “What?”

She smiled. “Well, this isn’t very conventional, is it?”

“Conventional. Traditional. They’re
not
your destiny. And it can get much wilder than this, trust me.”

She did.

“I love you,” he said.

“And
aye
love you.”

He kissed her as if it were her first time ever being kissed, because that was how he kissed her
every
time, looking into her eyes and cradling her face before devouring her. He caressed her breasts with his warm hands and she pressed her entire body against him with desperate, raw need.

He’d grown hard and she wanted nothing more than to take him into her mouth, but he wouldn’t let her—yet—he said.

“Pirate ladies first,” he whispered in a husky voice. “
X
marks the spot.” He went down on her and brought her to the brink while the city sparkled on the shoreline. Her back arched with an ache for more and she quivered watching him, intent upon her, so generous, so tantalizing with her legs wrapped around his neck and the entire skyline between her knees.

He coaxed out desires in her she never knew she had, making her writhe with want, and, after he slaked it all by finally entering her, with the sound of water lapping up against the boat, she decided that yes, this was what she wanted, now and forever.

Even if he did look better than she did in black eyeliner.

* * *

L
ove appears when we least expect it, and often, when we’re not able to recognize it. For some people it manifests in a flowing gown or formal tailcoat.

But sometimes it shows up in a pirate costume. Other times it makes its entrance in a kilt.

Keep an eye out.

Author’s Note

If you are a Jane Austen fan or Anglophile, please consider donating to Chawton House Library (www.chawtonhouse.org), English Heritage at Risk (www.english-heritage.org.uk), or Jane Austen’s House Museum (www.jane-austens-house-museum.org.uk).