Fitzwilliam Darcy, Rock Star (36 page)

Elizabeth shrugged and then smiled. “I like George. He’s very nice. He’s very easy to be around.” Her expression turned inward again. “But he’s not Darcy. Will is much harder to be with, but when I’m with him, I feel…” she trailed off, unable and unwilling to describe the intensity of her feelings for Darcy.

Jane took her hand and smiled sympathetically.

“So, now I’m lost between the man who is easy and who likes me and the man who is hard and likes me.” She grinned at the ridiculousness of it.

“Well, Lizzy, you have to make up your own mind, but personally, I’ve always preferred a hard man,” Jane winked. Elizabeth laughed, grateful for Jane, who was always there when she needed her.

***

Darcy watched as the tour had breakfast the next morning. Elizabeth sat with Charlotte, her concern for her friend obvious. Charlotte was not eating and looked like a wreck. He was disappointed to find that Richard was sitting across the restaurant and was also not eating. Darcy knew the two incidences were related, and he suspected the cute blonde named Dorothy whom Richard had been with the night before had something to do with it.

Right now, he was focused on the attractive picture of Elizabeth. Since her return to the tour, she had been polite to him. He knew her well enough to know that was the kiss of death from her. She was only polite to people she disliked. The question was why. Did something happen at the shoot? She was warm enough to him before she left. He would ask Caroline, but he suspected this was beyond even her formidable intelligence capabilities.

He regretted that they would not be staying in any more hotels before the break. It cut down on the chances for private time to talk to Elizabeth, to try to work out what was going on.

As Caroline gave her morning briefing, Anne entered the room with another woman and took a seat at his table. Darcy nodded a cool greeting to Anne and turned to examine the woman more closely. She was tall and shapely, with dark hair and eyes.

When Caroline finished, Anne spoke up. “Can we begin? I’ve got things to do,” she snapped.

Darcy slowly leaned back in his chair and deliberately took a slow sip of his tea, his gaze never leaving hers. “Of course, Anne. I
certainly
don’t have anything else to do.” He paused to take another sip and rose. “Excuse me,” he told her, leaving the table before she could respond.

He walked to Elizabeth’s table and bent low over it. “I need you for that meeting I was telling you about,” he told her softly.

Elizabeth’s eyes flashed. “Right now?”

“Yes,” he answered, his eyes holding hers. “If you aren’t finished yet, I can wait. It’s no problem.”

Elizabeth shared a look with Charlotte and rose. “No, it’s no problem at all.” She wasn’t surprised that he would demand her with no notice like that. After all, he was Fitzwilliam Darcy. She took her coffee cup and the bag containing her laptop and followed him to the table where Rachel, Anne, and the woman waited.

“Anne,” Darcy said formally, “Elizabeth will be joining us.”

Anne looked like a cat that had been dropped in a bucket of cold water. She gave an equally hostile look to both Elizabeth and Darcy, saying, “Fine. This is Sylvie Duval. She’s our web designer. Sylvie, this is Fitzwilliam Darcy of Slurry and Lizzy Bennet of Long Borne Suffering.”

Sylvie smiled and extended her hand, first to Darcy then to Elizabeth. “It’s a privilege to meet you both,” she said with a light and charming Parisian accent.

“This is my personal assistant, Rachel Brown,” Darcy said, introducing Rachel to Sylvie.

“Can we begin?” Anne said impatiently.

They all settled around the table. Sylvie opened her laptop and began. “I have reviewed your current website. It’s been in need of an update for a while now, no? I contacted marketing and received some new material from them. This is what I have come up with so far.”

She passed the laptop to Darcy, who reviewed it, his eyes quickly scanning the screen without expression. He then passed it to Elizabeth.

Elizabeth studied the site. It started with a pop-up presenting a montage of images of the band—taken mostly from their videos while “Control” was being played. After a minute, Elizabeth skipped the intro and went to the main page, clicking around to view all the features.

“It’s good,” she observed, clearly impressed. “I like the frame idea and the rock motif.” She pursed her lips. “These pictures are pretty old, though.” She showed Darcy. “Look, you still have long hair here.”

Darcy nodded. “We had a photo shoot last month, Anne. Do you think Ms. Duval could have access to those pictures?” Darcy said with exaggerated politeness.

Anne stared coldly at him and nodded, while Rachel made a note in her Palm.

“You don’t have any songs to download, or videos,” Elizabeth observed while still focusing on the laptop.

“That is De Bourgh policy,” Sylvie told them.

Elizabeth sensed that Sylvie disagreed with the policy, but unlike Darcy, she was not at liberty to openly criticize the management. Elizabeth immediately found herself liking the woman.

“Well, I have to say, I don’t agree with it. Our video and audio bring a lot of traffic to our site, where fans can find information about the tour, buy tickets, or buy other merchandise right there,” she said professionally. “The lucrative sales of our CD off our web page have been extremely impressive.”

Anne’s eyes narrowed. “You are providing downloads off your web page?” she asked incredulously. “That’s against De Bourgh policy. We aren’t giving these songs away.”

“Well, De Bourgh never told me that, and since it’s my web page, and not De Bourgh’s, I don’t think it’s any concern of yours,” Elizabeth said calmly. “The sales off the web page fully support my decision.”

“I’d like to see that!” Anne snapped.

Elizabeth calmly produced a packet of papers from her case and passed them over to Anne. “For the purpose of comparison, I used the sales off Slurry’s web page,” she explained. “I think you will be favorably impressed.”

Darcy quietly took out a pen and scribbled on his napkin a note he passed to Elizabeth. It read: “How did you get the sales report off the Slurry web page?”

Elizabeth didn’t even look down as she wrote back one word: “Hacked.”

His eyes grinned at hers and he crumpled the napkin and put it in his pocket.

Anne put down the report and she looked at Darcy. “Is that what you want, Darcy? Audio and video downloads?”

Darcy took another slow sip of tea. Elizabeth saw him grinning behind his mug as she could almost hear Anne’s teeth grinding. “Yes, I do.”

“Fine!” she snapped. Looking at Sylvie, she commanded, “Add it.”

Sylvie nodded and looked pleased. “Now, about Long Borne Suffering,” she began with a smile at Elizabeth. “Your website is very up to date, isn’t it? But I do have some suggestions.”

Elizabeth frowned in confusion. “No, I’m sorry. I think you are confused. I do my own page for the band.”

“Oh?” Sylvie looked from Elizabeth to Caroline, who was staring at Darcy.

Darcy spoke up. “I asked if De Bourgh could take some of the load off you, Elizabeth, with the web page.”

“What?”

Darcy looked at the three other women at the table then rose. “Could you excuse us a moment?”

Elizabeth followed Darcy away from the table with an air of incredulousness. “What?” she asked him again, when they were alone in an alcove by the restrooms.

“It’s just that your career is taking off now, and I want you to have more time to focus on it,” Darcy said. “I’m not suggesting you give up the site; just let Sylvie help out a bit. When Anne told me she was coming down, I simply asked her to have your page reviewed. That’s all.”

“Where do you get the idea that I don’t have enough time to manage my own website?”

Darcy frowned. “Well, you are always on that laptop, Elizabeth, and you told me yourself you answer all your fan email.”

Elizabeth closed her eyes and sighed angrily. “Has it ever occurred to you that I might be doing something on my laptop other than the website?”

Elizabeth could see by his expression it hadn’t. “For your information, I’m spending the time on my computer doing web pages for my customers.”

Now it was Darcy’s turn to be astonished. “What?”

“You know I have a degree in computer science. Before you ‘discovered’ us, I designed web pages and networks for small companies.”

“Yes, but you don’t need to do that now.”

“I don’t?” she questioned him sarcastically. “Look, I’m not taking on new customers, but I’m not dumping my old ones either.”

“But you have your music career; you’re a success at that.”

Elizabeth laughed derisively, her eyes flashing. “You’ve never heard of a ‘one-hit wonder’? Until my music career is a lot more stable, I’m keeping my other business,” she explained. “And I’m keeping my own website, thank you very much.”

Darcy’s face was a blank. “I’m sorry, Elizabeth. I didn’t know. I was only trying to do what was best.”

“Of course you were,” Elizabeth said, her voice scornful, “because you
always
know what’s best.” She found that any warming she had felt for Darcy had evaporated. Darcy was exactly the arrogant, controlling jerk George had told her he was. Her rational voice told her that he had only been thinking of her best interests, and she had to concede that, but would it have been so hard to ask her if she needed help?

No, she told herself, this is his way to try to control her, and she wasn’t going for it.

Elizabeth left Darcy and returned to the table. She politely asked Sylvie about her suggestions, not willing to take Darcy’s arrogance out on her, and found she was favorably impressed with some of Sylvie’s ideas.

Darcy returned a moment later and had a low conversation on the other side of the table with Anne, then exited the restaurant, presumably to return to the bus.

“Sylvie,” Anne said quietly, breaking up the women’s conference, “I have to meet with Caroline. You can ride to the venue with me or with Lizzy here.”

Elizabeth smiled and offered Sylvie a lift on the LBS bus. As the tour moved out of the restaurant and to the parking lot, Sylvie indicated Richard and quietly asked Elizabeth, “Who’s that?”

Elizabeth smiled and informed her of Richard’s identity, marveling all the while at the amazing Fitzwilliam magnetism.

“Is he single?” Sylvie asked, her eyes trailing over Richard’s form.

“Oh, he’s highly single. But don’t expect any kind of commitment. He’s a confirmed bachelor.”

“So am I, so am I!” she answered thoughtfully. “But when I see an appetizing cake, I always try to get a slice.”

Elizabeth grinned. “Help yourself! He’s a whole buffet.”

***

Darcy sat on his bus with Rachel, listening to her voice with only half a mind.
Damn! I really screwed up with Elizabeth this time. I don’t know what was bothering her before, but she sure has a reason to be angry with me now. Damn!

“Georgiana called; she is going to have Lars Ulrich’s love child,” Rachel reported evenly.

Darcy nodded then looked up at her confused. “What?”

“You remember Lars, don’t you? Drummer with a pushy attitude?”

Darcy’s face darkened. “That’s not funny.”

“No, it’s not,” she replied flatly. “But I was getting tired of talking to myself. Now, do you have anything to say about the quarterly reports? Or should I just chuck them?”

“You know, I don’t pay you to give me lip.”

“No, but you don’t pay me to put up with your crap either.”

Darcy took a long, deep breath. She was right, and he knew it. “Sorry, Rachel.”

“It’s okay. We all need this break,” she said softly. “I take it Lizzy was not a happy camper?”

Darcy shook his head. “Nope. I was trying to help her out, and I just succeeded in pissing her off.” His expression turned from annoyed to depressed. “I don’t know why I try.”

“She’s stubborn, just like you.”

“She
is
just like me. She’s so much like me it’s scary. You would think I would understand her better.”

“Yeah, you would think,” Rachel replied with a hint of sarcasm. “Maybe you need to understand yourself better, then you can understand her.”

Darcy regarded her for a long moment. “Let’s get back to work,” he said finally.

***

Charles felt as if the tour were falling apart. In the day since the girls returned, Darcy and Elizabeth were as cold to each other as he had ever seen them; Charlotte was hiding out in a dressing room during dinner while Richard was talking to Sylvie; and even Caroline had snapped at Alex over something Anne de Bourgh had said.

He looked at Jane, who also had a worried expression on her lovely face, and took her into an empty dressing room. Once there, he drew her into his arms and relaxed.

At times like this, he felt the only place he could be happy was in her arms. When he was there, he felt nothing could harm him. He inhaled her sweet scent deeply and kissed her honeyed lips, feeling her firm body press close to his.