CHAPTER
16 - The Tables Are Turned
Elizabeth walked over to William,
determination clearly written on her features and in the stride of her
step. He didn't look up at her as she
approached but it was obvious that he must have heard her because he casually
said, "This blade is an awkward bugger to get off."
Elizabeth couldn't stand it any
longer. "William, what's going
on?" she demanded abruptly.
"Why does my sister think we're engaged?"
William stopped working on the mower
then looked up at her as he slowly stood and wiped his dirty hands down the
back of his jeans.
She looked up at him and noticed that
he flicked a glance over her shoulder before focussing back on her. Taking a step, he moved closer to her and
she immediately went to move backwards only to have his arms snake out around
her body and capture her in a firm embrace.
Hands running possessively down her back, her urged her so intimately
close against his body that she was left in doubt of his evident need.
She tried to ease away from him but,
in his desire to maintain contact with her, William wouldn't let her go. Instead, he leaned in and brushed his lips
against her ear as he softly told her, "Your sister is watching us."
Instinctively, she tried to turn her
head but William's hand came up to cup her cheek then gently turn her face back
and hold it still while his mouth moved hotly over her skin, searching almost
desperately for her lips.
When he found them, he didn't kiss
her gently as he had done before, nor lightly in the way she'd been
expecting. Instead, it was with a depth
of such thrilling need that she could do nothing but succumb to it
immediately. Her arms locked around his
neck and her body melted into his as it had been aching to do for the past few
days. Her lips parted invitingly,
clinging to the firm outline of his, while all the time his hands moved eagerly
and caressingly over her body making every part of her aware of how much his
touch aroused her.
The kiss seemed to go on
forever. Each time she managed to find
the strength to break free of him, his mouth would move to caress some other
part of her throat or face. Then,
having sensitised that area to the point where she thought she couldn't bear it
any longer, he'd move back to her lips as if magnetised by them. Each kiss, each caress had her sink deeper
and deeper into the whirlpool of pleasure he was spinning around her.
Lips never leaving hers, she felt him
lift her off her feet and automatically wrapped her jean-clad legs around his
trim waist, pressing herself harder against him with a soft moan. William broke the kiss and she felt him
trail down her throat to the curve of her breast that was becoming increasingly
exposed to the cool air as he deftly undid the buttons of her pale blue blouse.
She tried to protest, tried to tell
him to stop, but another, stronger feeling overrode everything she'd been about
to say as his lips inched ever closer to her aching nipple. Head dropping back, she gasped as his tongue
darted out to dip under the lace material of her bra and arched eagerly towards
him. Her breathing grew heavy as she
clasped the back of his head and urged him on so that she could once again feel
the sweetly agonising sensation of his mouth caressing her so intimately.
Just when William was within mere
millimetres of his goal, she felt him pull away then gently ease her away from
him as he lowered her unsteadily to the ground. Elizabeth let out a little whimper of protest and frustration and
it took her a few seconds to realise that he was tugging the sides of her
blouse together and trying to do her buttons up with hands that were blatantly
shaking.
Trying to get her breathing under
control, she looked at him in confusion as her brain attempted to comprehend
that he'd actually stopped.
"It's okay. She's gone now," said William, silently
cursing the unevenness of his voice and the way he couldn't get his hands to
work properly. He hadn't expected her
to react as quite as eagerly as she did.
Sharing a few heated kisses had been his plan and it had taken every
ounce of his willpower to stop.
It was several seconds before his
meaning sunk in and when it did, Elizabeth was mortified. He was talking about Dawn! Turning bright red, she wrenched herself
away from him then looked down at her half open blouse, her own fingers
trembling as she desperately tried to finish fastening her buttons as quickly
as possible. "What's going
on?" she asked angrily, conscious that her voice was shaking almost as
much as her hands.
There was an odd silence and when she
automatically looked up, she saw that William looked as flushed and breathless
as she felt.
"I would've thought that was
obvious," he finally replied tersely.
"I wanted to make love to you."
For a single moment, Elizabeth stood
there and allowed the sweet, wild joy of his admission wash over her but then
she dammed it and retorted harshly, "I didn't mean that! I want to know why you told Dawn that we're
engaged."
Finally getting his unruly body back
under a modicum of control, William managed to adopt a mildly surprised
look. "What?" he queried, as
if he'd completely forgotten about the whole thing and then added carelessly,
"Oh that. Well, it seemed like the
best thing to do at the time." He
tilted his head slightly as his gaze softened and his voice gentled. "I did it for your sake, you
know."
It was Elizabeth's turn to be
surprised. "My sake?" she
questioned with a puzzled frown.
William nodded. "Well, yeah. As soon as your sister walked in and announced that Connor…your Connor…was her fiancé, I guessed straight away what must have happened,"
he told her quietly. "I suppose
they came here the tell you they'd fallen for each other and to ask you to let
Connor out of his engagement to you."
He sighed and shook his head.
"I have to say, I thought it was a bit off of her to just casually
introduce him as her fiancé like
that." He shrugged and looked
rueful. "Perhaps I shouldn't have
jumped in the way I did but…and I know this may be hard for you to hear,
Buffy…he just didn't seem all that ashamed about switching his affections like
that, you know? And all I could think
of was how you were going to feel when you came home and found out that he'd
dumped you for your own sister."
While he spoke, William had taken
hold of her hand and begun caressing it gently, and yet, so arousingly that she
could hardly concentrate on what he was saying. Her senses were screaming out to her that they needed far more
than the deliberately provocative stimulation they were receiving. That they wanted his hands on her body…his
mouth…
With enormous effort on her part, she
tore herself from her erotic yearnings and tried to listen to what he was
telling her as he continued to speak.
"Anyway, I guess I just went on
instinct really. I was angry on your behalf
and before I knew it, I was telling them that you and I were engaged as
well. You know, show him that your
engagement meant as little to you as it obviously did to him. Although, naturally, I didn't let on that I
knew about Connor and you…and to be honest, he never mentioned it either…didn't
say much of anything actually."
William paused and Elizabeth stared
at him speechlessly. This was the last
thing she'd ever imagined. After
everything that had happened between them…all the things she'd said; William
had wanted to protect her…to help
her.
God, how the tables could turn. One minute he was her nasty little secret
and the next he was her champion…even if she didn’t actually need one.
The urge to just tell him the truth
came out of nowhere and she opened her mouth to do exactly that, but stopped at
the last moment as she remembered how she distressed she'd felt when she
initially thought he'd already learned of her deceit. She was certain that once he knew, he'd hate her and that was
something she just couldn't bear to live with.
Besides, what was the point of admitting anything when he was going to
be leaving soon anyway? Why make her
life any harder than it already was?
"I have to say, you've taken it
very well," he suddenly commented lightly. "I half expected that you'd come home and throw yourself
into his arms before I had a chance to say anything. You must feel like hell."
That was true, she acknowledged
ruefully, although not for the reason's he thought.
William sighed again and, tongue
firmly in cheek, added mock sympathetically, "And after you've struggled so hard to be faithful to your
engagement as well."
Elizabeth swallowed hard at that, her
eyes widening as she opened her mouth to say something…anything. "I…"
"Of course, you won't think so
now, but in the long run, this is probably for the best," William cut
across her in a comforting tone.
"Just imagine if he'd left you for her after the wedding."
The wedding.
Suddenly, anger pulled Elizabeth out
of her internal ramblings as she remembered something far more important than
her fake engagement and supposed broken heart over Connor. "What on earth possessed you to tell
Dawnie that we're getting married in June for God's sake?" she demanded
bitterly.
William released her hand and held up
his arms in a gesture of defeat as he produced a look on his face that was
somewhere between shame and embarrassment.
"I'm sorry, okay? Don't ask
me how, but she managed to drag out of me that we'd been lovers and, well, to
be quite honest, after that I didn't have much option. Being your sister, I'm sure she knows of
your high morals and I know Connor would've told her that you and he had never
slept together so…"
Elizabeth was so annoyed that she
almost missed the significance of what he was saying but when she did, she felt
as though she'd turned to stone.
"Connor and I…" she began then trailed off weakly.
"Well, you didn't, did
you?" William clarified reasonably.
"I did think at first it must be because you were frightened he
might find you inexperienced and that was why…"
Elizabeth's eyes widened at the word
'inexperienced' and felt the blood drain from her face. Oh God.
She did not, must not, ask how
William knew she'd been a virgin…she didn't think she could bear to hear his
answer. Especially if he told her she'd
been terrible.
"…and then when I saw him with
Dawn and they said that you'd all been together around the time we first met,
it all made sense. Connor had obviously
been having second thoughts about your engagement and I'm guessing that you,
not getting the attention you deserved, felt undesirable and that's where I
came in." William smiled slowly at
her, his eyes roaming down her body before flicking up to her face again as he
added flippantly, "You know, being convenient
and all."
Elizabeth's mouth dropped open at his
last remark as she vainly tried to protest his use of her own words against
her. "I…you…" she stammered
out then suddenly stopped and shut her eyes, taking a deep breath as she
attempted to absorb the several shocks that she'd received in such a short
space of time.
This was awful. Absolutely awful.
She needed time to think and she
couldn't do that when he was standing so close. Hearing William's take on the situation was…surprising, to say
the least, and her guilt factor over her deceit steadily rose another few
notches.
Putting a hand to her head, she
exhaled on a long sigh and rubbed her temple gingerly before opening her eyes
to calmly say, "This is a lot to deal with, I…I think I'll go back
inside." Desperately hoping that
this were - please God - a nightmare, she turned to go.
"Yeah, it's not every day you
lose one fiancé and gain another," William observed with a slight chuckle,
apparently oblivious to her feelings.
The look of misery she shot him over her shoulder had him falter for a
moment and he felt himself relent slightly as the smile dropped from his
face. "I thought you'd be
pleased," he told her in a hurt tone that stopped her in her tracks and
had her turning back to him in disbelief.
"I mean, I know how you feel about your self-respect and I know
what it's like to discover that the person you love has broken their engagement
to you." He paused then added
quietly, "Same thing happened to me once."
He had her attention now. Her shocked gaze locked with his and he drew
in a long breath as he began to speak.
"It was a long time ago and I
was a young fool," he explained, his tone devoid of any emotion. "I believed that Dru…that was her
name…truly loved me. Truth was, what
she really loved was my parent's money that she knew would eventually be
mine."
He let out a harsh, self-depreciating
laugh and looked away, not wanting to see the pity in Elizabeth's eyes when he
added bitterly, "It wasn't until I found her in bed with someone else that
I realised how little our engagement…how little I actually meant to her."
He shook his head then lifted his gaze to Elizabeth's once more as he
added grimly, "I know only too well what the humiliation of losing someone
you love is like, Buffy. I'm sorry if I
handled this situation with Connor badly.
I only wanted to help."
With his revelation, Elizabeth
suddenly clearly understood the reasoning and purpose behind his actions. He was simply trying to help her save face
and walk away from her 'engagement' with some pride in tact.
She sighed heavily and tried to
decide which pained her the most; the jealous knowledge that William had loved
and probably still did love, someone
else or the awareness of just how amazing a man he was to have thought of her
and acted so quickly to save her from being hurt.
Unfortunately, what William didn't
realise was that he had far more power to hurt her than Connor would ever have
and in 'helping' her, he'd actually caused even more appalling problems for her
to deal with.
Shaking her head at how life could be
so ironic at times she then determinedly focussed on the pressing issue at
hand…how on earth was she going to explain away to Dawn the ending of their
engagement?
Especially since her sister knew
they'd been lovers and also knew, by her own damning admission, that she loved
William.
Her head began to pound in earnest
and she resisted the urge to rub her temples once more only to have William
step forward and take hold of her hand again.
Head tilting slightly, he gave her a
warm smile as his thumb rubbed soothing circles over her wrist. "Look, it's not the end of the
world," he told her cajolingly. "The
fact of life is that, unfortunately, engagements are always being broken."
Elizabeth frowned, his attempt at
comfort rankling her. "Not within
a few weeks of the wedding and not when the two people are supposed to be so
madly in love with each other they can barely keep their hands of one another,"
she snapped, her nerves feeling dangerously close to breaking point. "And certainly not when one of those
two people is me! Dawn knows that
I…" She broke off and groaned
loudly. "Oh God! She's probably on the phone to Mum and Dad
right now!" Her eyes widened in
panic. "What if she's telling them
to book the church up for us?"
William's eyebrows raised and he
stilled the movement of his thumb as he stared back at her quizzically. "Buffy…I was talking about your
engagement to Connor," he clarified softly.
Elizabeth stared back at him, her
face suddenly flushing intensely. She'd
been so caught up in somehow convincing Dawn that she didn't love William after
all that she'd completely forgotten about her fake betrothal to Connor.
Suddenly, it was all too much for her
and, despite the fact that she was twenty-four years of age as well as being a
mature woman who never gave way her emotions but kept them firmly locked up…she
let out a cry of frustration and unceremoniously stamped her foot!
"Forget my engagement to
Connor!" she exclaimed pettishly.
"How the heck am I going to explain to Dawn that you and I aren't getting married?"
If he hadn't seen the sheen of tears
in her eyes, William might almost have burst out laughing. His self-controlled, stubborn, beautiful
Buffy was suddenly showing him very clearly just what he had to look forward to
when she and he produced a daughter. He
couldn't wait!
"Oh, don't worry about
that," he dismissed casually.
"We'll think of something."
Releasing her hand, he turned back to the mower and crouched down
seemingly once more absorbed in trying to work the blade loose. "Oh and while I remember, Rupert's
staying at a friend's tonight so he won’t be home."
As he finished speaking, the blade
finally came off and he let out a small cry of triumph as he held it aloft for
her to see. "About bloody
time," he said with a grin before standing up again. "Best get this fixed so I can crack on
and cut the rest of the lawn."
Without another word, he turned and
walked away to the shed, leaving her to stand and stare after him in barely
restrained anger. Letting out a loud
huff, she stormed back into the house muttering to herself about how her
well-ordered life had become a shambolic mess in mere weeks.
In the shed, William dropped the
blade in a bin before looking out of the window in time to see Elizabeth march
angrily into the house. Letting out a
chuckle, he shook his head and searched for a new blade.
So far, he was keeping her just
enough off kilter that she wasn't getting the chance to think about things,
merely react to them, which is what he wanted.
No longer concerned about using her own emotions against her to gain an
advantage and, being that all was fair in love and war, he was happily planning
a full-on assault.
xxxxx
Going out to the car, Elizabeth
bought in the rest of the shopping and busied herself with the task of
unpacking the food and putting it away.
Glancing out the window, she saw that
William had returned to the mower and was fixing the new blade with a bright
smile on his face. The fact that he
seemed so completely at ease while she was so on edge made her want to grab the
nearest large object and throw it at him.
Hard.
It was all very well for him, she
groused internally…it wasn't his
sister who believed they were passionately in love and on the verge of getting
married.
Moving around the kitchen, she put
the food away shutting the cupboard doors with more force than necessary,
gaining a grim satisfaction from the loud bangs they produced. One thing was for certain, she reasoned
unhappily as she finished her chore, there was no way the day could get any
worse.
TBC
IN CHAPTER 17 - The Time For Truth
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