Chapter Thirty #2
She huffed again as her train finally detached and she let it fall to the ground while she put her hands on her hips. “I am aware that my arguments do not appear logical to you—”
“That’s because they aren’t the least bit logical. Which for someone who usually constructs such brilliant arguments, is odd, don’t you think?”
“They make perfect sense to me. Just as they would make perfect sense to anyone else like me.”
“Hypocrites, you mean?” Before she could rail at him for that, Leo decided to rip her flimsy argument to shreds first, seeing as she enjoyed a well-constructed one.
“Because in one breath, despite everything you know about me and everything we’ve been through together, you still rigidly stick to your mantra of all dukes are bad.
Then in the other, you say that this would all be much simpler if I was just Leo.
Which I am, but heaven forbid you give me any credit for that.
Or do you believe that I am just like everyone in there?
” He jerked his thumb back to the palace.
“Because if you do, I should like to hear your evidence. And while we are on the subject of in there, do you seriously believe that all aristocrats are the same? That none can be decent? None can be nice? All are self-serving, selfish, and utterly irredeemable? Only it strikes me that you are the worst sort of hypocrite if you claim not to want a revolution because you want equality for all except the aristocracy, which, frankly, isn’t fair.
” He extracted the last of the hairpins and thrust her the ruined headdress so he could put his hands on his own hips.
“And if it’s not that, then all your nonsensical objections can only boil down to one thing—that it isn’t your rigid principles that bother you, more the way you feel about me that does.
I bother you. The concept of us bothers you. ”
“That is the most ridiculous thing that I have ever—” He closed the distance between them and swallowed the end of her sentence in a kiss. Another test that she failed with flying colors because she sighed into his mouth and kissed him right back without a moment’s hesitation.
As there was no way he was going to stop her, Leo happily lost himself in it the second she wound her arms around his neck, tugging her flush against him so that they could both deepen it.
And they did. However, unlike their first kiss in his garden back in Bath that heated quickly and then burned out of control, they both seemed keen to savor this one.
Holding just enough back that they could take it all in and enjoy the slow buildup of passion as they explored each other properly with lips and teeth before their tongues tangled.
When they finally did, she moaned softly as she arched against him, not the least bit bothered by how obviously aroused his body was.
Her lips stilled but she did not push him away. “Let me guess.… You thought that was the right thing to do just then?”
“Unequivocally.” He let his lips whisper over hers again and she couldn’t resist joining in. “You kissed me back, didn’t you?” He kissed her again. “You keep kissing me back. Why is that?”
Rather than answer, she sidestepped. “We probably shouldn’t be doing this. It will only complicate things.”
“I couldn’t care less.” Leo nibbled his way along her jaw to her ear. “Especially when this is clearly what we both want.”
She didn’t deny that either. “And then what?” She tilted her neck to grant him better access. “What if feelings get involved and muddy the—” He pulled away to stare at her.
“You don’t already think that the waters between us are well and truly muddied and feelings are involved?
” He knew his were. But hers? Something was holding her back and he wanted it gone.
“Would you resist this if I were just Leo?” She exhaled in defeat and shook her head, so he pressed his advantage.
“Then stop trying to overcomplicate things. I am just Leo and you know it.”
She smoothed her palms over his lapels but still did not pull away. “You sound like my best friend Kitty.”
The “Is it possible that Kitty is correct and I have foolishly fallen in love?” Kitty, and possibly his new best friend too? “Your friend Kitty is clearly a very wise woman.”
A comment that made her instantly smile. “If you knew anything about Kitty, you would appreciate that nothing could be further from the truth. Kitty is a dreamer. A hopeless romantic. One of life’s eternal optimists.”
“Yet you, the eternal cynic, consider her not just a friend but your best friend.” He now had the overwhelming suspicion that if he kept pushing her into a corner, Portia would fight tooth and nail to get out of it and cease wavering.
The last thing he wanted now that some progress had been made was to encourage her to become even more entrenched in whatever misconception she was wedded to.
So he stepped back and shrugged out of his coat so he could drape it around her damp shoulders.
Then he wrapped her hand around his arm and led her out of the doorway, hoping a slow walk home while the sun romantically set around them might help his cause more.
“Why is that, when birds of a feather are supposed to flock together?”
“I know.” She scrunched up her face as if she couldn’t understand it either. “A cynic shouldn’t have anything in common with such a sunny optimist. But it gets worse because I am a realist and she is a dreamer. I am very organized, reasoned, purposeful, and driven.”
“You don’t say.”
Her pretty eyes narrowed again in mock affront.
“Whereas Kitty is as disorganized and distracted as it is possible to be. She is the sort who blurts out whatever random thought pops into her head before she considers whether it is appropriate to say aloud. The sort who would forget her head if it wasn’t screwed on and very definitely the sort who would be late for her own funeral.
Our friendship makes no sense, but I like to think we balance each other out. ”
“They do also say that opposites attract.” Much like dukes and chaperones.
“They do too. But Kitty and I both love to write, so we do have something fundamental in common.”
“Does she write pithy seditious essays that put the world to rights too?”