Chapter Thirty #3
That made Portia laugh. “Not even slightly. Kitty writes fairy tales—but not the sort for children, if you know what I mean.” She pulled a scandalized face.
“I am afraid I don’t.”
“She writes salacious novels.” She slanted him an equally salacious glance filled with all sorts of sinful promise.
“The sort that involve damsels in distress and knights in shining armor who sweep those damsels off their feet and kiss them until they are breathless.” Her eye roll this time was amused.
“While simultaneously dealing with all manner of hijinks and peril before they skip off into the sunset together to live happily ever after.”
“We both know how much you disapprove of even the concept of a damsel in distress when you are quite capable of saving yourself.”
“Or so I thought—until I needed you to save me. More times than I care to count.” She offered him a faux irritated smile while her eyes still sparkled with mischief. “Which still galls, by the way, even if most of your attempts have fallen well shy of the mark.”
“Well shy?” He clutched at his heart, which was feeling much lighter. “That wounds.”
“Do I need to list them?” She began to count them off on her fingers. “You saved me from a falling bookcase and then ended up unable to walk for almost two weeks.”
“But you were unharmed so I shall chalk that one up as a success.”
“Hmm.” For someone who purported to disapprove of the aristocracy, she did imperious so well. “Then you told me to plead guilty to a crime I did not commit and got me a criminal record.”
“But I got you safely out of that prison unmolested.”
She waggled her ring finger with his slim gold band on it. “Then you turned the constable against me and I ended up arrested the very next day.”
“But I still saved you from a convict ship.”
“Which I wouldn’t have been destined to be on if you hadn’t made me plead guilty to the first charge.”
“Semantics.”
“And today you tried to drown me and destroyed my lovely feathers.”
“Better those awful feathers than your lovely hair.” Leo snuggled closer as they sauntered onto Piccadilly. “And you missed one because I seem to recall that I also managed to rescue you after you got yourself impaled on my wall.”
“Because that ended so well.”
“It did right up until you had a conniption about me being a duke and ran away. Before that, we were all over each other. Tearing at each other’s clothes and seconds away from—”
“Gracious, haven’t we wandered far from our original topic? When I was supposed to be telling you about Kitty.”
That missish outburst made him chuckle. “Coward.”
Her lips twitched but other than that she was determined to ignore him.
“As much as the unromantic cynic in me wants to hate what Kitty writes, I actually really enjoy it. She might be the world’s most useless timekeeper and unreliable governess, but Kitty Blackstone certainly knows how to write a ripping yarn.
She sends me her chapters to critique and, as her skills as a salacious novelist have improved over time, I find myself critiquing less and waiting impatiently for the next chapter to arrive in the post so that I can find out what happens to her knight and damsel next. ”
“I would like to meet her. She sounds like fun.” More importantly, she sounded like an ally.
“She is and I know she is keen to meet you too.”
“You’ve told her about me?” He didn’t expect her to tell him why she had been compelled to start that essay with Kitty’s name in the question, but he suspected her friend understood better than anyone why Portia’s heart was wary.
“Nothing good of course, seeing as I disapprove of all dukes on principle, but enough that she has annoyingly started to refer to you as my knight in shining armor.” She frowned as if thoroughly disgusted. “She is going to adore you.”
“What’s not to adore?” Leo grinned just so that he could show her his dimples, seeing as he knew she liked them so much.
“It’s a wonder you can resist me.” Then he nudged her playfully with his elbow.
“Not that you just did, of course, and not that I am complaining. Feel free to not resist me with impunity whenever the urge arises again, because I guarantee that I shall always be game if you are.” To prove that, he tugged her closer and quickly kissed her and then, because that was nowhere near enough, indulged in a more lingering one as well while they were still walking.
Her eyes narrowed. “Why are you suddenly flirting with me so outrageously?”
“It seems like the right thing to do at this time.” He sighed, ready to be honest, seeing as the stakes were so high and time was running out.
“And because I am tired of us arguing and being angry at each other when we have both been in the wrong while trying to do right. I want things to be like they were when we were friends.” He stopped and tugged her to face him. “And because I want to.”
“And if I don’t want you to?”
He hauled her close and thoroughly plundered her obviously willing mouth. “You are just going to have to suffer it for as long as we last.”