Page 30 of A Sporting Chance (The Chances #8)

“G oodness. I have no idea what to do next.”

Leopold’s low mumble still managed to reach Kathleen’s ears, though it was not her ears that immediately knew what they wanted.

No, it was the rest of her. Quivering, and aching, and knowing she was now engaged and so could venture further than ever into the depths of pleasure, Kathleen was utterly convinced of what she wanted.

So she would take it.

“Really?” Try as she might, she could not prevent the shake in her voice, but she persevered. “ I do.”

The sudden widening of Leopold’s eyes told her that he had seen the hunger in her, understood the shot she had fired. It was a bold one, yes, but it was also a loving one. She needed him, needed him to quell this fire in her, and at the same time, needed him to blow gently on the flames.

Kathleen squirmed as she knelt. The idea of Leopold blowing on certain parts of her was…intriguing.

In a way, she could not believe what she had said. She had never been so forward before, so utterly forthright in what she wanted. But she wanted him, and she had known that for some time now.

Precisely how long, she could not be sure.

She was aware her foolish behavior had begun after she’d merely lain eyes on him, before she’d even known his name.

Besides…

“I’ve never been one to miss my target. And so this is me drawing my bow back and attempting a bullseye. Kathleen, will you marry—”

It wasn’t like this was some sad, sordid affair that would be best forgotten as daylight reached them. This was the connection between two people who would soon be husband and wife. They were going to be married, to be together forever.

There was not a single doubt in Kathleen’s mind.

“I-I beg your pardon?”

Leopold did not look doubtful, precisely, but slightly stunned, as though someone had knocked him on the back of his head with a bow.

There was a dazed expression in his eyes that momentarily concerned Kathleen, until she felt the gentle caress of his fingers on her arm, the heat of his passion tangible even in that small gesture.

Joyous tears fell from her eyes, unsolicited. She wanted him. He wanted her. They were engaged.

What could possibly go wrong?

“You know what I mean,” Kathleen said playfully, wiping away the tears.

Her smile faded as she looked into his eyes.

At least, she had thought Leopold had known what she’d meant. She had been coy, yes, but was not that the expected routine for a lady who was innocent? There was no possibility of her being more direct, was there?

Had she been too circumspect? Worse, had she believed she had seen the signs of true desire and had in fact been mistaken? Perhaps he merely felt obligated to marry her. They had, after all, been together many a time without a chaperone present.

Kathleen bit her lip as she swallowed, leaning back on her heels. It was tempting to laugh, though that would only be from discomfort. “I… I don’t know how to explain it,” she said aloud, realizing the truth as she spoke. “I don’t know how to ask for… this.”

It was mortifying. Just when she had thought she was being so clever, so enticing, all she had done was confuse Leopold to no end and make it impossible for him to know what she wanted.

And goodness, she wanted it. She wanted him to bed her, to lay her down and show her just how much he wanted her.

She wanted him to kiss her all over, to reveal his body, to reveal hers, to worship her until they were gasping and clutching at each other and unable to do anything but cry out their passions for each other.

And she wanted to do all that without actually having to say any of those words. Heaven forbid!

How, precisely, did a woman request such things?

“I don’t understand,” Leopold said quietly, though his eyes suggested he could have a guess but did not wish to.

Was he concerned, perhaps, that if he were mistaken, he would offend?

It would take one of them, Kathleen realized, to be brave. And Leopold was far too much of a gentleman to cross what he considered to be a line of that nature.

That left only one person.

“I do not precisely know the words to explain it,” she said, more than a little awkwardly, “but perhaps… perhaps I can show you.”

Leopold blinked. “‘Show’ me?”

Kathleen did not wait for her thoughts to catch up with her actions—that would surely slow her down, and she had no wish to second-guess herself, or think herself into so tight a knot that she would be unable to untangle herself.

No, she had come this far. She was engaged. There was naught to be shocked at now.

What she wanted was mere inches away. All she had to do was be brave, pull back the metaphorical bowstring…and shoot for what she wanted.

Kathleen leaned forward, slowly, and was relieved that Leopold did not move away. He wanted this, then, just as much as she did.

When her lips met his, there was a sizzle in the air, a tension, a sharpness, and yet a softness, a gentleness. The kiss was passionate, yes, but it seared through her in a way Kathleen had never known before.

The bliss rippled through her but also the confirmation that this was precisely what she wanted. What she needed.

Kathleen pressed herself forward, her body aching to be close to his, and Leopold seemed to know now exactly what she wanted. His hands crept around her waist, pulling her close, and air juddered in her lungs as the sweetness and power of his kiss overwhelmed her.

This was—this was—

“Wait a moment.”

She could have moaned with disappointment as Leopold not only pulled away from their kiss, their embrace, but her altogether. “ Leopold !”

“Shush,” he said, glancing over his shoulder.

Even in the throes of passion, Kathleen could not help but feel piqued. “I am sorry, did you just shush me?”

“Shush!”

She stared, pulse pounding as Leopold turned back to her with a smile on his face that could almost have been described as wicked. Not quite. But it wasn’t far off.

“Kathleen, are you certain?”

Kathleen did not need to ask him to elaborate. There would be no regrets, she was determined. They were to be married. What could be wrong about a husband and wife sharing one of the most precious and intimate things that two people could do?

Still, she did not completely trust her voice. Instead, she nodded, keeping her gaze on him.

Leopold’s throat bobbed. Then he was standing, pulling her to his feet with a hand that was warm and that did not quiver with nerves.

The drawing room door creaked and Kathleen winced, suddenly conscious that there were innumerable people within the house who most definitely should not discover them. It would be a disaster in the extreme, yet the hallway was deserted.

“My family is out for the evening,” Leopold said in a whisper, answering the question that Kathleen had not yet articulated. “Except for Maude.”

Maude—the sister? She was still here?

Perhaps the concerns she fleetingly thought appeared on her face, for Leopold smiled. “Do not be concerned—Maude sleeps the sleep of the dead, and besides, is on quite the opposite side of the house to me. Any noise we make, she will not hear.”

Any noise we make.

Kathleen could not help but quiver at the mere suggestion.

True, she was hardly an expert in these matters.

It had only been by accident that she had discovered precisely it was that a husband and wife had shared.

She was well-read, and she supposed her father had forgotten that particular book had been left in the library.

She hadn’t needed her fallen sister to explain the details of what went on between lovers in the cover of night.

The truth of the matter was in many ways just as strange. Could a man truly give gratification to a woman by putting his—in her—

“Come on,” Leopold said in a low voice, squeezing her hand.

There was something astonishingly erotic about slowly ascending a staircase hand in hand with a gentleman to whom one was not married. Of course she would be—Kathleen could still hardly believe it, but Leopold had made a quite clear offer of marriage.

Still, the knowledge that she would within weeks be Lady Leopold Chance, a name that made her stomach lurch, did not detract from the forbidden feeling of it all.

As Kathleen followed Leopold down a dark corridor and around a corner, anticipation curled within her, sparking need across her body that only he could satisfy, and it would not be long.

Leopold reached out and grasped a door handle. Then he hesitated.

Kathleen waited for a beat, wondering if he was merely opening the door very slowly to prevent any creaking. When it became quite clear that Leopold had not moved in almost a minute, she whispered, “Is everything quite well?”

A jerk of his head, a look of surprise, as though he had half-forgotten she was there, and then a smile that warmed her right down to the soles of her feet.

He nodded then opened the door.

It was, Kathleen realized as she stepped into what had to have been Leopold’s bedchamber, a very personal thing to do, inviting someone into your most intimate space. Why, other than maids and the like, no one ever saw this chamber.

Curiosity was natural. What she had not expected was astonishment.

It was… Well, it was Leopold. Packed to the rafters with archery paraphernalia.

Kathleen dropped his hand and stepped into the room, open mouthed, at the sight of so many beautiful objects she could not have imagined possible to all pack into one room.

Bows—several of them, all different sizes.

The smallest were the most worn. Had these been the bows with which Leopold had first learned to shoot an arrow?

Speaking of arrows, there were hundreds. Many of them were packed in boxes or quivers, lying about the place, but on one wall was a cabinet of arrows that had been set most artistically. Precisely why those arrows, it was not clear.