“It’s more your eyes that worry me, your grace, and the fact that my descent isn’t likely to be pretty.” She pulled a face and he laughed.
“I thought we had already agreed that dignity is overrated.”
“And yet I would still prefer to cling on to mine regardless, if you don’t mind.”
“It wouldn’t be gentlemanly to abandon a damsel in obvious distress and I’d never forgive myself if you ended up hurt when I could have prevented it.” He folded his arms and vainly flexed his muscles regardless in the pathetic hope that she would notice them. “So I am staying and you will just have to swallow your pride on this occasion.”
“Can you at least turn around while I do the worst of the maneuvers? Only, as a gentleman, I am sure that you appreciate that a skirt is an unforgiving garment during any physical challenge.”
He had never seen her all missish and it amused him. “Very well.” He turned. “Let me know when you need me.”
“IfI need you, your grace—which I can assure you that I won’t, so don’t you dare even think of turning around unless I personally request it. I am not the damsel in distress type.” He could hear the exertion in her voice as she changed position behind him. “In actual fact, if you want to know my honest opinion, I disapprove of the very concept of a damsel in distress because women are just as capable as men. What we might lack in upper body strength”—she paused to grunt—“we make up for in intelligence and resilience.”
“Do you indeed?”
“We do.” More grunting. “It will be a cold day in hell before I everneed a man to save me. I am in charge of my own destiny and quite capable of saving myself, thank you very much.” Then there was an ominousooffollowed by the sound of ripping fabric. Then a beat of silence. “Um… unfortunately, I think I might have spoken too soon.”
“Am I allowed to turn around, Miss Kendall?”
“Only if you promise not to laugh.”
He turned, blinked, then roared because Miss Kendall now dangled like a marionette facing him. The top of her coat from her shoulders to her elbow was caught on the spikes leaving her feet suspended several feet from the ground. “You look like you’ve been hung up to dry on a washing line!”
Her lips twitched. “Rather than just standing there and stating the obvious, your grace, I would be much obliged if you would do the gentlemanly thing and help me down.”
“Oh the irony!” Leo bent double he was laughing so hard. “There must be a blizzard currently raging in hell because you—you!” He pointed at her between guffaws. “Suddenly need a man’s help!”
“I am sure I will appreciate the irony too… eventually.” Her half-trapped arms pleaded. “But in the meantime, this thoroughly disgusted damsel needs rescuing.”
“Yes… right…” Leo pulled himself together and scratched his head. How the blazes to best do that? “Maybe if I lifted you up a bit you might be able to dislodge the trapped fabric?” Which of course meant touching her. And quite inappropriately because her upper thighs were level with his eyes. “Do you mind if I…” He wiggled his hands a couple of inches shy of either side of her hips. “Only I am afraid this might involve some manhandling.”
“Just do what you need to do, your grace.”
“Right,” he said, stepping forward while suddenly feeling totally self-conscious. “Brace yourself.” Then he grabbed her hips and tried to heave her upward but she was too much of a deadweight for that to have much effect. “I think I am going to need a bit more purchase.” Cringing, he slipped his hands lower and around her bottom and triedhis best to be gentlemanly and not notice how delightful those two plump cheeks felt in his grasp. Or how the side of his head was now resting on her midriff as he tried to use his entire body against hers for leverage.
He managed to hoist her a couple of inches but nowhere near enough.
“Perhaps if you bend at the knees a little and lift me from lower down?”
“Right,” he said, adjusting his position and hugging her thighs this time, trying not to think that the side of his face was now level with her crotch. He knew already that this unseemly debacle was going to haunt his dreams for the foreseeable future. Miss Kendall had haunted them enough already since he had fallen on top of her in his study, so he really did not need to know what her bottom felt like beneath his palms, or her thighs. Or that all he had to do was turn his head and he was within kissing distance of the absolute most intimate place she possessed. “Ready?”
“As I will ever be.”
Leo craned his neck as far right as it would go so as his face wasn’t completely buried between her legs, then heaved with all his might. He managed to raise her at least a foot higher. While he held on tight, she began to wriggle her upper body to try to free the trapped fabric. That, inevitably, caused the bottom half of her body to jiggle too and her hip—and worse—kept making contact with his cheek.
Dear god, he hoped this was over soon!
“I just need a couple of inches.” Words that sounded too much like an invitation and went straight to his cock.
“I’ll try.” From somewhere he found the strength to push her higher but the only way to keep her at that height was to use his entire upper body to pin her to the wall—including his head. Which meant his ear now occupied all the space in the crevice where the tops of her legs met her womanhood.
As she wriggled this time, he felt all her intimate lower muscles clench with the effort it took. But Leo gritted his teeth some more and did his best not to hear her make the same sorts of breathy sounds that a woman in the throes of passion would make in the bedchamber.
“Yes… I’m almost there… so close… can you push a little harder?” Leo had never wished for death before, but he wished for it now. On the swiftest wings possible. “Yes!” She bucked against the side of his face and then groaned. “It isn’t working. But we might get a bit more height if I pushed my knees against your shoulders—”
He jumped back then as if a snake had bitten him because the absolute last thing he needed was to have his entire face buried between her legs. The moment he let go, she dropped back into her dangling position like a sack of potatoes with a grunt. “I would have appreciated a little warning there, your grace.”
He raked a frustrated hand through his hair. “We need a better plan!” One that wasn’t the stuff of his erotic fantasies. “It’s your coat that’s stuck, so perhaps if you unbutton it, I can catch you once you are free of it?”
