Page 41 of Eight for Losing, One for Loving

“What do you want?”

“Come to bed.”

Vi listened intently, straining her ears for any sound of movement.

“If I come to bed, will you go to sleep?” he asked her, a slightly strained note in his voice.

“Yes.”

“You promise?”

“Yes.”

She relaxed as she heard him get to his feet and then the muffled sounds of him moving in the darkness, taking off his boots and undressing. Vi held her breath until she felt the mattress dip as Leo got in.

The moment he was settled she wriggled over to his side, cuddled against him.

“Vi… you promised,” he said, the warning clear that he would leave if she tried anything.

“Just hold me, Leo,” Vi asked, not having to try too hard to sound vulnerable and a bit pathetic. “Please?”

“All right, love. Come here.”

He gathered her more securely and Vi lay her head on his chest, feeling the coarse hair tickling her cheek and hearing the reassuring thud of his heartbeat. Oh, that was better, much better. The warmth of his body enveloped her, easing away the stress of the past hours and Vi relaxed in his embrace, allowing herself to tumble into sleep, secure in his arms.

Leo lay still in the darkness, staring up at the ceiling. Vi’s slender form was a delicious weight against him, her hair a tumble of curls over his chest. Tenderness and longing filled his heart, an ache of need and desire and regret so intense it felt like a knife lodged there.

She would never marry him now, and he could hardly blame her. How could he keep asking her to trust him, to allow him to prove how much he had changed after tonight’s debacle? He should never have brought her with him in the first place, but how could he have left her behind when she wanted to come?

Her warm breath fluttered over his skin, and she shifted in her sleep, her hand straying from his chest to settle lower down over his belly. Leo closed his eyes, trying not to imagine her hand drifting lower still, touching him, wanting him.

She did want him. He knew that much, at least. But plenty of women had wanted him. He was blessed with a handsome face and form, which had meant he had never had to try to make people like him, or women desire him. Vi was different. He’d had to work for her good opinion, which was never given easily, if at all. If Vi had approved of something he’d said or done, it felt like it was worth something, like he was worth more than the sum of his parts.

For as long as he could remember, he’d been driven to do things: to travel, to seek adventure, to prove he was the fastest, the strongest, the best at whatever challenge was set before him. With Vi, that all seemed to go away. For all that they sparred and bickered and wound each other up, all he really wanted with Vi was to make her happy, to make them both happy, to find a way of living their lives together that would suit them. A home they could share, the opportunity to show Vi people and places she could not experience as an unmarried woman… perhaps children, if they were so blessed. But if it was just the two of them, he really didn’t think he would mind, providing she did not. They could always adopt; she had been adopted, after all. It wasn’t as if there weren’t enough children in the world in need of a loving family.

All of that seemed moot now, however. The only thing he had needed to prove to her was that he was a good man, one she could rely upon, and he knew he had failed at that. Hopefully Harbottle would hold his tongue about their unmarried status. He was certainly the most unconventional reverend Leo had ever come across. Leo had half expected the man to tell his sister everything, and knew she would have turned them out without a moment’s hesitation, but he had not done so. Perhaps he expected Leo to marry Vi, something he’d do in a heartbeat if only the reverend could talk her into it. He considered suggesting Harbottle speak to Vi, but then he rejected the idea. The thought of her needing a man of God to guilt her into accepting his proposal made him feel sick. If Vi wanted him, she would have him, if she did not… well, then she did not, and he would simply have to live with that.

It was not a happy thought.

Gloomy, his body sore from the fight and all on edge with unfulfilled desire as Vi’s lovely frame pressed close to his. Leo sighed and resigned himself to a sleepless night.