“Oh!” Gabriella winced. “I’m so dreadfully sorry, Mrs. Carson!” She turned to him, deflated. “I’m quite terrible at this.”
“It was an atrocious hat. Killing it was a mercy.”
She looked like was going to either laugh or cry, he wasn’t sure which. He hoped it wasn’t the latter. Weeping women frightened him like nothing else on God’s green earth. If he had one weakness, that was it.
As one of the servants ran to fetch Mrs. Carson’s hat, Nicholas stepped forward. He snatched the arrow out of Gabriella’s hands. “I’ll take that.”
“That’s mine!” She reached for the arrow.
When she stepped forward to snatch at the arrow, he grabbed her by the elbow and spun her around to face the target. He placed the arrow into her hands and adjusted its position. “Allow me to instruct you.”
Chapter Five
The world was staring at them. At least, that was how it felt. Everyone had stopped to ogle the reclusive duke who’d come in all this state to instruct the tradesman’s daughter in archery. It was humiliating, and not the least bit unsettling.
“I shouldn’t be speaking to you, not after you dismissed me so abruptly,” she whispered harshly.
“You’ll excuse my behavior in the library,” he whispered back. “I haven’t the slightest idea how to navigate—” he gestured between them “—this.”
Her heart lurched. “And what is this precisely?”
“Whatever we have between us.”
She pursed her lips. She was still angry with him, to be sure, but as apologies went, it wasn’t too terribly horrid. Indeed it was rather charming in a twisted, misguided sort of way.
She glanced down at her arrow and released a heavy breath. “Well, are you going to show me how to use this, or not?”
With a wicked smile, Somerset—Nicholas—pulled her back snug to his hard chest as he guided her arms into the correct position. The achingly intimate contact made her heart flutter and her breath catch. The warmth of his massive body surrounded her. Indeed, it swallowed her whole. She desperately wanted to stand up on her tiptoes, nestle her nose into the crook of his neck and draw in a long, satisfying breath. He’d smell like happiness.
Happiness?
Good heavens, where had that idea come from?
Pushing that perplexing thought from her mind, she focused her gaze on the target.
He lowered his mouth to her ear and spoke softly. “First, you must relax.” His deep, cultured voice reverberated through her, causing sharp tingles to sweep up her spine. She sucked in a breath, remembering his lips between her thighs, and the sweet, heavenly pleasure they’d evoked. “Feel the tension in the string…”
Oh, she felt the tension all right, but it wasn’t in the string. Every muscle in her body was drawn tight, humming with the vibration of his deep, seductive baritone. Liquid fire licked at her from the inside, pooling deep in her belly, her core, the very center of her.
Shifting, she readjusted her stance and squinted at the target in the distance.
“Align the shaft of the arrow with the center of the target.” His tongue rolled over the words shaft and center seductively, wickedly, leaving her with no doubt of his meaning. “If it’s positioned properly, the arrow will penetrate on the first shot.”
Only he could turn something as mundane as archery into something so wickedly depraved. She shifted again in a vain attempt to relieve the pressure building between her thighs.
“Hold it there, absorb the sensation, and when you feel you are ready, let go.”
Images of his head buried between her legs, licking, teasing, flooded her mind. She imagined his shaft taking the place of his tongue, pumping into her, lifting her to the pinnacle of ecstasy…
Focus, Gabriella! Focus…
She drew the string back tight, released the arrow, and it shot straight to the center of the target.
“We did it!” she cried.
He laughed, his arms still tightened around her. “We are magnificent together.”
At that precise moment, the bell rang for luncheon, robbing her of the opportunity to duplicate her amazing feat. A servant collected her bow, and Nicholas offered his arm to escort her to the picnic that had been set out on the lawn by the lake.
Her blood still hummed from the erotic words he’d whispered in her ear, and she found herself searching for an excuse to be alone with him again.
The picnic was quite intimate, as the guests claimed their spots on the large, yellow blanket that had been laid out. Grapes and strawberries spilled from baskets, and cheese, meat, and bread were arranged in delicious-looking spreads. Gabriella’s stomach grumbled as she sat on the blanket and reached for a plate.