“No kissing, pet.” He picked up the bottle of red to distract himself. “More wine?”
She stuck out her glass. “Please.”
“Why won’t you kiss?” Abigail asked.
“A man doesn’t go around kissing ladies.”Follow your own direction, man.
“Why not?”
“It’s against the rules.”
We’re breaking all the rules, aren’t we?
He inwardly cursed.
“But I like kissing,” Abigail said.
That sobered him instantly. “Who are you kissing?”
Abigail pursed her lips. “You, Papa. Miss Green, Miss Lockhart, and Miss Trumpet.”
Deerhurst calmed. “That’s fine. So long as you don’t kiss any males other than me.”
“Forever?”
Deerhurst shot a look at Phaedra.A little help?
Phaedra laughed but said nothing.
He had no choice but to say, “One day when you marry, you can kiss your husband.Onlythen.”
“Your father is right,” Phaedra said. “You shouldneverkiss a man until you are married.”
Why did it feel that was directed at him?
“Do you want to know why?” Phaedra asked Abigail, who nodded eagerly. “Well, that’s because any man who wants to kiss you before marriage is a scoundrel, little one. Every last one of them.”
He was doomed.
Doomed.
Chapter Fifteen
Phaedra paced thelength of the room, unable to sleep. She wasn’t usually prone to pacing, but in this instance, it was necessary since she had to hold back from racing over to his house and finding the man responsible for her restlessness and throwing herself into his arms and absorbing every bit of warmth and care he had to offer.
Pacing or racing.
Those were her options.
“Do not look at me like that,” Phaedra said to Puck, who lay curled up at the foot of the bed, staring at her as though he knew her strength was waning. “This is all your fault, you know.”
She liked Deerhurst.
And was it any wonder?
They were much alike, the two of them. They both had reservations about the opposite sex. Both had good reasons. Yet today, a major obstacle had shifted for them. He’d practically told her he found her worthy of his daughter. And she... well she had fought to prove herself worthy.
Yet a sliver of doubt remained.
