“Not just dragging,” Theo said quickly. “If he makes lewd comments you dislike, touches you anywhere unwelcome, acts fresh or forward in any manner at all, slap him with your glove. If you’re still wearing it, even better.”
She nodded. “Understood.”
“Next scenario,” he said. “What do you do if a scoundrel tries to kiss you?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Mostly just stand there until he finishes.”
He stared at her. “Does this happen often? I thought you’d never stood up with a man to dance before.”
“Kissing isn’t dancing,” she pointed out. “Men needn’t write their names upon one’s card in order to steal a kiss.”
“Writing their names upon your card is the very least that—” Theo clenched his fingers about his crutches and tried to slow his pulse. The blackguards in her past were not currently present for Theo to teach a lesson. He started again. “With the right man, you’ll enjoy kissing. With the wrong one, slap him.”
She made a face. “He was definitely the wrong one.”
Theo tried to ignore the flash of relief at the realization that there had been only one such incident before. With Virginia, any of the usual assumptions were out the window. He wanted their first time to be perfect. Theo hadn’t been this nervous about the thought of kissing a girl in twenty years. He didn’t want her to look back on the memory and wrinkle her nose, but to sigh happily.
His heart skipped when he realized this meant he was thinking of their first kiss as a foregone conclusion. As inevitable as the tides, or the waxing of the moon.
“Here we go.” He was glad they had the pretext of “boorish suitor” to protect them. If he kissed her as himself, in the way he truly wanted to… Who knew what would happen?
He closed the distance between them. Their toes were now touching. His lips could be on hers in a heartbeat.
“You’re not wearing a fichu,” he said. “I can look down your bodice from this angle.”
She stared back up at him in silence.
“Slap me,” he whispered. “That was an extremely impolite thing to say.”
“Youcansee down my bodice from that angle,” she said. “Do you like it?”
“I like your bosom from every angle,” he growled. “That’s not the point. The point is—”
Good Lord. He didn’t even have toactto behave poorly.
Her lips curved. “I like how you look from every angle, too.”
“Do not say things like that to a self-important cad,” he warned her. “He’ll think you mean them.”
“I mean it with you.” She peered up at him shyly, then glanced away. “I find you attractive.”
Desire pulsed through Theo’s blood. This lesson was not at all going the way he had planned.
“You are more than attractive.” He could barely fight the craving to kiss her. It was more than the allure of plump red lips and long lashes over bright green eyes. It was Virginia. Everything about her was irresistible. “Scoundrels will be as captivated by you as I am. You must defend yourself.”
“From what?”
“From this.” He lowered his mouth to hers.
It was not a gentle kiss, as Theo might have intended, nor the carnal claiming that haunted his dreams. This was hard and firm and make-believe. Closed mouth to closed mouth. A common blackguard illustrating which one held the power. A kiss like this was not romance. It was a warning.
She didn’t slap him.
As the moment stretched on, Theo found it increasingly difficult to keep up the arrogant, tightlipped pressure of a puffed-up lout. All Theo wanted to do was sink his fingers into Virginia’s hair and kiss her the way she truly deserved to be kissed. He felt his mouth softening despite his best intentions. His lips parting of their own accord.
He jerked his head away before the kiss could turn into something he actually meant.
She immediately slapped him.
