Page 15 of Tempted By her Daddies

“We need to clean your hands,” he told her.

“Oh, no, they’ll be fine.”

“They will not be fine. They could get infected.” He glanced around as though he somehow expected a first aid kit to appear. “You need to come with me.”

He stood and braced himself before he helped her up by holding her wrists rather than irritate the scrapes on her hands. She was so light that it was concerning. Should it be so easy to lift her?

He let go of her and she wobbled. Those things were far too dangerous!

“You should take lessons before undertaking a new sport,” he informed her.

“Is roller skating a sport?” she queried.

“I believe so. I shall investigate it. Now, where are your shoes?”

“Uh, in my backpack.”

“Right.” He should have asked her that before he’d gotten her back up on her roller skates. Looking around, he saw a bench not too far away under the shade of a large tree. That would be better than sitting her down on the ground.

But how to get her there?

Hmm. Could she make it that far on her own?

It would be gentlemanly to offer to help her.

As a child, he’d had an instructor teach him etiquette and manners as befitting his station. He nearly rolled his eyes as he remembered the woman using those exact words.

His station. Being born to his family had very few benefits and a huge number of issues. Certainly, he had plenty of money. That he mostly gave away to charities.

There had also been a lot of expectations on him. Most of which, he’d failed to live up to.

His family had written him off as eccentric and not the good sort of eccentric.

The weird, annoying sort that you wished you could forget existed.

They certainly had.

Roman pushed those thoughts aside.

His tutor had drilled manners into him for most scenarios. But carrying an injured woman wasn’t one of those situations. And he hadn’t paid a lot of attention to those lessons anyway.

Something that had driven his mother up the wall.

“Urgh, what are you doing?”

He suddenly realized he was miming out the action of picking her up.

That was weird, wasn’t it?

Well, it definitely wasn’t something that most people did.

He was going slightly bonkers. There was no other explanation for it.

Roman cleared his throat. “Might I, uh, put my arm around you and escort you to the bench?”

“I . . . you’re going to help me to the bench?” she asked, sounding amazed.

Was that not what he’d just said?

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