Three Kisses Before Christmas by Wilde, Tanya (epub e ink reader txt) 📕

“It’s also impolite—”

“To tease you?”

“About topics such as the one you are teasing about, yes,” he all but growled.

“Are you truly going to leave me in the dark about its meaning?”

“Yes.”

“You are no fun.” Rebecca pouted. “I thought we would be able to speak about such things.”

“Not that.”

“Very well. You have no topics you wish to tease me about?”

He swiveled, and Rebecca nearly stepped into his chest. She stopped in time and craned her neck to stare up at him. Lawd, had he always been this tall?

His gaze delved into hers as he asked, “Are you in love with Langley?”

Startled, Rebecca took a step back. “Why would you ask me that?”

“Can we not speak about such things?” he tossed back at her, brows raised.

She had said that. But they had never spoken about Langley before. Not once. His question was thoroughly disorientating. Did Wolfstan know about her childhood infatuation? First Caroline and now him. Who next? Mason?

Heat colored her cheeks and she looked away. “Love is a strong word.”

“It’s a simple word,” Wolfstan countered. “A simple feeling.”

Rebecca shook her head and stepped around him, resuming the walk back to the manor. “Says the man who has never been in love.”

“Have you ever been in love?”

Why was he harping on the subject? More pressingly, why did she not want to answer? Because she had never been in love? She’d been smitten with Langley yes, but could that be considered love?

Wolfstan seemed to wait for her answer, his gaze flicking at her every few seconds. She had no response for him. Could he be teasing her? He would not be aware of her inner conflict. So Rebecca offered him what she hoped to be a playful smile. “My heart is captured daily by the sunrise.”

He said nothing.

Not even a smile.

Lame, Rebecca. “I’m afraid my poor teasing has quite affected your mood.”

“It has not.”

Rebecca sent him a skeptical glance. He looked tense. Troubled. “You must be worried for Sergeant.”

“He will not have wandered off far. I’ll send a groom after him.”

Rebecca nodded and quickened her pace. The silence that stretched was suddenly awkward. An invisible chasm erected out of poorly considered teasing, she thought. But where had their banter gone wrong? His wild oats, whatever that meant? Langley? Lawd, the rod remark?

She frowned at him.

Something unsettling weighed on Wolfstan’s mind. Something that troubled him greatly. What could it possibly be? Rebecca wondered if he would confide in her if she asked. She wondered if she wanted to know at all.

Chapter 3

Wolfstan’s breath knocked back into his lungs the moment he followed Rebecca into the parlor. Life had a way of punching a man in the gut when he least expected the blow.

Langley’s easy grin infused a swift depth of fear into the beat of Wolfstan’s heart. This ungodly emotion was accompanied by a flash of annoyance at the vermillion flush that crept up Rebecca’s cheeks.

What the bloody hell was Langley doing here?

Lonsdale.

That bloody clodpole. He had approached Langley after all. What sort of friend did that?

The sort that is not aware you are pining after his sister. The bitter thought coated dirt in Wolfstan’s mouth.

“Is this not a splendid surprise,” Caroline announced. “Langley has come to pay a visit.”

“Caro,” Rebecca chastised. “You are supposed to be resting in bed.”

“And you are supposed to be keeping me company. Luckily, Langley came to fill your role. Are you not pleased?”

Wolfstan narrowed his eyes on Caroline.

“Lady Rebecca,” Langley spoke up with a broad smile. “You grow lovelier by the day.”

Wolfstan wanted to cast up his accounts.

“My lord,” Rebecca greeted. “This truly is an unexpected surprise.”

“Cousin,” Wolfstan interrupted before Rebecca started to stutter. “What brings you to Westbridge Park?” To his knowledge, Langley had never visited without Wolfstan before.

Rebecca sent him a look that blazed with curiosity. Dammit, he did not mean to be rude. His intention had been to be sickeningly sweet. Tell that, however, to his tongue. What passed his lips hadn’t quite caught up with his head.

Langley, on the other hand, seemed oblivious to the bite in Wolfstan’s tone, for his smile only widened as he grinned down at Rebecca. Wolfstan’s Rebecca.

“I heard you were here, as a matter of fact,” Langley answered Wolfstan. His cousin met his gaze. “Last we spoke you were not attending the festivities. I am pleased to find you decided otherwise.”

He had told Langley about his plans? He must have been bloody foxed.

“I changed my mind.”

“Splendid,” Caroline said with a clap of her hands. “Now that we are all here, shall we take tea in the drawing room?”

That was the last thing Wolfstan wanted to do. Tea with Rebecca and Langley. He could not think of a worse way to spend his time, but he dutifully nodded. Again, his intentions were abundantly clear. In his head. What rolled off his tongue, however, was, “A word, Rebecca, if you please.”

Three sets of quizzical eyes turned to him. He said nothing, could reveal nothing else, merely waited for her answer. If she refused . . . Wolfstan did not dwell on the thought. Already he wanted to pitch her over his shoulder and stride out the door, the way he was feeling right then. He did not want to spend the next hour watching Rebecca blush at every word on Langley’s lips.

She searched his face. He kept his features as blank as possible but emotion vibrated inside of him. He refused to let even an ounce show. Not with an audience. Not until he had probed Rebecca for a reaction. The uncertainty of whether she would be receptive towards his feelings scared the bloody hell out of him. But he could not let fear rule his actions. To the devil with fear.

Finally, she nodded.

Christ, that had been brutal.

“We shall join you shortly,” she told Caroline and Langley, who nodded and left for the drawing room. Her eyes lifted to his. “What do you wish to discuss?”

Lord Almighty, so he was doing this. In the hallway. Better than not