Free Forbidden Love by Karen Robards

didn’t notice it.
    With that small point cleared up, after having been once again assured that he truly wanted her company, Megan had no hesitation about sharing his supper. She munched companionably, if inelegantly, on a chicken leg, using it to gesture as she talked while Justin ate with a little more decorum and watched her with amusement. With grease rimming her mouth and her eyes sparkling merrily, she looked absurdly young; Justin had no difficulty at all in recognizing the mop-haired, dirty-faced urchin of twelve years before beneath the surface loveliness of the young woman. He encouraged her to state her views on everything from educating females to the world situation, and found to his pleasure that she was as intelligent as she was beautiful. Her views were rather naive, colored noticeably by both her youth and sex, but they were perceptive for all that. Justin marveled at the thought that he had had such a creature under his care for a dozen years and done almost nothing about it. He should have made her acquaintance long before now, instead of waiting until she was nearly grown up. Besides allthe other advantages, it would have made his present situation so much easier.
    Over the next several days, Megan blossomed under Justin’s attention. He was obviously growing fond of her, and the knowledge brought a pretty flush to her cheeks, a sparkle to her eyes. For herself, she thought he was the most magnificent man she had ever known—not that she had known many. The rector who conducted services at the school every Sunday, and the fathers and brothers of her schoolmates, were about all she knew about the opposite sex. But Justin was everything she had ever dreamed a man should be: kind and funny, tender and strong all at the same time. The fact that he was so handsome made it even better. Megan knew that he was quite old, thirty-six he said, which sounded like a great age to her. But when he was laughing and teasing her he didn’t seem much older than she was herself. Megan knew she was fortunate to have such a man for her guardian. If she had been ordering one made to measure, she wouldn’t have changed a thing about him.
    She spent a great portion of the day with him, playing cards, reading to him, although he was perfectly capable of reading to himself. He liked the sound of her voice, he said. They talked. She would have spent even more time with him if he had not insisted that she get out in the fresh air for several hours each day. He told her sternly that her chatter tired him; that he needed to rest, so would she please go away and leave him in peace for a bit. Megan knew that he had nointention of resting while she was gone, and suspected that he actually missed her, because he always seemed pleased to see her when she got back.
    Justin found Megan both a delight and a torment. Her unself-conscious beauty attracted him more every day, and it took a great deal of control to keep in mind that she was his ward. Quite apart from the appeal she made to his senses, he found himself liking her very much. She seemed a precocious child one moment, a wise old granny the next. Her way of thinking amused and intrigued him, and he found the smallest things about her, from the dimple that appeared in her cheek when she smiled at him to the husky, three-noted sound of her laugh, ever fascinating. All too clearly he realized that he was being drawn into treacherous waters with each day that passed. But he was confident that his self-control would prove more than a match for the unwelcome stirrings of his body. Besides, the only way to be totally safe from temptation was to remove it firmly from his vicinity; and, chained by his leg to the bed, he saw no easy way of getting Megan out of his life. To tell the truth, he didn’t even want to, although he knew that when he was well again, it was the only responsible course of action to take. If she was dead set against school, then he would not force her to return,