Read Protecting Peggy for Free Online

head, gave the women a grateful smile. “Ladies, would you please escort Mr.O’Connell into the dining room? I’ll have breakfast ready in just a few minutes.”
    O’Connell limped across the foyer between the two women, their bracelets clanking as they each patted one of his arms. Murmuring their sympathies, they steered O’Connell down the hallway that led to the dining room.
    Peggy gave Samantha a hug, then settled on the bottom step. “Sweetheart, why don’t you take Bugs to your room? While you’re at preschool, I’ll see if I can sew him back together.”
    â€œCan you fix him, Momma?” Voice hitching, Samantha stared at her through swollen, tearful eyes. “Can you really fix him?”
    Cupping the small, tearstained face in her hands, Peggy placed a light kiss on her daughter’s trembling lips. “I can try.”
    â€œOkay.” Samantha bent and gathered up the bunny’s head. Snuggling it and the fuzzy, pink body against her chest, she headed toward the hallway.
    Peggy shook her head. “Dear Lord, give me strength.”
    Chuckling softly, Rory offered his hand. “All this before breakfast. Are things always this eventful around Honeywell House?”
    She hesitated an instant before sliding her hand into his. His flesh felt warm and firm against hers as he helped her to her feet.
    â€œNo, thank goodness.” Because his fingers had tangled with hers, she took a step back, disengaging her hand from his. “Usually things are on the sedate side.” She flicked a look toward the hallway in whichO’Connell had disappeared. “I appreciate you stepping in. I doubt I would have been quite so tactful.”
    â€œA lioness defending her cub doesn’t worry about tact.”
    Peggy pulled in a deep breath. “No, she doesn’t. Samantha comes first with me.”
    â€œThat’s the way things should be.”
    Peggy knew she had guests waiting for their breakfast, knew she needed to get to the kitchen. Still, she lingered inches from him, the spicy male tang of his cologne pervading her lungs.
    â€œWhen Samantha showed you the picture she drew, I wondered how on earth you guessed it was a bunny. You knew because you saw Bugs at the top of the stairs.”
    â€œThe rabbit and the picture are both hot pink.” He shrugged. “I made a wild guess.”
    â€œAn accurate one.” She smiled as she fingered a wayward wisp of hair off her cheek. “Thank you again for defusing what might have turned into an even more unpleasant situation, Mr. Sinclair. If you’ll join the other guests in the dining room for coffee, I’ll see to breakfast.”
    â€œYou’re always so polite while you’re trying to get rid of me.” He smiled, a slow curving of the lips that gave his strong-featured face a devastating appeal. “What’s it going to take for you to call me Rory?”
    She slid her tongue along her bottom lip. She didn’t want to picture herself in his arms, breathing his name against his heated flesh, but she did. “I think…” Her voice hitched, and she cleared her throat. “It wouldbe wise for us to keep things between us on a business level, Mr. Sinclair.”
    He said nothing for a moment, just stared down at her with those off-the-chart blue eyes until she had to fight the urge to squirm.
    â€œYou’re right, Ireland,” he said softly. “That would probably be the wise thing to do.”

Three
    H is appetite sated from a breakfast of melt-in-the-mouth pecan pancakes and apple cinnamon sausage, Rory stood in the gravel parking lot that bordered Honeywell House, a hip leaned against the front fender of his rental car. For the past hour he’d been telling himself that he couldn’t argue with what Peggy had said before she left him in the foyer. Keeping their dealings on a business level would be wise.
    He just wasn’t sure that wise