Total pages in book: 184
Estimated words: 188108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 941(@200wpm)___ 752(@250wpm)___ 627(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 188108 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 941(@200wpm)___ 752(@250wpm)___ 627(@300wpm)
Roman rushed over to kneel next to her, being careful not to touch her. “What happened?”
“I don’t know. I was just skating along and then suddenly, I was flying forward. There must have been a pothole or something.”
She glared down at the pavement as though she thought a pothole was going to suddenly appear and suck her down it. Roman glanced around, but it all looked smooth and flat to him.
Hmm.
“You could have seriously injured yourself,” he scolded her. “This is why you need to wear safety gear. How long have you been roller skating for?”
He ran his gaze over her, his frown deepening as he took in the scrapes on her knees. They weren’t bad but one of them was bleeding. She was holding her palms toward her chest, so he couldn’t see if she’d scraped them too.
“About twenty minutes.”
“No, I mean, how much experience do you have? How long have you been roller skating in general?”
“Twenty minutes,” she repeated, sounding sheepish.
Disbelief filled him. “You only started roller skating twenty minutes ago? And you didn’t think that safety gear was a necessity? Do you know that you could have landed on your head and cracked it? Do you want a concussion? To get hurt?” he demanded in a stern voice.
She was silent, her mouth slightly open as she stared at him in shock. He’d surprised himself too. He didn’t think he’d ever sounded stern in his life.
“I, uh, I don’t think anyone ever wants a concussion, right? And I did get hurt. Look.”
Her lower lip wobbled as she held out her hands for him to look at.
It was the lip wobble that did it.
How could he stay upset at her when her lip wobbled? It was impossible. Then he caught sight of her wounds.
“Oh, you poor love,” he murmured. “Look at your hands.”
They were scraped raw. It was a wonder she wasn’t in tears. Any thought of scolding her flew from his head.
“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?
“Yes. I don’t want you to keep skating and risk harming yourself further.”
“Well, I guess that would be all right.”
He couldn’t work out her accent. It was like she didn’t have one, which was bizarre.
Moving slowly, he placed his arm around her waist.
Why did she smell so good? He didn’t expect that.
Vanilla and something . . . what was it?
“What scent are you wearing?” he asked.
She stiffened slightly. “Oh, um, it’s just some cheap stuff. It’s vanilla and macadamia oil. Does it not smell good?”