“You want to get down to play, do you?” Maggie teased him while part of her listened to Phillip greeting her aunt. She had guessed he would come see her after what happened that afternoon. She wanted to panic, but that was against her nature.
“May I speak to Elizabeth alone?” she heard Phillip ask.
There was a split-second hesitation before her aunt agreed to the request. “Of course. I was just going to take the garbage out, anyway.”
Maggie had never known her aunt to ask personal questions, and she hadn’t this afternoon when Maggie had dashed to their apartment above the garage. Cathleen hadn’t even delved into the reason Maggie had passed out, except to ask if she felt better. That consideration afforded Maggie the privacy she needed.
“Elizabeth, Dr. Phillip is here to see you.” The influence of the Gordons had prompted her aunt to stop using her given name of Mary Frances. Maggie was beginning to believe that was the name of another person. She looked up to acknowledge the statement and met the level glance of his gray eyes. Then her aunt was gathering the garbage sack to carry it downstairs and leave them alone.
Ty was becoming impatient with Maggie for being so slow in unlatching his high-chair tray and sliding it back. When she lifted him out of the chair, she didn’t put him on the floor as he wanted. Holding him gave her a convenient distraction, an excuse to avoid Phillip’s eyes.
“Elizabeth, I came to apologize for my actions this afternoon,” Phillip said.
“There’s no need,” she denied stiffly while Ty squirmed in her arms.
“I’m afraid there is every need,” he insisted. “I can’t excuse what I did. The only explanation is that I discovered a beautiful woman in my arms and I did what any normal man would do in my place—I kissed her. I never intended to frighten you.”
The last statement made her lift her gaze. She finally looked at him and saw all the things she had been trying not to notice these last seven months. He was handsome and lean, suntanned and vigorous. His hair was the color of steel, but his eyes were a warm gray velvet. Where Chase Calder had been composed of all rough, unfinished edges and aggressively male, Phillip Gordon was the smooth, final product of manhood, suave and charming, always immaculately dressed. A true gentleman.
“You didn’t frighten me.” When Ty started to squeal in anger, she put him on the floor. He crawled hurriedly to his toys in the middle of the living room. Maggie turned to him to finish explaining her answer. “It was me.” She stopped trying to hide her feelings. “You see, I wanted you to kiss me. I wanted you to touch me. More than that.” She grew bolder with returning confidence. “I wanted you to make love to me. I didn’t think a man could make me feel like that again. I didn’t think it would ever be like that.”
“Elizabeth.” He took an involuntary step toward her, desire shining in his eyes. It was there for a fleeting second; then it was gone when he stopped short and shook his head. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”
“Yes, I do, Phillip.” Of her own accord, she dropped the professional title that usually preceded his name when she addressed him.
“You are seventeen and I just turned forty-one. I’m old enough to be your father,” he explained gently.
“I’m not pretending that it’s right to want you to make love to me, but I can’t deny that it’s the way I feel,” she stated, effectively throwing his logic out the window with her counterpoint of the truth.
“It’s only because I’m the most likely male around, and you’re a naturally loving young girl. I’m not going to let you get involved with me. You have too much going for you, Elizabeth.” He stroked a finger across her cheek in a reluctant caress. “You’re intelligent, determined, and ambitious. The last thing you need is an affair with an old man.”
“You aren’t old, Phillip.”
“I suppose you think all this gray hair is just a form of camouflage,” he mocked.
“It makes you look distinguished,” she insisted.
“Which is just another way of saying ‘old.’” He shook his head and smiled. “This fall, when you start college, you’ll be surrounded with lots of handsome young men. You’ll be happier with someone closer to your own age.”
“Like Chase Calder!” Maggie hurled the name, her temper surfacing. “I don’t remember that experience as a happy one.”
“Chase Calder was just one man. You can’t judge all other men by your experience with him. You can only learn from it.”
“Chase was always teaching me something,” she remembered bitterly. “Unfortunately, it was about sex instead of love.”
“You have a lot to learn about a lot of things.”
“And I’m going to learn about everything I can.” From what she had learned so far, Maggie knew there was a great deal that went into making a lady besides fine clothes and fancy homes. There was the whole cultural world to be absorbed. “I want to know about art and music, the theater and the classics. I want to speak other languages fluently and—” She stopped because her list had become endless the more she became exposed to different things. She looked up to see the benevolent twinkle in Phillip’s eyes.
“And you want to travel and see places for yourself.” He perceptively added another item from her long list. “There isn’t room for an old man in your young life. You have too much growing up to do.”
“Phillip—” She attempted a protest.
But he interrupted. “I’m flattered that you find me attractive, Elizabeth. I’m at the age where I would like to kick up my heels and recapture my lost youth with so
meone like you. Please don’t tempt me. I’d like to be spared the indignity of making a fool of myself over you.”
“I would never make you look the fool. I know how that hurts.”