A Fiery Dalliance

XLI

"It is not about finding the right person. People are not that right. Even if they start out right, we soon have a litany of complaints. The only answer is to be the right person ourselves. Then everything will tend to work together in a good way." Donna Goddard, Circles of Separation

----

XLI.              

Joe could see the sincerity in Perrie's beautiful blue eyes as she said the words. She loved him. Despite all she knew, she still chose him.

There was a part of Joe's mind that he could deny that accused him of selfishness. How could he take her heart when he did not yet deserve her? But the word Joe forced himself to focus on was yet. He would not walk away from her. He could not walk away from her. Joe knew that he would do whatever it took to deserve Perrie Beresford.

You love her beyond reason. You already deserve her.

A new voice sounded inside of his mind that felt foreign, and very sudden. But the echo of doubt became simply that. An echo. It would certainly reverberate off of the walls of his brain from time to time, but he could not let it eclipse this.

"Tell me what it is you are thinking," Perrie whispered, her face so close to his that her breath brushed over his lips.

"I am thinking that I deserve you," Joe replied, just as softly.

Perrie smiled. Her smile was as bright as the morning sunshine, a smile of pure happiness. "Good. You do." She closed the small distance that remained between them and she kissed him.

Their one shared kiss at the ball had been a feverish impulse on Joe's behalf. It had been done disrespectfully and inappropriately, and it had truthfully only added to his own conviction that Perrie was far beyond him.

But as he held Perrie in his arms, her small figure wrapped around him, Joe felt with every breath in his being that this was right. Perrie was good. Infuriating, but good, and she made him good.

Joe lost himself in that moment. The only thing that he had any desire to focus on was the feeling of Perrie's lips firmly against his has her small fingers knotted themselves in his hair.

They were only parted when the someone rather aggressively cleared their throat nearby.

The sudden interruption caused Perrie to leap away from Joe, and the instinct that filled him suddenly to pull her back into his arms was great indeed. But the source of the sound was made clear moments later when Adam stood in the doorway of the drawing room with his arms folded across his chest and a stern expression of disapproval on his face.

An all too familiar fear began to flood Joe's system. He dreaded to disappoint Adam.

The duke left you alone with his daughter. He knows that you love her. He approves of you.

Joe's nerves were on edge as he tried to soothe himself, but Perrie had other plans.

"Joe had a toothache, Papa!" Perrie cried suddenly. "Nasty, horrid thing. We might need to summon a doctor to extract it. I tried to get a look at it, but it is rather challenging to see in this light."

"I imagine it would be rather challenging to see Joe's toothache with your eyes closed, Peregrine," Adam agreed in an entirely unhumorous tone.

Perrie suddenly shoved her elbow into Joe's ribs, to which he exclaimed, "Ow!"

"You see! He is in awful pain, Papa!" Perrie insisted.

It was as though Adam's mask fell away as he could not help but snicker, a smirk etching itself onto his face. He shook his head as he rolled his eyes, murmuring, "I always thought that your mother and I had named you two girls around the wrong way. You are your grandmother in so many ways. But your quick wit at times, my girl, is so like my father."