Free Bound to Be a Groom by Megan Mulry Page A

to return to your father’s good graces? Do you not manipulate him in your way? Are not all marriages a mutual manipulation?”
    They kept facing each other. Isabella tilted her head in thought as she twisted her parasol into the ground. “I see what you are saying . . .”
    “But?”
    “But I love Javi, dash it all, and he loves me.”
    “What difference does love make?” Anna asked, irritation trimming her words.
    Isabella let her parasol drop abruptly and grabbed Anna’s upper arm. “Love makes all the difference in the world!”
    The words slammed through her. She knew they were true, but she was so confused. Anna knew she loved Pia, but was it so wrong to merely like Sebastian for now? She had never lied to him about her feelings, after all; she had never misled him with promises of anything more.
    “Something done with love, even something cruel, can be so beautiful,” Isabella continued. “I know you believe that. I saw how you were with Pia.”
    Once again, Isabella’s words cut Anna to the quick and brought back a flood of memories—of Pia in her arms, panting and satisfied from the cruel, beautiful love Anna could bestow upon her. She nearly wept. “Were we so obvious?”
    “Stop it, Anna. No one knew. I knew because I know you . I saw the subtle differences when you two were next to each other at meals or during prayers. You were softer somehow. That is what I mean. If you have no intention of ever giving that to Sebastian, why would you marry him?”
    Anna looked away from her friend’s stern face but didn’t bother wiping at her own slow, hot tears. They burned like a fiery penance. “I am not a good person.”
    “Of course you are!” Isabella reached out and wiped Anna’s tears away. “That’s what I am attempting to convey, you stubborn girl. At least give yourself permission to love him, to learn to love him.”
    Anna huffed out a low laugh. “It’s not at all what I had planned .”
    Isabella’s laughter rang through the gardens. “Ah! The truth comes out. I call them dreams; you call them plans. Much the same, no?” Isabella closed the distance between them. “Please promise me that you will be open to the possibility of loving him?”
    Anna was overcome. Making this particular promise was likely more important than her upcoming wedding vows. Allowing for the possibility—that she could one day love Sebastian—was allowing for so much. It meant that she believed she actually deserved to love him, and even more disarming, that she deserved to be loved in return. She took a breath, but it couldn’t quite fill her lungs around the enormity of what was truly her first leap of faith. “Fine. I promise.”
    Isabella nodded her approval and bent to retrieve her parasol.
    “Satisfied?” Anna quipped, trying to lighten the mood.
    “No,” Isabella replied quickly. “There’s still the other matter.”
    Anna could tell Isabella was back to her mischievous self as they resumed strolling around the gardens. “Which other matter might that be?”
    “So tell me.”
    “Tell you what?”
    “Tell me . . . how in the world you got Sebastian to agree to letting you keep your relationship with Pia.”
    “Isabella!”
    “What? You don’t think I’ve asked Javi?” Isabella smiled.
    “No!”
    “Well, I did. I thought it might be fun, for variety’s sake, mind you. Nothing serious, of course!”
    Anna nodded slowly, knowing perfectly well what the possessive Javi’s response to that must have been, but she played along. “And?”
    “Never! He said he would never let another person in our bed. Man or woman. He was furious I’d suggested it.” She winked. “As wicked as he is in other ways, I thought he’d see it as a bit of lark.” Isabella shrugged.
    “And then that was the end of it?”
    “Hardly. He punished me for days for even broaching the subject.” Anna was momentarily concerned until Isabella smiled again. “So we were both happy.”
    Anna laughed.
    “So?”