Free Storm on the Horizon (Fated For Love) by Ella J. Quince

know. From the time I was a small girl, you have been everything I think a man should be. I’m in love with you, Colton, desperately. I want you to see me not as that young girl but as a woman. I am a woman now, and I want to be with you.” By the time she was done with her confession, her hands were shaking so badly she tucked them under her skirt.
    “ Livie... I can’t give you what you want.” His voice choked. He was stunned beyond words. It was everything he wanted to hear, and yet it was painful to know. How was he supposed to respond to such a declaration when he couldn’t say what he wanted to say? The only thing he could say would hurt her tremendously, and yet it was his only option.
    “ Why?” She said in anguish.
    “ You deserve so much more than me, Livie. I could never give you what you need.”
    Olivia turned away. She had opened herself to him , and she had been denied. Her heart was an open burning wound, but she would not cry in front of him. “Please leave. I need to be alone.”
    His feet felt heavy as he turned to leave. He entered his small cabin and closed the door. Le aning against it, he closed his eyes. He thought keeping his distance from her was the hardest thing he had ever done, but this was so much worse. She had said she loved him and wanted him, and he turned his back on her.

Ch apter 7
    For the next two days, Olivia pretended to blend into the wood. She saw Colton rarely. Willy was kept away as well, except when he brought her meals at morning, lunch, and dinner. In the afternoons, he would escort her on deck, show her around the main deck, and then back into the cabin she went. Most of the time she stared at the horizon, napped, and then when she couldn’t stand the tedium any longer, she rifled through Colton’s desk drawers and found a book to read. Willy, God bless his soul, gave her some paper and a pencil after asking if she liked to draw. Olivia was not a proficient artist, but it was something to do, something to keep her hands and mind busy instead of thinking about Devon… or worse, thinking about Colton. She preferred to be alone now.
    When Willy had come to take her plates that evening, he told her they were making good time and should reach Amsterdam in another day. Good. The sooner they found Devon, the sooner they would return to England, and Olivia could begin her life anew as a spinster. Becoming a companion to an eccentric woman up north sounded positively lovely now. After this final humiliation, she no longer cared about returning to society. What did town life have to offer her? Even seeing her friends sounded awful. Seeing Lilly happily married would be agonizing, and Lydia... well, she didn’t know what was going on with Lydia. Her only companion now was time. It moved steadily on and brought the end of this foolish voyage closer.
    The day wore on and with it, the sea became rougher, the sky darkened as it was consumed by the black clouds, and the sounds of the ship were drowned out by the crash of waves against the hull and the roaring wind. Olivia was reading by the light of an oil lamp when the patter of rain on the windows startled her. The ship rose and fell in varying degrees, and every so often, she had to train her eyes on the horizon to maintain her equilibrium, but the longer it continued the harder it became. Her stomach began to rise and drop with the ship until Olivia gave up on reading and stared solemnly out the window.
    She gave up staring out the window when she could no longer see the horizon. Praying sleep would come, she climbed into Colton ’s bed shortly after Willy took her dinner tray, and let the rain lull her. The rocking of the ship had eased somewhat and was actually quite soothing as she lay there and tried not to think of Colton. Instead, she thought of Devon and of what she would say to him when she saw him. She hoped she would find him well, so that she could blister his ears all the way back home.
    When morning dawned, the