Free Reinventing Jane Porter by Dominique Adair Page A

ground looking for her shoes. “It could be that you weren’t terribly memorable.”
    “You always had a smart mouth.” He laughed. “It will be my pleasure to curb you of that tendency.”
    “Peter, you can’t do a damned thing where I’m concerned.” Locating one shoe, she snatched it up.
    Where the hell was the other one?
    “That’s where you’re wrong.”
    A metallic click sounded, and Jane froze.

    www.samhainpublishing.com 47

Chapter Six
    “The first time I saw you I thought you were the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen.”
    Lily started when Jean Jacques’ voice intruded upon her moping. After leaving Robert she’d snuck up to the third floor to grab a few minutes alone. Only the few minutes had stretched into hours and she felt no better now than when she’d sat down.
    Crushing a tear-stained tissue in her fist, she turned. He stood in the center of the solarium less than ten feet away. His shoes were gone, and his clothing looked as if he’d been rolling on the floor. His hair stood on end as if he’d been running his fingers through it. Even disheveled and unhappy, he was still the most handsome man she’d ever seen.
    “You wore a white dress with yellow trim, a giant hat with flowers and a pair of heels so high I didn’t see how you could walk.” His smile was sad. “While you’re not very big you threw me for a loop.”
    “I remember that outfit. It was Kitten’s first garden party, and all the ladies wore hats.” She frowned.
    “But I don’t remember you being there.”
    “You never saw me.” He shrugged. “I watched you all afternoon from this very window. Even in those shoes you still ran from one end of the grounds to the other, and you didn’t fall once.”
    She laughed though her eyes started to sting.
    “I think I fell in love with you that day.” He looked away. “And it’s been torture ever since.”
    A tear slid down her cheek.
    “I fell in love with you when I was a child, well, the idea of you.” Lily turned to stare unseeingly out the windows. “I would dream of a handsome prince who would see me from across a room and fall in love with me. We’d steal away to his ancestral home and his family would welcome me like one of their own.
    On the eve of our wedding we’d learn I was the kidnapped daughter of a foreign king and royal in my own right.”
    “What happened then?”
    “We’d be deliriously happy every day of our lives.” She laid her hand against the glass. Lights in the garden danced as tears blurred her vision. “I spent hours dreaming up the names of our children.”
    “That’s a wonderful dream.” His voice was husky. “Do you think it could still come true?”
    “No, but it was a good dream for as long as it lasted.” Turning away from the window, she shrugged.
    “When I hit puberty and realized I’d inherited my mother’s ass and she had her mother’s ass, there was no mistaking that I was a Tyler.”
    Educating Jane Porter
    “And you no longer believe in dreams?”
    “Not for me. I’m firmly rooted in the reality of my everyday life.”
    “Well, I still believe dreams can come true.”
    Their gazes met, and she saw her sadness reflected in his eyes. Lily had no doubt he saw the same in hers. Pain lanced her heart.
    “This was a mistake, Jean Jacques. You and I, together? We were doomed from the start.”
    Even as the words were said, she wanted to snatch them back. Their pride had created a chasm, which she didn’t have any idea how to heal. Jean Jacques was a man used to leading others, and her mother always accused her of being too independent for her own good.
    Their lives together would be nothing but power struggles and heartache, a situation she’d already lived through. Her parents had loved and fought their way through eighteen years of marriage and by the time they had separated they were shells of the people they once were.
    “You little liar.” He began to laugh. “I can’t believe you said that without