Free Passion Follows Pain (Passion Series Book 3) by J. A Melville

to see what’s inside than you are.” She said and I looked up into Daisy’s enthusiastic face.
    I couldn’t help but smile at her expression. “Ok, but I’ll take it through to the living room. I need room to open it. It’s a big box.”
    I led the way while Daisy followed on her crutches and when we reached the living room, with me moving slowly so the other woman could keep up with me, I placed the box down on the dining table and carefully removed the lid. Layer upon layer of tissue paper greeted me when I looked inside and as I picked up the small card that lay on top of it, I saw Daisy come over for a closer look.
    I slipped the card from the tiny envelope and read it, gasping at the words.
     
    Arissa,
    A lady as beautiful as you should be dressed in the finest clothes. Please accept this gift and do me the greatest honour of not only wearing everything that is in this box but of accompanying me on Saturday night.
    Yours,
    Lucian. xx
     
    I stared at the card, my eyes wide. If that was Lucian’s handwriting, he wrote beautifully for a man. As I absorbed his words, I felt a mixture of both happiness and uneasiness. This man was obviously prepared to go to extreme lengths to get me to agree to go out with him. The trouble was, what would he expect from me?
    “My goodness Arissa, you’re going to be the death of me. Are you ever going to look in the box or spend all day staring at the card?”
    I started slightly at the sound of Daisy’s voice. With the distraction of Lucian’s gift, I’d forgotten about her presence momentarily. I smiled at her and put the card down before slowly peeling back the layers of tissue paper and when the fabric of a folded garment was revealed to me, I reached in and slowly pulled out the most beautiful dress I’d ever seen.
    It was blue, a blue deeper than the summer sky, in a material that seemed to shimmer when I moved it in my hands. The neckline was rounded and fairly modest from what I could tell without trying it on. It looked quite small, potentially tight fitting and short. My god, I couldn’t wear something like this, father would be so….
    I cut my thoughts off at that point. Why did I do that? I’d run from him, determined not to endure more years of his constant abuse and I was still letting him influence me. Was it so wrong of me to think the dress was pretty? I wouldn’t be wearing it as I wasn’t going to go out with Lucian but I could still admire it.
    “Oh baby girl. Look at it. It’s beautiful, but come on, what else is in that big box?”
    I carefully laid the dress out on the table and dug through more of the tissue paper, uncovering a pair of shoes that were almost a perfect match in colour to the dress, with heels higher than anything I’d ever worn in my life. How could he buy me shoes? He wouldn’t know my size although they did look like they would fit all the same.
    “What gorgeous shoes. Oh to be able to wear shoes like that again. Sadly, aside from this.” Daisy pointed to her broken leg. “I’m too old to wear something like that anymore and no man to take me out either for that matter.”
    I placed the shoes down by the dress and lifted more tissue paper out of the way, revealing a small purse, or was it a handbag? I wasn’t sure; it was so small, just big enough to fit in my hand and not much beyond that.
    “What is it? Is it a handbag?” I asked and Daisy shook her head.
    “It is sort of, but it’s called a clutch purse. One of those items women own that looks pretty but unfortunately is completely useless. They hold bugger all but you wouldn’t need much anyway.”
    I put the clutch purse with the other items and went back to searching through the tissue paper. The last things I found tucked away inside were earrings and a beautiful necklace in silver that had a butterfly hanging from it. It appeared to be made from diamonds and sapphires but they would have just been coloured bits of glass I knew. No way would Lucian have given