Free Flowers for My Love by Katrina Britt

sister was in love with him as she suspected then how would she react to a friendship that would only result in marriage breaking up the family?
    Cheryl might easily marry Rex on the rebound, and what kind of a marriage would that be? Her hands were clasped tightly in her lap and she gazed down on them helplessly.
    They would be tied if she married. Right now they were free.
    ‘I don’t want you to tell me anything. I want to go on as I’ve been doing until I see this thing through,’ she murmured stonily.
    ‘But it might take years—years that you could never recall to enrich your own life. You need a husband and children. Are you going to deny yourself the things that matter to a woman?
    Are you always going to be on the outside looking in on other people’s happiness?’
    The eyes she lifted to his were clear and resigned.
    ‘If that’s how it has to be, yes. I don’t think it will, though. I think if you do what you think to be the right thing something comes for you.’
    He laughed then groaned. ‘My sweet, what am I to do with you? I could be that certain something that has come to you.
    I’m going to see you whether you want it or not. You’re going to have me around for a very long time, but I might as well tell you that I’m not a very patient man when I want something very much.’
    He bent to kiss the tip of her nose. ‘I asked you to a sandwich lunch because this evening you’re going out with me to a party.’ His eyes had steely glints in them at the shake of her head, and he went on, ‘I shall call for you at seven o’clock—and you’d better be ready.’
    He started the car, muttered something unprintable under his breath as a motorist travelling at an excessive speed came too far over the layby to miss them by inches, and drove on.
    One thing that Davina had discovered about Nick was the fact that he never sulked. Soon he was talking about things he knew would interest her, funny incidents on his travels abroad, of which there were many.
    Soon he had her laughing helplessly, unaware of him getting under her guard. Wiping tears of mirth from her eyes, it had almost been her undoing as she cried weakly, ‘Oh, Nick, I ...’
    She had been on the verge of saying, I love you, and stopped in time.
    ‘Yes?’ he prompted. ‘Finish what you were going to say.’
    ‘It ... er ... it was nothing important,’ she stammered, thankful that he did not take his eyes from the road to see her telltale blush.
    ‘Don’t forget. Seven this evening.’
    Those were his last words when he dropped her off at the flat over the shop. Cheryl had not come back when Davina washed and dressed to go out with Nick that evening. Being on her own had given her time to look at things in their true perspective.
    She could manage without Nick, but if she did then she had to come to terms with this terrible feeling of being isolated not only from her small family but from everything else. Like Nick had said, being an onlooker while other people lived.
    Dear Nick! He was everything she wanted in a man—
    exciting, witty, dashing, daring with a wonderfully built body which made her feel weak with primitive needs which frightened her.

    Her decision to go out with him again brought its own difficulties of how she was going to keep him in check. He was a virile and full-blooded man who could, no doubt, discipline his own desires up to a certain point.
    Davina had a bath, slipped on fine underwear and a dress utterly feminine in its swirl of frothy elegance. Her newly washed hair was fragrant and soft as silk. The glow on the creamy delicate skin of her face had a radiance inspired by thoughts of seeing Nick.
    She was ready when he called, tripping out to him with a wrap around her slenderness that gave her an
    ethereal look.

    Tall, rangy with an impression of curly fair hair, and grey eyes that stared right through her, Nick,
    heartbreakingly handsome in evening dress, helped her into the car.
    It took her an age to