Free If Ever I Loved You by Phyllis Halldorson

over
with."
    Peter frowned as he glanced at Twyla, then apparently
decided to ignore her as he turned back to look at Gina. "I arrived at
my office a little late this morning and found a man there waiting to
serve me with divorce papers," he said angrily. "I told you I'd fight
an annulment."
    "I didn't file for annulment," she answered grimly. "I
filed for dissolution."
    His eyes were as cold as blue ice. "Did you really think
I'd give you a divorce after I'd refused to consent to an annulment?"
    The swift jab of his words landed in the pit of her
stomach, and she gasped and bent forward slightly as though to protect
herself from another attack. "You swine!" she hissed through clenched
teeth. "Why are you doing this? What do you want of me?"
    Peter lounged back in his chair, and the only sign that he
was not totally relaxed was the deepening lines of strain around his
mouth and the pulse that throbbed at his temple. "I want the same thing
any man wants from his wife—a companion, a lover, a mother
for my children."
    Gina jumped to her feet and stared at him. "You're out of
your mind!" she screamed. "Seven years ago you told me you wouldn't
touch me if I were the only woman on earth and then, despite my
pleadings, you walked out on me and I didn't see you again until five
days ago. Now you refuse to terminate the marriage. Why? Surely you're
not going to try to tell me you love me!"
    Peter rose suddenly as though jerked from the chair and
walked away from her. "Love!" he spat out, as though it were a dirty
word. "No, I'm not telling you I love you. You cured me of that
adolescent affliction with one well-placed thrust years ago. But I find
that I'm still physically attracted to you, as you are to me."
    She drew in her breath sharply and he whirled around to
face her. "Oh, don't bother to deny it," he jeered. "Twice now we have
come together and nearly gone up in smoke, both of us, together. You
were just as aroused as I so don't stand there sputtering."
    Gina knew it was true, and her innate sense of honesty
would not allow her to deny it. Instead she turned away from him as he
continued to talk. "I'm thirty-three years old and bored with my life
style. I want to settle down with a wife and start a family, and since
I'm already married to you I see no reason to delay. You're beautiful,
talented, well-educated and sexually exciting, everything I want in a
wife."
    Gina was too stunned to protest. Peter didn't love her,
and he knew she didn't love him, but still he wanted to live with her
as husband and wife. He wanted her to be his housekeeper, his hostess,
his convenient sex partner. He even wanted her to bring children into
that cold, sterile environment! The man was insane! Surely he didn't
really believe that she could live like that.
    She straightened her shoulders and turned to look at him.
"I'm surprised at you, Peter," she said as she strove to sound calm and
a little disdainful. "Are you forgetting the reason why our marriage
never got started? The picture? My so-called promiscuity? As I remember
you called me a wh—"
    "Stop it Gina!" he snapped before she could finish the
coarse word. "I'm not forgetting, I only wish I could, but you had
forced me into marriage on the premise that you were a virgin and too
pure to make love with me until it was legal. When I saw that picture
and realized that all you wanted was my money and social position I
went a little mad."
    His hands clutched the back of the chair he had been
sitting in and she could see the muscles flex in his arms. "I'm older
now," he continued, "and more tolerant of your sexual experience."
    She cringed at the coldness of his words, and her only
thought was to hurt him as he had hurt her. "But aren't you afraid I
might revert to my old ways and take lovers on the side?" she taunted.
    She thought she saw him wince, but if so he checked it
quickly and forced a grin that was more of a grimace. "The thought
never occurred to me. I intend to keep you