Free The Art of Love: Origins of Sinner's Grove by A.B. Michaels

thick Aubusson carpet. With its mahogany paneling and gold-flocked fleur-de-lis patterned wallpaper, the reception area spoke volumes about the family’s success. The secretary excused herself to tell George that Lia was there to see him, and he followed his assistant back out, a puzzled expression on his face.
    “Lia. Um…darling. To what do I owe the pleasure?”
    Lia was determined to see this through. “George, we need to talk…privately.”
    “Of…of course. Miss Penreddy, please reschedule my eleven o’clock meeting. I’ll be back after lunch.” He took his coat and hat from the hall tree and ushered Lia out the door.
    “You look flustered,” he said with a hint of a smile. “I was thinking it might not be a good thing for you to have a tantrum where everyone could hear you. Shall we walk?” Without waiting for a reply he began strolling down the street.
    Lia nodded, walking quickly to keep pace with his much longer legs. He was long and lean and in very good physical shape. He didn’t seem to have a care in the world, as if it meant nothing to him to marry a woman he didn’t love. It seemed as though men were much better at compartmentalizing things like this than women… or at least me. It was now or never.
    “George, this is completely insane. What are we doing?”
    He didn’t answer immediately, but the tension in his jaw told Lia that he knew precisely what she was talking about. “Let’s dip into the park and find a bench,” he said.
    “Fine. Let’s,” she replied.
    At the end of the block they turned into a small community park which featured a picturesque manmade pond inhabited by a family of ducks. A young woman pushed a stroller along the path circling the pond while her toddler skipped nearby, tossing pieces of bread which didn’t quite make it to the water. Lia and George quickly found a vacant bench. He didn’t waste time on small talk.
    “I assume you mean our marriage,” he said. “Are you having second thoughts?”
    “Second, third, fourth, the thoughts are endless,” Lia told him. “I know my father engineered this ‘arrangement’ and I think I know why. His reasons are both pragmatic and overly sentimental, and he’s adamant about them. But he’s not alone. Even my sister wants us to be together.”
    “She does?” The expression on George’s face gave his heart away, even if Lia hadn’t already known where it lay.
    “George, Emma loves you beyond reason. Still, after all these years, though she tries hard to deny it. I think it takes some of the pain away for her to think you’ve fallen out of love with her—which you and I both know isn’t true.”
    George began a half-hearted protest, but Lia stopped him. “Please. I’m young but I’m not naive…unlike my sister. To the extent she can be, she’s actually happy that the two people she loves most in the world—whom she thinks are the most wonderful people in the universe—have ‘found’ each other. It makes me want to shake her.”
    George sighed, looking out at the deserted pond. “She is a saint,” he said quietly.
    “No, she’s a martyr,” Lia countered. “Do you know what else? She’s actually glad she can’t marry you, because she thinks she’s barren and knows you need to have children.”
    “That is preposterous,” George said.
    “Is it? She’s been married to that hulking husband of hers for over a decade—”
    “Twelve years, four months, and two days,” George clarified.
    “You make my point,” Lia said. “Knowing your father, I can’t imagine this marriage taking place if he didn’t wish it. I don’t understand why he would want it, and I certainly don’t understand why you would go along with it. Why, George?” Lia took her gloved hand and gently turned George’s cheek so that he faced her. The bleak look he bestowed upon her gave her courage to speak the words she needed to say. “I love you, George, but as a brother, not as a woman should love her husband…or