Free Dare To Love by Trisha Fuentes Page B

and allowed their friendship to grow
naturally. So many years wasted on yearning for an alliance that
would never resume. He longed to find similar rapport he was
obligated to let go and escorted Katrina to several parties
throughout the summer. He soon found out that he needed her by his
side every moment of the day and plagued Katrina to the physical.
Making her his mistress was not complex; she was a welcome
participant, her body gratifying his void, her giggle melting his
anxiety. Meeting her at clandestine hours, Katrina had been a
breath of fresh air, his safe-haven and his confidant for the past
several months. Her solace, so welcoming, alleviated the loneliness
he seemed to seat within his heart. Her smiles, so lovely, like
medicine for his shattered soul; he finally felt released from his
misery and asked his mistress to marry him.
     
    “Can I have a moment alone with her Amy? You
need not go very far.”
     
    Amy grabbed hold of Thomas’ seriousness.
“Certainly.”
     
    Thomas waited until Amy was mid-way around
the pond until he began to speak. “Ready for the shock of your
life?” Thomas quipped, trying to lighten up the severity of the
situation.
     
    Katrina gazed up at her fiancé keenly
grinning down at her. “You are still married,” she said in a
portentous tone.
     
    “But not for long,” he stated, kneeling down
next to her. “Your brilliant brother is working on freeing me as we
speak.”
     
    Katrina smiled, and then eyed the ducks
waddling on the far end of the lake. “Did you love her Thomas?”
     
    Thomas did not want to lie to her; he never
had reason to lie. Besides, what kind of marriage would be based on
dishonesty? “It was an arranged marriage, we were children; I do
not think we knew what love was. We shared a mutual comradeship,
and she picked me only because she was my best friend.”
     
    That stung. Katrina had never heard Thomas
talk that way before about anyone, not even about her own brother,
who she considered now to be his present best friend. “Do you love
me Thomas?”
     
    That was a bold step for Katrina, he thought.
He had never expressed devotion to her before, even when he
proposed, he could not mouth out the words; his affection towards
her shown through tenderness and purchased appreciation, their
relationship strictly emergent from repeated liaisons and
accord.
     
    She did not let him answer, feeling
restriction, feeling a sense of sudden regret. “Because I love you
Thomas, with all my heart,” she let go along with her hand that
grazed his cheek. “And if that means that I must surrender my honor
until you are liberated, then I will wait with ungraceful
patience.”
     
    Thomas grabbed her hand away from his face
and kissed the back of her hand, holding it over his heart. He did
not want to hurt her but somehow felt he already did.
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER SEVEN
     
     
    Gwendolyn had been intently staring at Thomas
several hundred feet beyond. He had been chopping wood for hours
and Gwendolyn wondered why he had not let any of his servants in
his employ do the task for him. She also wondered why he was
avoiding her. Eating dinner late, leaving the manor early, gone for
nearly the entire day. Two days had passed, and she ached to talk
to him.
     
    What a keen frustration for Gwendolyn to once
have had his complete attention, to this day be strained to accept
intermittent glimpses of him now and then. She remembered when she
used to try and dodge him, push him away, yell at him to stop
looking at her, or at least give her a second alone! What she
wouldn’t give to have just a few moments of his curiosity now? What
a reversed turn of events! And why did he have to be so entrancing
to look at now? It was his body that matured; she recognized in the
end, she had never seen a man so sickly sweet with broad,
symmetrical shoulders with muscles that would not give. Gorgeous,
yes, that was the ideal word to describe him at this point; he was
mouth-watering to