Free A Bride Worth Fighting For by Sara Daniel

could build something true that didn’t have anything to do with outside forces. He wanted to fall for the woman who looked so happy and excited after returning from a run, the woman who hung on to his every word as if what he had to say really mattered, and the woman who turned soft and pliant in his arms when they kissed.
    He’d always believed he could survive a broken heart easier than a destroyed natural habitat. The thought of testing that theory made him afraid both he and Gwen would come out on the losing end.
     

Chapter Nine
     
    After lunch, Tucker led the way along a trail of rare and beautiful plants, steering Gwen far away from the lake, the ocean, and the hot springs—anything that might trigger another water memory. They held hands all afternoon, returned to the Haus for dinner, and then strolled the grounds again afterward.
    The sun had dipped out of sight by the time they traveled up the winding path to the orchard. She leaned against a sturdy tree trunk and smiled at him. The perfection of their time together washed over him. He didn’t want to remember anything else or contemplate a life beyond the island. He simply wanted to continue living every moment in her sweetness and enjoying their simple pleasures.
    Resting his hands on the thick branches on either side of her, he stepped toward her, inhaling the apple fragrance surrounding them.
    She traced her fingers over the scruff on his face. “I’ve yet to see what you look like clean-shaven.”
    Once she did, would the resemblance to his brother trigger her memory? “Don’t hold your breath. If you wanted a pretty boy, you picked the wrong fiancé.”
    Her smile didn’t waver. “I’m happy with the one I’ve got.”
    Warmth and guilt spread through him. She might be happy now, but that would all disintegrate once she realized she really did have another fiancé—one she’d actually chosen. “I could make you happier.”
    “Really? How so?”
    “Like this.” He leaned in until his lips brushed hers. With his arms braced against the tree, he pushed himself away but couldn’t resist returning to her promised sweetness. He angled in, resting his mouth against hers, soaking in her short, wispy breaths.
    As he caressed her bottom lip with his tongue, she shivered.
    “Good?” he asked, perilously close to trembling from a simple, closed-mouth kiss. Gwen turned even the smallest, most incidental touch into a momentous act worthy of savoring.
    She nodded, her eyes wide and glassy.
    He bent his head to taste her again. Surrounded by pungent apple scent, he melded his mouth to hers and kissed her with a longing that welled from deep inside.
    Tangling his tongue with hers, he drank in her soft moans, aching with the growing need to experience her in every way, to love her thoroughly, to truly make her his.
    “Tucker,” she whispered.
    “Hmm.”
    “Did we ever kiss like this before? How could I not remember something so wonderful and amazing?”
    Shit. Of course, their perfect romance was too good to be true. “I don’t know how you can’t remember. I guess if you could, we wouldn’t have had to spend a week here.”
    He shoved away from the tree and turned from her. He couldn’t build something from nothing as long as she tried to rediscover what had never existed.
     
    Tucker paced away from the tree, running both hands through his hair. Gwen wanted to follow and recapture the magic from moments before. But, still reeling from the kiss, her knees were too weak to support her without the tree trunk against her back.
    If she hadn’t said anything, surely their passion would have eventually sparked her memory. Of course they had kissed like this in the past. Their chemistry had led to their engagement, after all.
    But, no, she’d had to remind him that she didn’t remember anything about their relationship, as if he hadn’t been special enough for her to recall. Unable to imagine how anything could be further from the truth, she wanted