- I did not want to talk.
- I know that too! You avoid the subject systematically.
- Then why do you insist? she cried, trembling.
- Because it's stronger than me! I got to know. If it has nothing to do with your break
Porter ...
- This is obviously related! she interrupted to prevent him to finish his sentence, as if
she was afraid to let him continue. I loved Mike.
- But you've never had sex with him.
He spoke quickly while hammering his words. Natasha thought his heart stopped
fight.
She frowned, under the blow of too sudden revelation for his spirit fogged. He watched intently, looking for an answer, and she had to look away
escape the heat of his gaze.
- Why, Natasha? he continued in a softer voice now, but imperceptibly tinged with mockery. Why have you never made love Damn I 5
tomorrow.
with him? If you like it as much as you make, because you were about to you
married ...
- I preferred to wait, she interrupted.
He laughed, and she blushed.
- What wisdom! What patience! ... But it has not had much you miss, to one
nor the other ...
- Be quiet! I refuse to talk to you about my relationship with Mike!
She wanted to get up and plant it there, but she gave up for fear that his legs do
way under her.
- But I have succeeded where Porter failed ...
Furious this time Natasha yet did violence to not answer. It would not enter
in his play.
He waited a long moment before continuing:
- You imagine that love and desire are two different things, is not it ? So you persuadiez that you loved Mike Porter, you were ready to marry, to live
your whole life with him, without even the slightest feel for physical attraction.
- What right do you advance such assertions? How can you judge? ...
- The facts speak for themselves. You clamez your love for Porter, but you do it
have never allowed to touch you. Strangely, you knew me for only a few hours when you fell in my arms ...
Natasha covered her face with her hands. Then he knelt at his feet and spread
gently the fingers of the young woman.
- Why hide? he said. This is the truth, and the faster you will admit, the better you
will feel.
I have desired you from the minute I laid eyes on you, and it was the same for
you. Certainly, if you do not have a little drink, you would have tried to deny it. But alcohol lamp
the walls of inhibition.
- Why do you remember me? Do you think I'm proud of?
- I know very well that you're not, you will want even fatally.
- Then why do you harass?
- To learn the truth. You admit that he never really liked Porter.
- I did not say that!
Page 68 - No, but that's obvious. You've never desired to the point of losing the reason.
He paused a moment, as if to give more weight to the words that followed:
- It's me you want. You design a deep shame, but that does not change
nothing.
Natasha shuddered; despite all his efforts, all his resistance, she had finally
recognize that he was right. This revelation threw glowing, just for a moment, an opaque veil
on his conscience: she loved him. That night, she did not even ask what happened to him.
Fierce determination, stronger than itself, had led inexorably to the inevitable. She had followed Lee Farrell eyes closed. She had not succumbed to his manhood, she
had gone to pick itself divine passion fruit. His body had driven while under
spheres that his blind mind could not foresee. Without the morrow, she was subject
entirely in his arms.
Since obsessed with guilt disproportionate, she had refused to probe this unstoppable momentum that had delivered this man for fear of
discovering perhaps something other than desire ...
- You'll have to admit, one day or other, he continued calmly, after observed carefully.
But she had no intention of betraying what she'd understand.
- Stop torturing yourself and cease to hate me, 'he added.
- I do not hate you, 'she whispered.
He got up, took a few steps into the room; he returned to her, when the bell of
phone stopped her. They jumped simultaneously. Lee swore under his breath: Lucy was out, and he
had to go meet. The young woman heard win, then his voice came to him:
- Hello? Oh, Lara ...
As if she had just received a blow in the chest, Natasha closed his eyes.
It
Lara Brennan had forgotten, like all the other women who were important in the life of Lee.
If for her he was the first, for him, it was far from it. Others before she had been able to arouse
his ardor.
He was laughing now.
- It's great, honey, he said.
Natasha remembered the people she rubbed his work with Nigel, that freedom of
mores that reigned in the world of advertising, Sonia Warren who boasted to behave
as a man toward sexuality ... Natasha had always condemned such lightness is
why his adventure with Lee Farrell had so affected. She despised himself for his weakness, and
discovering her feelings for him did nothing softened his torments, since he did not love
no. He only wished if she took to forget the eloquent brilliance of his gray eyes often
fixed on her, on her body, when alone, was there to remind him.
But other women also attracted Lee, other women he had for then give up.
Natasha did not want to expand the list of his ephemeral conquests. She also conceived a
too much respect for human values, emotion, life itself. She appreciated not this attitude that was to enjoy daily pleasures-lived, of random
chance encounters.
For this reason, she was not allowed Lee to seduce her again.
Lucy's voice rose in the hall: she had just returned. She began to talk of Lee
price of oranges without seeming affected the faint echo aroused by his words. When she entered
in the living room, she stopped short when he saw Natasha in the chair.
- What are you doing out of bed? she asked, opening his incredulous eyes.
Page 69 - James allowed me to get up an hour a day, for now, replied the young woman smiling.
- You are going to better. What good news!
- I gotta get out, announced Lee behind.
Do you want me to help you regain your bed?
The time has almost passed now.
- Yes, we must be cautious, especially the first time, Lucy replied by rushing
with his young mistress. You can go, Lee, I take care of her.
He hesitated, then nodded before disappearing. His car tires squealed when
took off for a moment later.
- Come, come, my child, 'said the old lady Natasha slipping an arm around her
size.
They crossed the hall where the timbre of the door sounded. Lucy snapped
his tongue with irritation.
- Who could he be now?
She helped Natasha to sit in a chair at the foot of the stairs.
- Stay here while I go see who it is.
A small ray of sunshine into the room when she opened.
- Yes? Lucy did.
Natasha's head snapped up when she recognized the voice that answered him.
- I want to see ...
Mike Porter paused when he saw the young woman who had to cling to armrests of his seat.
Lucy turned around, looked with surprise the sudden pallor of his mistress, and understood
Instinctively she had to let the visitor.
- Hello, Natasha, he said in a slightly hoarse voice without being able to hide his embarrassment.
- Hello, she said mechanically.
- I would like to talk to you, explained the young man with a brief but eloquent look to
Lucy.
But the old lady is not so easily intimidated. The tension between the two young
People were too obvious for it not might attempt to help his protegee.
- I was just going to help him regain his bed, she intervened.
- I do not have that for a minute, Mike insisted imploringly.
Natasha stood trembling slightly.
- Agreed, she nodded.
She went to the lounge, Lucy at his heels.
- We will not be long, I promise you, she added to the housekeeper address
who no longer concealed his disapproval now.
- Sit down, she offered to Mike when they were alone.
A little puzzled, Natasha watched as he took hold of a chair and approached
the chair where she stood. So many things had happened since their break ... He was always
the same.
Yet it seemed different to him. But it was she who had changed, not him.
- How are you? he asked.
- Well, she lied.
- I tried to see you several times, but Farrell has always prevented me.
Natasha looked down and tried to keep a neutral expression.
Page 70 - I called, phoned the young man. You did not even respond to my
letters.
- Your letters?
- He was careful not to give them to you, I guess.
I thought so ...
She had stiffened in his chair. Lee How dare he steal the mail which he
was not intended? She blushed under the influence of indignation. What right is it allowed to
behave in this way, as if it belonged to him body and soul?
- I know this road by heart, shops, his every cranny to be waited for hours and hours ...
- Considering?
- Yes, so that Lee because I had to talk to you.
- What, Mike? Do not you see it's too late?
- I do not see that too ... Look, I wrote to my brother to tell him what you thought
Mom.
And ... and you were right, Natasha. I do not believe my eyes, but they are on track to
Australia because of my mother. You had it right, you understand? ... So I've been looking. I am
first went to your apartment, then your office. There Herries taught me that you were married you.
Then I had to walk a long time to calm down, then I went home, and there ... I had
words with my mother.
Natasha saw him now with a face full of compassion.
- I'm sorry, Mike ...
She imagined how this discovery had had the upset. She was mistaken in
thinking that he had not changed. In fact, he seemed older, more mature, more confident.
- We had a rather violent scene, he explained it. She protested at first, then
seemed bored and ... Well, now I know that you had not invented anything, I just blew it.
- Do not reproach yourself. You believed her because she is your mother, it's all natural.
He smiled bitterly.
- But I refused to admit that she wanted to separate, and yet ... What a fool I am!
As you must have suffered because of my stupidity ... That's why I really wanted to see you,
to apologize.
Natasha smiled.
- It's nice of you.
- I came here on the day of your wedding.
He had tried so much to see her that day to apologize ... Had he only had time
to show cause in Lee?
- I had to have an interview with you before it's too late, 'he said. I wanted you
request to grant me one last chance. Everything was my fault. My fault that we
quarreled, my fault if we broke up, my fault that you met Farrell! I'd implore you to
marry me in his place, but he threw me out unceremoniously.
I wanted a ride to collect my thoughts before facing again, and when I came back, there was nobody. I realized then that it was really too late.
She nodded gravely.
- Yes, we left for the ceremony just after your altercation.
Mike had a high round the body.
- So he was not lying to me ... You knew I was there and you refused to receive me.
- Me?
At that time, brakes howled outside the house. A door slammed and no someone who ran resounded on the sidewalk. Mike suddenly got up and looked at the door without power
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