A Promise of Forever (27 page)

“No!
I belong to no one,” she said as her voice was drowned out by the onslaught of his lips.
She tried, with all she could muster, not to react to him but she couldn’t.
The effects of the champagne were magnifying her sexual attraction to him.
His hands slipped below the jacket he had placed over her shoulders for warmth and he pulled her tightly into his arms.
It didn’t matter that there were people coming and going, he didn’t care.
He wanted to prove to her, once and for all, that she was his and she would give herself freely to him.
His kisses were fierce and demanding in their assault.
With each utter of protest, he released new passion in her.

Gianfranco realized that they had company, and as he relaxed his fierce hold on her, he held her protectively in his arms.
“Excuse me, but if you two don’t come up for air soon, we’ll have to hose you both down,” Kevin said as he joined them on the patio.
“You should be ashamed of yourself, making my baby sister cry this evening.
She didn’t think you were going to show up tonight.”
Kevin stated before asking how his business went in New York.
After Gianfranco gave a brief synopsis, Kevin said he’d catch up with him another time because he was freezing to death and wanted to go back inside; he suggested they do the same.

Gianfranco waited for an explanation from her but when none came he asked the question himself.
“Why were you crying?”
She didn’t answer and her silence spoke volumes, or so he thought.
“Don’t even bother to think of something clever to say.
I don’t think I could stand to hear another lie from you.
I noticed Brody and his new friend in a quiet corner when I came in.
It must have upset you to see them together.
I’m sorry for that.
I know what it feels like to love someone so much and not have that love returned.”

A cold shiver of rage and disgust came over her as she listened to him admit his love for someone else to her.
It hurt like hell to love someone that much and not have it reciprocated but it was him she loved, not Brody.
When will the raw pain go away, she wondered?
Could she marry him knowing he wanted and loved someone else?
She didn’t think she could do it but she knew he’d never let her go.
He would never break the promise he made to Jenny, that they would be a family.

He felt obligated to say something.
He had to make this situation tolerable and he hoped she would cooperate.
“Let’s call a truce; I think we should go inside and dance, that way it’ll appear as though whatever rift there was between us when I arrived is over.
If for no other reason, we’ll do it for Jenny.
I want the world to believe we’re happy for her sake.”
His voice sounded more like a plea than a command.

Katelyn’s heart felt as if it were being torn to shreds.
He supported her as they reentered the ballroom and even smiled adoringly at her.
She felt weak as they danced but she held on to him to continue the show.
If there was a way, she prayed they’d find it to make this marriage work without them despising each other in the process.
If only he could forget the woman who haunted him.
She wondered about this woman who didn’t love him.

He lifted her chin in his hand and kissed her.
He kissed her right there on the dance floor for everyone to see.
It didn’t start out to be a passionate embrace, not at first.
“We shouldn’t be doing this, not here.
I’m sure if we sat down and discussed this problem we could come up with an agreement of some kind,” she whispered for his ear only.

Gianfranco’s eyes opened to their fullest.
Without a glimmer of feeling for the people around them, his eyes darkened with disappointment.
It was obvious to anyone who stood close enough that she had once again released the devil in him.
“I can’t go on like this Gianfranco.
I’ll agree to any arrangements for visitation you want.
I’ll accept any terms you have to offer.
I’m willing to let you go on with your life.
What more do you want from me?” she asked as she painfully offered him a way out out of this farce of a marriage they were getting ready to share.

“My terms…you say you’ll accept my terms, Katelyn.
I thought I made myself and my terms perfectly clear,” he stammered into her ear as he pulled her tighter to him so that they were the only two people privy to this conversation.
“Make no mistake, if we don’t get married as planned, for whatever reason you can dream up, you will be the one with visitation rights, not me.”
His voice was low and concise as he continued to hold onto her as he threatened her with his words.

Katelyn couldn’t understand his insistence that they marry when he was in love with someone else.
The smart thing to do would be to confront him about the mystery woman but she didn’t dare.
She couldn’t bear to hear him say her name.
She leaned her face forward, staring obediently into his eyes.
From what she could recollect, she had just hurt him.
Her hands went to his face to console and comfort him with his pain.
“I can’t fight anymore, Katelyn.
I’m tired and I just can’t do it anymore,” he said as he brushed a lone tear from her cheek.

“Maybe we should go.
I’m sure Kevin and Sylvia would understand if we left a little early,” she said as she sobered up from all the emotional turmoil.
He held the hand that still rested on his face and kissed the inside of her palm.

They made their apologies to everyone and Gianfranco summoned the car that brought him to the ball.
Neither of them said a word on the way home.
They both needed the time to come to grips with their individual demons and to decide how they would get past what haunted them both and still be able to live together.

Gianfranco listened to the music that played softly on the car radio and couldn’t help but watch, as Katelyn lost herself in thought.
He could ask a thousand times and never get an answer, how could two people who once cared so much for each other, get themselves into such a quagmire?
It seemed like all they ever did anymore was either fight or make love.

Katelyn hadn’t realized that they had reached the ranch until Gianfranco came around to her side of the car to help her out.
After thanking Mrs. Footy for taking care of Jenny, they both looked in on the sleeping child together.
Jenny was the one grace that connected the two of them.
Gianfranco reached over to his sleeping child and placed a tender kiss on her forehead.
Katelyn was touched by the scene in front of her.
After kissing Jenny herself, they left the room together.
Gianfranco touched her for the first time since they left the ball outside their child’s room.
He covered her hand that had already reached for the doorknob with his own, as he did, time stood still for them both.

“I made a promise to you that I wouldn’t touch you again unless you came to me, I broke that promise tonight and I apologize for that.
It’s as though I’m consumed by you.
I’m sorry that you see our marriage as an end to your future happiness.
I never meant to hurt you, Katelyn.
I promise I’ll make it up to you somehow,” he said as he let go of her hand, as if holding her any longer would lead to something else.
They walked together to the bedrooms where they slept.
He remained standing outside his door studying her until she went into her own adjoining room.

Katelyn thought about what he had said; the words reverberated in her head all through the night.
Gianfranco was constantly in her dreams these days.
She must have kept his words close to her heart because in her dreams she heard him repeat them over and over again, only each time he did he admitted his love for the other woman.
He told her that he was sorry for all the pain he was causing her and that it was time for her to let him go.
He said that Jenny was no longer filling the void left by his lover and, though he’d support their child, he wanted his freedom.

“What do you mean?” she cried out, still dreaming.

“I’m leaving you.
I never really loved you.
I want a divorce, I’m sorry.
I did try for Jenny but this isn’t working anymore,” he said dismissively. He was being cruel and inhuman in his handling of her.
She must have cried out loud because, within seconds, she awoke and found herself cradled in his arms.
He was holding her, whispering soothing words over and over as he wiped the tears from her eyes.

“It’s ok, I’m here.
I’ll always be here,” he whispered softly.
Their eyes met but neither of them spoke.
Katelyn was afraid to free herself from his embrace.
She was being selfish, she knew, but tonight she needed him.
Nothing else mattered at this point except that he was holding her in his arms, sating the lingering need that grew between them.

Gianfranco joined her on her bed and, as he did, he brushed his lips over hers.
Feeling his half-naked body next to hers was enough to ignite the flames that burned heavily between them.
She knew he was fighting the same demons and tonight the demon would win.
He kissed the hollow of her neck and as he raised his head a voice that was losing all control pleaded with her to ask him to stay.

“I promised you, I wouldn’t do this.
Please tell me to go and God help me, I’ll find the strength,” he drawled huskily as his eyes pleaded something very different.

She didn’t reply as his scent made its way to her nose.
She couldn’t ask him to leave; it was too late.
She let her fingers roam his bare chest and find the comfort she needed there.
He was with her and that was all that mattered.
The other problems would be there for them to deal with in the morning and they would deal with them then.

His hands searched out all the secret places of her body, the places he knew where she loved to be touched. He wanted more than anything to hear her cry out his name in sensual pain he created.
The fire between them rose and, for the life of him, he couldn’t understand how a woman whose body was so in sync with his own could not be in love with him.
He dragged his lips back from her belly as he heard her whisper something to him; he couldn’t make out what it was she said.

“Say my name, Katelyn.
Call out to me when I’m inside you,” he pleaded.

“Gianfranco, don’t stop now; make love to me.”
Her voice cried out the mating song and his eyes searched deeply into her own for the answers.
He would gladly give up everything he had for the chance to convince her to love him.

Her body came alive in his arms and a slave to his touch.
This was the one place where she knew she had the upper hand.
The one place she felt control over her life with him.
She knew, come morning, this would all end but for tonight she wasn’t going to let anything stop what they were sharing from moving to its completion.
He was kissing every part of her body and when he was finished he focused on her most prized appendage; he tasted her sweet nectar until he was sure her body was aching so badly with desire that anything short of burying himself inside of her wouldn’t do.

He moved slowly up her belly until his tongue reached the scars left over from their child, the scars that marked her perfect body.
The scars caused by him.
She was still as beautiful to him as the very first time he made love to her.
No other woman would ever matter to him or would ever complete him as she did.
She was up on a pedestal so high that no one other woman was able to reach her, in his eyes.
He made vying for his love unattainable for other women.
Tonight he would love her and go to a purgatory of his own making tomorrow.
She had given him permission to make love to her and he was going to make damn sure she didn’t forget this night.

After so many empty years of being apart from him, in spite of all his faults, she loved him still.
She wasn’t sure if that was enough to make this marriage-to-be last but for tonight she wasn’t going to think about it.
Gianfranco took her into his arms and watched as her body squirmed with shameless abandonment beneath his skilled hands.

He lifted her from the prone position on the bed so that he was kneeling in front of her as he wrapped her legs around him and entered her.
He kissed her again and again as he made love to her.
In this position, he could watch her as she rode him into another realm with her legs wrapped tightly around his hips.
Tonight he would take her in every position he knew because, after tonight, he wanted her to believe in their future.
He thought, rather selfishly, that if she did decide otherwise, he would ruin any thoughts she had of a sex life that didn’t include him.
She would never find anyone equal to his prowess.

After a short nap, she felt his growing erection at her back
.
He couldn’t want her again in such a short time, could he?
With uncontrolled disregard, their bodies moved once again savagely, one against the other, their hearts and souls crying out to one another to tame the flame that each saw echoed in the other.

“It was never Brody…” she cried out in a faint whisper, as he brought her to surrender once again.

Gianfranco held on to her tightly as his brain tried to make sense out of what he had just heard.
She called out another man’s name in her moment of surrender to him.
He let go of her and reached for the boxer shorts carelessly thrown on the floor.
If he stayed one minute longer, he was afraid of what he might say or do to her.
He loved her even though he couldn’t bare the humiliation of hearing another man’s name on her lips as he made love to her.

“I can take just about anything from you but I can’t be a replacement, for someone else in your bed.
I love you, Katelyn, I always have but what you’re asking is more than even I can give you.
I thought, for Jenny’s sake, I could but it’s impossible.
My pride won’t allow me to be second in your life.
I can’t be your conciliatory accolade.
I wanted to wipe his name from your memory so he’d never come between us again but I know now that’s impossible.
So, you win, until you can get past your feelings for him our marriage will be in name only,” he stated shortly.

“I didn’t…I didn’t,” she repeated as he made his way to the door.

He turned in the hall and stood there bare-chested, in his shorts; she was totally naked as she begged him to come back to her so she could explain.

“Whether you realize what you said or not, it makes no difference to me.
You said his name in my bed!” he barked.

“But I wasn’t dreaming or even thinking about Brody.
I wasn’t calling out his name.
I was awake and fully aware as I tried to explain all the misunderstandings to you,” she reiterated.

“Right now, I’m finding it very hard not to ring your beautiful neck.
As mad as I am, I still find it impossible to keep my body from becoming aroused simply at the sight of you.
What does that make me, Katelyn?
A pathetic fool is what I am,” he added completely beaten.

She glanced down at her own nudity and tried to reach over and grab a sheet to cover her nakedness.

“Don’t bother; even with a sheet you would drive me insane.
That’s the part of myself I find so repulsive.
I want you so badly that even though you want these hands that touched you, this body that buried itself inside of you to belong to someone else, I will still come back to you,” he said disgusted with himself.

“You don’t understand.
Please Gianfranco…That’s the problem, you’re not listening.
I do lo…”
Before she could finish what she started to say, he retreated to his own room.
It was hours before she gave up on sleep.
She could hear him pacing in the room next to hers and knew he was dealing with the same issues.
She spent hours going over and over what he had said.
He was hurting that much was obvious even to her.
He said he was hurting because he believed she loved Brody and that was something she didn’t understand.

For better or worse, he made sure she understood that, although they would not share the same bed any longer, none of the plans he had made were going to change.
Somehow, she would have to convince him that she loved him and perhaps in time he could grow to love her back.
Whether he chose to believe it or not, they were good together and meant for each other.
Fate couldn’t be this cruel to bring them together after all these years only to split them apart again.

More to the point, she thought to herself, not only did they share a child but she was pretty sure they had conceived their second child.
Each and every time they made love, neither of them was remotely interested or worried about the outcome of not using protection.
The idea that they had created another child together during any of those encounters was very real.
She dressed and went in search of him to talk.

“Good morning, I didn’t think you were going to be up this early,” he said, with arrogant pride as his eyes bore down into hers.
“Jenny is outside playing.
She ate breakfast and I helped her do her hair before she went out to play.
I spoke to her this morning and explained to her that we’d be leaving this evening.
I trust you will be ready?” he asked.

“Where are we going?
Or do I not have the right to ask?
I’m a little confused about where I stand in this relationship,” she asked as she poured herself a glass of orange juice.

His mood, despite his lack of sleep, was seemingly under control as he smiled at her.
“I expected this much from you, Katelyn.
I didn’t think it was possible for you not to put up a fight of some kind.
I wouldn’t worry your pretty head though; we’ll deal with our future one day at a time.
Although, I must admit though having a compliant wife for even a little while would be a dream come true.
I’ve already taken the opportunity to warn Kevin and Sylvia that we’ll be getting married this afternoon.”
He paused for a brief second to allow the shock to set in before continuing.
“Before you say one word, I spoke to Eleanor Mulaney and she said your dress will be delivered this morning.
That is actually what gave me the idea in the first place.
Why wait for you to prepare for a wedding I mean?”

“Why the rush?” she asked, too shocked at the bizarre planning he had done while she slept.

“I have my reasons.
Kevin and Sylvia are out handling some of the minor details.
It seems everyone wants you to have the proper wedding you’ve always dreamed of.
I also told Jenny about our plans and she’s pretty excited about the idea; I’d like to keep it that way.
She’s happy, Katelyn, don’t ruin that for her.”