Cherish by Sherryl Woods

Author:Sherryl Woods
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: MIRA
Published: 2013-07-15T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

There were times over the next few days when Brandon wondered how he’d ever gotten home from Lizzy’s hotel that night. He’d risked everything on the hope that once they had made love again she would never walk away.

He should have known better. If she hadn’t consented to marry him when they’d been wildly in love in their teens and she’d been an innocent virgin, she would never give in so easily now.

She had always been far stronger than he’d realized, perhaps even than she herself realized. Whatever was driving her back to California was not something he knew how to combat. She’d allowed him a peek inside her heart, but he knew nothing of her soul. She’d kept that part of herself private—a secret she wouldn’t share, even with him. He’d left her room feeling a depth of sorrow and regret that matched the grieving he’d done for Grace and had hoped never to experience again.

Despite that, he called in the morning, intending one last-ditch attempt to persuade her to stay or, at the very least, to wrench a truthful explanation from her. But she had left already, without a note, without a goodbye.

Brandon thought back to another time when Lizzy had refused him in much the same way. Perhaps he’d been naive to expect a seventeen-year-old girl to make a lifetime commitment to a man she’d known only days. Yet he’d known in a matter of minutes that she had brought an inexplicable, heart-stopping excitement into his life.

Because he hadn’t considered himself a man prone to sentiment at that time, he’d been stunned to learn that he was capable of such deep emotions. The discovery was especially unsettling since only moments before, he’d been anticipating the hero’s welcome that would await him after the war and wondering how many women it might allow him to charm into his bed. In the blink of an eye an encounter with a dazzling, barefooted girl had changed all that. He’d been able to imagine no one in his life except Lizzy.

Up until the moment when she’d turned down his proposal on the eve of his departure for England, he’d been convinced she’d felt the same rare magic. Nothing she’d said back then had made a bit of sense, either. That’s when he’d first realized that Lizzy had a stubbornness that matched his own. It had made her all the more appealing.

But that was then and this was now. All he felt now was anger and betrayal. Brandon swore he would never give her the chance to hurt him again. There would be no flood of flowers, no Belgian chocolates, no pleas, no coaxing. She had made her choice, for whatever reason, and he would honor it. He’d grown far too weary of challenges.

Instead Brandon ranted and raved at everyone else, making their lives a living hell. He dropped his plans to retire, offering no explanation. He filled up the lonely hours of each and every evening with work, littering Kevin’s desk and Jason’s with the memos he spent the night writing.

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