Pages of Passion by Girard Dara

Author:Girard, Dara [Girard, Dara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: Mills & Boon Kimani
Published: 2010-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

I love him. Noreen sat in her cabin with her knees drawn up and stared sightlessly ahead of her. I love him, but this time the thought terrified her. Unlike last night, she couldn’t laugh at the prospect because she didn’t love in the quick, reckless way Arlene did. Arlene freely gave her heart and affections, but Noreen gave forever. She knew this feeling wasn’t something she could shake free and forget, although she knew she had to. He wanted Arlene. He’d made love to Arlene and told her his secrets. How could she have let this happen? How could she have been so careless? She’d guarded her heart for years, determined not to give it to a man like Michael.

He’d wanted to run away with Arlene and live with her, and for a moment Noreen had allowed herself to dream. To decide to stay with him there on that island would be heaven. She could write and…

But Arlene didn’t write and Michael would probably want a woman who enjoyed partying with their neighbors and entertaining guests, not spending days locked up in a room with imaginary characters, or a woman who played with porcelain figurines when she needed inspiration. He wouldn’t want a woman who enjoyed fantasy films or who spent most of her time in jeans and large T-shirts. Her ex had grown bored with her and she knew Michael would too. There was no way to make it last. Maybe it had already ended.

They’d barely made it back to the ship on time and didn’t say much through dinner. Afterward they gave each other a reason to return to their separate cabins—Michael said he had important business to take care of; Noreen said she had a headache. But it was her heart that ached. She clasped the necklace in her fist, remembering him draping it around her, the sound of the wind upon the waves and the touch of his fingers. Why did he have to be so wonderful? Why couldn’t he just have been charming, reckless and fun? That’s all she’d expected. But today he’d revealed the man beneath his carefree veneer, forcing her to share part of herself when she hadn’t planned to.

And he hadn’t judged her. Instead he’d sympathized about her mother leaving and made her relation to her uncle feel inconsequential, as if he were a plumber instead of a smuggler. He didn’t romanticize it as her ex had done and she was grateful for that. It erased some of her shame.

Too bad she was a fraud. He deserved the truth, but Noreen knew she couldn’t give it to him. Switching places had always been a secret kept between her and her sister. No one ever knew and no one could ever know. If Arlene was pregnant, Noreen couldn’t do anything to jeopardize her relationship with Clyde. When she returned home she would sort everything out, but not now.

She loved him. That was the only truth she could tell him and she hoped it was enough.

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