Summer of Love Marie Ferrarella (easy books to read in english TXT) 📖

her during the whole time. He had broached a number of topics in an effort to engage her in conversation and had only received single-word replies.

Finally, unable to take the silence any longer, he drew Lila aside to a little alcove, away from the rest of the ballroom, and asked her point-blank: “Is something wrong?”

Lila had been trying to reconcile the mixed feelings she’d been having ever since she’d watched Everett writing out a check for such an exorbitant amount. Because she didn’t want to cause a scene or start an uproar, she’d been doing her best just to squelch the suspicions that had been growing in her head. That involved keeping her mouth shut and not saying anything, although it wasn’t easy.

But her doubts weren’t going away, and rather than taking a hint and keeping quiet, Everett was pressuring her for an explanation.

Finally blowing out a frustrated breath, Lila asked him bluntly, “Are you trying to buy me?”

Dumbfounded and more than a little confused, Everett could only stare at her. He wasn’t even sure if he had actually heard Lila correctly.

“What?”

Lila pressed her lips together, then ground out, “Are you trying to buy my love by giving that huge sum of money to the Foundation?”

Stunned, he told her, “I made that donation because the Foundation is a worthy cause that does a great deal of good work. I thought you’d be happy about my contribution.” He looked at her, not knowing where this had come from. Not for the first time, he felt as if he was walking on eggshells around her.

“Why do you have to dissect every single move I make and search for an ulterior motive?” he wanted to know. “Can’t I just be generous because I want to be? Because it makes me feel good to do something decent for people who weren’t born as lucky as I was?” He saw tears suddenly shimmering in her eyes and immediately felt a pang of guilt because he knew he was responsible for those tears. “Hey, I didn’t mean to make you cry—”

Lila shook her head, halting his apology. Taking a deep breath to center herself, she said, “You didn’t. You’re right. You did something selfless and I just took it apart, looking for hidden reasons behind your donation when you were just being a decent guy.” She blew out a shaky breath. “I guess I’ve just gotten to be really mistrustful.”

And that was on him, Everett thought. He’d done this to her—taken a sweet, optimistic young woman and crushed something inside of her all those years ago. He had to find a way to fix this, he told himself.

But how?

How did he convince Lila that his feelings for her were genuine? That all he wanted was to be able to show her that he loved her and that he was willing to make things up to her for the rest of his life?

Desperation had him making the next move in his desire to reach her, to communicate to her just how sincere he was.

Since he had taken her away from the rest of the guests in the ballroom by drawing her into a recessed alcove to talk to her, he knew they’d be safe from any prying eyes.

Framing Lila’s face with his hands, Everett bent his head and did what he had been longing to do since he had first seen her in that sandwich shop in Austin.

He kissed her.

The moment his lips touched Lila’s, Everett realized just how much he had missed her.

How much he really wanted Lila.

A little voice in his head told him he should stop kissing her, but he couldn’t. Instead, Everett deepened the kiss.

And just like that, the captor became the captive.

At that moment, he knew that he would have walked through fire just to have Lila back in his life the way she had been all those years ago: loving and untainted by uncertainties and doubts.

Lila’s breath caught in her throat. A split second before Everett had kissed her, she suddenly knew that he would. Knew too that with all her heart she wanted him to kiss her.

And then he did.

Just like that, all those years they’d spent apart melted away. She was instantly responding to Everett just as she had back then.

Except that now Lila was responding as a woman, not as a starry-eyed young girl.

Lila could feel every inch of her body heating as she fell deeper into the kiss. She wrapped her arms around Everett, savoring the taste of his lips urgently pressed against hers.

Longings, locked away for so long, came charging out, demanding attention as they carelessly trampled reason into the dust.

Her heart was pounding wildly when he drew his lips away. She found herself struggling in order to pull air into her lungs.

She looked up at Everett in wonder, desire mounting within her.

He hadn’t meant to get this carried away, to let the moment get out of hand like this. He’d only wanted to kiss Lila again, to silently communicate to her that his feelings for her were as strong as ever.

Stronger.

“I’m sorry, Lila,” Everett began. “I didn’t mean to get—”

But Lila quickly cut short his apology. She didn’t want Everett to be sorry for kissing her. Didn’t want to have him withdrawing from her. Not when she was suddenly having all these unresolved feelings ricocheting throughout every inch of her being.

She wanted more.

Needed more.

“Let’s get out of here,” Lila breathed.

She didn’t mean that, Everett thought, even as he asked, “Now?”

“Now,” she echoed adamantly.

Everett stood there for a moment arguing with himself, trying very hard to convince himself to do the right thing.

Another man would have talked her out of it, pointing out what it might look like if someone saw them leaving before the fund-raiser was over. Another man would have taken her by the hand and led her back into the ballroom proper.

But another man hadn’t spent every day of the last thirteen years missing Lila so much that there were times he literally