A Chance With You by Paula Camille Wong (the snowy day read aloud TXT) 📖

steadying her. Jane hissed in a breath, the warmth of his hand spreading throughout her body, leaving her with a burning sensation and emptiness. “What’s the matter?” He asked. At last, finally she can be able to detect some kind of emotion other than his cruelness.

“I am just trying to avoid someone. That is why I came into this room. I was trying to find a place to hide but the man that is looking for me is awfully stubborn. He will not quit until he finds me,”

“A lover?”

“No,” She answered immediately. He turned her around slowly, supporting her with both of his hands, on the either side of her shoulder. Right now, Jane could tell he was going to leave an imprint of his warmth on her skin. An imprint she will surely not forget any time soon.

“Then who?” He asked in a low voice.

“You sure are persistent aren’t you,” She mumbled, gazing into his light green eyes, she could be lost in them. Jane could not look away, she was under his spell. The spell he had always casted on her even when they were young. “Even though I do not know you,” She added.

He smiled, and if the world could have end. It would have end at that moment. The smile alone can make every woman’s heart bend down his will. It was a smile that could kill and a smile that could save. “My name is William. William De’Lacour,” She opened her mouth to retort about his introduction but was interrupted as the door opened. Her heart skipped a beat, then two, but before she can react, he had shoved her on the bed.

Too shock to speak, she couldn’t find her voice even when his large, masculine body covered hers. Her eyes widened as his head bended down to claim her lips.

The kiss was simple, unfeeling. Her hands tingled next to her body. His frame was large and her legs easily straddling his hips. He stared down at her as their lips still melded together, fusing. But as seconds pass by, the kiss became fierce. An urgent feeling washed through her and before she could do anything to stop her reaction, her hands came up to his trace his back.
The simple gesture made his heart aflame. He braced himself on his elbows to keep his weight from crushing her, but continued the torturing kisses. As the door opened wildly, he withdrew from her lips just a couple of inches. “The room is taken,” He growled possessively.

“Ah- Oh dear. Right, I beg your pardon,” John said closing the door again, heading to the next door.

Jane stared at him from above her, her lips still tingling. At last, she finally tasted him. Even for just once. She heard the door close, but still he did not move. They just laid there gazing into each other’s eyes. Then it seemed like forever till he broke the silence. “Why do I have a feeling we have meant somewhere before?”

She gulped down the words she wanted to say. That she was his childhood friend, that she still had feelings for him even after through all these years. But… she knew that was unlikely. Everything was different now. He had changed and so did she.

It is time for her to give up these fantasies and actually move on. He had no emotions for her. He has emotions for her younger sister, Margaret. It is not her he lusts after. Even though the pain was too unbearable, she had to face the facts.

And additionally, he was the reason her life has been so chaotic! If it wasn’t for him leaving her sister, then she would not have had to take responsibility on marrying Marcus. If he had married Margaret, she should have never suffered. Yes, that is right. All she had to do was to remember this and she’ll be able to move on. With determined fierceness, she tried to shove him aside.

But what she was not expecting was for his chest to be hard as the brick wall. Heat scorched through her hand, and she suddenly pulled back, afraid the fire will burn her.

Clearing her throat, she closed her eyes and inhaled a breath or two then opened them. “Thank you for saving me. I do greatly thank you. He is gone, so you can move now.”

As moments passed, their breath mingling together, she was afraid that he won’t move but when he finally did she immediately shot up from the bed and made her way to the farthest side of the corner, away from him.

William gazed at her with amusement in his cold eyes. “So I was right, he was your lover.”

Deciding not to continue this conversation any further, she made her way toward the door but was stopped as he beat her there, his large frame blocking the two golden knobs. Drag, that was her way out. “Would you please let me through?” She asked annoyingly.

He didn’t make a move, but instead he walked toward her. She backed up, stepping back two to three strides and still he had followed. The red wallpapered, wall welcomed her back. She took a nervous breath and two as he stopped just a couple of feet away from where she is standing.

He caged her against the wall. Her vision became blurry and was filled with nothing but him. His manly scent invaded her nostrils, immediately sending fire throughout her veins. How she yearned for him over the years. For his touch, for his caress. And now he's here... offering his lips.

He bended down to take her lips in his but before he can, with all her strength and might, she flattened her palms on his masculine chest and pushed. Hard.

He stumbled back, shocked. No woman had pushed him away before. But for some odd reason, she did. Was she not attracted to him at all?

Her breathing heaved, chest rising and falling rapidly.

"Come on now. Just one abrupt kiss. Why do you refuse?"

Because once, I loved you. I longed for you. To hold me. To bring me happiness. But it wasn't me you loved. You never loved me.

She didn't know what undid her more. The heat of his gaze when he looked at her or the effect of his touch that coursed through her veins after years of feeling nothing.

“At least take off your mask. So I can be able to see your face,”

Jane shook her head walked around him, literally speed walking toward the door. He followed after her, immediately grabbing her by the wrist, stopping her from going any further. “No? Well what about a name?”

She bit her lip but did not say anything.

“No name? Well alright then, then how about I call you… Grace,” He smiled. “Yes that is a perfect name to call you. Grace. God sent you to me, to take away my problems. You are my blessing,”

Jane closed her eyes, his words sinking into her heart. How much she had longed for him to say those words in the past. With just her. Not anyone else. The door opened again and this time she braced herself… but it wasn’t John. In fact, it wasn’t anyone she knew. But one thing she did, it was a woman.

She was beautiful. Her brunette hair had been worn down and her dress was the color of the roses just outside of the garden. Her cheeks were pink and Jane immediately knew that she was intoxicated. And additionally, she was the woman who William had been waiting for. Sharp long needles stabbed at her heart. She was coming here to meet with him.

And not just a few seconds ago, Jane was the woman who was present on his bed, kissing him! She should have known, should have stood by her opinion. Better yet… she turned around to look at him smiling. “I am really thankful that you had helped me,” She was thankful that she had managed to hide the tremble of anger and hurt in her voice. “So I suppose a reward is what you want,”

William’s gaze shot up in surprised, not even bothering to look at the woman who just entered at the doorway, instead, his gaze was fixed on the woman before him. She was an interesting one. More interesting than the women he had encountered in the past. “What reward are you babbling about?”

Jane flinched at the rude tone. He had changed. Changed completely. “A reward,” She took out the pouch from her gown sleeves and sat it on the table, smiling. “Exactly as I said. A reward. I figured a commoner like you would need the money to get out of here. After all, you are just a mere soldier,” And with that, she turned and exited out of the room with her shoulders straight and her head held high.

It took a couple of moments for her words to sink in before his amusement turned into something more… menacing. He opened his mouth to reply but she was already gone. With a few strides, he made his way toward the door and looked outside. She was nowhere in sight. Amazing how a woman as tall and slim as her cannot make a sound at all.

Lillian smiled and sat herself down the chair. “You didn’t see me at all brother. I was afraid I died and was turned into a ghost. Your whole attention was fixed on Jane,”
William whirled around to look at his younger sister who was twenty-two years old, not married, and is a spinster. “Jane?”

“Yes brother. Jane. You did not know it was her did you?” She sighed. “You are blind. Jane, the woman who used to play-,”

“Yes… yes I know Jane,” He mumbled. “How did you know it was her?”

His younger sister smiled. “She always smelled like strawberries,”

He smiled at the memory. “It’s her favorite jam,” It was the scent that reminded him of home. That reminded him of his Jane. His Jane? Where had that thought come from? So she was Jane. Well then, she had turned out to be a fine and beautiful woman. He can give her credit. Her assets have been improved into something more…. Feminine.

Jane.

His childhood friend. The person who had always played with him whenever he was lonely. The person who had managed to make his life exciting and fun. What had happened to her all these years? Was she wed? “Lillian,” He mumbled snapping out of his thoughts immediately. “Tell me what you know about Lady Jane Andres Parker,”


Chapter 4