If Ever I Loved You Read Online Free Page A

If Ever I Loved You
Book: If Ever I Loved You Read Online Free
Author: Phyllis Halldorson
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Peter's eyes, smoky with passion; his
hands making love to her breasts, her hips, her thighs; his lips
teasing, clinging, possessing until she was aflame with desire. It had
been agony to pull away, to hold him off, to tell him no.
    With a supreme effort she dragged her thoughts back to the
present. "No," she said in answer to the question. "We must have
quarreled at least half a dozen times over my refusals. He'd call me a
tease, a professional virgin, and roar away in his high-powered
Mercedes, and I'd spend the night in tears, sure that this time I'd
lost him, but he always came back. We couldn't stay apart, the
attraction between us was too strong."
    "Finally after two weeks of that he asked me to marry him,
and I was sure that no woman in all of time had ever been so happy."
    Gina shifted restlessly in her chair and ran her slender,
coral-tipped fingers through her short hair. "I was too young, naive,
and blindly in love to understand that he was only marrying me because
he couldn't get me in bed any other way."
    Twyla gasped. "Oh come now Gina, you can't really believe
that! Men don't marry reticent women anymore, they simply toss them
over and find one who is more willing. If a man like Peter Van Housen
married you over the objections of both sets of parents, then I'm
betting that he loved you."
    Gina covered her face with her hands and leaned her head
back against the cushioned chair. "I don't know, Twyla." Her voice had
an edge of despair. "I've been over it so often and I just don't know.
Except for the times when I drove him half out of his mind with sexual
frustration, he was always very gentle and loving with me. When we told
his family we were going to be married they were horrified. He had two
older brothers and a sister, all married, and not one of them took our
side. They accused me of wanting only the Van Housen money and
prestige, they reminded him that he was expected to marry Veronica
Miller, his parents even threatened to disinherit him but none of it
had any effect on us. We had to be together."
    Twyla mashed out the stub of another cigarette in the
modernistic ceramic ashtray and she sounded impatient as she said, "If
you were both so wildly in love then for heaven's sake what happened?"
    Gina took her hands from her face and looked at her
friend. "We got married, that's what happened," she said bitterly.
"Peter was the youngest son of a very rich man and he was pampered and
indulged, used to having his own way. In the end his parents grudgingly
withdrew their opposition and insisted that if there was going to be a
wedding it would be done in the usual Van Housen tradition. Our hasty
marriage was the social event of the season. Bertha Van Housen
orchestrated it and Hans paid for it, and I'm sure everyone in San
Francisco thought I was pregnant. I was seldom even consulted but I
didn't mind. All I wanted was to get it over with so Peter and I could
make love."
    Twyla once more rummaged through her purse for the gold
case and extracted a cigarette. She held it firmly between her lips as
she searched for the lighter, then lit it and set the lighter on the
table beside her. She inhaled deeply and slowly released the smoke into
the air. "Gina," she said gratingly, "are you deliberately tormenting
me? I want to know why this marriage that you say was made in heaven
ended after only four hours."
    A short, hollow laugh escaped Gina. "Maybe you're right,
my friend. I guess I am deliberately holding back, but you see the part
that comes next is so agonizing for me that even now I can hardly bring
myself to face it."
    She took a deep breath and forced herself to continue.
"The reception was held at the Van Housen mansion where a huge tent was
set up on the spacious grounds and a catered dinner was served. It
seemed to go on forever, but finally Peter and I managed to break away
and change our clothes. By then most of the guests had left and we were
coming down the winding stairway with our families and attendants
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