Read Online Forgiven but Not Forgotten? by Abby Green - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Abby Green
Ads: Link
Andreas that day would never fade.
‘We’re here.’
Siena looked to see that they were indeed pulling up outside Andreas’s apartment. Butterflies erupted in her belly. It felt as if aeons had passed since she’d been there already that evening.
The same young man who had parked the car earlier appeared to open her door. Siena was relieved, not wanting to touch Andreas. He was waiting as she emerged from the car with her one case in his hand. She couldn’t stop him putting a hand to her back as he guided her into the apartment block. Futile anger burned down low inside her at being so vulnerable to this man...
* * *
Andreas was very aware of Siena’s pale and tightly drawn features as they stood in the lift. He held her pathetically small case in his hand and had to quash the dart of something that felt ridiculously like pity at the knowledge that this was all she possessed now, when she had been one of the most privileged women in Europe. He reminded himself that this woman was one of the most invulnerable on the planet. She’d contrived every single moment of that evening in Paris, and when it had come to it she’d saved her own pretty neck.
Back in that grotty flat, when she’d asked how long this would last, Andreas had been about to say a month until he’d stopped himself. He’d never spent longer than a week with a lover, finding that he invariably needed his space or grew bored. So to find himself automatically assuming he’d need a month was unprecedented. He wanted Siena with a hunger that bordered uncomfortably on the obsessional, but there was no way she was going to turn out to be any different from his other lovers.
But, a snide inner voice pointed out, this was already different, because he was bringing her back to his apartment without even thinking about it. He’d never lived with a lover before. He’d always instinctively avoided that cloying intimacy. It made him feel claustrophobic. Andreas cursed himself now and wondered why he hadn’t automatically decided to put Siena in a suite in a hotel, rather than bring her to his place. He didn’t want to investigate his adverse gut reaction to that idea, when it was exactly what he should be doing.
Andreas hated that she was already making him question his motives and impulses. It made him think of dark, tragic memories and feelings of suffocation.
Before Andreas had left his home town at the age of seventeen he’d had a best friend who had been planning on leaving with Andreas. They were going to make something of themselves— make a difference. But that final summer his friend had fallen for a local girl and had become a slave to his emotions, telling Andreas he no longer wanted to travel or achieve anything special. He just wanted to settle down. Andreas had been incapable of changing his mind, and he’d watched his smart, ambitious friend throw away his hopes and dreams.
When his friend had found his girlfriend in bed with someone else he’d been so distraught that he’d killed himself. Andreas had been deeply affected by this awful violence. By the way someone could lose themselves so completely and invest so much in another person. For love . When that love hadn’t even been reciprocated.
Andreas’s own father had achieved a scholarship to a university in Athens—the first in his family to do so. But before he could go he’d met and fallen in love with Andreas’s mother. She’d become pregnant and his father had decided to stay and get married, giving up his chance to study medicine.
Andreas had always been aware of his father’s missed chance at another life. And after witnessing his friend’s descent into horrific tragedy he’d been more determined than ever to leave. He had vowed never to let himself be side-tracked by feelings.
And he hadn’t... Until he’d had far too close a brush with disaster in Paris, when he’d lost himself for a moment with a blonde seductress who had blown hot and then colder than the
‘We’re here.’
Siena looked to see that they were indeed pulling up outside Andreas’s apartment. Butterflies erupted in her belly. It felt as if aeons had passed since she’d been there already that evening.
The same young man who had parked the car earlier appeared to open her door. Siena was relieved, not wanting to touch Andreas. He was waiting as she emerged from the car with her one case in his hand. She couldn’t stop him putting a hand to her back as he guided her into the apartment block. Futile anger burned down low inside her at being so vulnerable to this man...
* * *
Andreas was very aware of Siena’s pale and tightly drawn features as they stood in the lift. He held her pathetically small case in his hand and had to quash the dart of something that felt ridiculously like pity at the knowledge that this was all she possessed now, when she had been one of the most privileged women in Europe. He reminded himself that this woman was one of the most invulnerable on the planet. She’d contrived every single moment of that evening in Paris, and when it had come to it she’d saved her own pretty neck.
Back in that grotty flat, when she’d asked how long this would last, Andreas had been about to say a month until he’d stopped himself. He’d never spent longer than a week with a lover, finding that he invariably needed his space or grew bored. So to find himself automatically assuming he’d need a month was unprecedented. He wanted Siena with a hunger that bordered uncomfortably on the obsessional, but there was no way she was going to turn out to be any different from his other lovers.
But, a snide inner voice pointed out, this was already different, because he was bringing her back to his apartment without even thinking about it. He’d never lived with a lover before. He’d always instinctively avoided that cloying intimacy. It made him feel claustrophobic. Andreas cursed himself now and wondered why he hadn’t automatically decided to put Siena in a suite in a hotel, rather than bring her to his place. He didn’t want to investigate his adverse gut reaction to that idea, when it was exactly what he should be doing.
Andreas hated that she was already making him question his motives and impulses. It made him think of dark, tragic memories and feelings of suffocation.
Before Andreas had left his home town at the age of seventeen he’d had a best friend who had been planning on leaving with Andreas. They were going to make something of themselves— make a difference. But that final summer his friend had fallen for a local girl and had become a slave to his emotions, telling Andreas he no longer wanted to travel or achieve anything special. He just wanted to settle down. Andreas had been incapable of changing his mind, and he’d watched his smart, ambitious friend throw away his hopes and dreams.
When his friend had found his girlfriend in bed with someone else he’d been so distraught that he’d killed himself. Andreas had been deeply affected by this awful violence. By the way someone could lose themselves so completely and invest so much in another person. For love . When that love hadn’t even been reciprocated.
Andreas’s own father had achieved a scholarship to a university in Athens—the first in his family to do so. But before he could go he’d met and fallen in love with Andreas’s mother. She’d become pregnant and his father had decided to stay and get married, giving up his chance to study medicine.
Andreas had always been aware of his father’s missed chance at another life. And after witnessing his friend’s descent into horrific tragedy he’d been more determined than ever to leave. He had vowed never to let himself be side-tracked by feelings.
And he hadn’t... Until he’d had far too close a brush with disaster in Paris, when he’d lost himself for a moment with a blonde seductress who had blown hot and then colder than the
Similar Books
