A Promise of Forever by M. E. Brady

him I wasn’t, he said I should be. I can still feel what I felt that day so vividly. My body was experiencing such sensual turmoil and it was all at his hand. To say that I wasn’t afraid was an understatement.” Katelyn knew that her knowledge of desire had come from Gianfranco because to this day she had never felt it again. She recalled bits and pieces of their conversation.
    “I would never hurt you,” he said as ran his long, masculine fingers down her arm. “I’ve waited so long to touch you.” He hastily pulled his hand away from her body as though it burned to touch her and she could see he was fighting some kind of war within himself. She, at the same time, was trying to make sense of what he had admitted to her.
    “What do you mean, you’ve waited so long? We’ve only just met tonight,” she asked. Katelyn was a little nervous and afraid to trust Gianfranco. What he said was strange but Jake and Kevin had trusted this man with their lives.
    “Katelyn, I don’t want you to think that I’m some crazy stalker, I’m not. I have heard stories about you for years and, quite frankly, I feel like I’ve know you forever. I have watched you mature into the woman you are now by looking at all your pictures and listening to all the stories from Kevin. I convinced myself that my curiosity about you was harmless. That was until I saw you standing at the altar today.” He kissed her for the very first time; it was gentle at first, he tried with all his might to pull back but she didn’t allow it. Katelyn deepened the kiss herself and, before she could blink, she saw that he was watching her, desperate for her to put a stop to what was happening between them but she didn’t dare.
    “I’ve never felt this way about another woman in my life,” he said deepening their kiss yet again. That night was the beginning of the end for her. Any chance to have a relationship with any other man after him was all but destroyed that night. His words were sweet, but, as Kevin and Jake had told her often enough, Gianfranco had always been and would always be a ladies’ man. He was one man who would never settle down, they often teased. Any woman foolish enough to get involved with him would risk getting seriously hurt. “I’ve heard about your numerous women, from Kevin and Jake. Why am I any different?” she asked.
    He laughed aloud and kissed the palm of her hand with his lips and proceeded to take one of her fingers into his mouth and devour it. The gesture itself was both erotic and painful to her. She knew what he was doing to her and, if she were smart, she would put a stop to it before it was too late. Gianfranco was dangerous; there was no doubt about it. “I assure you that there have been other women, not nearly as many as you’ve dreamt up in that beautiful head of yours. I never lied to any of the women I dated. They knew from the beginning that I had no intentions of committing myself to any of them,” he had said to her.
    “Maybe I want more than just becoming an added notch on your belt,” she said, letting her hands rest behind her on the railing for support.
    “I’m not interested in getting you into my bed only to have you slip away into the night. What I want from you, I’m willing to wait for. If I have to…” he said surrendering to her before finishing his train of thought.
    Rosa could tell that Katelyn had come back from her clandestine thoughts because her eyes seemed more focused and less glazed than minutes before.
    “We spent the most wonderful eight weeks together. I never thought that would ever happen to me. As the time drew nearer for me to leave for school, I regretted what I had told him when we first met. I wanted him more than I could ever imagine; in my innocence all I could think about was becoming his wife and having his children. I thought he wanted the same thing.” Rosa studied her friend’s face and witnessed the pain the memories brought back.
    “I’m guessing he