Read Inevitable for Free Online Page A

caught fish. The wonderful smells were making my stomach moan. We were all sitting out on the patio, watching as the sun started to make its descent in the beautiful clear skies. I was wearing a long flowing, baby pink maxi dress, to cover up my shin, and had put my hair up in a messy twist. With a little make-up on, I felt ready to face the world again. The warm flowing chatter between them all was making me relax. The wedding party was only missing three people and Frankie's next door neighbours were due to fly in tomorrow, so that just left the return of Nathan. My heart pounded at the very thought and as luck would have it, I heard the now familiar throaty roar coming closer to the house. I was holding a glass of mineral water in my hands and instead of looking up, as I knew eyes would be falling upon me even if only in fleeting glances, I pretended to study a bead of condensation rolling quickly down my glass and dripping onto my lap.
    Frankie grabbed my knee and gave it a squeeze in solidarity. In my peripheral view I saw Scott leave Ruby’s side and go out to greet his brother. The conversation that had stalled for a few short moments resumed and everybody carried on like normal, even me, on the outside at least. Inside I was a quivering wreck.

 
    BELLA
     
    'H ey, how are we all?’ I heard his voice travel across the pool towards where I sat with Frankie on a settee. I watched as Scott and Nathan entered the patio area, Nathan had his arm slung casually around Scott’s shoulders.
    Frankie stood and moved over to greet him, embracing him to her.
    ‘Nathan, it’s great to see you… I was a little worried about you when we found your bag dumped on the driveway. I thought one of Alex’s best men had decided not to come after all.’ I heard the nervousness in Frankie’s voice as she tried to make light of the fact he had arrived earlier and then suddenly left without explanation.
    Bravely I lifted my head to take in the conversation. Everyone except for me, was slowly either standing to greet him or gravitating their way unconsciously towards him to welcome him to our small group. I knew I had to make a move too, otherwise it would become plainly obvious that I was trying to avoid him. Mind you, everyone here must have heard by now about our brief but fraught encounter earlier, Frankie would have told Alex, Scott would have shared with Ruby and so on. However, before I stood up I just had to allow myself to take in all that was Nathan Blackmore.
    I watched as he was introduced to Frankie’s uncle, offering one of his wonderful cheeky, lopsided smiles as they discussed his winning bike season, a smile that pulled out the dimples in both cheeks, and a loud conspirator’s laugh as he shook hands with him. He walked around to the women, pulled them to him in a friendly hug and gave them all a kiss on the cheek.
    That walk?
    It did something to my insides, he always walked with an over exuberant, very cocky swagger. To the unknowing eye, you would never have realised he’d been injured, but to me it added a certain something to the strut that spoke volumes to my libido. He was wearing clean black jeans and a V-necked, grey T-shirt that showed more of his tattooed, muscular torso, than quite frankly I needed to see. Just the very front of the loose T-shirt was tucked into his belted jeans and his biker boots were still on his feet, clumping heavily as he stepped around people. The longer section of hair on the top of his head was still damp and swept back almost neatly. I could smell his spicy sandalwood body wash from here.
    Where the hell had he been for a change of clothes? He probably had a “hot woman” around here too, I thought with a jealous flash that ran through the whole length of me, from my toes to the roots of my hair.
    I had to concentrate hard on controlling the rising panic that was welling up inside me, as I realised that the man I loved so vehemently was now striding casually to where I sat. I