My Sweet Punishment by Amelia Brooks (best book club books of all time .TXT) 📕

My heart skipped a beat, then another one, and then it was beating so fast, ready to jump out of my chest. I haven’t seen him in for so long. And what a huge effort it cost me to overcome the strong impulse to approach and just hug him.

Henry was standing just a few feet away from me. So close and so far away. His blue eyes reflected the flickering light of holiday garlands and something else that looked very much like... tenderness or? No. Definitely not.

We stared at each other for what seemed like an interminable time.

While I was rushing to help my friend, I didn’t even bother to button my coat. Not to mention to wear the hat. And when a large snowflake flew into my collar, covering my neck with freezing cold, I finally managed to get out of my stupor a little.

“Mr. Collins, you... what are you doing here?” I timidly broke the silence and took a small step forward, taking shelter from the heavy snowfall.

Almost immediately, I felt the heat, but at first, I didn’t understand where it was coming from. Not from a man, though? I squinted suspiciously and then caught sight of a suspended outdoor heater. So that’s what it was.

Henry was slow to answer as if gathering his thoughts, and I was pretty nervous. What did he make up his mind? Or maybe… he did not expect to see me at all and is now thinking about how to get rid of the uninvited guest as quickly as possible.

“Um... Did you happen to see Ms. Wilson?” I tried to smile, but for some reason, my lower lip trembled. With the cold probably… So the smile came out rather pathetic and even unnatural.

Damn, a couple more seconds of such silence, and I just shamefully run away.

Suddenly Henry took a step toward me, and without expecting it, I unconsciously staggered back. Noticing my reaction, the man stopped moving. It was as if he felt that another such silent movement in my direction might prove fatal.

The man nodded slightly, accepting our distance, and I finally heard his voice, the sound of which penetrated every cell of my body:

“Mia, I’m going to tell you something very important,” he began seriously, “Listen to me and don’t interrupt...” I frowned, catching his commanding tone, and just as I was about to object, he suddenly added more gently, “...please. I definitely had some problems with patience recently,” he smiled crookedly.

I nodded quickly, wrapping my heavy coat around me tighter, and Henry continued to speak.

“It was an arranged marriage,” he said dryly, and I instantly tensed. So that’s what we’re talking about.

“I worked with the father of the so-called “future” wife. It was going to be a good deal. Very good, indeed. The merger of two large companies with billion-dollar budgets. The only condition on the part of the future partner was to marry his daughter. Apparently, as a guarantee that the deal will last as long as possible,” he grinned, looking at me guiltily as though I won’t like the next words, “I did not see then a reason to refuse him. The girl is pretty, I’m also at the age to finally settle down and start a family. And love and other feelings have long been something on the verge of fiction for me. In my world, you rarely meet a person who first looks at your mental qualities, and only then at the number of zeros in your bank account. Therefore, when I agreed, I was guided only by practical and material benefits, nothing more…”

“Why should I know all this?” I couldn’t stand it, even though I’d promised to hear him out.

“Mia, you’re incorrigible,” Henry suddenly smiled, shaking his head reproachfully, and then calmly explained, “I just want you to understand, sweetie – that marriage meant nothing to me. I didn’t think twice about breaking it when... a mysterious stranger, desperately hiding in the bushes, took my dream. When a brave waitress was not afraid to teach an old pervert a lesson and be fired for it. When a fragile girl tried to save her little brother in every possible way. When at one point, without asking, she crawled into my heart and settled there…”

The uncontrollable tears welled up in my eyes, and I sobbed loudly, whispering.

“How could she, this wretch?”

“What?” Henry clearly didn’t understand my stupid question.

“Without asking,” I clarified, cursing myself for being all weepy.

In a few steps, Henry closed the imaginary distance between us and took my face in his warm hands, wiping the wet tracks on my cheeks with his thumbs.

“She’s got all rights on it,” and he smiled so broadly as if I hadn’t said something stupid, but something really important.

Something that made Henry pressed his lips to mine in a soft kiss the next second. But it was so fast that I almost groaned in frustration when the man pulled away from me at some point.

“Mia, I was lost...” he said suddenly, his voice hoarse, “and maybe it sounds pathetic right now, but I was lost when I woke up one morning in cold solitude and realized that I just couldn’t do it without you. Live without you.”

I was so shocked that I couldn’t say a word. I only unconsciously touched my flushed cheeks and couldn’t come to my senses. And the next moment, Henry did something completely unimaginable.