The Thawing of Mara

Mara had locked her feelings away.  Aloof, cold as ice—that was Mara Prentiss.  And she felt she had every reason to be that way.  Her father’s infidelity had killed her mother.  That’s what love leads to, Mara thought.  Mara hated her father, Adam, but she looked after him out of duty.  When he became friends with the striking, persuasive Sinclair Buchanan, a tenant on Mar’s land, she was incensed.  When Sinclair began his campaign to unfreeze Mara’s bitter heart, she was tempted.  But she had no intention of falling in love.  Surely she was above stooping to that!

“It doesn’t do any good to fight it.”  Sin Buchanan reached around her to take the wineglass from her unresisting fingers.  “You can’t roll all your emotions and feelings, passions and desires into a neat little bundle and throw them away,” he said softly.  Mara tried to ward off her awareness of how close he was.  Then his head bent toward her, his jaw and chin brushing her ear.  Her heart tripped wildly against her ribs.  “Don’t be afraid,” he told her.  “It’s natural for you to respond to your feelings.”  The kiss that followed was leisurely, slow, but it opened up a new world for Mara.  When he bent to kiss her again, she submitted, surrendered, returned his fire.  Either she was learning—or she was becoming a fool!