Read Online For the Babies' Sakes (Expecting) (Harlequin Presents, No. 2280) by Sara Wood - Free Book Online Page A

were coursing through her and she scrambled miserably for the bathroom where she retched emptily.
    Dan came into the room as she was wearily climbing back between the sheets. In hip-hugging jeans and casual T-shirt he looked undeniably sexy. And also quite appalled.
    â€˜Helen!’
    Dan wet his dry lips with a deliberate thoroughness and she stiffened. There must be a reason why he was shaking, why the steaming mug in his hand was slopping hot liquid onto his hand—and yet he wasn’t even wincing.
    Warily she sat up, hugging the sheet to her body, her grey eyes huge with alarm.
    â€˜What?’ she breathed.
    The mug was placed on the bedside table. Dan kept staring at her helplessly, his hands now thrust into his pockets, and he swallowed several times before he managed to speak again.
    â€˜You…fainted.’
    She glowered, bristling. ‘I certainly did. I hope you realise how much you’ve hurt me.’
    â€˜There’s a problem.’ He seemed unsure how to go on.
    â€˜All of your making,’ she muttered.
    â€˜No…you…keep feeling sick.’
    She furled her brow. ‘So?’
    Dan sucked in a huge breath and strode about the room erratically while Helen watched him in amazement. He was so rigid he looked as if he might snap. Each jerky step jarred his entire body, sending ripples of movement across the straining T-shirt and his grim, flinty face.
    Suddenly he whipped around, his bulk silhouetted against the window so that she couldn’t make out his expression.
    â€˜Your body’s changed. It feels different.’
    Cut to the quick, she flushed and ensured that the sheet stayed up around her neck in concealment.
    â€˜Do you mean I’m fat?’ she demanded icily.
    â€˜No…I don’t know, but it is different—’
    â€˜Oh. Texture? Firmness? Different to Celine’s? Well,’ she hurtled on before he had a chance to reply, ‘maybe it’s because I rarely have time to eat a proper meal nowadays. I’m snatching things on the run. Doughnuts. French fries. Bars of chocolate. Anyway,’ she went on, determined not to be crushed by him, ‘I like the way I am. And you didn’t seem to mind too much just now!’
    That hit home. She knew she’d wounded him when he took a step back and rocked on his heels. But she didn’t like what she’d done.
    â€˜I’m sorry,’ she said, lowering her eyes in shame. ‘I don’t know why I said that. I couldn’t help it. But you must realise I’ve reason to be upset. And I feel so grungy with this wretched gastric thing—’
    â€˜I don’t think it’s that, Helen,’ he said carefully. ‘There could be another reason why you’re being sick.’
    â€˜What?’
    He just stared. Gradually the weight of his words suddenly sank into her. She went very still, as if all life inher body had been suspended, her eyes enormous in her pale face.
    No. She couldn’t be.
    Not… pregnant !

CHAPTER FIVE
    â€˜I—I’ M JUST …sick,’ Helen protested in a small, frightened voice. ‘One of those tummy bugs. I’ll get better in a day or so.’
    A spasm pinched Dan’s mouth in. He seemed to be struggling with the fear that they might have created a baby just when their marriage was falling apart. Help us all! she thought. That would be so hard to bear! What incredibly awful timing! The poor little baby…
    Hoarsely he croaked, ‘You’re saying it’s not possible?’
    â€˜No…I…’
    Helen chewed her lip, aghast. She cast her mind around, trying to remember when she’d last had a period. Life had been so hectic that she’d lost track. It must have been ages.
    â€˜I’m sure it’s unlikely. After all, we haven’t been near each other for weeks,’ she dissembled sullenly.
    â€˜But you could be,’ Dan persisted, his brooding eyes and harsh tone