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

unnerving her.
    â€˜I don’t know !’
    Impatience swept across his features. ‘Surely you keep a record of dates?’ he asked coldly.
    Her throat tightened. Being pregnant right now would be an absolute disaster. This was the worst possible time that it could have happened. She could see that he was horrified by the idea. And the last thing she wanted was to be a single mother, struggling on her own…
    â€˜In my bag. Diary,’ she choked. The collapse of her dreams was complete.
    Wordlessly he handed it to her, his hand shaking. Sheglanced up and felt herself shrivel under his ferocious expression. He was incredibly angry. As if it was her fault!
    â€˜There’s no point in getting annoyed with me,’ she snapped, her hands plucking aimlessly at the counterpane and betraying her inner turmoil.
    â€˜Just look, will you?’ he ordered, unnervingly close to erupting.
    All fingers and thumbs, she rummaged in the roomy bag. How had it come to this? A few days ago they would have been anxious at the thought that she might be pregnant, a little shocked, but…eventually thrilled.
    Instead, she wasn’t sure how she felt. And Dan was holding back a monumental fury with great difficulty, presumably irritated that he might be saddled with maintenance for a child he didn’t want, for a woman he didn’t love.
    She couldn’t be pregnant. Mustn’t be. Not with Dan so hostile to the idea.
    â€˜I’ve found it.’
    Opening the small leather book, she stared for several seconds at the calendar with its increasingly haphazard marks, trying to make sense of what it was telling her.
    â€˜Well?’ demanded Dan.
    Her brain shut down for a moment as shock waves rocketed through it. Muttering an expletive under his breath, he came forward and snatched the book from her, scowling at the page as if it might as well have been in Sanskrit.
    â€˜What’s this mean?’ He thrust the book back at her. ‘It doesn’t have any pattern to it.’
    â€˜I-I’ve been irregular for ages.’ Panic raced through her brain, helping her to invent explanations. ‘That can happen, you know. Stressed lifestyle and a poor diet—’
    â€˜All I need to know is, when was your last period?’ he asked heavily, cutting short her frantic excuses.
    Her eyes rounded with apprehension as she met his stony stare. ‘Uh…April twenty-third,’ she squeaked.
    Dan whisked in a sharp breath and sat down on the bed as if his legs had crumpled beneath him.
    â€˜My birthday was on May seventh,’ he said abruptly.
    She knew what he was suggesting. They’d celebrated with a rare meal out in London and had come home feeling so happy to have been together that they’d made love the minute they’d got home. And several times more.
    Oh, heck. Now what? Fretting, she knew she couldn’t remain in bed a moment longer. She needed to do something. Catch up with the ironing. Dig the garden…
    â€˜I need a shower,’ she muttered, scrambling up and heading blindly for the bathroom, tears falling down her wan face.
    â€˜A… shower? Now?’ he gasped.
    â€˜Not a crime!’ she hurled back and ran in, wrenching the lever of the power shower to its limit before he could catch up with her.
    She welcomed the battering, taking it as her punishment for being so stupid as to allow him to make love to her despite his infidelity, for not noticing her periods had stopped, for being trusting and naive when everyone knew that if you took your eyes off a man for a second he’d be chatting up someone else.
    Muttering under her breath about her rank idiocy, she scrubbed all trace of Dan from her body. It hurt. Outside and within her heart. But now she was free of him. All traces erased.
    Bereft, she gave a broken sob and penalised herself by massaging shampoo into her hair with hard and ruthless fingers, before sluicing off the soap.
    The