For the Babies' Sakes (Expecting) (Harlequin Presents, No. 2280) Read Online Free

low, urgent voice as he spoke to Celine. Helen wouldn’t open her eyes. He sounded as if he was close to the woman, perhaps touching her, from the gravelly whispering.
    Her marriage was over, she thought dully. Their love in tatters. And suddenly she felt horribly alone and vulnerable.
    Hurriedly she clapped a hand to her mouth as her stomach heaved and a wave of heat rushed up her entire body. With a despairing cry, she blundered into the bedroom and headed for the en suite, leaving a trail of sticky clay to embed itself firmly in the fibres of the expensive carpet.
    Dan had barked something at Celine and then he must have followed Helen into the bathroom because his hands were on her shoulders, ice-cold, heavy, imprisoning, the pressure of his half-naked chest against her back somehow intimate and shocking.
    â€˜Darling…’ he coaxed, low-voiced and soothing.
    Hysterically she shook them off with an impassioned, ‘I’m not your darling! Don’t pretend you care!’
    â€˜Of course I do,’ he said sternly. ‘I’m worried about you. I think you’re ill—’
    â€˜I am ill! And you’re making me feel worse! I came home because I’ve got flu!’ she cried miserably, hanging onto the basin as if her life depended on it. Her stomach churned horribly but she couldn’t be sick even though she felt as if she might.
    â€˜Then you must get to bed—’
    â€˜Bed!’
    Her eyes met his in the mirror and he flinched from her scything glare.
    â€˜What? What did I say?’ he demanded thinly.
    â€˜Do you intend to change the sheets first?’ she hurled in anguish.
    He gasped as if she’d lashed him with a whip. She saw his tight stomach muscles contract and recognised the pain that had rocketed through him. He looks ghastly, she thought. And tried not to care.
    â€˜I don’t need to change the sheets!’ he grated.
    Her eyes widened. Passion had struck somewhere else, then!
    â€˜So you didn’t make it to the bedroom!’ she cried wildly, unable to bear the thought of Dan being so crazy for another woman. ‘You couldn’t wait, I suppose! Where, then? Tell me so I can avoid that place! Tell me! In the hall? The stairs? I’ll burn the carpet,’ she threatened. ‘Rip up the floorboards. Have them replaced—!’
    â€˜Helen! Stop this! You’re being irrational—’
    â€˜I know!’ she cried in distress. He’d made love to Celine. How could she ever get over that? ‘And with good reason!’ she sobbed. ‘You brute! I hate you for doing this to me!’
    Unable to control herself, she whirled around and hammered her fists into his naked chest. He let her, taking the blows—presumably because he knew he deserved every one of them. And she was exhausted by her outburst.
    â€˜Stop it, Helen. Calm down,’ he urged.
    â€˜Then tell me what happened! I have a right to know!’ she moaned, suddenly going limp in his arms.
    â€˜I will,’ he said gruffly, holding her up. ‘Don’t upset yourself, please . Just trust me—’
    â€˜Are you mad ?’ she railed, feeling his strength sustaining her. His wonderfully lithe, powerful body, she thought. Then jealousy struck as she imagined his eyes looking at Celine with desire, his hands touching, arousing… She sucked in a tortured breath, unable to bear it. ‘Go away, Dan!’ she sobbed. ‘I don’t want to see you or hear you or think of you ever again!’
    â€˜Don’t say that!’ His grip tightened. His eyes blazed. ‘Don’t ever say that, Helen! I’m not going anywhere—’
    â€˜You’ll have to. You can’t possibly explain this away.’
    Her eyes were dead. She thought she’d never smile again.
    â€˜I can. I will. But first you must get into bed before you get pneumonia. You look—’
    â€˜I know what I look like!’ she