For the Babies' Sakes (Expecting) (Harlequin Presents, No. 2280) by Sara Wood

appalled to speak. It was as if he were talking about sharing one of their favourite videos.
    Her body still throbbed from their love-making. Sex, she corrected. And yet he’d phoned his mistress straight after—and now they were coldly discussing access arrangements for a child that might not even exist!
    â€˜I despise you!’ she hissed, feeling hysterical. Her spirits sank. Was that her hormones playing her up? She tried to flatten her voice, to sound more rational despite the deep hurt that was making her heart huge and aching as if it had been bruised and was swollen to twice its size. ‘I want you out of my life. As from now.’
    â€˜Oh, no, you don’t. I’m coming with you to the doctor’s. I want to hear what he has to say. If you’re pregnant then I want to know. Then I’ll get out of your life. After that, I’ll only appear to see my child.’
    â€˜Then for both our sakes,’ she flared, distraught that he was abandoning her, ‘I hope I’ve got some virus! Something minor, like E.coli! Or—or malaria! The last thing I want is to keep seeing you on a regular basis!’
    He flinched. ‘Mutual,’ he snarled, and spun on his heel in a filthy temper. ‘I’ll make the appointment,’ he flung brusquely over a high shoulder as he disappeared throughthe doorway. ‘I’ll collect my things some time later, when you’re not around, and I’ll ring you with the appointment time and meet you there.’
    He turned around suddenly. Helen’s eyes widened. His brows were lowered over glittering black eyes, his mouth a hard and uncompromising line. Every inch of his body quivered with a barely contained rage.
    â€˜Be there!’ he shot in grim warning. ‘Or I’ll come and get you, even if I have to bind and gag you and carry you into the surgery over my shoulder. And don’t even think about disappearing off the face of the earth. I’d find you. Make no mistake about that!’
    Dragging in a strangled breath, she watched him stride out of the room and listened to his pounding feet as he thundered down the stairs, two, three at a time.
    For a moment she was rooted to the spot. Then, overwhelmed by an urge to see him leave, she ran to the window. The security light came on outside, turning the rain into silver stair-rods, and her heartbeat accelerated while she strained for a glimpse of him.
    Disappointingly, a big golfing umbrella restricted her view to his boots and the lower half of his body as he forged his way across the muddy ground to his car. She tried to fill in the rest and found herself sentimentally mooning over every detail of his features: the way he smiled, that dear little squiggle thing he did with his eyebrow…
    â€˜I love you, Dan!’ she breathed, horribly confused by her see-saw emotions. She hated him. Loved him. Oh, yes. That was the truth of it. Whether he was a deceiver or not, her heart was inextricably entwined with Dan’s. She’d given it to him long ago and that was where it seemed to want to stay. ‘Why did you do this to me? I need you so badly…’
    Braving the stinging rain, she opened the window tocall to him. But to her utter frustration, the wind swept away her choking cries and Dan was clearly far too intent on hurrying to sexpot Celine and her exciting pink underwear with its cute fringes to bother to look back at the boring wife he’d so cruelly betrayed.
    Realising her efforts were to no avail, she shut the window and stood shivering, inflicting self-torture by making herself witness the last moments of her husband’s departure.
    The headlights of the BMW lit up the barn, then swept around to illuminate the mess that was their front garden. All too soon he had vanished from sight.
    That was that. She stared into space, grieving for her loss. Only a short time ago she’d been married to a man she loved and admired with all her