And Then Came You by Maureen Child Read Free Book Online

fistful of his crisply starched shirt and dragged him out into the hall. He came willingly enough, then pulled the door to quietly behind them. When they were alone, she released her grip on his shirt and gave a furtive look down the short hall to make sure no one else was within earshot. They were alone. Sunlight streamed through the leaded-glass window at the end of the hall and laid intricate patterns on the deep burgundy floor runner. More flowers, in a vase atop a table just below that window, sent the almost cloying scent of roses into the still air and Sam’s stomach churned.
    Ignoring the sensation, she focused on him. On the man she’d once loved more than anything else in the world. The man who’d walked away from her without a backward glance.
    Old pain simmered deep inside, blending with the fury that still bubbled in her blood, and together they formed a mixture that nearly choked her. “Don’t screw with me, Jeff. If I murdered you now, I’d find a way to get away with it.”
    “Nice,” he said, nodding. “Good to know you’re still making idle threats.”
    “Who says they’re idle?”
    “Jesus, Sam.”
    She shook her head and lifted one hand for silence. When she had it, she sputtered, “Just what did you mean in there? I never gave my baby to your mother. I
thought
I’d arranged for her to have a family.”
    His eyes narrowed. Dark slits of pure fury. The muscle in his jaw twitched again. “Don’t screw with me, either, Sweet Cheeks. If you didn’t give Emma to her, just how did I get her?”
    She swallowed hard and tried to breathe at the same time. Not easy. “That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? I specified to the adoption attorney that I wanted her to go to a good home.”
    “She did.”
    “With two parents.”
    “She didn’t need two,” he said and shifted his long legs until they were braced apart, like a man standing on the deck of a wildly bucking ship at sea. “She had
me
.”
    God, how could the pain keep coming? Wasn’t there a saturation point? One at which her body would simply say,
Sorry, no more pain here. We’re full up. No more room
? Apparently not. Her nerves danced, her brain raced, and her stomach did a quick somersault that made her wish she carried barf bags in her purse.
    “How did she
get
you is what I want to know.”
    “You know damn well how.”
    His eyes. Anger splintered in those dark centers and flashed like a warning beacon. But she couldn’t pay attention. There was too much she had to know. Too much she had to say. And if he wanted to fight, thenshe’d be happy to oblige him. Sam couldn’t remember any other time in her life when she’d been balanced quite so neatly on a razor’s edge. She felt as though if she tipped too far one way or the other, she’d fall into some slimy black hole and just sink to the bottom.
    How did this day manage to keep getting crappier?
    Taking a deep breath, she told herself to fight for calm. She remembered her mother’s voice always telling her daughters, “Think before you speak.” Unfortunately, Mama had been disappointed on that one. The Marconi girls tended to jump feet first into the fire and only then worry about how to stomp out the flames. “I know that I gave her up for adoption
after
you sent me divorce papers.”
    He stared at her for a long minute, then shook his head and laughed shortly. “Nice try.
You
sent the papers, babe. I was in London. Remember?”
    She swayed, as if his words had had a physical as well as an emotional impact. Oh, she remembered everything. In vivid, digitally enhanced color. She remembered meeting him, falling desperately in love in a few short weeks, and knowing, absolutely
knowing
, that she would never be happy unless they were together.
    Their families had argued against it.
    The Marconis, concerned that their eighteen-year-old daughter was far too young to get married, tried reasoning with Sam. It hadn’t worked. Jeff’s mother had tried a different