Cause For Alarm by Erica Spindler Read Free Book Online Page A

whispered, “there’s something I have to tell you.”
    He met her eyes, then lowered his gaze to her chest. He smoothed the bubbles away, then cupped her breasts, as if weighing them.
    She felt herself flush. He knew. He could see and feel the changes in her body.
    Her words tumbled out in a nervous rush. She told him how she had stopped taking her pills, how she had missed a period, then gone to see the doctor. “I’m pregnant!” she finished excitedly. “We’re going to have a baby. We’re going to be a family.”
    He stared at her, his expression strangely blank, a muscle beginning to twitch in his jaw.
    One moment became several. “John?” she whispered, a flicker of fear springing to life inside her. This was not going as she had planned it, as she had fantasized it.
    He needed time to adjust, she told herself. Time to get used to the idea of being a daddy. That was all.
    â€œAnd you want this?” he asked. “You planned it?”
    â€œYes.” She looked pleadingly up at him. “I hope you’re not angry, but I wanted us to be a…a real couple. I love you so much and I…I wanted to be like other women.”
    â€œLike other women,” he repeated. “You don’t even know what that means.”
    â€œI do. At least I think I do.” She lifted her gaze pleadingly to his. “Let me try, John. Please.”
    â€œIt’s not going to happen, Julianna. This baby’s not going to happen.” He dropped the washcloth. “So, forget about it.”
    His words affected her like a blow. She reached up and caught his hand. “Why not? You say you love me…you don’t have to marry me, that’s not what I mean. I just want…I want—”
    â€œWhat?” He shook off her hand. “To be fat and stretched out and tired all the time? To be a doormat instead of a princess?”
    â€œNo!” Tears flooded her eyes. “It doesn’t have to be that way. It wasn’t that way with my mother.”
    â€œYour mother’s a whore. Is that what you want?”
    Julianna stared at him in shock. How could he say that about her mother? They were friends. They had once been lovers.
    â€œI won’t share you with anyone, Julianna. Not another man. Not a career or a best friend. Not even a child. Do you understand?”
    â€œBut that’s not fair!” Even as the exclamation passed her lips, she acknowledged that she sounded like a child, one who was petulant at not getting her way.
    â€œNo?” He laughed, the sound as cold and hard as ice. “Whoever said life was fair?”
    â€œI want this, John.”
    â€œI’m sorry to hear that, but you’ll get over it. Now, get out of the tub. Bath’s over. When you’re dressed, we’ll discuss what you’re going to do about this problem.”
    â€œWhat I’m going to do!” she cried. “You mean what you’re going to tell me to do.”
    â€œThat’s right.” He started toward the bathroom door. “I’ll be in the kitchen.”
    â€œWhy are you being this way?” She stood and grabbed for the towel, shaking with anger and indignation. It was so unfair! She was nearly twenty years old. Not a child, not a baby. “You treat me like I’m an infant! A two-year-old. I’m sick of it! I don’t want to be a baby anymore. I don’t want to be your little girl. ”
    John swung to face her. He narrowed his eyes. “I recommend you stop this, Julianna. Now. Before it’s too late.”
    She jerked her chin up, ignoring his warning though something in his tone and expression chilled her to her core. She held out her arms. “Look at me, John. Why can’t you see me as a woman? The way you see other women? For once, why can’t…you…why…”
    Her words died on her lips as John’s face transformed from the loving one she recognized into