Fatal Deception by Marie Force Read Free Book Online Page B

a few minutes after him. As she did every night, she crawled into his arms and settled her head on his chest. She used to hate sleeping with someone else. Now she couldn’t bear to sleep without him.
    “Are you going to tell me what was up with Harry earlier?”
    “Why can’t you be one of those oblivious husbands who doesn’t pay attention to anything unless he’s getting laid?”
    Nick laughed—hard. “Because you’ve already been married to that guy, and if I recall correctly, it didn’t work out so well.”
    Sam poked him in the ribs, making him jolt. “That was a low blow.”
    “Am I wrong?” he asked with a cocky grin.
    “No comment.”
    “So what gives with Harry?”
    Resigned to being truthful with him when her inclination was to keep this—and almost everything else—to herself, like she did when she was married to passive-aggressive Peter, she said, “Harry was reminding me that the birth-control shot I had before the wedding is wearing off this week.”
    “Oh.”
    “Yeah. Exactly.”
    He combed his fingers through her long hair, which Sam found comforting.
    “So...what’re you thinking?” he asked after a long silence.
    “It’s all I’ve thought about for months, but I still don’t know what to do.”
    “I think about it all the time too.”
    “I’m not as raw as I was right after it happened.” Her throat closed a bit, despite her fervent desire to keep this conversation from getting emotional. How was she supposed to ponder a potential pregnancy when she couldn’t even talk about it without bawling her head off? “But I think about our baby every day. I think about them all, but that one...”
    “I know. Believe me. I know.” He tightened his hold on her, with one hand on the back of her head to keep her snuggled into his chest. “You don’t have to decide anything until you’re ready.”
    “Well, we have to decide something or practice abstinence until we do.”
    “I do not know this word of which you speak.”
    Sam snorted out a laugh. “No, you don’t, do you?”
    “You’ve spoiled me rotten in that regard, and now I have rather significant expectations.”
    Sam appreciated the humor he was bringing to what was always an intense conversation.
    “If you’re not ready to figure this out, get another three-month shot,” he said. “What’s three more months when we’ve got a lifetime to look forward to?”
    “You wouldn’t mind?”
    “I’ve told you before, and I’ll continue to tell you—this is all about what you want. I want what you want.”
    “And I want to give you the family you’ve never had.”
    “I already have that, Samantha. If it was only you and me—and hopefully Scotty—I’d have more than I ever could’ve hoped for, more than I’ve ever had before.” He lifted her head from his chest and turned to face her while keeping one arm around her. “I need you to believe me when I tell you that. I don’t want you to feel any pressure from me on this.”
    “I don’t. You’ve been your usual wonderful self about this situation from day one.”
    “Will you do something for me?”
    “Of course.”
    “Will you talk to me about it and not keep it all inside like last time?”
    Sam still felt guilty about getting the initial birth-control shot before she told him about it. But at that time, a few short weeks after the most devastating miscarriage of all, she hadn’t been thinking clearly, to say the least. “I promise I’ll talk to you. I’m sorry I didn’t last time.”
    “That’s in the past. All that matters now is the future.”
    “Until we decide what we’re doing, we should probably, you know, refrain...from any further nookie.”
    “Wait...back up. What did you say?”
    Sam dissolved into a fit of laughter at his horrified expression. “You heard me. If we decide to do this, I want it to be intentional and not something that happens by accident.”
    He moved so he was on top of her. “So what you’re saying,” he said,