TornByLove by Marilyn Lee Read Free Book Online Page B

with this?”
    “He’s miserable. He’s in love with you.”
    “In love with me? No. We’ve never even kissed. He likes the idea of being in love with a woman he considers older, but he is not in love with me. And I think you know I’m not in love with him. I like him, but that’s as far as my feelings for him have ever gone.”
    “Well that’s not enough! He needs more.”
    “There’s no more for him to need!”
    “Don’t you care that he’s eating his heart out for you?”
    She sucked in a breath. “I would never want him hurt, Paul, but I have never done anything to hurt him. You can’t say the same about how you’ve treated me.”
    “What?”
    “Do you even care one little bit how I feel? Or am I just an easy lay for you?”
    “No!” I closed my hands around her arms and stared down at her. “No! You can’t think that!”
    “What else can I think? You come here and fuck me—without a condom again.”
    Oh hell no. We were not going there! “I came to talk. You’re the one who pressed the sex issue. Not me.”
    “You’re a full-grown man, Paul. Why pretend as if I forced myself on you? Regardless why you say you came, you came and had sex with me—twice and then you tell me Mark is in love with me. Did you fuck me to get me to agree to date him?”
    I hadn’t planned to fuck her at all, but I knew she wasn’t in the mood to hear or believe that. And I couldn’t blame her. I hadn’t done much to portray myself in a positive light since we met. “No, I didn’t. I just came to ask you to please go out with him again.”
    “No!”
    I’d been so sure I could talk her into it that I didn’t behave very well when I couldn’t. “Why can’t you? You said you’d do anything.”
    She crossed her arms over her breasts, as if she was trying to hold the pain inside. “Anything except that, Paul. I can’t.”
    “You mean you won’t.”
    “Fine. Use whatever words you want. I won’t and if you knew my situation, you wouldn’t ask me to.”
    “Please, Marlena. Can’t you just go out with him a few times and then let him down gently?”
    She shook her head. “No!”
    “Why the hell not?”
    “You’re an ass.” She started to turn away.
    She looked angry but sounded hurt. I caught her hand and turned her back to face me. “I’m all he has and when he hurts, I hurt.”
    “That’s great but what happens when I’m hurt? You seem to be fine with that.”
    I squeezed her hand. “I’m not all right with hurting you.”
    “I think you are and that sucks because…”
    “Because what?”
    She sucked in a breath and shook her head. “Because I’m pregnant.”
    “I don’t care about that!”
    “Oh God, Paul. You…don’t?”
    “No! All I care about is…” I blinked. “I…wait. What did you say?”
    She sighed, shaking her head. “Nothing.” She tugged at her hand.
    I tightened my grip. “What did you say?”
    “Nothing that will matter to you.” She bit her lip. “How could I have been so stupid with you?”
    “Are you serious?”
    “It’s not something I’ve ever felt the need to joke about, Paul.”
    Oh fuck. “Pregnant? You’re pregnant?”
    She nodded.
    I stared at her, stunned that I’d fucked up again. I hadn’t learned anything from getting Brenda pregnant all those years ago and having to marry her.
    She pressed a hand against her lips. “Go ahead, Paul. Ask.”
    “Ask what?”
    “Who the father is.”
    I frowned. “Unless you sleep around, I’m the father.”
    “I don’t sleep around!”
    Then I was the father. I was silent while I tried to process that reality and the fact that this time I wanted the baby. And the certainty that Mark was going to be crushed. It couldn’t be avoided now.
    She put a hand on my arm. “Please, Paul. I need you just as much as Mark does. And so will our baby. Please.”
    What could I do? No matter what choice I made someone I loved was going to be hurt. While I was torn between Mark and Marlena, there was no