Free The Mistress's Child by Sharon Kendrick Page B

from a dress which was making her uncomfortably aware of the tingling sensation in her breasts. Just what did he do to her simply by looking? She twisted the stem of her glass round and round. 'What shall we drink to?'
    He studied her for a long moment. 'How about to truth?'
    She took a mouthful and the warmth of the liquor started to unravel the knot of tension which had been coiled up in the pit of her stomach all day. She stared at him. 'Do you really think that you have a monopoly on truth? Why the hell do you think I didn't contact you and tell you when I found out I was pregnant?'

'What goes on in your mind is a complete mystery to me.'
    Because you don't know me, thought Lisi sadly. And now you never will. Philip's opinion of her would always be distorted. He saw her as some kind of loose woman who would fall into bed with just about any man. Or as a selfish mother who would deliberately keep him from his own flesh and blood.
    'Think about the last words you said to me,' she reminded him softly, but the memory still had the power to make her flinch. 'You told me you were married. What was I supposed to do? Turn up on your doorstep with a bulging stomach and announce that you were about to be a daddy? What if your wife had answered the door? I can't imagine that she would have been particularly overjoyed to hear that!'
    He didn't respond for a moment. He had come here this morning intending to tell her about the circumstances which had led to that night. About Carla. But his discovery of Tim had driven that far into the background. There were only so many revelations they could take in one day. Wouldn't talking about his wife at this precise moment muddy the waters still further? Tim must come first.
    'You could have telephoned me,' he pointed out. 'The office had my number. You could have called me any time.'
    'The look on your face as you walked out that night made me think that you would be happy never to see me again. The disgust on your face told its own story.'
    Self-disgust, he thought bitterly. Disgusted at his own weakness and disgusted by the intensity of the pleasure he had experienced in her arms. A relative stranger's arms.
    He put the wineglass down on the table and his eyes glittered with accusation.
    'The situation should never have arisen,' he ground out. 'You shouldn't have become pregnant in the first place.'

           
    'Tell me something I don't know! I didn't exactly choose to get pregnant!'
    'Oh, really?' The accusation in his voice didn't waver. 'You told me that it was safe.' He gave a hollow laugh. 'Safe? More fool me for believing you.'
    Her fingers trembling so much that she was afraid that she might slop wine all over her dress, Lisi put her own glass down on the carpet. 'Are you saying that I lied, Philip?'
    His cool, clever eyes bored into her.
    'Facts are facts,' he said coldly. 'I realised that we were not using any protection. I offered to stop—' He felt his groin tensing as he remembered just when and how he had offered to stop, and a wave of desire so deep and so hot swept over him that it took his breath away. He played for time, slowly picking up his glass and lifting it to his lips until he had his feelings under control once more.
    I offered to stop,' he continued, still in that hard, cold voice. 'And you assured me that it was safe. Just how was it safe, Lisi? Were you praying that it would be—because you were so het-up you couldn't bear me to stop? Or were you relying on something as outrageously unreliable as the so-called "safe" period?'
    'Do you really think I'd take risks like that?' she demanded.
    'Who knows?'
    She gave a short laugh. If she had entertained any lingering doubt that there might be some fragment of affection for her in the corner of his heart, then he had dispelled it completely with that arrogant question.
    'For your information—I was on the pill at the time—'
    'Just in case?' he queried hatefully.
    'Actually—' But she stopped short of