Free Foolish Expectations by Alison Bliss Page B

your husband coming home?” He smiled when she didn’t answer him. “I didn’t think so.” Hoped was more like it.
    “It’s just that…well, I…” She drew in a deep breath, willing herself to speak, but nothing came out.
    “Like I said, we don’t have to talk about it right now. I’d like an explanation, but it can wait until you’re feeling better. Get some rest.”
    She let out a sigh, which sounded very much like relief, and did as he asked. He walked around to the other side of the bed, slid in next to her, then pulled the covers over both of them.
    “What are you doing now?” she asked, throwing the covers off once again.
    “Going to sleep.”
    “Not here, you’re not.”
    “Your couch is two feet shorter than I am. So, yes, here . Besides, this is not the first time we’ve been in a bed together.” And if he had it his way, it wouldn’t be the last.
    “Just had to bring that up, didn’t you?” She didn’t miss the grin he wore. “Fine. But stay on your own side.” Bailey flipped over, facing away from him as he hiked the blanket up higher on her thigh.
    He chuckled at the irritation in her voice and turned off the lamp next to the bed, plunging them into darkness. “No problem.”
    Within minutes, her breathing evened out and she fell asleep. Guess fatigue won out over frazzled nerves and rushing hormones. Of course, that didn’t solve the problem he was having with his rushing hormones. At least until she started snoring. It was the single most unsexy sound he’d ever heard.
    As she breathed in, a winch tightened in her nasal passages, then the air vibrated past her lips with a gurgling flair. It was quite remarkable such a tiny woman could make such a big noise. He smiled, though. The mother of his unborn child was the bedtime version of Darth Vader.
    And, one way or another, she was going to be his wife.

 
     
    Chapter Nine
     
    Early the next morning, Bailey awoke in the cold sweat of a full-blown panic attack. Fear consumed her, and she mentally gasped as her eyes shot open. In her dream, not only had her body threatened miscarriage, but she’d lost the baby and the nurse was holding her down while the doctor performed a D&C procedure.
    She was on her back, staring at the ceiling of her dimly lit bedroom. Nash’s protective hand lay gently over her stomach, covering the baby growing inside her womb. His baby. She swallowed hard, but didn’t move.
    From an early age, all she’d ever wanted was to be with a kind, decent man while carrying his child. Only she’d pictured a married couple deeply in love waiting patiently for the birth of their child. Not a man and a woman who barely knew each other, with their lives suddenly threaded together by an unplanned pregnancy.
    Nash’s hand twitched on her stomach, then slid under the edge of her shirt. His warm fingers whispered across her skin and settled just above the waistband of her low-cut shorts, as if he was subconsciously trying to get closer with a more intimate touch.
    She mentally sighed at the mess she’d gotten herself into.
    Why couldn’t he just walk away and leave her to deal with this on her own? Hell, he hadn’t even pushed her to tell him the truth about her husband because he hadn’t wanted to stress her out. As if he were already putting her and the baby’s needs above his own. Damn. Why did Nash have to be so…kind and decent?
    Sure, he probably thought asking her to marry him was the noble thing to do. But Nash didn’t love her any more than she loved him. And, like it or not, he obviously thought of her and the baby as a package deal, a duet of sorts, which was something he’d made immediately clear with his crazy marriage proposal.
    She shouldn’t even be considering it, and the fact that she was terrified the hell out of her. Because the last thing she wanted was for him to feel trapped and end up resenting her for it. And that’s exactly what would happen if she married him.
    He was the kind of guy