Free Guardian Cougar (Finding Fatherhood Book 2) by Kit Tunstall, Kit Fawkes Page A

child, he’d beaten her across the back, leaving the scars the emergency room doctor had discovered. He’d been careful to avoid her stomach even then, and he’d kept an even closer eye on her after that.
    “I couldn’t go anywhere alone. I wasn’t even allowed to use the restroom by myself, but slowly, he started to relax again. I guess because I was farther along and made no more effort. I knew it wasn’t safe, and I might die too if I did something to trigger a miscarriage as I entered the second trimester.
    “Thankfully, he grew careless, and one night he drank too much. He passed out before he remembered to lock the door, which had a biometric scanner. Without his fingerprint, I could never get it to open on its own. That night, I slipped out and managed to avoid his goons. When I saw a couple, I pretended to be walking on deck. Theo often took me out in the evenings to get exercise, wanting to ensure his offspring was healthy, so they seemed to think nothing of it.”
    Jackson had kept his arms around her, not speaking and simply offering quiet comfort as she’d spoken. Now, for the first time, he broke his silence. “How did you get off the yacht and into the ocean?”
    “I saw one of the survivor packs. I’d made a note of them on our trips above deck, hoping I might get a chance to use one someday. They were like large backpacks that had a raft, three days of water, and some MREs. I jumped into the water, and it was so cold for a moment that I thought I was probably going to die right then.” She found the courage to look into Jackson’s eyes, seeing nothing but compassion and understanding there.
    “It would have been okay if that had been the outcome. Being dead would have been better than being trapped with Theo for the rest of my life. But I didn’t die. I recovered from the shock of the water and managed to swim several hundred yards from the yacht before fumbling with the pack and getting the raft to inflate. There was also a lifejacket inside, and I put it on as soon as I was in the raft. The tiny little oars weren’t much help, but I was able to get away from the yacht without detection.
    “I floated for two or three days. I’m not entirely sure how long, but I was out of water when the raft started leaking. I tried to use one of the empty water bottles to bail out the water, but it was a losing prospect. The raft capsized, and I swam as long as I could before exhaustion took over. I must have been closer to the shore than I thought, because I apparently got pulled in by the tide, and you found me.”
    His arms tightened around her reflexively. “I’m glad I did. The alternative…” He trailed off, looking troubled.
    She nodded, though she didn’t want to think about it. Panic took over again, and his arms were suddenly too restrictive. She pulled away and got to her feet, pacing around the living room. “He won’t stop. He’ll keep looking for me. He’s looking for me right now. Even if he doesn’t want me back, he’ll want his kid.” She paused in mid step. “Maybe I can get him to leave me alone if I give him the baby?”
    Jackson let out a hissing sound, and his expression was full of pain. “You don’t really mean that.”
    Despair swept through her as she realized Jackson’s feelings toward the baby hadn’t changed. Only hers had, her ambivalence giving way to full-on horror at the idea of bringing Theo’s child into the world. She’d spent the first thirty weeks of the pregnancy dreading the idea and hating that Theo had put his offspring inside her.
    For a couple of blissful weeks, when she hadn’t remembered anything about Theo, she’d been able to embrace the baby’s arrival with a modicum of excitement, but that was gone now. She was back to hating the thought, and she couldn’t bear to raise his child. She knew Jackson was already bonded to the baby, and it wasn’t even born yet. Killian was ruining her life once again.
    She wasn’t thinking when she