Baby Love Read Online Free PDF Page B

from his chest cavity into his mouth? "Use your blouse for what?"
    "A diaper. " "Say what?"
    "I have to change him, " she said in a shrill voice, "and my blouse is all I've got. I'll need the sweatshirt later to keep him warm, and the nylon jacket isn't absorbent. "
    He quickly shrugged the coat from his shoulders. "Here, I'll lend you my T-shirt. " Lend? As if he'd ever want it back. "Without your blouse, you'll be exposed to the cold. The nylon of that jacket will feel like ice against your bare skin every time the wind hits it. "
    He shucked his shirt in record time, then peeled off the T-shirt and handed it around to her.
    She took hold of it between thumb and forefinger, raising it up to the weak light of dawn.
    Shocked by the frigid air that washed over his naked upper torso, Rafe quickly slipped his shirt back on. He paused in the buttoning to stare at the undergarment she held up with such delicate but apparent distaste.
    It looked— gray. Rafe leaned closer to peer at it, convinced his eyes must be deceiving him.
    The last time he'd looked, it had been white. Of course, he couldn't recall exactly when that had been—or how drunk he was at the time.
    "It'll do for a baby diaper. It's just the light. " At least he hoped it was only the light. "It isn't really dirty. "
    "How long since you washed it?" "Not long. " He thought back. "In South Dakota, I think it was. "
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    "South Dakota?"
    "Yeah. This big old gall who ran the mission there washed my clothes while I was sleeping one off. That was only—let's see... " Rafe peered at the shirt again. Shit. "What day is this?"
    "The twenty-sixth of October. Or is it the twenty-seventh?"
    "You mean it's damned near Halloween?"
    She flashed him a slightly appalled look.
    How time did fly when you never sobered up. "Really? I can't believe it's almost November. "
    She let the T-shirt puddle on the floor next to his leg and reached for the front of her blouse again. "I'm sorry, Mr. Kendrick, but I can't possibly put something that filthy on my baby.
    Better if I use my blouse and wear your shirt myself. Close your eyes, please, " she said in a shaky voice that told him she felt none too sure he wouldn't attack her the instant he glimpsed bare skin. "I'll just slip your shirt on first. Then I'll change Jaimie. All right?"
    "All right. "
    He leaned his head back and started to close his eyes. Only just as his lids were fluttering shut, he felt her lean forward to peel the blouse down her arms, and somehow, his upper and lower eyelashes never quite met.
    After a two-year abstinence, it seemed to Rafe that he should enjoy stealing a peek at a partially clad female. Instead he felt as if a mule had kicked him in the guts. Her back was covered with bruises, all of them still an angry red, which he knew from experience would darken in another day or so to deep black-and-blue marks. Interspersed among the bruises were superficial cuts. There was no mistaking them for anything but the marks of a man's ring, for they were surrounded by knuckle prints.
    Rafe ended up closing his eyes, all right, not to preserve her modesty, but in outrage. The sick son of a bitch! The pictures that exploded in his mind snapped him rigid with fury. To bruise a woman like that, a man

    32 CATHERINE ANDERSON
    would have to repeatedly drive his fists into her body using all his strength.
    It seemed like an eternity passed before she finished changing the diaper. As he once again enfolded her in the coat with him, he couldn't help but notice how the fussy baby eagerly nuzzled below her ear.
    "I think he's hungry, " he needlessly pointed out. "Don't you think you'd better try to feed him again?" She glanced over her shoulder. "Would you mind closing your eyes again, please?"
    In answer to that question, Rafe loosened his grip on the coat so she would have room to maneuver and let his eyes fall closed. Jaimie suddenly broke off in mid-screech, his eager little mouth making suckling sounds that seemed