Broken Honor Read Online Free PDF

indelicately.”
    “Girl, I don’t do delicate. And I gotta ask, was it as good as you remember?”
    Mara felt her face go warm again against the cool wood of the tabletop and was glad her best friend wasn’t there to see the blush. “Better.”
    “Wow. I’m…actually a bit jealous. How is the pregnant lady getting more action than me?”
    BJ scratched at the back door and she got up to let the dog outside. The January morning air was crisp, the sky brilliantly blue, and she lounged in the doorway while BJ sniffed around the yard for a place to take care of business. “I don’t know what to make of him showing up like this.”
    “Well, look on the bright side. At least he can’t knock you up again.”
    “You’re not helping.”
    “Do you believe he’s going to stick this time?” Lanie asked seriously after an extended silence.
    Oh, God, she wanted him to. She wanted to see if they had anything more between them beyond the explosive sex. When he came back and stayed for a week in November, she’d thought they might have something, the kind of something that could last. They had similar tastes in TV shows and movies, their views on religion and politics lined up, and he even shared her love of bowling, which had been a complete surprise.
    But then he’d left without a word.
    Mara sighed. “I…I don’t know. Part of me hopes so. Really, really hopes so. And the rest of me’s calling that part an idiot. Men like him don’t stick.” She noticed movement out of the corner of her eye and turned. Someone was walking through the kitchen of the empty house next door.
    Strange.
    She didn’t think it had sold yet, but maybe they were having an open house today. And now that she thought about it, she remembered seeing an unfamiliar car parked out front when she took her trash to the curb this morning.
    BJ came trotting over and dropped a half-dead lizard at her feet, distracting her. “Oh, gross. I have to go. BJ just brought me another lizard.”
    Lanie laughed. “Dumb mutt has about as many brain cells as a lizard. Call me if you need anything. I mean it. Anything, even if it’s just to talk because that bastard walked out and broke your heart again.”
    “He didn’t break my heart.”
    “Uh-huh,” Lanie said before hanging up.
    Mara set the phone aside and, fighting back a surge of nausea, dealt with the mess on her porch. She wasn’t as naive as she’d been six weeks ago, and she had accepted Travis into her bed last night with no expectations of commitment. But, yes, they would have to talk when he woke up. She didn’t expect commitment from him—wasn’t even sure she wanted it at this point—but now that he was here, she couldn’t very well let him leave without telling him about the baby.
    He deserved to know. She just wasn’t sure how he’d react when he found out. Would he be disgusted? Thrilled? Would he claim the tiny human growing in her womb wasn’t his? She didn’t know if she could take that rejection so close on the heels of her family’s disownment.
    Maybe she should wait a few more days, see how things went with him before she broke the news?
    Mara shook her head. Such a coward. Putting it off longer would only make it harder. She knew that, and yet she hoped he was still sleeping as she ushered her dog inside and went to check on him again.
    The bed was empty.
    For a second, her heart stopped. Had he walked out again without a word?
    But then her bathroom door opened and there he stood, wearing the same clothes he’d arrived in, his hair damp from a shower. She took a step toward him, but the look on his face stopped her in her tracks. It wasn’t anger but an emotionless void, almost as if he was wearing a stone mask, and it sent a chill racing over his skin.
    “You said we need to talk?” He tossed her bottle of prenatal vitamins on the bed. “So talk.”
    …
    The relief on Mara’s too-expressive face when he stepped out of the bathroom was short-lived. Her smile faded,