Broken Honor Read Online Free PDF Page B

and she fiddled with the too-big watch on her wrist—a nervous habit he remembered from his previous stay. She stared at the floor as if she wanted it to open up and swallow her.
    The little hairs on Quinn’s arms stood atattention, and he got the distinct sense he was not going to like what was coming next. “What are those vitamins for, Mara?”
    After an uncertain moment, she sucked in a deep breath and straightened her shoulders, lifted her gaze to his. “I called you because I’m pregnant. Six weeks.”
    Holy. Fucking. Hell.
    Quinn opened his mouth, but his fucked-up brain was still scrambling to make sense of the words that had come out of her mouth, and no sound emerged.
    Mara was pregnant.
    And he…well, now there was only one explanation as to why she would have called him. He was the lucky genetic donor.
    Mara clasped her hands together in front of her mouth and watched him with worried eyes. Silence stretched for several long minutes between them.
    “Travis,” she finally blurted, “aren’t you going to say anything?”
    Unable to remain standing since his knees had gone rubbery on him, he staggered a few steps and sank to the edge of the bed, feeling as if he’d just been dealt a second traumatic brain injury. He couldn’t seem to make the thoughts in his head come out his mouth.
    Or, no, scratch that. Speaking the chaos in his mind out loud was a bad idea. Very bad idea. If she knew about the firestorm of panic going on inside him—
    “Travis?”
    “You…” His voice came out rusty and he cleared his throat. “Don’t look it.”
    She flapped her arms in a what-do-you-want-me-to-say gesture. “I won’t start showing for another few weeks.”
    She’d always had curves—in fact, those curves were one of the things that had initially attracted him to her. He remembered kissing his way over the gentle swell of her belly, adoring the bit of fat that softened her figure. She’d been so self-conscious about it, claiming she’d recently switched to the night shift at the animal hospital where she worked and started eating too much junk food in an effort to keep awake during the wee hours of the morning. He’d told her he didn’t like skinny women, then spent the next hour showing her just how much he enjoyed her body. He doubted he’d have noticed even if she were showing.
    Mara crossed to her nightstand and took a string of grainy black-and-white pictures from the drawer. She handed it to him, and his mouth went dry. All he saw on the image was a tiny blob. But it was a blob that would eventually become a baby.
    Mara’s baby.
    And…he was going to be someone’s father.
    Oh, shit.
    He suddenly couldn’t suck in an entire lungful of oxygen and bolted to his feet. He needed air. Needed to leave now before he did or said something stupid, and he almost made it to the front door before she caught his arm, looking so beautiful and…hurt.
    Goddammit.
    He should say something. He knew it, and yet he couldn’t come up with a damn thing to say. He turned away from her searching gaze and opened the door.
    “Travis, wait.”
    He hesitated only a second. “I don’t want this.”
    She flinched as if he’d slapped her. “But…” Her voice was little more than a squeak.
    “I gotta go.” He didn’t look back, but he could feel her eyes on him as he climbed into his rental.
    Somehow, he managed to start the car and drive away, but Mara’s scent lingered on his body and reminded him of the pain he’d put in her eyes. He stopped at a red light and only then realized he still had the sonogram clenched in his hand. He flattened the strip out on the steering wheel and studied the images. A chill raced over his skin, raising goose bumps on his arms, and a headache drilled into his brain behind his eyes. He rested his forehead on the steering wheel.
    What was it about Mara that turned him into such a fucking coward? Why, when things started getting heavy, was his first response always to run away from