Sleeping With the Enemy Read Online Free PDF Page B

ago, and had rapidly devoured everything he’d written.  His books defied categorization.  Loosely defined as thrillers, they were a cross between steamy, edge-of-your-seat suspense and gritty horror.  Terrifying, addicting, and thoroughly satisfying, they’d kept her up late many a night.
    At lunchtime, she managed to keep a piece of dry toast in her stomach.  Too tired to waste energy celebrating her victory, Rose plumped her pillow and drifted into a deep and dreamless sleep.  When she woke, darkness had fallen.  The television was playing softly in the living room, her nausea had receded, and she decided that it must have been some kind of twenty-four-hour bug.
    But when Monday rolled around, the bug still hadn’t left her system.  Exhausted and cranky and plagued by incessant nausea, Rose called in sick and stayed home to finish the Starbird book.  She went back to work on Tuesday, still feeling like she’d been kicked in the stomach.  The week progressed like a laboring snail, and she was so irritable that by week’s end, everybody was steering clear of her for fear of losing a limb if they came too close.  Friday afternoon, Lillian cornered her in the supply closet, where she’d gone to fetch a light bulb.  Eyeing her with concern, Lil said, “What in blue blazes is wrong with you lately? I’ve met grizzlies with better dispositions.”
    Rose slowly rubbed her temple, where the tiny beginnings of a headache were taking root.  “I’m sorry.  I don’t know what’s wrong.  I’ve been sick to my stomach for a week, all I want to do is sleep, and I’m so grouchy I could bite the heads off chickens.”
    “Well, don’t breathe in my direction.  I don’t need to catch your personality disorder.  Maybe it’s time you tracked down your sexy schoolteacher and got yourself a second helping.  You sure as hell need something to sweeten you up.”
    Rose scowled.  “Oh, sure.  That’s exactly what I need to brighten my mood.  A man hanging around.”
    “Hell, girl, I didn’t say you had to keep him.  Just use him for a while.”
    “Look, Lil, he was gorgeous, he was sexy, he was not for me.”
    “Fine,” Lillian said.  “Fine! I give up.  I’m washing my hands of you.  Just remember not to come crying to me when you wake up one fine morning and realize you’re growing old alone.”
    Lillian left her standing there, mouth agape, the light bulb still in her hand.  “I am not growing old alone,” Rose said aloud to no one in particular.  “I do not need a man to survive.” Her encounter with Jesse Lindstrom had been a freak accident, one she had no intention of repeating.  After the years of hell with Eddie, she had earned her independence.  And no man, no matter how attractive, no matter how sexy, no matter how infuriatingly nice , was going to steal it away from her.
    Besides, her bad temper had nothing to do with Jesse.  It was a result of the flu.  She probably needed more Vitamin C.  Maybe some Vitamin E for energy.  She was generally a ball of fire, but the last couple of weeks, she’d had trouble getting out of bed in the mornings.  It had to be a vitamin deficiency.  She hadn’t felt this tired since she’d been carrying Luke.
    Since she’d been carrying Luke?
    Her eyes shot wide in horror.  The light bulb slipped from her fingers and shattered on the floor.  It couldn’t be possible.  She was thirty-six years old, not some ignorant teenager who didn’t know about birth control.  She was a grown woman with two college degrees.  A former den mother, for God’s sake.  A responsible adult.
    Who’d had unprotected sex, not once, not twice, but three times in the course of a single afternoon.  With a man she’d just met.
    Her ears buzzed and her legs felt spongy.  Not certain she could continue to stand on her own, she felt for a chair and eased into it.  Against her will, she remembered the nickname Eddie had given her before Devon was born, the