One-Night Pregnancy. Lindsay Armstrong

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СКАЧАТЬ stared at his profile, her eyes wide and horrified—it looked as if it was carved in stone. She swallowed and said the only thing she could think of. ‘You’re hot on levers, aren’t you?’ Then, ‘I don’t think that’s a very good idea. Much better for you to move on and—’

      ‘Leave it, Bridget,’ he warned, and flicked her a moody blue glance. ‘Finish your coffee.’

      ‘OK, I’m sorry,’ she said contritely, and drank her coffee in silence.

      He took the cup from her and placed it along with his on a ledge beside the bed. Then he climbed back in and took her in his arms again. ‘Go to sleep,’ he said, not unkindly.

      Bridget relaxed and thought how good it felt. How reassuring, how warm and comfortable and natural, and she started to doze off.

      Adam, on the other hand, found himself watching her in the firelight and wondering what it was about this girl that had prompted him to tell her things he’d never told anyone else.

      Because she was entirely unthreatening? Because she had no idea who he was? Yes, but there was more to it than that. Rather, there was more to his feelings on the subject of Bridget Smith, spinster, he thought wryly.

      He felt protective of her, and he had to admire the way she’d slogged through everything nature had thrown at them, but, again, there was more.

      As he watched her, he found himself wondering what it would be like to make love to her. To part those pretty pink lips that were twitching a little as she dozed—what was she dreaming of?—and kiss her. What expressions would chase through her green eyes if he, very slowly and gently, initiated her into the pleasures of sex and wiped out the memories some oaf had left her with?

      It would be no penance, he realised, and he felt his body stir. It would be the opposite. She felt as if she’d been made to fit into his arms, as if that tender little body should be his property…

      Then her eyelashes lifted, taking him by surprise, and for a long frozen moment they stared into each other’s eyes. He held his breath as the expression in those green eyes became an incredulous query, as if she’d divined his thoughts.

      But it was gone almost immediately, that expression, dismissed with the faintest shake of her head, as if she’d banished it to the realm of the impossible or as if it was a dream, and she fell asleep again.

      He released his breath slowly and smiled dryly.

      No, it would not be impossible, Bridget Smith, he thought, and nor was it a dream. But it was not going to happen. For a whole host of reasons.

      He lay for a while, listening to the rain on the roof, deliberately concentrating on it, and on the fact that it seemed to be getting lighter. But in fact the night hadn’t finished with them…

      CHAPTER TWO

      AT ABOUT three o’clock Bridget woke, and this time Adam was asleep. She was still loosely cuddled in his arms, and there was a faint glow of firelight coming from the stove.

      He looked younger, more approachable, but she paused and frowned as she drank his features in. A memory came to her. Could this man possibly have been watching her with desire in his eyes while he’d held her in his arms?

      In this bed? In this shed, perhaps?

      A little tremor ran through her. Had she imagined it or had she dreamt it? Even if she had, it filled her with a dizzying sense of delight to think of it.

      But she put her hand to her mouth in a sudden gesture of concern. How could she feel this way so out of the blue, and about a man she barely knew?

      Not only that, but a man who had made no bones about himself—he was a rolling stone, he was anticommitment, and he had a score to settle over a woman.

      Her eyes widened as she realized it didn’t seem to make the slightest difference. She still got goosebumps, she still felt those delicious tremors just to think that he might want her…

      But would she be any good at it? she wondered. She’d certainly never felt like this before.

      Half an hour later she knew she had to pay a visit to the outside toilet, much as she wished otherwise.

      It was raining again, so she put on Adam’s rain jacket, which covered her voluminously, and unhooked a lamp.

      It was when her mission was accomplished and she was scurrying back to the shed that she came to grief—courtesy the mud and Adam’s jacket. She tripped on the edge of the jacket at the same time as there was an ominous crack—the kind of crack she’d heard before, earlier in the night. She fell over in the mud and the source of the crack—a branch of the gum tree from the hill behind the shed—rolled down on top of her, bringing with it a smothering shroud of debris.

      She got such a fright she blacked out for a couple of moments, and when she came to she couldn’t see anything. The tentacles of hysteria started to claim her, and claustrophobia kicked in.

      ‘Bridget, are you all right?’ Adam called urgently. ‘Bridget, answer me!’

      She wriggled a bit. Nothing seemed to hurt desperately but…‘I seem to be pinned around my waist. I can move my legs, but I can’t get out—oh, no,’ she cried, as there was another crack and more rubble cascaded down the hillside.

      ‘Bridget—Bridget, listen to me,’ he instructed. ‘Protect your head with your arms, if you can, while I get you out. Try not to move. I will get you out, believe me.’

      But she didn’t believe him, even as she heard chopping and sawing noises, even though she knew there would be more tools in the shed he could use, even though she’d seen what he’d done to another tree. That one had been much smaller…

      There was something about being trapped that seemed to convince her she was going to die under the weight of all the rubble the hillside could rain down on her—including, she suddenly remembered, the ruins of the old building she’d seen while showering under the rainwater tank.

      For a terrible moment even her legs wouldn’t move, she couldn’t feel them, and she all but convinced herself she must have broken her back. Later she was to realise it was hysterical paralysis, but at the time her life started to unfold itself in front of her. During the half-hour it took Adam to release her she became more and more convinced this dreadful night was finally going to claim her.

      Her ridiculously short life, with no goals achieved, rolled before her eyes. Nothing much of importance to report at all, she thought groggily, and tears flowed down her cheeks.

      She didn’t immediately believe she was free, until Adam scooped her up in his arms and carried her into the shed.

      ‘Am I dreaming? Is this heaven? Or the other place?’ she asked dazedly.

      He didn’t answer, but put her gently down on the bed. Then he said, ‘I’m going to undress you and assess any damage there may be. Try not to make a fuss.’

      Bridget heard herself laugh huskily. ‘I don’t think I’m capable of making a fuss. I got such a fright—I thought I was going to die.’

      Adam turned away and put the kettle on the stove. Then he turned СКАЧАТЬ