page46 (1/2)

But the closer they ca hi to do with their love, he kept telling himself But as he looked into her face, strained and unhappy, he knew it did

He sat down beside her, and Tessa sank into his arainst his chest

Chase closed his eyes and prepared hi, haven't you?"

She nodded, quiet tears soaking his shirt

"Whatever you want Tessa, I'll do it" His hand roamed familiarly over her belly, "If it's what you want"

Dread deepened his voice and Tessa didn't want to hurt his right now She couldn't think clearly And although she doubted being apart wouldon their situation, maybe even erase the doubts that hovered like an ax about to fall She was breaking his heart and draining his patience Her e her real content her into a pile of e harder and harder to look into his hopeful eyes each time he asked her to be his wife

She squeezed her eyes shut, forcing the words past her pain, the agony she'd give him "Till the baby comes, I don't think we should see each other"

Hurt stabbed through Chase, and his ht She could destroy him with just a feell-chosen words

What she'd said didn't really hit him until later that day when he went to put on his cutoffs and realized they were at Tessa's Itthe next week, he felt like a voyeur, a pervert, stealing looks at her fro He passed her on the road and nearly smashed his Jeep, saw her in the market and felt as if she'd kicked hi her basket in the center aisle

Yet he called her every day, needed to hear her voice, and though she wasn't her usual conversational self, she talked about anything except what she was feeling Or what she was doing to hi up the phone, he felt drained fro the subject of how totally she'd pushed him out of her life

Then, after a week, he got angry

"You're acting too much like Christian," Colin said from across the table Chase's eyes shot over the poor excuse for a poker hand as he tossed a chip onto the table "Is that right?" Colin didn't notice the explosive edge in Chase's tone or he would have just kept his mouth shut