Pregnancy Of Convenience

Pregnancy Of Convenience
Sandra Field

She bit her lip. “So I decided I should come here and have an affair with you and perhaps I’d get pregnant—I’m sorry….”

Cal’s eyes narrowed. “What made you confess?”

“I couldn’t use you like that,” Joanna said in a low voice. “Or deceive you. It would be wrong.”

She sat up, wishing Cal would pull the sheets over the sculpted lines of his torso. Confession or no, she still wanted him. Her whole body was an ache of unfulfilled desire.

He said in a peculiar voice, “You know, this could all work out for the best. You could have a baby, my daughter could have a mother and as for me—why, I could wake up every morning to find you in my bed.”

A cold fist clamped around Joanna’s heart. “What are you talking about?”

“Marriage,” he said.

“Marriage?” she squawked.

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about couples whose passion ends in

pregnancies…sometimes unexpected! Of course,

the birth of a baby is always a joyful event, and

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become wonderful moms and dads—but what

happened in those nine months before?

Share the surprises, emotions, drama and

suspense as our parents-to-be come to terms

with the prospect of bringing a new baby

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Delivered only by Harlequin Presents…

Pregnancy of Convenience

Sandra Field

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER ONE

CAL FREEMAN turned the wipers on high and slid the clutch of his four-wheel-drive into a lower gear. Not that it helped. The snow blowing horizontally across the windshield enveloped him in a world of white, through which he could, occasionally, sight the tall poles that marked the edges of this narrow road across the prairie.

The visibility had been better on the northeast ridge of Everest, he thought semi-humorously. Although the cold was almost comparable. He would never have expected conditions like this in southern Manitoba, not even in January. His friend Stephen had been right to insist that Cal carry emergency supplies when he set off to visit the Strassens, whose isolated home was several miles from the nearest village.

That climb on Everest had been—literally—one of the high points of Cal’s life. The struggle through the pinnacles, the bitter north winds, their decision to shoot for the top without oxygen…suddenly Cal snapped back to the present, his foot hitting the brake. What was that in the ditch to his left? A vehicle?

The snow whirled across the road like a phalanx of ghosts; he could see nothing but a smothering whiteness that mocked his normally acute vision. Slowing to a crawl, Cal peered through the glass. Perhaps it had been his imagination. After all, he and Stephen had stayed up late last night, catching up on the four-year gap since they’d last seen each other. And he’d drunk more than his fair share of that excellent Bordeaux.

No. There it was again, an angular shape skewed side-ways into the ditch, hood tight against a telephone pole. Coming to a halt as close to the side of the road as he dared, Cal switched on his signal lights: not that he really expected to meet anyone else mad enough to be out in such weather. Then he hauled the hood of his down parka over his head and yanked on his gloves.

He wouldn’t find anyone in the vehicle. Not in this bitter cold. But it was just as well to check.

As he stepped from the heated comfort of his Cherokee onto the road, the blizzard struck him with vicious force. The wind chill, he knew from the radio, was in the danger zone: frostbite on exposed skin within a couple of minutes. Well, he was used to that. He tucked his chin into his chest, fighting his way across the icy ruts in the dirt track, limping a little from an old knee injury. How ironic it would be if he, a world-renowned mountaineer, were to slip and break an ankle in one of the flattest places on the planet.