Read Let's Pretend (Romantic Comedy, Contemporary, Second Chance, Sensual) for Free Online Page A

out there.”
    Belle stopped midstride and spun around. “And ‘Belle and I have decided to have a baby’ was your life preserver?”  
    “I admit it wasn’t a genius idea. I guess we now know off-the-cuff isn’t my forte.”
    Belle huffed out a contradictory sigh. She was yet to meet a more quick-minded man. Luc could think on his feet better than anyone she knew. To agree with him would have been spiteful, but she was too annoyed to contest his statement.
    “Evidently, stopping to think isn’t either.” She resumed her pace to the en suite’s door, heaved in a deep breath, then blew it out. “What are we going to do?”
    When she turned, she almost bumped into Luc; she hadn’t heard him move from the bed or his light footfall as he came up behind her. He clasped her shoulders, sending warmth tingling over her skin.
    “Stop panicking. Look at it this way; you just need to get through this weekend, right? After that, you... we ...will tell your family the truth—together.”
    “But you’re making it worse, Luc. Now you have a poor old lady getting her hopes up over an event that will never happen.”
    An unreadable expression flickered across his face. “ May never happen, Belle. Who knows, perhaps you’ll find a man you can love enough to settle down with and have lots of babies.”
    A lump rose to Belle’s throat; she couldn’t envision life with any other man but Luc. The trouble was she couldn’t face the uncertainty, the constant dreading to hear he’d been badly hurt...or worse.
    An image of Will Eton—one of the firefighters on Luc’s crew—filled her mind.   Belle had felt physically sick when she’d walked into the hospital theatre and seen him with a large piece of glass sticking out of his stomach, his firefighter’s uniform soaked with blood—the same uniform Luc wore. She’d nearly screamed as she’d realised that, but for a slip of fate, it could have been Luc lying on that table, waiting for an emergency team of surgeons to save his life.
    Tears pricked her eyes. Up to that point, she’d never really equated Luc’s job with death. The realisation had brought back all the pain of losing her father when she was eight, had forced her to face Luc’s mortality and her own weakness. Surely it was easier to end their marriage and learn to stop loving him, than to live every day with the constant fear that this might be the day she became a widow? Luc deserved someone stronger—a woman who didn’t let sirens paralyse her whenever he was on duty.
    A woman who would be able to continue her life knowing she’d never see Luc again. Never make love or babies with him. She was doing the right thing in ending their relationship...it would be too torturous not to. She stepped away from him, straightened the hem of her white tank top as an excuse not to meet his gaze.
    “I don’t think that’s going to happen, Luc.” She’d never love another man the way she loved him.
    He let her keep her space.   “The man...or the babies?” His words carried a deep intimacy that fizzed through her as effectively as if he’d closed the small distance and whispered them into her ear.
    Heaven help her, both ! But to admit that to Luc would be cruel. Especially because she saw his pain when he thought she wasn’t looking. Though he’d never argued or begged her to reconsider, she knew the divorce was as shattering to him as it was to her. She also knew his experience of his parents’ messed-up marriage would force him to let her go for fear of them ending up hating each other. Little did he know she could never hate him. It was her overwhelming love for Luc that scared her, kept her fear’s prisoner.
    With the delicious smell of sautéed onions and herbs wafting from downstairs came Belle’s excuse to make a hasty exit from Luc’s penetrating scrutiny.
    “I’m going to freshen up before dinner.” She didn’t wait for his response as she hurried into the en suite .
    His quiet laugh told her