Read Once Around for Free Online Page B

muttered as he opened a can of cat food. Jinx meowed and wrapped herself about his ankles. When was the last time a woman did that? He crouched down and placed the dish in front of the old cat. Jinx was all over it before he stood back up.
     
     
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    Molly wasn't hungry, but she forced herself to make a scrambled egg. She carried her bright yellow sandwich plate and glass of milk upstairs to the den—the only room with furniture in it. She sat on the edge of the bed and looked out the window at the darkening sky as she pushed the lumps of egg around with her fork.
    She had an appointment tomorrow with a lawyer who came highly recommended by three of her newly divorced acquaintances. Spencer Mackenzie had a fairly impressive list of clients and was generally considered to be a fair, kindhearted, honest man—all the things Molly had once believed her own husband to be.
    She put the plate down on the nightstand. Her stomach was tied up in knots. She had a lump in her throat the size of a softball. T he only thing she could manage to get down was a sip of milk.
    Think of the baby, that voice inside her head warned. The baby is what really matters.
    She forced herself to drink some more milk then shuddered as it slid down her aching throat. A person really could cry herself sick. She 'd proved that after Rafe Garrick left and she faced what had happened to her. She'd gone out for the afternoon to see her doctor, and by the time she got home, her whole life had been turned upside-down and inside-out. She'd managed to pull herself together when she called Mackenzie's office, but the second she hung up the phone, the tears started again.
    While she was making supper , Gail from across the street called her to try to apologize, but Molly wasn't in the mood to play the neighbor game. She stood by the answering machine in the kitchen and listened to Gail mouth meaningless platitudes, and she could barely hold back from smashing the machine with the bottom of her frying pan.
    She was so filled with emotion she found it hard to breathe. Anger. Pain. Bitter disappointment. She wanted to hit something or somebody. Just ball up her fist and ram it into Robert's face. She wanted to wipe that phony smile off his face permanently. Knock out a few of those even white teeth. Maybe make him feel one one-hundredth of the pain she was feeling right this minute thanks to him.
    The first stars appeared beyond her window , faint suggestions of light in the milky night sky. The Perseid meteor showers had been a disappointment this year. She'd sat out on her front step for hours, just looking up at the sky and waiting, but alt she saw was a few faint streaks of moving light.
    The baby moved restlessly inside her. She leaned back against the pillows and moved her hand over her belly in gentle circles. Funny how soothing touch could be: You wouldn 't think the touch of your own hand against your own skin could be comforting, but it was. She'd always imagined it would be Robert's fingers splayed across her swelling belly, his mouth pressed against the taut skin, Rafe Garrick's mouth and tongue finding her center, teasing her until—
    Heat blossomed deep inside her chest. Her face burned with it. Robert's tongue never went anywhere it didn't have to go, and she'd never felt the loss. She'd never imagined it sliding up the inside of her thigh or exploring higher. Not in all the years they were together. Not once. Sex had never been the centerpiece of their marriage. Friendship was. Companionship. The joy that came from working together as partners with a common goal.
    She sat up and reached for the cool glass of milk and pressed it against her forehead. She was surprised it didn 't sizzle when it touched her heated skin. The searing image of Garrick's dark head buried between her thighs was almost enough to bring her to a climax, which was laughable since she couldn't remember her last climax. They'd been as infrequent in her life as four-leaf