LovePlay by Diana Palmer

ever lied to you?” she asked sadly.
    He shrugged. “How would I know? You’re an actress, darling.”
    “This isn’t acting,” she told him, touching her belly. She searched his face, but there was nothing there. He was adept at hiding his emotions, if he even had any. She’d never felt more helpless. “Well,” she said after a minute, “you were looking for a way to get rid of me, weren’t you? This just helped you along.”
    “Are you sure of that?” he asked, his eyes level and unblinking. “How do you know what I feel?”
    “No one does. You hide it very well, don’t you?” she asked bitterly. “I’m not quite that experienced yet. I was a pushover. I’d wanted you for so long. I was foolish enough to think that you had some feeling for me. But you never did, did you? It was all just physical with you, from the beginning.”
    “Not quite,” he said through his teeth. His eyes went down to her belly and narrowed. “I was on the verge of a proposal. I missed you those weeks I was away.” Missed her, he mused bitterly. Ached for her! “I was just inches away from falling in love with you.”
    “Was that before or after Cherrie and Tammy?” she asked politely. “You can accuse me of running around on you, but you’re the one with the entanglements. A new woman every night. Amazing, that I lasted so long!”
    “Don’t,” he said gruffly, turning his eyes toward the street. “Don’t make it sound cheap.”
    “Wasn’t it? You were just passing time. I was nothing more than an outlet for your needs, and I was too besotted to know it. Well, at least I won’t spend the rest of my life agonizing over you, Cul. It’s rather a blessing that this happened.”
    “I’d hardly call unwed parenthood a blessing,” he returned.
    “But then, you don’t need any stability,” she told him. “I do. I need love.”
    “Did you love the baby’s father?”
    “As a matter of fact, I did,” she sighed, smiling wistfully up at him. “Idiot though you are.”
    “It isn’t mine, and wishing won’t make it so,” he said coldly.
    “That’s what they say, all right.” She pulled her sweater closer around her, feeling the chill of the wind right through her. “Well, I’m sure you must have a woman waiting somewhere, and I’m not supposed to get chilled. So I’ll say goodbye.”
    “Give my regards to your other lover.”
    She turned on him, her eyes wide and dark and accusing. “Have those tests run again. I dare you.”
    “I don’t need to.”
    “You’ll wish you had,” she promised him, eyes flashing. “One day you’ll realize that I was telling you the truth, but it will be too late. And that will be the biggest irony of all. You’ll have a child that you’ll never know. You’ll have denied the one thing in your life you profess to want the most!”
    And she turned and walked away, oblivious to the tautness of his body, the harsh lines in his face. At that moment, she didn’t care if she never saw him again.

Six
    T he confrontation worked on Bett’s emotions like cold water. She went through the motions of living, but she felt nothing. Cul’s words had cut like a knife. How could he be so blind? she wondered. How could he profess to care for her, and then refuse to believe her when she told him the truth?
    Her appetite was the first casualty of the upset. David noticed that she wasn’t eating and one night after the performance he took her out to an all-night eatery and tempted her with eggs and toast.
    The timing was just right. She closed her eyes, savoring the smells, as outside the dark sky was pelting rain.
    “Feel okay?” David asked softly, smiling at her from the stool next to hers at the deserted counter.
    “Just fine, now,” she agreed, digging heartily into the eggs. “I hadn’t even realized I was hungry.”
    He chuckled, finishing off his toast. “It was a good night, though, wasn’t it? We must be doing something right, the crowds are still pouring