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Shades of Twilight

Webb looked at the stick. The slot had been white; now it was blue. It was a simple test: if the color of the slot changed, the test was positive. He eased his arms around her, pulling her into the comforting warmth of his body. She was pregnant. She was going to have his baby.

"You really didn’t think you were, did you?" he asked curiously.

She shook her head, her expression still stunned.

"I don’t-I don’t feel any different."

"I imagine that will start changing soon." His big hands slid down to her flat belly, gently massaging. She could feel his heart thumping hard and fast against her back. His penis rose to jut insistently against her hip.

He was excited. He was aroused. She was stunned at the realization. She had been thinking he would feel only responsibility for the baby; she hadn’t considered that he would be excited at the prospect of being a father.

"You want the baby," she said, her amazement plain in both face and voice.

"You wanted me to be pregnant."

"I sure as hell did." His voice was rough, and he tightened his arms around her.

"Don’t you want it?"

Her hand drifted downward, lightly settling over the place where her child, his child, was forming inside her. Radiant wonder lit her face, and her gaze met Webb’s in the mirror.

"Oh, yes," she said softly.

Corliss slipped into Roanna’s bedroom. She was alone upstairs, because all the others had either gone to work or were down stairs at breakfast. She had been trying to eat, but with her pounding headache and upset stomach, it had been more of a pretense than anything else. She needed some coke, just a little of it to make her feel better, but all the money she’d gotten before was already gone. When Webb and Roanna had entered the breakfast room, she had made a point of getting up and leaving in dignified, offended silence, but they hadn’t cared, the bastards. She had stopped just outside the door and listened, waiting to hear what they said about her. They hadn’t mentioned her at all, as if she weren’t important enough for discussion. Webb had told her to leave Davencourt and poof! just like that she didn’t matter any more. Instead, Webb had announced that he and Roanna were getting married.

Married! Corliss couldn’t believe it. The thought made her mind fog with rage. Why would anyone, especially someone like Webb, want to marry a mealy mouth like Roanna? Corliss hated the bastard, but she didn’t underestimate him. Despite what he’d said, she could have handled Roanna, she was sure of it. She couldn’t handle Webb, though. He was too hard, too mean. He was going to throw her out of Davencourt. And that’s why she had to get rid of him.

She couldn’t leave Davencourt. She felt sick with panic at the prospect. Nobody seemed to care that she needed to live here. She couldn’t go back to that dinky little house in Sheffield, back to being just a poor relation to the rich Davenports. She was somebody now, Miss Corliss Spence, of Davencourt. If Webb threw her out, she’d become a nobody again. She wouldn’t have any means of getting money for her expensive little habit. The thought was unbearable. She had to get rid of Webb.

She prowled through Roanna’s room. She’d get to the money, but first she wanted to poke around a little. She’d gone first into Webb’s room, hoping to find something of his she could use, but-surprise, surprise! It didn’t look as if he’d slept there. His bed was perfectly made, not a wrinkle in it. Somehow she couldn’t see him making his own bed, not the arrogant Webb Tallant. Well, wasn’t he the sly one? No wonder he hadn’t wanted his old suite. He’d chosen this room beside Roanna’s so they would have a cozy little arrangement, alone here at the back of the house.

She’d gone then into Roanna’s room, and sure enough, the bed was a wreck, and both pillows bore the imprint of a head. Who ever would have thought it of prissy Roanna, who didn’t even date? But she sure didn’t mind screwing, from the looks of that bed. Smart of her, too. Corliss hated to admit it, but this was one time Roanna had been the smart one. She’d made certain Webb wouldn’t tell her to leave, by setting herself up as a convenient source of sex, and somehow she’d convinced him to marry her. Maybe she was better in bed than she looked. Corliss would have slept with him herself if she’d thought of it. It pissed her off that she hadn’t.

She wandered into the bathroom and opened the mirrored door to the medicine cabinet. Roanna never kept

anything interesting in there, no birth control pills or condoms, no diaphragm, just toothpaste and boring shit like that. She didn’t even have any good cosmetics Corliss could borrow.

She glanced down at the small trash can and went still.

"Well, well," she said softly, bending down to pick up the box. A do-it-yourself pregnancy test. So that was how Roanna had done it.

She was a fast worker, Corliss had to give her that. She must have made her plans and gotten in bed with him first thing, when she’d gone to Arizona. She probably hadn’t expected to get pregnant so fast, but what the hell, sometimes you took a chance and hit the jackpot.

Wouldn’t Harper Neeley be interested in hearing about this?

She didn’t bother with the money after all. This was too good to wait. Quickly she slipped out of Roanna’s room and went back to her own. Harper was her only hope. He was one strange dude; he seared her, but he excited her, too. He looked like there was nothing too low or raunchy for him to do, nothing he would balk at. It was weird the way he hated Webb, almost to the point he couldn’t think about anything else, but that was to her advantage. Harper had messed up twice, but he would keep trying. He was like a gun; all she had to do was point him and fire.

She called him to set up a meeting.

Harper’s eyes gleamed with a cold, feral light that made Corliss shiver inside with both fear and satisfaction. His reaction had been more than she’d expected.

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