TornByLove by Marilyn Lee

hesitation where the baby was concerned. Boy or girl, the baby would need me—just as Mark had when Dan had dumped him on me.
    “I need you, Paul, but if you can’t be there for me, I’ll walk out of your life and never look back. I want our baby to have a father, but I can do this alone if I have to.”
    I believed her but damn if I planned to give her a chance to go it alone.
    She lifted her chin and stepped away from me, a determined look in her eyes. “With or without you, the baby and I will survive and thrive. If you want to be a part of our lives, fine. If you don’t, it’ll be your loss. Not ours. We’ll be fine—with or without you.”
    Damn if I didn’t fall a little more in love with her at that moment. I cupped her face in my hands and stared down into her eyes and lost the last piece of my heart I still retained. “There is no way in hell I’m going to allow you and our child to live happily ever after without me right at your side.”
    “Why not?”
    “Why do you think? It has something to do with a word that begins with a capital L. It sorts of sounds like…love.”
    “Sort of sounds like? Sort of doesn’t work for me, Paul.”
    “Ok, it sounds just like love.”
    “It does? Are you sure because I can’t deal with your fucking me one moment and then asking me to go out with Mark.”
    “I never expected or even wanted to be in this position again. But yes. I’m sure. I love you. I fell in love with you the first time I saw you in the supermarket.”
    “What supermarket?”
    I frowned at her. “So you didn’t even notice me?”
    “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
    I told her of my reaction the first time I saw her.
    She smiled. “Oh, Paul. I didn’t notice you then, but I knew the moment we met I wanted to be your woman.”
    Things would have been so much easier had we actually met in the supermarket. Then Mark wouldn’t have felt betrayed as he was bound to feel when he learned the level of my deception. “Good because I am so in love with you I’m about to burst.”
    Tears filled her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. “I didn’t think this would turn out well for me.” She bit her lip. “What are we going to do about Mark?”
    “He’s going to be crushed,” I admitted.
    She sighed. “I don’t want him hurt, but I’ve always been upfront with him, Paul. We never kissed or held hands or even hugged. I thought I’d made it crystal clear to him that I all I had to offer him was friendship. Since we liked so many of the same things, I thought it would be all right for us to be friends.”
    She was a little delusional if she thought any man worth the name wouldn’t have fallen at least into lust with her. But I could see the thought of hurting Mark distressed her.
    “What are we going to do about him?” she asked again.
    “I have to do what I should have done a long time ago—tell him the truth and hope he can forgive me.”
    “Oh, Paul. How can I help? Can we tell him together?”
    I could imagine how well that would go over with him. “Thanks, but this is something I have to do alone,” I said and drew her back to the carpet.
    She cuddled close and we lay together, kissing and caressing each other gently. I spent the night. I was revved up knowing my baby was growing inside her that I couldn’t keep my hands off her. We made love well into the wee hours. Then I had the extreme pleasure of holding her close while she fell asleep in my arms.
    In the morning, we had a shower, made love, and then had breakfast in bed. Then of course, I had to fuck her again. After a nap, I left her to go see Mark. I wasn’t looking forward to our meeting. Admitting my betrayal was going to be one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do.
    When we faced each other at my house, I could almost feel a wave of hate from him. And I didn’t blame him a bit.
    He shook his head. “What the fuck, Uncle Paul? You went behind my back and slept with my woman?”
    “Look, Mark, I