GAMBLING ON LOVE (Travis Series) (28 page)

Anne, now you have no choice
.
I’ll pick you up after work
.
It was signed,
Love, Sam
.

Beth picked up the gossip tabloid and turned each page, scanning for anything related to Sam
.
When she got to the fourth page, the picture jumped out at her
.
The
photo of her and Sam had to have been
digitally altered
because it had been taken just that morning as she’d been coming out of the hospital alone
.

Her eyes were red and puffy and her face was tear
-
stained
.
She looked miserable
.
The pasted picture of Sam made it looked as if he had his arm around her
,
and he was obviously unhappy with her
.
She
read the article
,
her whole body sh
aking
with anger
with each scandalous word
.

The headlines screamed that Sam had done it again
;
he’d gotten the woman pictured with him pregnant and was angry because she refused to get an abortion
.
It recounted the details of the first article she’d received from Stockton
,
minus the photo of Sam and the unnamed woman
.
Beth slammed the tabloid down
.
Sam had to have
given
them the information because he was the only one who knew she was at the hospital that morning
.

By announcing they were not only a couple, but
that they were
expecting a child, S
am had insured that S
tockton would go after
him
.
It was a dirty trick, but he was right, there was no reason to stay away from him now
.
Except, of course, that she was mad as hell at him
.
She stared at the headlines
.
How did Sam know there was a chance she was pregnant
?
Or was it purely coincidence?

Beth grabbed the tabloid Sam had sent her
,
scooping up the
ones
from
Stockton
as well
.
The
only way to find out was to pay Mr. Sam Travis a visit.

 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                      *
**

Beth stormed
up to the front desk at SST Shipping,
clutching all the articles in her hand
.
“Where can I find Sam Travis
?”
she
asked the receptionist.

“His office is right there
.” The
receptionist pointed to a door
.
“Do you have an appointment?”

“No,” she said stiffly, “but he’ll see me.”
 

She headed for Sam’s office, ignoring the receptionist’s pleas to wait until she could announce Beth’s arrival
.
She shoved the door open and
made a point of
slamm
ing
it behind her.

“Hey, sweetheart,” Sam said calmly
.
“I’ve been expecting you.”

Beth threw the articles on his desk
.
“How could you do this, Sam?”

“I couldn’t allow you to push me away.
”

“What about the other article, the one about you forcing a woman to get an abortion?”

“I didn’t force her to get an abortion,” he said softly
.
“I tried to talk her out of it.”

“
Tried
?
Did she go through with it?”

“It’s not important
.
I only let them use that story because it was the most sensational and
I knew
it would get them to print this one.”

“It
is
important, Sam
.
It’s important for me to know
whether
you’re the type of man who
would
force a woman to abort his own child.”

“I can’t tell you any more than what’s
printed
in the article.”

Heat fused in her cheeks, fueled by
a temper that was only seconds away from blowing sky high.
.
“The article didn’t say anything about what happened to the woman and you know it
.
Why are you being so evasive
?
Why can’t you just tell me what happened?”

Sam remained unmovable
.
“I can’t, Anne
.
I need you to trust me when I
say
I did
not
force her to get an abortion.”

“But you won’t tell me
whether
she did it or not?”

“Anne,” he sighed.

Beth leaned over his desk and slammed her hands
down
on the papers
.
“Damn it, Sam, just tell me
.
Did she get an abortion?”

He looked at her for a moment before answering
.
“No.”

“She had the baby?”

“Yes.”

Beth nodded slowly, her emotions
torn. On one hand, she was relieved to discover Sam
hadn’t
coerced
the woman
in
to abort
ing
his baby
, but there was also a
gut wrenching
sense of betrayal
because he hadn’t trusted her enough to tell
her
about his child
.
 

“Do you see the child?”

“No.”

“But why, Sam
?
How could
you
abandon your own child?”

“That’s all I’m going to tell you, Anne
.
No more questions.”

Beth
took in the stubborn set of his jaw
and knew he’d said all he intended to
on
the subject
.
“So
…
where does this leave us?”

“
T
hat’s up to you,
don’t you think
?”

“You knew how I’d react, Sam
.
Did you really expect me to throw myself in your arms after reading about that woman and seeing
a
picture of you walking her into an abortion clinic?”

Sam’s body went rigid
.
“The article didn’t have a picture of that.”

“Not the one you sent me, but the one Stockton sent me did.”

He shuffled through the papers she’d thrown on his desk and found the article she was talking about
.
“I’m sorry, Anne
;
I’d hoped you would never see this.”

“
Sam, the article you sent referred to it. 
Didn’t
it occur to
you
that I might
ask about it?”

“Yes, but seeing the picture had to have hurt you even more and I didn’t want to cause any more pain than was necessary.
”

With a weary sigh, Beth sank
into
the chair in front of his desk
.
“It did hurt, Sam
. I just…
I didn’t think you were that kind of man.”

“I
don’t believe in abortion, Anne. And I would never try to convince someone to get rid of their baby, regardless of the circumstances.
I should hope you know me better than that.”

“I thought I did,” she said numbly, “but now I find out you have a child
that you don’t even care enough about to visit
.
I don’t know
whether
I can live with that, Sam
.
I don’t know how to deal with a man who
would
abandon his own child.”

Sam
’s eyes followed the movement of her hand
as it came to rest on her belly
, an unsettling feeling washing over him.
It was a
protective gesture he recognized because he’d seen it before
. He glanced down at the picture Stockton had sent Anne. The young woman he was shielding had done exactly the same thing. Standing before him, her lips trembling as she declared her intentions to abort the baby,
he’d watched
her hand flutter to her stomach. She’d put up a brave front, but Sam
had seen the fear hovering behind her eyes. The same fear that
stared back at him now through
Anne’s
beautiful
eyes
.

Sam had
never been the type of man to wear his heart on his sleeve, but his voice quivered with emotion when met her tearful gaze.
“Anne
…
are
you pregnant?”

“I
…
I don’t think so
.
So much happened yesterday
,
it slipped my mind that I’d lost my pills in the fire
.
It’s not likely, but we
did
make
love twice last night
and again this morning
,
so I guess it’s possible
.”

Rocketing to his feet, Sam
hurried around the desk
and
squatted
next to
the chair
.
“Is that why you’re so emotional about the articles?”

Beth offered him a thin smile.
“I
would
have been emotional about it anyway
, but the possibility that I had
conceived
made it
doubly painful
.
Sam, it may be nothing
.
Chances are I’m not pregnant, but if I thought for even a minute that you
would
ask me to abort it, I’d walk out of this office right now and never see you again.”

“Anne, no
!
I
would
never do that, not ever.
”
H
is gaze fell to her hand and
the
flat belly beneath
. The idea that his baby was already growing inside of her filled him with a strange sense of wonder.
Sam took her hand and stood, pulling her up with him
.
“I wouldn’t abandon you
or
my child,” he said solemnly
.
“I swear on my life, honey
.
I love you, and I
w
ill
love our baby
,
too.”

“It’s probably nothing, Sam
.
It’s so close to my cycle
;
I doubt that I am
…
”

“I hope you are,”
he said with so much passion, Anne’s eyes widened in surprise.
 

“
You mean…y
ou’re not angry about it?”

“Angry
?
How could I be when you might be carrying my baby
?”
Sam’s face lit up
.
“We’ll get married right away and no one will ever know it was conceived before.”

“Married
?”
Beth
echoed
weakly
.
“I can’t marry you just because I
might
be pregnant.”

“I don’t want to marry you because of the baby
.
I want to marry you because I love you
.
If you’re pregnant, it’s a g
reat excuse
to speed it up
.
”
Sam gathered her closer, breathing in her scent,
loving her more at that moment than he ever imagined possible.
Anne,” he whispered hoarsely, “my beautiful Anne
.
Marry me
.
Make me the happiest man in the world
.
If you’re not pregnant now, I’ll make sure of it on our honeymoon.”