Please Be Mine

Chapter Fifteen

"You have got to stop crying!" Exasperated and concerned, Taylor put her arms round Selena. "And—well—it isn't that serious, really."

"Taylor, I'm pregnant! And it's the prince's baby." Selena turned reddened eyes in her direction. "How much more serious can it get?"

Taylor winced. "Isn't it too soon to do a test? It could be wrong."

"It isn't too soon. It's been over two weeks!" Selena waved a hand towards the bathroom. "And it isn't wrong. It's probably still on the floor where I dropped it if you want to check, but it doesn't exactly give you a million options. It's either pregnant or not pregnant. And I'm definitely pregnant! Oh God, I don't believe it. Once —once—I have sex and now I'm pregnant. Some people try for years."

"Yes, well, the prince is obviously super-fertile as well as super-good looking." Taylor gave a helpless shrug, searching for something to say. "You always said you couldn't wait to have a baby."

"But with someone! Not on my own. I never, ever, wanted to be a single mother. It was the one thing I promised myself was never going to happen. It really matters to me." Selena pulled another tissue out of the box and blew her nose hard. "When I dreamed about having a baby, I dreamed about giving it everything I never had."

"By which I presume you mean a father. God, your dad really screwed you up." With that less than comforting comment, Taylor sank back against the sofa and picked at her nail varnish. "I mean, how could anyone have a kid like you, so king and loving, and then basically just, well, walk out? And you were seven—old enough to know you'd been rejected. And not even coming to find you after your mom died. I mean, for goodness sake!"

Not wanting to be reminded of her barren childhood, Selena burrowed deeper inside the sleeping bag. "He didn't know she'd died."

"If he's stayed in touch he would have known."

"Do you mind if we don't talk about this?" Her voice high pitched, Selena rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. "I have to decide what to do. I've lost my job, and I can't go home because the wolves outside my flat. And the whole world's think I am a giant slut." Dying of embarrassment, her insides twisting with regret, she buried her face in the pillow.

And she was a slut, wasn't she?

She'd had sex with a total stranger.

And not just sex—recklessly abandoned, wild sex. Sex that had taken her breath away and wiped her mind of guilt, worry, morals.

Whenever Logan touched her, her first thought had always been I mustn't get pregnant. When the prince had touched her the only thought in her head had been more, more...

What had happened to her?

Yes, she'd been upset and insecure about herself after her break up with Logan, but that didn't explain or excuse it.

And then she remembered the way the prince had planted himself protectively in front of her, shielding her from the rest of the group. What other man had ever shown that degree of sensitivity? He's noticed she was upset, shielded her, and then...

Appalled with herself, she gave another moan of regret, and Taylor yanked the sleeping bag away from her.

"Stop torturing yourself. You're going to be a great mother."

"How can I be a real mother? I'm going to have to give my baby to someone else to look after while I work! Which basically means that someone else will pick my baby up when it cries."

"Well, if it's a real bawler that might be an advantage."

Selena wiped the tears from her face with a mangled damp hanky. "How can it be an advantage? I want to be there for my baby."