Princess, Without Cover Read Free Page B

have sex.  I’m not an idiot. I’ve seen the birth control pills.”
    She gestured toward the innocent looking little pink and white packet sitting innocuously next to Sydney’s bathroom sink.
    Sydney was instantly uncomfortable, feeling as though she was five years old instead of seventeen. 
    “Since I’m on the pill and we’re only with each other… no. We don’t use condoms.” 
    She faltered as she saw the glacial look on her mother’s face.   “I know that’s bad, but-”
    “Sydney, when was your last period?” Jillian interrupted in a voice that dripped icicles.
    Sydney stared at her mother in shock at the implication of the question. 
    “I don’t know.  I’m not very regular.  It’s been a couple of months, I think.” 
    Her mother’s face hardened into stone, her mouth a straight, creased line. 
    Sydney was quick to add, “But that’s normal for me.  Like I said, I’m not regular. And I’m on the pill.  I’ve never missed taking one.”
    “You’re an idiot, Sydney.  How could you be so careless?  Antibiotics can negate the effect of the pill.  Wait in here.  Do not come out of this room.” 
    Her mother’s voice was so icy, that Sydney didn’t bother to assure her that she wasn’t going anywhere.  She couldn’t if she wanted to. She felt too ill to stand up. She simply lay with her cheek pressed pathetically against the floor until her mother returned thirty minutes later. 
    She sat up shakily as Jillian roughly thrust a small box into her hands, trying to ignore the fact that the room was spinning.
    “Here.  Take this.  I’ll wait out here.”
    Her mother turned her back on her and stalked out without another word.
    As Sydney hovered over the toilet, trying to pee on the plastic stick and not her fingers, her sole humorless thought was that wagging her butt over a toilet was definitely not the behavior of a senator’s daughter.  She sat back down on the cool floor to wait, her head leaned back against the wall and her slender arms wrapped tightly around her knees. 
    Barely two minutes later, her mother burst back through the door to find Sydney staring in blank fixation at the urine saturated stick in her hand. 
    “Well?” Jillian demanded impatiently. 
    Sydney wordlessly turned the pregnancy test toward her. 
    There were two blue lines. 

CHAPTER TWO

    Well, today was as good a day as any to die, she supposed.  As Sydney glanced around the room, she only saw people that wanted to kill her.  Several of them in fact.  She might as well be facing a firing squad. Her precarious situation had the same deadly implications.
    Even though the Ross family had smiled and acted as though nothing was amiss in front of their photographer, Sydney had needed to duck out and run for the bathroom several times.  During one such time, Jillian had taken the liberty of calling Christian’s parents.  They were now sitting stone-faced next to Christian and across the table from Sydney in her father’s den. 
    Her own parents sat next to the Price’s, leaving Sydney to sit all by herself, facing everyone else alone. Right now, she felt as though it was Sydney Ross against the world…the condemned facing the executioner. 
    Her father’s distinguished face was rigid and stern.  He alternated between glaring at his daughter and then at the boy who had dishonored her, as though he couldn’t decide who he was more furious with.  Sydney couldn’t bring herself to meet his gaze or anyone else’s, for that matter. 
    The tension in the room was palpable.  Even Christian was uncharacteristically sober. She felt horrible that she hadn’t even been able to tell him the news herself.  He kept glancing at her, but his face was so guarded that she had no way of gauging how upset he was.  She wondered what he was thinking.  Was he angry with her?   Was he going to be supportive?  She flickered a glance toward him again.  He was staring at his hands quietly. 
    There was