“Anyone who’s going to worry about where you are?”
She shook her head. Her parents wouldn’t know that she’d been caught in this storm because they hadn’t known about her intention to detour through the Snowbelt on her way home.
“Husband? Boyfriend?” he prompted.
“No.” She could see the direction he was going with his questions, and she was almost grateful when her body spasmed with pain again. It was easier to focus on the contraction—whether false or real—than on the reasons why her relationship with her baby’s father had fallen apart.
She was gripping the armrests of the chair, but noticed that he was looking at his watch, counting the seconds. She panted softly and tried to think of something—anything—but the pain that ripped through her. The books she’d read talked about focal points, how to use a picture or some other item to evoke pleasant memories and a feeling of peace. Right now, all she had was Luke Garrett, but his warm gaze and steady tone—proof of his presence and reassurance that she wasn’t entirely alone—somehow made the pain bearable.
“Ninety seconds,” he said. “And I’d guess less than five minutes since the last one.”
“It doesn’t look like my baby’s going to wait for a hospital, does it?”
“I’d say not,” he agreed. “Did you take prenatal classes?”
“No.”
“Your doctor didn’t recommend it?”
“I’ve been traveling a lot over the past few months, so I didn’t have a chance.”
“Traveling where?”
“Pretty much everywhere.”
“Work or pleasure?”
“Both.”
She knew it sounded as if she was being evasive, and maybe she was, but it wasn’t in her nature to share personal information with someone she didn’t know and whom she probably wouldn’t ever see again when the roads were finally cleared and her car was pulled out of the ditch.
“I’m just making conversation,” he told her. “I thought it might take your mind off of the contractions.”
“I was counting on an epidural to do that,” she admitted.
His lips curved. “Well, it’s good that you have a sense of humor, because an epidural isn’t really an option right now.”
She liked his smile. It was warm and genuine, and it made her think that everything was going to be okay. “I knew it was too much to hope that you rented a spare bedroom to a local anesthesiologist.”
He took her hand, linked their fingers together and gave hers a reassuring squeeze.
“I’m scared,” she admitted.
“You’re doing great.”
“I don’t just mean about giving birth,” she told him. “I mean about being a parent.”
“Let’s concentrate on the giving birth part for now,” he suggested.
She sucked in another breath and gritted her teeth so that she didn’t embarrass herself by whimpering. Or screaming. The pain was unlike anything she’d ever experienced, and she knew it would continue to worsen before it got better.
“Breathe,” Luke said, and she realized that she wasn’t doing so. She released the air she was holding in her lungs in short, shallow pants. “That’s it.”
“Okay,” she said when the contraction had finally eased.
“Two minutes,” he announced, not very happily.
She could understand his concern. Her contractions—and she knew now that they were definitely contractions—were coming harder and faster. The idea of giving birth outside of a hospital was absolutely terrifying, but somehow, with Luke beside her, she felt confident that she would get through it. More importantly, she felt that her baby would get through it.
“Should I get undressed now?”
* * *
It wasn’t the first time he’d had a woman say those words to him, but it was the first time they’d come at Luke completely out of the blue.
And apparently Julie realized that her casual statement might be misinterpreted, because her cheeks flooded with color. “So that you can examine me,” she clarified.
Examine her. Right. She was an expectant mother and he was the doctor who was helping to deliver her baby. Of course she would expect him to examine her.
He mentally recalled the brief instructions he’d been given by the 911 operator. Thankfully the human birthing process wasn’t very different from that of other mammals, but Luke felt more than a little guilty that Julie was offering to strip down for him because she thought he was an MD.
It should have been simple enough to think like a doctor. But he couldn’t forget the quick punch of desire he’d felt when his eyes had first locked with hers. Before he’d realized that she was eight and a half months pregnant. Still, the fact that she was about to give birth didn’t make her any less attractive, although he would have hoped that this tangible evidence of her involvement with another man should have cooled his ardor.
But the combination of her beauty and spirit appealed to something in him. She’d found herself in a tough situation, but she was dealing with it. Sure, she was scared. Under the circumstances, who wouldn’t be? But she’d demonstrated a willingness to face that fear head-on, and he had to respect that courage and determination. And when he looked into those blue-gray eyes, he wanted to take up his sword to fight all of her battles for her. Not that she would appreciate his efforts—most women preferred to fight their own battles nowadays, but the desire to honor and protect was deeply ingrained in his DNA.
He wasn’t interested in anything beyond that, though. Sure, he liked women and enjoyed their company, but he wasn’t looking to tie himself to any one woman for the long term. His brothers had both lucked out and found partners with whom they wanted to share the rest of their lives, and he was happy for them, but he didn’t see himself as the marrying kind. Certainly he’d never met a woman who made him think in terms of forever.
Which was just one more reason that he had no business thinking about Julie Marlowe at all. She might be beautiful and sexy but she was also on the verge of becoming a mother—no way would she be interested in a fling, and no way was he interested in anything else.
So he gave her privacy to strip down—and his plush robe to wrap around herself. He was trying to think about this situation as a doctor would—clinically and impartially. But how was he supposed to be impartial when she had those beautiful winter-sky eyes and those sweetly curved lips, sexy shoulders and sexy feet? And despite the baby bump, she had some very appealing curves, too.
When he returned to the family room, he was relieved to see that she was wearing the robe he’d left for her so she wasn’t entirely naked beneath the thin sheet she’d pulled up over herself. But she still looked vulnerable and scared, and every last shred of objectivity flew out the window.
She
