LITMIR.BIZ

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      As if reading his expression, a young redhead in tight jeans and an even tighter T-shirt waved to get his attention.

      “Here,” she called to him. “You can put her down inside my van.” Hurrying around to the rear of a light blue van, she unlocked the double doors and threw them open. “The floor covering doubles as a mattress,” she said proudly.

      As people moved out of his way, Sebastian lost no time in crossing to the van. He managed to place Stephanie on the floor just as she sank all five nails into his arm again. He could almost feel the impact of the contraction right along with her.

      “You rip my arm off, I’m not going to be able to use it to help you,” he warned, trying to summon a smile for her benefit. The result barely curved his mouth.

      Getting into the van beside her, Sebastian crouched on his heels and reached for the doors. Stephanie was going to need privacy. His eyes met the woman’s. It was, after all, her van.

      “Thanks.” He indicated Stephanie beside him. “You want to come inside…?”

      But the woman was already backing away, her face growing slightly pale beneath the bold makeup she wore. As if afraid he’d pull her inside, she shoved her hands into her back pockets.

      “That’s okay, I’ll just wait for the paramedics and tell them where you are.”

      To forestall any further debate, the woman then closed both van doors herself, locking out the curious stares of the people who had not dispersed.

      They were alone. Alone in some stranger’s van. Alone with the hurtful past and a present that threatened to physically rip her in half. Stephanie wished she could get up and walk out, but that was totally beyond her power at the moment.

      Still, she didn’t have to make this easy. “What makes you think I’m going to let you help me?” Her breathing began to grow more and more labored.

      Same old Stevi, stubborn as hell. He tried to ignore the wave of affection that came out of nowhere.

      “I don’t think you have much of a choice in the matter, Stevi.” With effort, Sebastian drew her up until he had her back flush with the side of the van. It would be better for her this way, since there was no one to prop up her back. “Unless you want to do an imitation of a pioneer woman. In which case, I’ll take you over to the nearest wheat field and you can take it from there.”

      Perspiration was soaking not only her dress, but her scalp as well. Any second, it was going to start dripping into her eyes. She blinked it away. “You do have a black heart, you know that?”

      Despite the gravity of the situation, Sebastian looked at her for a long moment.

      “Yes,” he said quietly, “I know. But that’s neither here nor there right now.” He looked around the interior of the van. Aside from what looked like a small laundry basket that was holding some canned goods, the van was pretty much empty. He would have preferred far less of a challenge. “You’re sure it’s twins?”

      “I’m sure.” She began fisting her hands, bracing herself. “Either twins, or just about the biggest baby on record.”

      He saw her blanch and grasp for strands of the rug beneath her. “Another contraction?”

      She could barely nod, concentrating hard on not letting this latest onslaught of pain tear her in half. She refused to be one of those screamers people were always ridiculing.

      “Maybe you…are…a doctor at that,” she panted. The contraction receded, leaving her more exhausted than it found her. Drained, she tried to collect herself sufficiently to prepare for the next one.

      She had barely forty seconds.

      “Another one?” he asked incredulously. Her contractions were coming faster than he’d anticipated. The fastest birth he’d ever attended was just under three hours. This was beginning to have the makings of just under three minutes.

      Stephanie’s lips were dry and she felt them cracking as she bit into them. Nobody had warned her it was going to be this awful. But then, no one had told her she was going to be giving birth in a parked oven in the middle of a strip mall parking lot, attended by a man she wasn’t supposed to love any longer.

      “Sharp,” she retorted, vainly trying to grab something to hold on to. But there was nothing to wrap her hands around, nothing to help commute the force of the pain she felt.

      Straining to hear the siren of an approaching ambulance he knew wouldn’t make it in time, Sebastian threw back the hem of her dress. Unless he missed his guess, the curtain was going up and it was show time.

      A quick examination told him he’d guessed correctly. “You’re fully dilated.”

      Oh, boy, this was a big one. Don’t scream, don’t scream, she thought frantically. “Tell…me…something…I don’t…know.”

      Sebastian looked at her then, just one small, stray look spared in her direction. What would she say if he took her up on that? If he told her something she didn’t know? That he, despite all efforts to the contrary, still loved her. Would probably always love her no matter what, to the end of his days. That he knew, and it was a cross he knew he had to bear.

      But there was no point in sharing that with her. It was just something he was going to have to deal with himself.

      “Never could put anything over on you,” he murmured, looking around for a blanket or something to wrap around the babies, hoping that he’d overlooked one in the initial inspection of the van.

      There was nothing.

      “Sebastian!” Stephanie bit back a shriek as she clutched at his upper arm and arched her back, trying desperately to get as far away from the pain as she could. It only followed.

      He hated seeing her like this, hated seeing pain etched into her features without being able to take it away.

      “It’ll be all right, Stevi.” Tenderness arrived out of nowhere, filling him as he brushed the damp hair away from her eyes. “I promise.”

      “I want…that…in…writing.” Damn it, this was a lousy way to have a baby. Babies, she corrected herself. Orphaned and in a parking lot without so much as a clean sheet around to wrap them in.

      No, they weren’t orphaned. They had her. They would always have her, she vowed silently, her mind winking in and out, threatening to take consciousness with it. And she would give them all the love she had stored up in her heart. The love she’d never been allowed to give to anyone.

      “Sorry,” he told her, “afraid I can’t oblige you right now. You’re just going to have to take my word for it.”

      Panting, Stephanie struggled to keep from being steamrollered by the next contraction. Her eyes darted to his. His word. As if she could believe anything he said to her. He’d lied to her once, what was to keep him from lying again?

      “Not likely,” she breathed, arching again even though she knew it did no good. The pain found her no matter where she moved.

      He heard her nails striking the floor’s metal border as she again tried to grab on to something to hold. There had to be something he could give her. He thought of his wallet. Pulling it out of his pocket, he wrapped his handkerchief around it.

      “Here, bite down on this.”

      At any other time, she would have questioned his judgment, thinking he was crazy. But this wasn’t any other time, this was a unique, dire time and she needed something to help divert the pain, to channel the fearsome energy traveling through her body, however strange that “something” might be.

      Grabbing the white linen-wrapped wallet, Stephanie clamped her teeth down on the slightly curved leather just as another contraction scooped her up and tossed her into its midst.

      This one was the worst ever.

      He heard the muffled scream.

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