LITMIR.BIZ

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was the first one to pop into her head. The man was like an uncle to her. She’d known him all her life, from the time she would frequent her father’s animal clinic. Whenever he wasn’t away on business, Josiah would bring his dogs to her father for routine care. And when he was away, he would board them at the clinic.

      When her father died shortly after her return, the retired widower had arbitrarily appointed himself her guardian angel, determined to protect her, especially when it became apparent that she was pregnant.

      “Good for you,” Adam said, doing his best to infuse an upbeat note into his voice. He still intended to watch over her, but at least she wasn’t going to be alone. This meant that he could maintain vigil from a distance. And if knowing that someone else would be holding her, making love with her, stuck a hot knife into his gut, well, that was his problem, not hers. “Then I’ll be going.”

      But even as he told her, his feet didn’t seem to want to move. Stalling for time until he could get himself to go, Adam took out one of the business cards he’d had printed just last week and held it out to her.

      “In case you ever want to find another first edition,” he explained.

      When she made no effort to take it from him, he took her hand in his and placed the card with the new bookstore’s address and phone number into her palm, closing her fingers over it.

      The next moment, as he began to withdraw his hand, she suddenly grabbed his wrist and squeezed it. Hard.

      She looked as startled as he was. Adam searched her face. “Eve?”

      This time, she made no answer. Instead, Adam watched the color completely drain out of her face and heard her catch her breath the way someone did when they didn’t want to scream.

      It didn’t take much for him to put two and two together. “It’s time, isn’t it?”

      Her eyes were wide as she slanted them toward his. “No, no, it’s not. It’s not time,” she insisted heatedly. “I’m not supposed to be due for another three weeks. Maybe four.” Even as she said it, another wave of pain engulfed her. “Oh, God.”

      Still clutching his wrist, she almost buckled right in front of him. Adam quickly put his arm around her shoulders. Drawing her to him, he held her up.

      “Looks like the baby doesn’t have a calendar in there,” he told her.

      “I’ll be all right,” she said fiercely, more to reassure herself than him. She glanced toward the living room. “I just need to sit down.”

      But when she tried to cross to the sofa, he continued to hold her against him. “You might need to sit down, but you’re not going to be all right,” he told her. She was about to protest again when Adam nodded at the floor directly beneath her feet. She followed his line of vision. The small pool made his argument for him. “Your water just broke.”

      “No,” she cried in vain denial.

      There was no time to go back and forth about this. She was in labor. “I’ll drive you to the hospital,” he told her firmly.

      She didn’t want him with her. This was far too intimate an experience to share with a man who still might be living in the criminal world. A man who had looked her in the face and lied to her. She didn’t want him near her baby.

      “I can call a cab.”

      “I’m sure you can,” he told her, keeping his voice even as he continued holding on to her, “but I’m still driving you. If you’re worried about this Josiah guy, I’m sure he won’t mind my getting you to the hospital. I’ll call him for you once we get there if you like,” he promised.

      “I—” The rest of the words she’d intended to say faded as she sucked in her breath again, all but gagging with the effort. Practically panting, Eve shook her head in silent, adamant protest.

      “I never realized you had this stubborn streak,” he commented. “But you’re going to the hospital and I’m taking you. End of story,” he declared firmly. Or maybe, just the beginning.

      “No, I’m not.” She wasn’t going anywhere, and not because she didn’t want to. There was horror in her eyes as she said between her teeth, “The … baby’s … coming.”

      They’d already established that. “I know that, that’s why I’m—”

      Adam stopped talking. He assessed her expression and the way Eve was squeezing his wrist, as if she was about to break it off at any second. He realized she was trying to unconsciously transfer the pain. Which meant her pain level had increased.

      “You’re having the baby right now, aren’t you?” he concluded. Concern gripped him in its giant, callused hand.

      It took Eve a couple of seconds to regain her voice.

      “You think?”

      The moment she confirmed his suspicions, Adam picked Eve up into his arms. Beside them, Tessa began to leap about excitedly, jumping up and trying to become part of the game.

      “Not now, dog,” Adam ordered gruffly. Tessa stopped leaping. Instantly subdued, she glanced from him to her mistress. “Which way to your bedroom?”

      Why was he asking her that? She couldn’t focus her eyes or her brain. “It’s upstairs. But I don’t think …”

      “It would help if you didn’t talk, too,” Adam told her, annoyed that he wouldn’t be able to get her to the hospital in time. “I’ve got to get you onto a bed.”

      She couldn’t seem to get in enough air. As he began to climb the stairs, she laced her arms around his neck, afraid that he might drop her. “That’s the way this whole thing started.”

      “Still got a sense of humor,” he observed, a thread of optimism weaving through him. Even pregnant, she hardly felt as if she weighed anything, he thought. “That’s a good sign.”

      She didn’t want a sign, she wanted this to be over with.

      The room temperature felt like it had gone up by at least ten degrees, if not more, and she felt as if she was caught between a pending implosion and an explosion. The pain now raced through her entire body, generating from her epicenter and radiating out like the unnerving aftershocks following an earthquake.

      Was this what birthing was all about? Suddenly, she felt infinite empathy for the pets she treated. How could animals willingly mate after the first time, knowing that this kind of pain was what was in store for them?

      “I’m … too … heavy,” she protested.

      “Actually, you’re not,” he told her just as he made it to the landing. There were several doors on either side.

      “Which way?”

      Her breath was temporarily gone. Instead of telling him, she pointed to the first door on the left.

      The door was already open. Moving as swiftly as he could, with the dog shadowing his every step, Adam crossed the threshold and placed Eve down on her bed.

      The moment she felt the mattress beneath her, Eve grabbed the comforter on either side of her, bunching it up beneath her frantically clutching fingers.

      Adam saw her bite down on her lower lip.

      “You can scream, you know,” he told her, watching her struggle. “That doesn’t make you any less of a mother—or a woman.”

      “I’m not screaming,” she retorted with passion.

      She absolutely refused to have her baby coming into the world with her screams ringing in his or her ears. But bottling up the pain wasn’t easy.

      It took her a second to realize that Adam was asking her something. Even her eyes felt as if they were sweating.

      “What?” she demanded breathlessly. “What’s your doctor’s name?” Adam repeated. “Mudd,”

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