Always (Family Justice Book 1) (58 page)

Going through a curtailed version of her morning routine, Stephanie quickly refreshed herself. She even used Calder’s toothbrush after a second’s hesitation because there was no way in hell she was facing him without having brushed her teeth.

Luckily, he had a hairbrush on the counter.
Okay now, stop thinking about his long hair—that’s not helping.
Quickly making her sleep tousled mane presentable, she then hurried to retrieve her dress, pulling the t-shirt over her head as she moved.

It only took a minute to slip on the simple but elegant lace dress. She found the extra-long strand of black pearls underneath when she took the dress from the hook. After one last hasty look in the mirror, Stephanie grabbed the t-shirt and pearls, switched off the light and silently opened the door.

Thinking she was going to tiptoe past a sleeping Calder, she was shocked to find him gone from the bedroom. The only evidence he’d been there was the rumpled covers and pillows they’d left behind.

She found him in the tiny kitchen wearing nothing but sweats that hung indecently low on his muscular frame. Of course. Why the hell not?

Swallowing a surge of nervousness, she called out as she approached, “Hi,” then instantly wished she’d thought that through first because her voice came out sounding husky and seductive.

He turned and smiled at her while checking her out from head to toe. “G’morning m’lady,” he responded.

My goodness, he is Mr. Bright-Eyed and Chipper in the morning.

“Making some coffee and there’s some of Ria’s breakfast biscuits with honey butter in a bowl on the table.”

She saw him looking at what was clutched in her hand. Showing him the t-shirt and pearls. Stephanie shrugged self-consciously and said, “I’ll wash the t-shirt and get it back to you.”

“No need for that,” he chuckled.

“No, really. I want to.”
Oh for heaven’s sake. Will you stop babbling like a schoolgirl?

“Talked to Alex. No overnight news. He’s been in contact with Drae throughout the night. They’re going to leave for the hospital in about an hour.”

“Oh. Okay.”
No news is good news, right?
“Maybe I can catch a ride with them,” she muttered mostly to herself.

Calder put down the coffee mug he’d been preparing and came straight to her, taking the shirt and pearls out of her hand and laying them on the counter. Then he just gathered her into an all-encompassing embrace and kissed her to within an inch of her sanity.
Oh my.

“No,” he grumbled when he set her free. “I’ll drive you. Thought we settled this, Duchess.”

Oh
. Had she hurt his feelings? She couldn’t tell—but his grumpy manner suggested maybe she had.

“Sorry.” She tried extra hard to convey a lot with that one word. “I’m not used to having back-up. It’s not something I’m used to.”

That seemed to erase the gloominess. He grinned at her and said, “You’re forgiven but only because you looked so fucking cute in my t-shirt.”

Cute? She looked cute?
Stephanie was momentarily paralyzed with shock when a girlish giggle of feminine delight burst from her mouth.

The knowing look and wolfish swagger that Mr. Sexy-in-Sweats laid down after that embarrassing display wrecked Stephanie’s hard fought for composure.

ALEX WAS COLLAPSED AND STILL quivering on top of Meghan after a slow, passionate early morning loving. She was trembling, too. There had been a lot of emotion passing back and forth between them after a long, restless night filled with worry and concern.

He’d taken her slowly. Waking her with a blissful worship of her entire body. There wasn’t a centimeter of her flesh that he hadn’t caressed or anointed with his lips and tongue. His big, masculine hands all over her skin had melted her core.

When he’d gorged on her wetness, she’d writhed and moaned, losing all control of her functional abilities. She’d seen actual starlight behind closed eyelids when she came.

And then, he was inside her. His claiming of her body had been deliciously passionate. With her legs draped about his waist, she used the leverage, rising up to meet his languid thrusts, and undulated as she whimpered her pleasure.

Her hands had been everywhere as he stroked his enormous cock in and out of her. She loved how warm his skin was, sometimes scoring her nails across his flesh when the desire inside her became greedy and desperate. She’d grabbed his ass and groaned loudly as her hands felt his flexing muscles. He’d kiss her deeply when she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. It had been a slow, sexy communion of two people deeply in love.

Her magnificent beastly giant lay on top of her, his face nestled in her neck, whispering words of praise and adoration close to her ear as he snaked his hands beneath her ass and held tight. Feeling his whole body on hers while he pumped into her had done her in.

A wild, beautiful orgasm confirmed his possession of Meghan’s body, heart, and soul. She came in a rush of sweet, wet heat that devastated her emotions and wracked her entire being in a series of spine-tingling contractions that left her in tears.

Alex had joined her climax before it subsided, filling her when he came while never slowing or stopping the luscious stroking that ended up shattering both of them.

She wanted to lie there, pinned beneath his hulking body, and stay intimately joined, forever.

She heard him murmur, “I’d die if anything happened to you.”

Meghan tightened her embrace. “I feel the same about you,” she whispered.

They left some time later for the trek back to the hospital, with their hands clasped together whenever possible. Neither of them wanted to let go of the other. Silent worry for Drae and Tori was with them every moment.

Calder and Stephanie pulled in almost immediately after them and Meghan noted the quiet, subdued vibe the two put off. But they
did
hold hands just like she and Alex were doing.

Lost in her private thoughts, she hadn’t tuned in to the conversation Alex and Calder had in the elevator until she heard her fiancé’s uncle declare, “We stopped at Drae’s so Stephanie could get changed and grab some fresh clothes for Tori.”

She didn’t catch whatever came after that because all she could concentrate on was the insinuation that Stephanie had spent the night with him. In the casita.
Tori will be so pleased
, she thought.

AFTER MOVING THEM INTO A large, private birthing suite where there was more emphasis on comfort, their environment lost a little of its clinical feel—but not much. It was still glaringly obvious that they were most certainly
not
at home.

Victoria seemed relieved to be out of the sterile exam room and slightly bemused by being placed in a birthing suite. She still had no idea how serious her condition was.

The doctor pulled him aside during morning rounds. It was a surreal moment. Did all expectant fathers feel this helpless? Waiting to hear the latest update, he envisioned all sorts of desperate scenarios.

“Technically, it’s called hypotension. Some lowering of the mother’s pressure is normal during the end of the second trimester. But your wife is close to her due date so this sudden drop is a concern. Additionally, her heart rate is elevated, and while the baby isn’t showing any signs of distress, it isn’t advisable to let this go on for very long. Frankly, it puts too much stress on both mother and child.”

Drae was hyper-alert, picking apart every word the doctor was telling him. Taking in the details, weighing the man’s tone and manner, trying to stay on top of what was being said between the lines.

It had been a fucking horrible night. Hospitals just weren’t designed to be a calm, relaxing atmosphere. The equipment beeped and chirped, monitor screens lit up in the background, nursing staff came and went. No matter how hard he tried to manage Victoria’s environment, it was still a damn hospital and not a spa.

She’d gotten some rest, which relieved him greatly, but his wife had also fallen apart emotionally in the middle of the night—crying softly within his embrace, pouring out her fear—until empty and despondent, when she’d fallen back to sleep.

It had ripped his heart out. Drae just couldn’t wrap his mind around anything that made his Victoria so miserable. She wasn’t in control of what was happening in her body—neither of them were—and that harsh awareness scared the shit out of them.

“What are the options, Doctor? Tell me what to expect.”

“She needs to stay calm, Mr. St. John. I know that sounds impossible, but we have to keep Victoria comfortable and on as even a keel as we can. Give her body a chance to find some sort of middle ground.”

Goddammit. Was that even a diagnosis? Stay calm?
What the fuck.
There was something he wasn’t telling him.

With his arms crossed against his chest, Drae adopted a wall of power posture and fixed the man with a dark scowl.

“Doctor—I spent a decade in Special Forces dancing with death and mayhem on a daily basis. Had my ass shot at so often in Afghanistan that I really do wish I had a dollar for each time. Do
not
even try to blow sunshine up my skirt. What is that you aren’t saying? Don’t kid glove me. It doesn’t work that way.”

The man nodded slowly in understanding. “Iraq. Two years. Medical Corps.”

Really? Drae hadn’t seen that coming. But maybe now they’d be better able to deal with one another without a layer of bedside manner bullshit.

“So you know where I’m coming from. Just cut to the fucking chase and lay it out for me.”

A nurse scurried by, intent on what she was doing and oblivious to them both. When she bumped open the door to Victoria’s room with her hip, Drae glanced inside and found his wife reclining against the raised bed looking very pale and very small.

“Bottom line. If we pick up on any stress to her heart or the fetus, we’ll have to do a Cesarean.”

Drae flinched. “Did I sign a consent for that?” he murmured—trying to remember.

“No. But I’d like to get your formal consent now.”

Think, man—think
. “How likely is a Cesarean at this point?”

“Fifty-fifty.”

Fuck.

“She could also spontaneously go into labor at any time.”

Great. He had answers—but not really. A Cesarean might become necessary, but then again, maybe not. The irony wasn’t lost on him. He liked things neat and tidy until a certain whirlwind blew into his life and turned everything upside down.
Of course,
the birth of their child would be a dramatic shit show.

They talked a while longer and his mind was filled to overflowing when he headed to the waiting room to look for Alex. He was pleased to find the same four people from the previous night, waiting impatiently for news.

Stephanie rushed to him the minute he appeared, enfolding him in a mama bear hug that went a long way to helping him keep his shit together. Seemed that at long last he had an actual mother figure in his life. Wonders never ceased. He had to remember to tell Victoria that Calder was still very much attached to her mother by the hip.
Interesting.

Meghan clung to Alex, her mouth in a tense, grim line, while he brought them all up to date.

Huddling on the couch next to his mother-in-law, with a couple of odd chairs pulled close for the others, Drae leaned his forearms onto his thighs and lowered his head to ease the kinks and clear his mind.

“Okay. So, apparently a Cesarean is now on the table.”

He grimaced when both Meghan and Stephanie gasped and moaned in unison. Apparently, the word
Cesarean
was a female’s buzzword.

There wasn’t a whole lot to add after that. Cesarean summed up the situation pretty thoroughly.

“Drae,” Alex murmured, “these folks know what they’re doing.”

Ugh
. This whole thing was so fucked up. He thought of Cam and Lacey, who had sailed ecstatically through the calm waters of a blissful pregnancy and envied them. The long months of worry and guilt over what Victoria had had to endure coalesced inside him.

Drae loved her and hadn’t been kidding when he’d said he was lost without her. He’d been a dead man inside before she came along. Now, he felt everything—ten times over. The man he always hoped he’d be should love ever find him, took the little-chocolate-eyed woman for his own. Their coming together had been spontaneous, electric, and destined from the moment their eyes first met, outside along the walkway under a million twinkling stars, the night of Cameron’s wedding.