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“Sir, an ambulance is on its way. Stay on the line and I’ll guide you through…”
Lucy cried out in pain. Seth squeezed her hand. “Hold on, Lucy. An ambulance is on the way.”
“I can’t hold on.” She moaned in agony. “Oh, God!”
Seth fell to his knees beside the sofa. “Operator, things are not going well here.”
“Relax, sir, and tell me what’s happening.”
Before Seth could answer, Lucy said, “I’m going to have this baby right now!” She slid down on his sofa, with her feet flat on the cushion and her knees raised. Every inch of her shook, as if she’d been standing in the cold for hours. Her raincoat crackled and crunched from the nearly violent movement.
Seth said, “Operator, she just said she’s going to have this baby right now, and I believe her. I have two neighbors who are volunteer firemen.” He knew the volunteer firemen had paramedic training because he had considered joining the department himself. “So I think I’m going to hang up and see if I can get one of them to come over.”
He disconnected the call, and, phone in hand, ran to his office to get the number of the two brothers who lived down the street. Once he found it, he dialed quickly, then began running to the living room again.
“Mark,” he said when the older of the two brothers answered on the third ring. “This is Seth Bryant. I don’t have time to explain, but my ex-wife is having a baby in my living room. I need you right now! And I do mean right now!”
Without giving Mark a chance to answer, Seth clicked off the call and raced to the sofa again. Lucy lay groaning and Seth dropped the phone and started undoing the closures of her coat. “Let’s get this off.”
She nodded and he nimbly pushed the raincoat from her shoulders. When he began to ease it from beneath her, she caught his hand. “Don’t! Leave it for damage control.”
Seth laughed, but the laughter was more from nerves than humor. “Okay. Good thought.”
Lucy groaned again, digging her fingers into the edge of the sofa.
“Hang in there,” he said, straightening her coat beneath her. “Everything’s going to be okay. I called my neighbors who are paramedics.”
Lucy said, “Okay,” then panted a few breaths. Seth noticed that she hadn’t stopped squeezing the cushion and knew that what she had said was true. There was no time between the contractions.
“Mark and his brother live three houses down,” he said soothingly. “Nine chances out of ten they only have to jump into their shoes before they can jog up here. Any second now my doorbell will ring…”
She groaned again. Her knuckles whitened as she squeezed the sofa cushion more tightly. “Seth, I can feel the baby coming out.”
Not giving himself time to think, Seth reached under her skirt to remove her underpants. He heard the doorbell and prayed it was Mark. “In here,” he called, knowing he couldn’t leave Lucy to answer the door. But the wind howled, drowning out his voice.
He positioned himself between Lucy’s knees. “In here!” he yelled. “Come in!”
When he didn’t hear the sound of his front door opening he shouted, “In here!” as the child pushed free. Quickly, easily, the baby slid from Lucy and landed in Seth’s hands.
He just barely caught it. “Oh, my God!”
Mark and Ray ran into the room. Ray laughed. “Looks like we’re here just in time.”
Seth glanced down at the baby. His baby. His son.
A prince.
“Oh, my God.”
Seth watched the paramedics roll Lucy and the baby out of his house, down the sidewalk and to the driveway where the ambulance awaited. As they guided the gurney into the brightly lit vehicle, Seth closed his front door and started walking upstairs to get a shirt and shoes so he could join them at the hospital, but he had a quick second thought.
When he entered his bedroom, he grabbed the cell phone he had left on the cherrywood dresser with his wallet and change and dialed the home number for his personal attorney. As Pete Hauser’s phone rang, Seth walked to the window and pulled back the sheer curtain and saw the ambulance speed away in the rainy night.
“Pete?” he said. “This is Seth Bryant.”
“Seth? What are you doing calling at—” he paused and Seth assumed he’d glanced at a clock “—eleven-o’clock on a Friday night!”
Seth winced. “You were already in bed, weren’t you?”
“Of course I was! Tomorrow might be Saturday, but I still have clients.”
Seth winced again. “Sorry, but I have a big problem.”
“What’s up?” Pete asked, instantly alert at the mention of trouble.
“I have a son.”
“What?”
Seth took a quick breath. “Let me start at the beginning. Remember that I told you I had been married, but you didn’t need to worry because the marriage had been annulled and neither one of us wanted alimony or a settlement?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I was wrong when I said we didn’t need to worry. My ex-wife’s dad is a king…”
“Seth, is this one of your jokes?”
“No joke. The bottom line is that our marriage was annulled because Lucy was promised to someone else in a trade agreement…”
“Seth!”
“I’m serious, Pete. Hear me out. She was betrothed to someone when she was a child, and that’s a commitment as binding as a marriage in her country. So when her father found out about our marriage he told her our marriage wasn’t valid. She went to Xavier Island to straighten things out, but she never came back. Her father’s representative came to my door one day with the annulment papers I told you about that essentially said the marriage never happened. But tonight she showed up at my door and she was in labor. She actually had the baby on my sofa. But that’s not the point. The point is she’s an honest-to-God princess. Ty and I might have a bit of cash, but I’m guessing we can’t compete with these people.”
“You’re afraid she’s going to take the baby and you’ll never see him again?”
“Exactly.”
“Okay, here’s what you do. Whatever it takes, you get her to stay in this country while I research the law and locate your best grounds for custody.”
“While you’re researching, Pete, keep in mind that my son is the first grandchild of the only child of a king.”
Seth’s lawyer gasped. “He’s an heir to a throne?”
“I’m guessing. I don’t know much about royalty and monarchies. I couldn’t tell you who gets to rule and who just waves from the carriage in parades. But I do know that Lucy is an only child, and I suspect that a baby’s being firstborn—to an only child—means something.”
“Okay. I’ll hit the books. You keep your princess here. In Arkansas, if possible.”
“It’s called a spontaneous delivery,” the emergency room doctor said, slapping Seth on the back. “Next baby, you’ll be ready.”
“There isn’t going to be a next baby,” Seth mumbled as the doctor pushed open the curtain, walked out of the cubicle and disappeared when the drape fell closed behind him.
Rubbing his hand across the back of his neck, Seth faced Lucy. “So, the doctor wants you to stay overnight.”
Lucy nodded and Seth watched her, working to control the myriad of emotions tumbling through him. He understood what Pete was saying about keeping Lucy in Porter, but what Pete didn’t realize was that Seth was irresistibly attracted to this woman. They hadn’t even left his hotel room on their first date. Hell, they hadn’t even said hello. The day they’d met on the construction site for her father’s Miami mansion, they had fought the sexual connection that sizzled between them for eight long hours. So, when she’d arrived at his hotel room to meet him for their dinner date, she’d fallen into his arms and he’d carried her to bed.
With the exception of time at the construction site, they’d spent the first two weeks of their acquaintance in bed. But that was good because that was how he’d talked himself out of thinking he was in love with her. He simply convinced himself it had only been lust and the thrill of spontaneity that had propelled him and Lucy to Vegas where they were married after only knowing each other a few short weeks.
Blaming their marriage on uncontrollable sexual chemistry made everything easy to understand and justify, but now she’d had his child. And all kinds of crazy emotions bubbled through Seth. He might not love her, but he was absolutely, positively back to being solidly in lust with her. Except now lust was peppered with appreciation for the staggeringly beautiful woman who had given him a son.
He was in deep trouble.
He took a quick breath and reminded himself that Lucy had also married him when she had been betrothed to someone else. She had rushed home when her father discovered their hasty wedding and that had been the end of their relationship. She hadn’t taken Seth’s calls, wouldn’t see him when he’d traveled to her father’s island. Her father had sent the messenger who’d told him their marriage had been annulled. So, yes, looking at her beautiful dark eyes, perfect pink complexion and sinfully rich black hair, he couldn’t deny that he was sexually attracted to her. What man wouldn’t be? Having watched the birth of his son, he also couldn’t deny a certain amount of respect and appreciation. But after the way she had treated him, he couldn’t love her. He wouldn’t love her. It would be emotional suicide.
“And they’ll have a room for you in a few minutes.”
She closed her eyes and murmured, “Thanks.”
“You’ll get the baby once you’re settled.”
“Good.”
Seth ran his hand along the back of his neck again. This was the reason their marriage had been a mistake. Physically, they were a perfect ten. But he couldn’t remember a time they’d ever really talked.
Still, able to communicate or not, they had a baby. And he refused to let the monarchy roll over his parental rights. Xavier Island might be a small country, only one island of several off the coast of Spain, but Lucy’s dad was a savvy leader who knew exactly what to do to keep his country one of the richest in the region. If King Alfredo wanted to, he could find a way to take Seth’s son away from him. So Seth had to be one step ahead of him. That was the important thing right now.
“So…what do we do now?”
“I’m going home.”
He was afraid of that. “Where, exactly, is home?” Realizing how hostile that sounded, Seth quickly amended it. He couldn’t afford to make her mad. Lord only knew what she would do, where she would go. She’d already proved that when she wanted to, she could disappear.
“When I met you, you lived in Miami, then when your dad summoned you, you left for Xavier Island. You said you’ve been in Miami for the past few months, but you were supposed to be marrying a prince. Did you marry him? Do you live in some other kingdom I’ve never heard of?”
“Though my betrothal nullified our marriage, the pregnancy broke the betrothal. The barristers called it an act of God.”
Seth snorted a laugh. “I’ll bet King Dad loved that.”
“When he discovered there was no sanction to the trade agreement tied to the betrothal, he didn’t care.”
Seth shook his head, unable to believe things like this still happened in a modern world. “Well, there you go. Marriage, babies, none of it matters as long as the trade agreement stays intact.”
“Seth, I know you’re mad,” Lucy softly said, “and I also don’t expect you to understand this, but not every country is as progressive as the United States and not every people is as independent. Some of us…”
“Your room is ready!” Popping through the canvas curtain, the nurse interrupted Lucy. She picked up Lucy’s chart and made a quick notation, then said, “The guy behind me is Tom. He’ll be the one taking you up.”
The tall orderly in the green scrubs offered a salute.
The female nurse turned to Seth. “You should go home. Not only is your wife going to need her sleep, but you’ve been through the wringer tonight, too.”
Hearing Lucy referred to as his wife sent a flood of overpowering emotion through Seth. He fought it by reminding himself that he and Lucy were absolutely one-hundred-percent wrong for each other and they had made a huge mistake in getting married. But the feelings wouldn’t go away. He wanted to take her hand and whisper his gratitude. He wanted to kiss her forehead. He wanted to jump with joy and he couldn’t believe he had to control himself. He wasn’t entirely sure he would be able to keep it all inside.
Still, he had to. Lucy was a princess and he might not be a pauper, but he was a commoner. They had to decide custody and visitation before she returned to Xavier. But Seth’s lawyer needed to research the law. Seth had to buy him time.
He glanced at Lucy. “Do you want me to go home?” he asked politely.
“I am tired. But there are a few things we need to discuss.”
“And you can’t discuss them tomorrow?” the nurse demanded.
“No. Please give Seth my room number.”
The royally-proper-yet-still-sweet way Lucy gave the command sent Seth’s heart on a roller-coaster ride. That was what had first attracted him about her. She was the wicked combination of sexy and sweet. So sweet, she made him believe there really was goodness in the world. And so sexy he forgot his own name when he was with her.
The nurse sighed and faced Seth. “Her room is four-seventeen. But don’t come up right away. We’ll need about ten minutes to get her settled.”
Seth nodded and left. He headed straight for the nursery, glad to have a few minutes to gather his wits. He stared through the glass wall as nurses fussed over the little boy he’d brought into the world. Having conceived a child seemed unreal. Being the owner of the first hands to touch him, seeing him take his first shaky breaths, those were miracles.
He also had an overwhelming sense of gratitude to Lucy for having given him a son. But that emotion was what bothered him. He wanted desperately to hug her, to thank her, to promise her the moon. And it was stupid. He didn’t want her in his life anymore, and frankly, she didn’t want him in her life, either.
Hell, he wasn’t even sure she’d ever wanted him in her life. They’d known each other a little over a month. She had probably awakened one morning completely appalled by what she had done and had grabbed the opportunity to end their marriage when her father had summoned her. Actually, she could have been so appalled that she called her dad to get her out of her mistake. For all Seth knew, she could have been the brains behind the annulment.
Still, he understood what Pete was telling him. If he let Lucy go, especially if she took their child to another country where her father was king, Seth might never see his son again.
He waited ten minutes as the nurse had asked, then knocked before entering Lucy’s room. He made the mistake of allowing his eyes to meet hers. He saw the warmth and softness in her pretty brown eyes and felt the attraction, the passion. All the wonderful things they’d once shared.
Damn!
He reminded himself to fight the feelings and reminded himself that even if he were fool enough to get involved with her, she didn’t want to be involved with him. They were a bad combination. She had apparently seen that first. And when she’d run home to daddy, the king had disposed of Seth as if he were a scarred two-by-four.
That sobered him.
“I was hoping you would stay in Porter for a week or two so we could hammer out a visitation agreement.”
Lucy played with the cover on her bed. “Seth, there are a few things I need to tell you…”
“I hope one of those things isn’t that I don’t have any rights.”
She shook her head. “No. You are the baby’s father. You have all the usual rights. In fact, I would like to name our son after your father. Owen.”
The gesture surprised Seth so much he nearly had to sit. “Why?”
She smiled. “I think it’s appropriate. One of the few things I remember you telling me in our short time together was how much you had loved your dad and how much you had missed him after he died. You told me your brother Ty had worked very hard to make up for the loss, but you always felt it.”
Well, if that didn’t shoot a bunch of holes into his theory that they hadn’t really talked, Seth didn’t know what did. Still, when push came to shove, she’d regretted their marriage and dumped him. Even if they had talked, they really didn’t know each other. And even if they spent time getting to know each other that wouldn’t change the fact that they weren’t getting back together. He now thoroughly mistrusted monarchies and she would be an idiot to give up her throne for him.
Hell, who was he kidding? She just plain wouldn’t give up her royal status for him.
Fortified by the truth of that, he caught her gaze again. She smiled slightly, honestly. And he felt the pull of attraction again.
