Instant Gratification

“Push again,” Emma directed.

“Oh, God.”

“You can do this, Lilah. I can see your baby’s beautiful head. Now sit up and push!”

Stone braced himself, said goodbye to the rest of his bones, and kept his eyes on the sky while Lilah straightened and pushed.

And pushed.

This was accompanied by plenty of screaming, more squeezing, and out of the corner of Stone’s eye he saw TJ standing out of the way, his back turned, on the phone to the hospital, the bastard, not getting bled on and not getting his bones broken.

“Look,” Neely suddenly cried. “Ohmigod, look!”

Stone instinctively looked. He saw…

Oh, Jesus. He saw blood and gore, and female parts stretched to limits that boggled his mind and made him want to beg for forgiveness for his entire race.

The screaming echoed in his head, which suddenly felt detached from his body, and if he’d been standing, he’d be flat on his ass by now, but he had Lilah squeezing the holy hell out of him, keeping him conscious.

“I’ve got her!” Emma said in triumph. She came up on her knees, cradling her bundle in a towel, vigorously drying the baby and suctioning the nose and mouth at the same time. She expertly swapped out the wet towel for a dry one as the baby began to wail. “A gorgeous baby girl,” she declared, and set her on Lilah’s belly.

The baby squawked and let out a gusty cry.

Stone stared down at the sticky, gooped up baby in shocked awe.

A living, breathing person.

Emma was evaluating the baby for color, respirations, muscle movement, anything unusual as she clamped the umbilical cord, and then turned her attention to the placenta, while Stone’s head just spun.

It was truly the most amazing thing he’d ever seen, and he lifted his gaze to Emma and found her already looking at him, her eyes suspiciously bright and misty.

And then she did something totally unexpected. She smiled at him.

Yeah, she was tough as nails and cynical and blunt. And sometimes just a little mean.

And she cried over a newborn.

Neely and Lilah were both laughing and sobbing. Once Emma said that everything was okay, Stone and TJ carried Lilah to TJ’s Jeep. They got her and the baby settled in and TJ drove them down the hill to Neely’s sister, who was a midwife and registered nurse in South Shore.

Which left Stone and Emma alone.

He walked to where she stood at the cliff overlooking the open meadow below. “You okay?”

“Always.” She turned her head toward him and did the damnedest thing. She smiled again, a God-given, sweet, warm, real smile that met her eyes and curved her mouth, and rocked his world. “And how are you?” she asked.

He let out a low laugh. “I’ll come right out and admit it. My knees are still shaking.”

She smiled again and blew at least a thousand more of his brain cells, which didn’t leave him with much. But wow, the smile softened her. Made her seem gentle.

Sweet.

All the things he’d thought her void of, all the things he tended to love in a woman, and he had one thought as he felt another catch from deep inside him, as his body went still on high alert and his pulse picked up speed—

Oh, shit.

He needed to back up. Or better yet, turn and walk away. That was the easy thing to do at this point. But did he ever take the easy route? Hell, no. The hard way was his only way, always, and he stepped close.

Her smile deepened, and his next thought was hell yeah, here it came, the thank you for his help. He’d shrug and say it’d been his pleasure, and she’d maybe move in for a hug, or better yet…

A kiss.

Yeah, a slow, hot, melting thank you kiss would suit him just fine, with lots of tongue and busy hands—

“So you’re afraid of needles and pass out at the sight of blood, huh?” she asked, amused.

She wasn’t thanking him.

She was laughing at him. Openly. He tried to be insulted, but Jesus, when she smiled? It was amazing.

She was amazing. “Really?” he asked, letting loose of a stupid smile himself. “You’re going to go there?”

Still laughing, she nodded. “Yeah.”

“That’s cruel, Emma. Very cruel.”

“Sorry.”

Sorry, his ass.

She wasn’t sorry, she wasn’t anywhere close to sorry. She was cracking up, and he should be annoyed. But she looked so damned sexy as she laughed at him.

“I thought you were going to pass out a few times,” she said.

“Well you’ll have to excuse me, I’ve never seen a vagina from that angle before.”

She only laughed harder and patted his arm like he was a four-year-old, before heading toward his truck in her fancy clothes now streaked with dirt, blood and other stuff he didn’t want to think about.

God, she was hot as hell.

They weren’t finished, not by a long shot, so he followed her. “For the record, I didn’t pass out. I was in it, all the way.”

She stopped at the hood of his truck on the passenger side. “You were, for which I’m most thankful. But seeing as you’re so weak-kneed and all, maybe I should drive.”

Yeah, she was sweet and gentle and soft, all right. Like a sleeping lion.

“We need to hurry.” She glanced at her watch. “I’m on a schedule here.”

He leaned toward her, his hands on the hood as he faced her. “What are you in such a hurry to go back to?”

“I have things to do.”