Jill Shalvis - Instant Gratification

“The last time I saw you, you saw a whole hell of a lot of me.”

“True.”

“I was just thinking that you must have some reaction to seeing me naked before we’ve even shared a coffee…”

Yes. Yes, she’d had a reaction. A very private one. “That was my job.”

He nodded. “And sharing a coffee-”

“Would be a major mistake.”

“Why?”

Because I keep picturing you naked . “Because I don’t mix business and pleasure.”

“Ever?”

“Ever.”

He took a hard right and headed up a narrow fire road.

“Where are we going?”

“Up past the summit, which is where TJ took Neely and Lilah, our clients.”

As they climbed, and as the road narrowed even more, with the wild growth on either side closing in on them, Emma gripped the console as he sped them around a tight corner on the dirt road, nearly getting some air beneath the tires.

He shot her another glance, his eyes touching on her white-knuckled grip on the dash. “You okay?”

“I’ll let you know if you get me there alive.” She pried her gaze off the road and studied his face. He was totally at ease, his big, scraped-up hands on the wheel. The wound over his eye was covered with several large Band-Aids, his apparent fix-all for everything. The stitching didn’t appear inflamed or swollen but he had shadows under his eyes. “And you?” she asked. “How are you feeling?”

“Peachy.”

“Liar. You look like hell.”

“Aw, thanks.”

“Ibuprophen? Icing? Rest?”

Instead of answering, he pulled his vibrating cell phone from his pocket and pushed TALK.

TJ’s voice filled the cab. “Where the fuck are you, over?”

“On my way.” Stone glanced at Emma. “With the doc, over.” He sped up a little, wincing as they took a tight corner and he had to shift.

Yeah, definitely his ribs. “So?” she pressed. “Advil at least?”

“Yeah, I’ve taken plenty of good old Vitamin A, not that it’s helped. As for resting? Hasn’t happened.”

“Why not?”

“Don’t have the time, not with Cam in the Andes and TJ accepting every trip that comes our way.” He flashed a grim smile. “Being a mountain bum is hard work.”

“You need rest to heal, Stone”

“Yeah, I’ll get around to that.” He pulled the truck into the small clearing at the top of the hill next to a Jeep with the Wilder logo on the side. “But for now, let’s have a baby.”

As Stone and Emma got out of the truck, a woman screamed, and every single hair on Stone’s body stood straight up. “It’s killing her.”

Emma didn’t respond. Whatever she was thinking, she kept it to herself as she moved quickly but calmly, her face cool and quiet.

Her game face.

Man, she’d gotten grace and poise in spades, he thought, following her to the front of the Jeep, where on the ground, on a large blanket overlooking the entire valley below, lay a woman writhing in pain, another woman kneeling at her side.

TJ was there too, but he came toward Stone, heading him off, looking pale and shaky.

“How the hell did you not know one of them was pregnant?” Stone asked him.

“She hid it under a big sweatshirt.” TJ shoved his fingers through his hair. “I had no clue. What about you? You’re the one who took their applications.”

“Sorry, but we don’t have the ‘are you pregnant’ question on the forms.”

“It doesn’t matter how it happened now.” TJ let down the tailgate of Stone’s truck and sat heavily. “It happened.”

From the ground, Lilah screamed again. Both brothers jumped.

“She planned this,” TJ whispered in horror. “She wanted this. They’re a couple, a lesbian couple, and hardcore hikers. They wanted their baby born on the trail. A natural birth, Lilah said. Before she started screaming.” TJ swiped a shaky hand over his face. “And then Neely panicked and said she thought something was wrong, and I-”

“Panicked too?”

“Hell, yeah.”

“Guys.” This was from Emma. “Come here.”

TJ swiveled his head toward Stone in sharp panic. “She can’t make me.”

Emma pulled on a pair of medical gloves. “I’m going to need one of you to strap on your big boy pants and man up. I need another set of hands.”

One minute Stone was standing there thinking “fuck no”, and in the next, TJ ever so helpfully gave him a shove toward her.

Emma looked up and locked gazes with him, nodding her thanks.

Ah, hell. He wouldn’t have walked away from a stranger in need, and he wouldn’t walk away from this. Funny how he’d always thought he’d done it all in his thirty-two years, but as it turned out he hadn’t, and though he knew next to nothing about birthing a baby, he knew two things. One, it was going to be damned messy, and two, intimate .

Which meant he was about to get messy and intimate with a woman he didn’t know how he felt about.

Then Lilah’s next scream tore his soul, and incapable of just standing there, he moved closer.

“Support her from behind,” Emma demanded when he dropped to his knees beside her, trying desperately not to look. “Don’t let her lie flat. She needs to be propped up. Neely, help me get this Chux pad beneath her for a clean area.”

Oh, Jesus. He was going to have to look.

“There are no needles,” Emma told him. “I’m fresh out.”

He met her eyes, and there in those sharp baby blues, behind the fierce determination he was coming to think of as her game face, he caught a flash of amusement.

Then it was gone. “The baby’s head is crowning,” she said quietly. “We don’t have time to get her out of here. I need to know. Are you in this or not?”

Hell. If she could do this so calmly, he sure as hell could, too. “In.”

Lilah cried out and fisted a hand in Stone’s shirt, pulling hard against his hurting ribs. “I need to push!” she yelled, panting.

“Okay,” Emma soothed. “But let’s get you into a better position first.” She looked at Stone, and he nodded.

Smiling as reassuringly at Lilah as he could muster, he moved in behind her, taking her weight against him, which prompted a sigh from her. “Better?”

“Yes.” Cradled, her back to his front, she gripped both his arms and immediately started writhing. “Oh God, oh God, another one. Another contraction already!”

“It’s okay,” Neely told her, but her eyes were wild. “It’s all going to be okay. We planned this, we knew it was going to be rough.”

“ Rough on who ?” Lilah, lost in her pain, squeezed Stone’s arms like a vice. “Listen, I changed my mind. I don’t want to do this anymore.”

“Lilah.” Emma looked up from between Lilah’s propped knees. “I can see the head. I need you to push now.”

“This was a bad idea,” Lilah gasped. “I don’t want to push anymore.” She lifted her head up to Neely. “Let’s just go home, okay? You don’t mind, right? I’ll push tomorrow, I promise.”

“Oh, baby,” Neely whispered with tears in her eyes as she stroked Lilah’s hair. “You can do this. I know you can.”

“But I can’t.” Lilah started sobbing. “I just can’t. You do it for me, okay? Please, Neely? Please do it for me.”

She sounded so terrified that even Stone was wishing he could do it for her, but once again Emma took charge. “Lilah, this is all you. Just some pushing, and then you’re done. You can do this.”

“No, I can’t-ohmigod, another one!” She screamed, thrashing around in agony while Stone tried to keep her on the clean pad.

Neely whirled on Emma, tears streaming down her face as she grabbed Emma by the front of the shirt. “Goddammit, do something for her!”