Acres, Natalie - Bridled and Bucked [Bridled 3] (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme)
Page 14
Blaine, catching on to the apparent slip, took the nurse by the shoulders and started walking her toward the door. “Lynlee didn’t want to know if we were expecting a boy or a girl. I think maybe you might want to go talk to her doctor again. See if we can’t pay someone a little extra under the table and get Lynlee what she needs.”
The nurse, a short older woman, put her hands on her hefty hips and said, “Look, I know who you are, Mr. McCain, and I understand you’re quite accustomed to buying your way and throwing that McCain weight around. However, Dr. Finley is not easily bought. He has plenty of money, and he’s one of this hospital’s finest.
“If he says your wife is having the baby by means of natural childbirth, she might as well spread her legs and push. God knows if the rumors around here are true, she’s had plenty of practice!”
Dallas rushed forward, stopping Blaine from giving her an earful. He pushed Blaine aside and said, “Why don’t you see if someone else can be Lynlee’s nurse? Oh and while you’re at it, you might want to see if you can find another job”—he leaned forward and checked out her badge—“Nurse Davis.”
She stamped her foot and left the room.
Lynlee’s head rolled from side to side. Her brow was damp with perspiration, and Austin and Houston tried to comfort her, both of them placing wet rags on her forehead.
“Lantry!” she cried out again.
“I can’t stand this,” Blaine said, stepping out into the hallway. About that time, Royce and Lantry rushed down the hall. “Where is she?” Lantry asked, looking like he might be the one having the baby instead.
“Uh, I wouldn’t go in there yet, if I were you,” Blaine said. “I think she’s blaming you with her current condition.”
“So help me God! Somebody better call Lantry right now! He told me it wouldn’t hurt because they’d put me to fucking sleep!”
Lantry went pale. “Let me guess, they don’t have any sleeping pills around here?”
“You might know how this works if you’d gone to some of those recommended childbirth education classes.”
Lantry shook his head. “Ah hell, what can I say? A man just makes the most out of what he knows.”
“It’s not what you know that got you in this mess,” Blaine reminded him, following him into Lynlee’s birthing room.
“There you are!”
“Hey, honey,” he said enthusiastically as he forced a broad smile. “I wanted to stop by and pick up a bunch of roses but uh, I didn’t have time. You look beautiful, by the way.”
“Get over here,” she demanded.
Carlisle laughed. “Bet you wished you’d wrapped it now.”
“Shut up,” Lantry said under his breath.
Lantry studied the little woman glaring back at him. He’d fought hardened criminals, put away murderers, worked cold cases from gruesome crimes, but never in his life had he ever been as scared as he was now.
Houston grinned. “She’s dilated, whatever that means.”
“How many centimeters?” Lantry asked.
Blaine shrugged. “I didn’t pay attention.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Austin said. “He wouldn’t know how many mattered.”
Lantry ignored them and sat next to her, caressing her hand. All of a sudden she flew out of the bed, and Lantry’s expression was priceless. Blaine would’ve paid a pretty penny to have captured and framed that moment.
“Here now!” Lantry called out, thinking apparently she was coming after him.
Austin grabbed her hand and directed Lantry, “She’s having contractions, you moron.”
“Is that normal?” he asked, clutching her wrist and flinching when she about ripped his arm out of socket, something Blaine had watched her nearly do to Houston and Austin.
“The baby is coming,” she said, breathing harder. “I think the baby has dropped.”
Lantry lifted the sheet and peered underneath. “Oh God. I think she’s right. Somebody get the doctor.”
“I am so glad I didn’t take a look under there,” Carlisle said, making his way to the door.
Blaine followed him. “Me, too. For once in my life, I’m glad I couldn’t have kids. I’d hate to think I was the cause of all this whooping and hollering.”
“What’s wrong, little brother?” Houston asked. “Feeling kind of squeamish?”
“I’m not, but Carlisle is.”
Blaine studied Houston. “You look a little pale, too, come to think of it.”
“I don’t like to see Lynlee in pain.”
“If I were you, Houston, I’d get snipped and tied,” Rhett advised. “There’s just something wrong here when a man has to watch a woman have a baby come out the very place he likes to visit every now and again.”
A team of doctors rushed by them, and a few nurses followed suit. Everyone was asked to leave the room except Lantry, the biological father.
When Austin joined them in the hallway, Blaine became aware of the fact that all eyes were on him. Trying to make small talk, he said, “Did Lynlee ever slug him?”
“No,” Austin replied, grinning. “But by damn she wanted to.”
He released a phony laugh, and that’s when all heads turned his way. “Why don’t you see if they’ll let one more sit with Lynlee?” Rhett asked.
Blaine shook his head. “Lantry needs to be in there. He’s the child’s father. If I were having a baby with Lynlee then I’d be there.”
“You’re her husband,” Carlisle pointed out.
“And she’s my wife,” he said, certain of that fact always. “But she’s as much his as she is mine. Lynlee belongs to all of us. It doesn’t matter who is with her, so long as she has someone beside her, someone who loves her as much as I do.”
He took a deep breath and leaned his head against the door. A few minutes later, he heard a loud boom. An assistant physician rushed through the doors. “I need a stretcher in here. We’ve gotta daddy down!”
* * * *
Hours later, Lynlee cradled her baby boy in her arms. “I think he looks like the McCains,” she said, carefully choosing her words.
“I think he might,” Carlisle agreed.
“If he does,” Dallas spoke up, “I would tend to think he resembles me.”
“Then that means he looks an awful lot like me, too,” Houston said.
“I’m thinking I’d agree with that assessment,” Austin piped in.
The room fell silent when the door slammed behind them. Casey and Victoria McCain walked in the room. Victoria immediately rushed the bed. “Oh, Lynlee,” she cried out, kissing her cheek and moving the blanket away from the child’s face.
Casey hadn’t spoken to Lantry since he’d discovered that Lantry had deliberately gotten Lynlee pregnant, news that probably traveled through Royce since he and Carlisle were the most concerned about the arrival of a newborn.
Casey shook hands with Rhett and then all of his sons, working his way to Lynlee’s bedside. “He’s healthy, Dad,” Lantry said, extending the hand his father missed.
Casey McCain stared down at Lantry’s outstretched hand. “You always were a rebel without a cause.”
Lantry grinned. Casey shook his hand and drew him into a hearty hug. “And by damn I hope that boy of yours gives you a run for your money every day you draw air.”
Lantry winked at Lynlee and said, “I hope so, too, Pops. I hope I raise that one there exactly like you brought me up. If I do my job and do it right, he’ll be a lot like me in the end.”
“How do you figure?” Casey asked, accepting the bundle Lynlee passed his way.
“Because I’m a lot like you.”
“You’re nothing like me,” Casey said, regrettably, his expression softening when he looked into his grandson’s turquoise-blue eyes and then shifted his gaze to the son he’d shortchanged. He smiled at Houston and with great sadness in his voice, he said, “You’re a better man than I’ll ever be. And you’ll be ten-to-one a better father.”
THE END
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sp; WWW.BOOKSTRAND.COM/NATALIE-ACRES
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Natalie Acres is one pseudonym for a bestselling Tennessee author multi-published in several genres. Natalie writes exclusively for Siren Publishing.
Also by Natalie Acres
Ménage Everlasting: Country Roads 1: Sex Drive
Ménage and More: Bridled 1: Bridled and Branded
Siren LoveXtreme: Bridled 2: Sequel to Bridled and Branded:
Bridled and Saddled
Ménage Amour: Cowboy Sex 1: Sex Party
Ménage and More: Cowboy Sex 2: Sex Games
Ménage Amour: Cowboy Sex 3: Sex Camp
PolyAmour: Cowboy Sex 4: Sex Holiday
Ménage Amour: Cowboy Boots and Untamed Hearts
Ménage Amour: Cowboy Boots and Unfinished Business
Ménage Amour: Wanted by Outlaws
Available at
BOOKSTRAND.COM
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com