August Heat by Lora Leigh

Prologue
    May
     
    The contractions
began late that night, and they began hard. Marly awoke from a restless sleep,
a pained gasp on her lips as her rounded stomach tightened painfully.
Imperatively.
    She reached for
Cade, to awaken him, to warn him, but he was already there, his blue eyes
filling with panic as he flipped on the bedside lamp and stared back at her.
    “Oh shit.” She had
never heard that particular tone of voice from him before.
    Marly blinked at
him in surprise, torn between laughter and concern as his wide eyes went to the
rippling motions of the contraction that seized her heavily pregnant abdomen.
    “Now, Cade,” she
tried to soothe him as she scooted to the end of the bed, “don’t panic.”
    “Fuck. Sam! Brock!”
Marly was certain his demented scream rocked the upper level of the house.
    Damn. They were
all going to panic on her now. She did not need this.
    “Dammit, Marly,
where are you going?” Before she could throw her legs over the side of the
mattress Cade was moving to her, his hands trembling as he gripped her arm to
keep her in the bed.
    “Cade August, I
refuse to have this child at home,” she snapped, staring at him like the
lunatic he was. “I need to get dressed. For that matter, so do you. I need the
hospital.”
    Marly hadn’t
thought he could have gotten paler. But he did. In an instant his swarthy
complexion went snow white as he swallowed tightly.
    “Oh shit,” he
seemed to wheeze.
    The door burst
open and Sam, Brock, and their wives rushed into the room. Sam had a gun and a
hard-on. Brock was just sporting the hard-on. Thankfully, Sarah and Heather had
thought to drag on robes.
    Marly closed her
eyes helplessly. They still hadn’t completely managed to still the terror that
had gripped them during the months she, Sarah and Heather had been stalked.
Annie still haunted them all.
    “Heather was so
right last year,” she sighed. “Only you guys would still have a hard-on, no
matter the situation,” she moaned as she shook her head in resignation.
    Another
contraction seized her body, tightening her abdomen and rippling the flesh
convulsively.
    “Oh hell. She’s in
labor,” Sam seemed to choke then as both he and Brock paled alarmingly.
    “I don’t want to
have this baby here,” she moaned, more than worried at the suddenly horrified
faces of the men staring at her, as though she were some sort of aberration. “Sarah.
Heather. Do something, please.”
    Thankfully, they
did. Marly wasn’t certain how they managed to get everyone dressed, including
herself, and into the vehicles heading for the hospital. She was just thankful
they had. The contractions were coming faster than Doc had told her they would
starting off, and though she fought to hide her fear from Cade, she couldn’t
hide it from herself.
    She sat in the
back seat of the Mercedes, Cade’s arms wrapped around her, doing the Lamaze
breathing and feeling like a panting dog as she tried to relax through the
rapidly building pain. God, she was so thankful she opted for drugs for the
delivery. This was not comfortable. Not comfortable at all.
    “Babe, you doing
okay?” Sam glanced back as he sped through the night, his worried face
reflected in the dim interior lights.
    “Watch the damned
road, Sam,” Cade snapped as he held Marly close to his chest, his gentle hands
stroking her distended abdomen as it contracted harshly.
    “I’m watching the
road.” He turned back quickly as Heather’s softly whispered reminder of the
upcoming curves of the road added to Cade’s order.
    “I love you,
Marly,” Cade whispered at her ear as another contraction gripped her stomach.
    “Fifteen minutes
apart, Marly.” Heather timed her. “Sam, honey, you’d better pick up some speed.”
    He picked up
speed. Marly closed her eyes instead of watching the night pass by at a rate
that came close to terrifying.
     
    * * * * *
    The contractions
were less than five minutes apart by the time they reached the hospital.