August Heat by Lora Leigh Page A

Thanks
to Heather’s call, nurses, orderlies, and Marly’s no-nonsense obstetrician were
waiting at the ambulance entrance when they pulled in.
    For Marly, life
had turned into a minute-by-minute count between contractions as she tried to
relax against the overwhelming pain of the labor. It had also turned into a kaleidoscope
of memories.
    As though her life
were flashing before her eyes, Marly saw the impacting moments of her years
with Cade, from the day she had arrived on his doorstep until now.
    How he had taken
her, a gawky, awkward child, and dressed her in the finest clothes, given her
everything a child could have wished for. He had showered her with all the
love, security and praise that he himself had lacked in his life. Brock and Sam
had followed suit. Throughout her teenage years they had raised and protected
her, sheltered her, and by turns had overseen each adventure in her life. Had
overseen them, and had eventually become the adventure. And now here they were
yet again. The three of them, faces pale, voices hoarse, as the nurses worked
around her.
    Between contractions,
preparation and the smooth transition from pain to woozy comfort, she watched
the three men. They stood silently across the room, their gazes shadowed and
worried, flickering with fear. But Cade looked tortured.
    “I’m okay,” she
whispered, smiling for him as the pain receded. “We’re both going to be fine.”
    He moved to her,
careful to stay out of the way of the nurses until he could stand beside the
hospital bed. Then he laid his head beside hers, his hands tangling in her long
hair as he held her to him, his body convulsing with a hard shudder.
    “I know,” he
whispered bleakly, his voice so haunted with pain it broke her heart. “Everything’s
fine. I know that.”
    But she could hear
his fears. Fears that had only grown as the pregnancy progressed.
    “He’ll be as
gorgeous as his daddy. And just as strong,” she whispered, well aware of the
fact that the child could be no one’s but Cade’s. She had made certain of it.
    She had given each
of them the illusion that they would be as much a part of the baby as Cade was,
to keep that bond alive for them. But privately, she had ensured no other
fathered the baby but Cade. He was her soul. Everything that mattered in this
world to her.
    As his hands
tightened in her hair, his body trembling with emotion, Marly feared the
changes that would soon come crashing into his life. She wanted her husband
happy. Whole. The nightmares were gone, but she knew his fears still lingered.
The fear of losing her. Of being alone, deep inside, once again. And she swore
to herself in that moment, for Cade, for their baby, she had to make him face
the final demon that haunted him. Him, Brock, and Sam.
     
    * * * * *
    Brock sat
nervously on the uncomfortable couch in the waiting room. He held his wife
close to him and watched the clock on the wall across from them. It amazed him.
She amazed him. In little more than a year, Sarah had managed to fill his life
so completely that he knew he could never ask for more. Yet he had so much
more.
    Beside him, Sam held Heather as they talked softly. As they both
worried about the woman and child Cade was with now. Alone. His brothers weren’t
with him. But that was how it should be, Brock thought.
    Until this moment,
they had shared damned near every minute of that pregnancy with Cade. Had
worried with him. Listened to his fears, saw his concerns. And as much as Brock
was nervous now himself, he knew this final step was being taken as it should.
    His fingers twined
in Sarah’s hair, his eyes narrowing at the emotion that had been forming inside
him for almost a year now. He could feel the change in the air. From the moment
they rushed into Cade’s bedroom after his scream had disturbed Brock’s careful
sensual torture of Sarah’s body, Brock had felt it. It moved like a wraith,
weaving careful streamers of knowledge through his soul. He sighed deeply.