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A low whimper erupted from her throat. Piers moved closer to her, smoothing his free hand through her hair in a comforting gesture.
“It will be all right, yineka mou. The doctor has assured me that you will receive the best care. Our baby will be just fine.”
Our baby, she thought drowsily. Had he said our baby or was she imagining it? She couldn’t quite get her thoughts together. The pain had diminished and she felt like she was floating on a light cloud.
“What did you do to me?” she asked.
She heard a light chuckle from the nurse at her head.
“Just something to make you more comfortable. We’ll be wheeling you in to surgery in just a moment.”
“Piers?”
“I’m here, yineka mou.” Again his hand stroked her hair, and she turned into his palm, her eyes fighting to stay open.
“You said our baby. You believe she’s yours?”
There was a hesitation, and she blinked harder to keep him in focus. There were worry lines crowding his forehead. Was he concerned for the baby?
“Yes, she is mine,” he said huskily. “She’s our daughter, and you’ll take good care of her during the surgery, I’m sure. Rest now and don’t try to speak. Let the medicine take the pain way.”
She gripped his hand tightly, afraid that if she let go, he’d leave. The bed going into motion startled her, and she pulled his hand closer.
“Don’t go.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said soothingly.
His lips brushed across her forehead, and she relaxed, closing her eyes and allowing the pain to leave her.
The voices dimmed around her. Then Piers kissed her again and told her softly that he would be waiting for her. Why? Where was he going? She wanted to ask but couldn’t muster the energy to do anything more than lie there.
The bed rolled again and suddenly she was in a frigid room. She was lifted and transferred to a much harder surface, and it was cold. A cheerful voice sounded in her ear and asked her to count backward from ten.
She opened her mouth to comply but nothing came out. She even managed to open her eyes, but by the time she mentally made it to eight, everything went black.
Piers paced the confines of the surgery waiting room like a caged lion, edgy and impatient. He checked his watch again only to find that three minutes had passed since the last time he’d checked it. Damn it, how long would it take? Why weren’t they telling him anything?
“Piers, how is she?”
Piers looked up to see Theron striding into the waiting room, his hair rumpled as if he’d rolled out of bed and onto the plane. But then he had. Piers felt guilty for dragging his brother out of bed in the middle of the night, but he was grateful to have him here.
Piers briefly embraced his brother and the two sat down.
“I don’t know yet. They took her in a few hours ago, but I haven’t heard anything since.”
“What happened? Is the baby all right?”
“The cyst on her ovary caused a tubal torsion. She was in unspeakable pain so they took her to surgery to remove the cyst and probably the tube as well. She was scheduled for surgery in a week’s time anyway so this just moved up the timeline.”
“And the baby?”
“There are…risks, but they’ve assured me they’ll do everything they can to prevent anything from happening to the baby.”
“How long has she been in surgery?”
“Four hours,” Piers said bleakly. “What could be taking so long?”
“You’ll hear something soon,” Theron said comfortingly. “Have you called Chrysander?”
Piers shook his head. “There was no need. It would take him too long to get off the island and come here. By the time he did, it would all be over with.”
“Still, you should call him. He’d want to know, he and Marley both.”
“I’ll call them when I know how she is.”
The two brothers sat in the waiting room. After a while Theron left and returned with coffee for the both of them. Piers sipped the lukewarm brew, not really tasting it.
“You’re different, you know.”
Piers looked up in surprise. “What are you talking about?”
“You seem more settled…more content even. I noticed it in your eyes when we were here for the wedding.”
“As opposed to what?” he asked mockingly.
“As opposed to the way you’ve existed ever since Joanna screwed you over and left with Eric.”
Piers flinched. No one ever mentioned Eric to his face. He was sure his family probably said a lot behind his back, but never when he was around. The pain was still too fresh.
“Don’t ruin your chance at happiness, Piers. This is your chance to have it all.”
“Or lose it all again. Maybe I already have.”
“What do you mean?”
Piers took another gulp of the coffee and put the cup aside.
“She was going to leave me in the morning. Her bags were already packed when I found her on the floor in terrible pain.”
“Want to talk about it?” Theron asked carefully. “I’ve been accused of being dense once or twice by a certain woman in my life.”
“You seem so sure it’s me who is the problem,” Piers said dryly.
“You’re a man, and men are always in the wrong. Haven’t you learned anything yet?”
The corner of Piers’s mouth lifted in a smile. Then he sobered. “I was an ass.”
“Yes, well, it won’t be the last time. It seems an inherent part of our genetic makeup.”
“A male friend of hers showed up yesterday to come to her rescue. I didn’t take it very well.”
“No one can blame you for that. It’s part of being territorial.”
Piers snorted. “Next you’ll be telling me that we’re all cavemen stomping around and marking our territory like dogs.”
“Quite an image you’ve conjured there, little brother. I imagine that’s precisely what we do, just not in the literal sense.”
Theron glanced sideways at Piers.
“So she was going to leave you because you didn’t appreciate her male friend showing up?”
“I might have accused him of fathering her child and the two of them of running a scam to extort money from me.”
Theron winced. “Damn, when you decide to pull off the gloves, you go for the full monty.”
“As I said, I was an ass. I was angry. I told her that I wouldn’t grant her a divorce, and she told me to take my settlement and go to hell.”
“Doesn’t sound much like a woman after your money does it?”
He’d thought the same thing himself.
“I want to trust her, Theron.”
“And that frightens you.”
And there it was in a nutshell. Funny how his brother cut so quickly to the heart of the matter. Yes, he wanted to trust her, but he was afraid, and it infuriated him.
“I don’t want to ever allow a woman that much power over me again.”
Theron sighed and put his hand on Piers’s shoulder. “I understand, really I do. But you can’t shut yourself away from the world for the rest of your life just because you got hurt once.”
