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Fear made me dig in my heels. “I don’t want to have a baby today.”
Valor was on my other side, and the two of them held me as another wave hit.
“You’ll be fine,” Valor said tightly.
Pressure.
Oh fuck.
I blinked, trying to yank my arms free from them.
“I need to—”
Everything in me tensed, and I struggled between them, trying to slide to the floor. I needed to…
God, the pressure.
I gritted my teeth and grunted, unable to stop myself from obeying my body and pushing.
“Are you pushing?” Valor asked, dismayed. “No, Nymph! Remember the prenatal classes? They have to check how far you’re dilated before you start pushing.”
“Chelsea, call an ambulance,” I heard Liza say. “Everyone get the fuck out! Pavel, alert security and direct the paramedics when they get here.”
“Liza, can you grab that purple duffle bag for me?” Loïc said with a calm focus that surprised me. “Valor, open my duffle bag. Spread the shower curtain and padding on that table.”
I heard banging and glanced over to see Valor tipping the craft service table and dumping the snacks onto the floor. Although I meant to argue, the next wave of pain hit.
“You can’t deliver a baby,” I gasped, panic rising.
Liza slipped behind me and was doing quick work of unlacing my corset. She helped me strip it off.
“I’ve been taking private lessons online from a midwife for the past five months. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than nothing.”
“You’ve—”
How? When?
Another contraction cut off my incredulity, and Loïc swept me up and carried me to the table as though I were weightless. His blue eyes burnedwith the kind of fervor that made me believe he could lift a car off me right then if he needed to. I fell into those eyes, mesmerized.
As soon as he had me on the table, Valor was at my side, the grip of his hand on mine calming me like nothing else could.
“The ambulance—” I gasped.
“They’ll be here soon,” Valor assured me. His calm demeanor was almost completely believable, except for the worry he couldn’t quite conceal.
“Let’s see how far you’ve gotten us,” Loïc said with an encouraging smile. Quickly, he unlaced my boots and drew them off. “May I?” he asked, his hands on the waistband of my pants. I gave a jerky nod as another contraction swamped me in a haze of pain. I could feel myself pushing, and then my pants were off. Part of me wanted to snap my legs closed, afraid of doing something humiliating, but this was Loïc. Nothing my body could do would shock or disgust him any more than it would with Valor.
“We’re going to meet our baby today,” Loïc said, his voice full of wonder.
Our baby.
Excitement tried to override the fear, but months of worrying about giving birth were trying to get in the way.
Months of pregnancy were harder, right? A day or two of pain to meet our baby didn’t seem like a bad exchange.
But two days of this?
My body already felt like it was pulling apart, as though my hips might pop out of their sockets. I had a vision of a Thanksgiving turkey trying to de-stuff itself and a laugh burbled up as the next wave hit. I looked at Valor and found his gaze flitting from my face to Loïc and back.
