Prince Baby. SUSAN MEIER
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Lucy groaned again, digging her fingers into the edge of the sofa.
“Hang in there,” he said, straightening her coat beneath her. “Everything’s going to be okay. I called my neighbors who are paramedics.”
Lucy said, “Okay,” then panted a few breaths. Seth noticed that she hadn’t stopped squeezing the cushion and knew that what she had said was true. There was no time between the contractions.
“Mark and his brother live three houses down,” he said soothingly. “Nine chances out of ten they only have to jump into their shoes before they can jog up here. Any second now my doorbell will ring…”
She groaned again. Her knuckles whitened as she squeezed the sofa cushion more tightly. “Seth, I can feel the baby coming out.”
Not giving himself time to think, Seth reached under her skirt to remove her underpants. He heard the doorbell and prayed it was Mark. “In here,” he called, knowing he couldn’t leave Lucy to answer the door. But the wind howled, drowning out his voice.
He positioned himself between Lucy’s knees. “In here!” he yelled. “Come in!”
When he didn’t hear the sound of his front door opening he shouted, “In here!” as the child pushed free. Quickly, easily, the baby slid from Lucy and landed in Seth’s hands.
He just barely caught it. “Oh, my God!”
Mark and Ray ran into the room. Ray laughed. “Looks like we’re here just in time.”
Seth glanced down at the baby. His baby. His son.
A prince.
“Oh, my God.”
Seth watched the paramedics roll Lucy and the baby out of his house, down the sidewalk and to the driveway where the ambulance awaited. As they guided the gurney into the brightly lit vehicle, Seth closed his front door and started walking upstairs to get a shirt and shoes so he could join them at the hospital, but he had a quick second thought.
When he entered his bedroom, he grabbed the cell phone he had left on the cherrywood dresser with his wallet and change and dialed the home number for his personal attorney. As Pete Hauser’s phone rang, Seth walked to the window and pulled back the sheer curtain and saw the ambulance speed away in the rainy night.
“Pete?” he said. “This is Seth Bryant.”
“Seth? What are you doing calling at—” he paused and Seth assumed he’d glanced at a clock “—eleven-o’clock on a Friday night!”
Seth winced. “You were already in bed, weren’t you?”
“Of course I was! Tomorrow might be Saturday, but I still have clients.”
Seth winced again. “Sorry, but I have a big problem.”
“What’s up?” Pete asked, instantly alert at the mention of trouble.
“I have a son.”
“What?”
Seth took a quick breath. “Let me start at the beginning. Remember that I told you I had been married, but you didn’t need to worry because the marriage had been annulled and neither one of us wanted alimony or a settlement?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I was wrong when I said we didn’t need to worry. My ex-wife’s dad is a king…”
“Seth, is this one of your jokes?”
“No joke. The bottom line is that our marriage was annulled because Lucy was promised to someone else in a trade agreement…”
“Seth!”
“I’m serious, Pete. Hear me out. She was betrothed to someone when she was a child, and that’s a commitment as binding as a marriage in her country. So when her father found out about our marriage he told her our marriage wasn’t valid. She went to Xavier Island to straighten things out, but she never came back. Her father’s representative came to my door one day with the annulment papers I told you about that essentially said the marriage never happened. But tonight she showed up at my door and she was in labor. She actually had the baby on my sofa. But that’s not the point. The point is she’s an honest-to-God princess. Ty and I might have a bit of cash, but I’m guessing we can’t compete with these people.”
“You’re afraid she’s going to take the baby and you’ll never see him again?”
“Exactly.”
“Okay, here’s what you do. Whatever it takes, you get her to stay in this country while I research the law and locate your best grounds for custody.”
“While you’re researching, Pete, keep in mind that my son is the first grandchild of the only child of a king.”
Seth’s lawyer gasped. “He’s an heir to a throne?”
“I’m guessing. I don’t know much about royalty and monarchies. I couldn’t tell you who gets to rule and who just waves from the carriage in parades. But I do know that Lucy is an only child, and I suspect that a baby’s being firstborn—to an only child—means something.”
“Okay. I’ll hit the books. You keep your princess here. In Arkansas, if possible.”
“It’s called a spontaneous delivery,” the emergency room doctor said, slapping Seth on the back. “Next baby, you’ll be ready.”
“There isn’t going to be a next baby,” Seth mumbled as the doctor pushed open the curtain, walked out of the cubicle and disappeared when the drape fell closed behind him.
Rubbing his hand across the back of his neck, Seth faced Lucy. “So, the doctor wants you to stay overnight.”
Lucy nodded and Seth watched her, working to control the myriad of emotions tumbling through him. He understood what Pete was saying about keeping Lucy in Porter, but what Pete didn’t realize was that Seth was irresistibly attracted to this woman. They hadn’t even left his hotel room on their first date. Hell, they hadn’t even said hello. The day they’d met on the construction site for her father’s Miami mansion, they had fought the sexual connection that sizzled between them for eight long hours. So, when she’d arrived at his hotel room to meet him for their dinner date, she’d fallen into his arms and he’d carried her to bed.
With the exception of time at the construction site, they’d spent the first two weeks of their acquaintance in bed. But that was good because that was how he’d talked himself out of thinking he was in love with her. He simply convinced himself it had only been lust and the thrill of spontaneity that had propelled him and Lucy to Vegas where they were married after only knowing each other a few short weeks.
Blaming their marriage on uncontrollable sexual chemistry made everything easy to understand and justify, but now she’d had his child. And all kinds of crazy emotions bubbled through Seth. He might not love her, but he was absolutely, positively back to being solidly in lust with her. Except now lust was peppered with appreciation for the staggeringly beautiful woman who had given him a son.
He was in deep trouble.
He took a quick breath and reminded himself that Lucy had also married him when she had been betrothed to someone else. She had rushed home when her father discovered their hasty wedding and that had been the end of their relationship. She hadn’t taken Seth’s calls, wouldn’t see him when he’d traveled to her father’s island. Her father had sent the messenger who’d told him their marriage had been annulled. So, yes, looking at her beautiful dark eyes, perfect pink complexion and sinfully rich black hair, he couldn’t deny that he was sexually attracted to her. What man wouldn’t be? Having watched the birth of his son, he also couldn’t deny a certain amount of respect and appreciation. But after the way she had treated him, he couldn’t love her. He wouldn’t love her. It would be emotional suicide.
“And they’ll have a room for you in a few minutes.”
She