A Kiss of Color: A BWWM Interracial Romance (Book 3)

by Cristina Grenier

  There was a sudden commotion from downstairs that made all three of them look through the glass window onto the main floor of the bank below. Xavier’s eyes widened in horror when he saw that the throng of reporters from outside were pushing their way into the bank, looking for him.

  “Time to go.” Brandy announced before turning back to the cowering banker. “Tell me this place has a back door.”

  “First floor, down the northern hall.” The young woman managed, looking from Brandy to Xavier and back again. In her eyes, Xavier could read harsh accusation. She thought that they were criminals, and though he loathed to admit it, the evidence didn’t seem to be terribly in his favor.

  But there was nothing he could do to change her mind now.

  So, instead, he quickly followed his older sister out of the office and down a back stairway until the found the northern hall. Luckily, the reporters hadn’t reached the rear of the bank and they shot down the hallway before yanking open the back door.

  Which revealed another crush of the media. When yet more cameras flashed and gossip-hungry men and women demanded information, Xavier felt an emotion he hadn’t felt in a very long time.

  Fear.

  Chapter Four: Unexpected Arrival

  It had been an awfully long time.

  Helena gathered that Xavier told her he’d be back in twenty minutes about two hours ago, and she was beginning to get worried. Since he’d left, she’d taken a shower and dressed, but she hadn’t been able to eat much. She’d been restless all morning, and her son even more so. He was squirming around so much it made his antics in the holding cell look like a walk in the park.

  The gray-eyed woman lay in bed, rubbing back and forth over her tummy in an effort to comfort her antsy child. Every ten minutes or so, she glanced out the window over the expanse of their yard, past the huge number of reporters and to the street, looking for Xavier. Pounding on the door came pretty incessantly, and she forced herself to ignore it, trying to remain calm.

  How could this have happened?

  Xavier had obsessively screened those he hired to his financial team just to make sure things like this didn’t occur! Every background check and every interview had gone off without a hitch. These were the people who had helped him make the company into the powerhouse that it was. Helena knew for a fact that Xavier would never conspire to steal money from his own company – not after all the work he had put in to make it an honest and forthright company.

  Then the question remained: who would?

  At a sharp pain in her stomach, the young woman inhaled deeply before biting her lip. Her little man was definitely active today.

  She wondered if Xavier had encountered any trouble on the way to the bank. It wouldn’t hurt to call him, just to make sure. He’d do the same for her if their positions were switched. Shifting carefully onto her side, Helena reached out for her phone on the bedside table and was preparing to dial Xavier’s number when a sudden wet gush came from between her legs, soaking the coverlet beneath her.

  Helena gasped in shock, staring down at the drenched cotton.

  Her water had broken. The realization washed over her the moment before an intense pain clenched in her lower stomach, leaving her breathless for a few moments. She panicked momentarily before she reminded herself to breathe through it. She had read plenty of books about this during the time that she and Xavier had been separated. This was natural. She was just having a baby.

  She was just having a baby…and she had no idea where Xavier was.

  Helena took several deep breaths, trying to find her Zen. Panicking would not help her now. Though there were media hounds on her front lawn and she had no idea where her boyfriend was, panicking would only make the situation worse. So, instead, she carefully shifted out of the wet spot in the center of the bed and sat up. The clenching sensation from her contraction had gone, but she knew it would return. Helena supposed she should take the fact that the contractions were far apart as a good sign. Labor, she had to remind herself, didn’t mean baby immediately.

  Reaching for her phone again, the young woman quickly dialed Xavier’s number, waiting with baited breath for his answer. When she got his recorded message, she swallowed yet another wave of panic before hanging up. Immediately, she dialed Doctor Forge. Her mentor answered on the first ring.

  “Susan Forge’s office.”

  “Susan, I’m in labor.” Helena didn’t mince words. And luckily for her, Susan was a doctor and not a hysteric. The woman immediately became business-like and analytical.

  “Where are you? How long have the contractions been coming? And where is Xavier?”

  “I’m at home. I’ve only had one but my water’s broken, and Xavier went to the bank two hours ago and hasn’t returned. He’s not answering his phone.”

  Susan emitted a long suffering sigh. “I’ll come and get you. Don’t worry. We’ll call Xavier on our way to the hospital.”

  “Um…Susan? It might not be that easy.”

  Luckily, Doctor Forge managed to find someone to cover her at the office and left right away. Once she arrived at the house, however, it took her a good fifteen minutes to actually make it to the door. By that point, Helena had managed to pack her hospital bag and was waiting by the door in a chair, breathing through the second contraction as she hoped to God that Xavier got back to her soon.

  She heard the doctor before she saw her. If there was one thing she’d learned in her two years working for Susan, it was that the normally mild-mannered Doctor could be…intense, to say the least, when she was upset. She’d come within an inch of wigging out on the cops that had come to the office to arrest Helena, and now, she seemed like she was on the brink again.

  “Get out of my way! I’m a doctor and you’re obstructing me assisting my patient! I don’t give a damn about any of your questions. Move before I call the authorities!” Helena couldn’t help a small smile, despite the chaos. She could always count on Susan to be the authoritative one.

  The moment the doorbell rang, Helena rushed to answer it, wincing as the last of her contraction left her weak kneed. Susan hurried in quickly before slamming the door behind her, her expression irate. “This is ridiculous. They’re like hounds out for blood!”

  “Tell me about it.” The dark-haired woman managed a small smile before another sharp pain drove her back down into her chair. Susan was immediately at her side, a hand on her shoulder in reassurance as she offered the other to Helena to squeeze.

  “Breathe through it dear. Breathe through it. Everything’s going to be fine.” All at once, a sudden, knife-like pain jolted through her and Helena had to bite back a low moan of pain. That contraction had been nothing like the others. In fact, it had made her almost nauseous with pain.

  As she swayed in her chair, Susan’s expression became concerned. She reached down to feel gently over the swell of Helena’s stomach before frowning. “Helena, are you alright?”

  “I’m fine.” The young woman answered quickly, but the truth of the matter was that she wasn’t fine at all. Another sharp, pinching pain ripped through her, drawing a short cry of pain as she shuddered and squeezed Susan’s hand tightly. She felt another, smaller gush of liquid between her legs and winced. She thought her water had already broken, and grabbed some tissues from a nearby table to dry her thighs.

  When she moved to throw them away, however, her breath hitched on a gasp.

  The tissue was bright red.

  In that instant, Helena knew that something was horribly wrong. Her eyes widened at the sight of so much blood and it suddenly became hard to breathe. As if that weren’t enough, at that moment, another contraction rolled over her, this one coming in time with the drip of blood down her thighs.

  Susan’s expression was grave, but far from panicked. Carefully, she straightened, taking hold of Helena’s forearms. “Helena, can you stand? We need to get you to a hospital right away.”

  When she tried to stand up, another pain ensued and Helena groaned,
sinking slowly to the floor. What was wrong? She’d had a perfectly normal pregnancy up to this point. Her last check up two weeks ago had been golden. So, what could have gone amiss between then and now?

  Helena trembled until the pain finally passed before gasping for breath, bracing herself on the solid wood flooring. Susan quickly helped her up, this time more slowly, before easing her back into a chair. Her expression frustrated, the physician gazed out of the window at the multitude of squatters on the front lawn. “We’ll never get through all of them. They’re like wolves….”

  Glancing back at Helena, who was trying to breathe as her son squirmed almost frantically inside of her, she made a split second decision. “Helena, I’m going to call an ambulance. I’ll be right back.” She hurried for the kitchen, which contained the house’s only land line. Susan had long been adamant that she didn’t need a cell phone, and operated just fine without one – but of course, she’d made it a priority to discover where the land line was in their house one of her many visits.

  And now, Helena was glad she had.

  She clenched her teeth in discomfort as she prayed for Xavier to return soon. If he came home and she was gone, he would panic, and she had no idea if she’d be in any state to answer the phone later.

  “It’s on its way.” Susan returned to her side briskly, clearly anxious as she touched Helena’s stomach once again. “Everything’s going to be fine, Helena. I just need you to breathe.”

  But Helena knew the truth – and it was very much the contrary. Though her specialty wasn’t gynecology and obstetrics, in her training she knew enough about the human body to know that something was going on in her womb. There was a chance something had ruptured, or that the baby had been hurt, or worse…that she and the baby had both started hemorrhaging. Whatever the issue was, she knew her best option was to try and remain calm.

  The ambulance was coming and there was nothing she could do until then.

  The next twenty minutes blurred together in an agonizing haze. While her contractions didn’t seem to be coming terribly close together, the sharp, stabbing pain between each one was enough to make her gag. Ultimately, she had to settle for lying on the couch with her head in Susan’s lap, trying to keep from screaming in pain.

  When the doorknob rattled, however, she sat up, biting her lip as she took a deep breath against the pain. Seconds later, there was a brief din as Brandy and Xavier slipped into the house before quickly shutting the door behind themselves. Xavier cursed lowly, tossing the folder on a nearby table, and despite the predicament that Helena was in, she felt her heart sink. Something had gone badly at the bank.

  Everything was going badly.

  “Xavier.” Susan called to him before she could, making the dark-haired man spin around in surprise.

  “Doctor Forge? What are you doing here?”

  At that precise moment, Helena stiffened as another pain lanced through her, crying out. The sound was like a magnet that immediately drew Xavier, white-faced, to her side. Before he could even inquire, Susan answered his question. “She’s in labor, and it’s going badly. I’ve called an ambulance.”

  As panic once again welled in Helena’s throat, she tried to concentrate on Xavier’s face. He was pale, his hand gripping hers tightly as he took in the sight of her stretched across the couch, her thighs slicked with blood. If she looked anywhere near as bad as she felt, she was sure Xavier was in turmoil. He knelt next to her, his eyes never leaving hers. “How long ago did you call the ambulance?”

  Not for the first time, Helena realized she couldn’t have gone into labor at a worse time. Whatever happened at the bank couldn’t have been good, and their baby was choosing now to arrive, in all this turmoil. A contraction clenched her lower stomach, and she groaned, squeezing Xavier’s hand for all she was worth. Before Susan could answer Xavier’s question, the sound of sirens drifted to them and Helena allowed herself a sigh of relief. At least she would soon be in the hospital, where they would be able to find out what was wrong with her baby.

  “They’re almost here, honey.” Xavier leaned down to brush his lips across her forehead as Brandy hovered over them, her blue eyes anxious. She hadn’t said a word since returning with Xavier, but no words were needed to convey the tension in the elder woman’s limbs.

  She was about to tell Brandy that she and the baby were going to be fine when a strange, sickening sensation began in her gut and she inhaled sharply. Then, all at once, her breath was gone. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move, and couldn’t speak. Her entire world was enveloped in white hot agony and she barely registered Xavier calling her name desperately before her entire world faded to black.

  For a long, long while, Helena floated in and out of consciousness. She struggled her way out of the darkness only to be enveloped once again as pain rolled over her in waves. She was vaguely aware of being moved – of leaving home – but other than that, all she could concentrate on was trying to get a sense of herself.

  And her baby.

  What was happening to her baby?

  She couldn’t gather the strength to ask. It felt as if her head weighed a million pounds and her limbs were like lead.

  And it still hurt. Oh, did it hurt.

  The pain seemed to go on for an eternity, torturing her with its intensity. And just when Helena thought she couldn’t take anymore, it finally began to fade. Slowly, steadily, she began to relax and finally, she slept.

  When she opened her eyes, the first thing she caught sight of was a stark white ceiling. It was still very difficult to move, and so she merely glanced over the room, quickly realizing that she was in the hospital. The room was white and gray, with the sounds of various machines running together in a soft hum. Almost immediately, the young woman caught sight of her lover’s rich, dark brown hair near the foot of the bed. He appeared to have fallen asleep against the sheets, and was breathing softly, his face pillowed upon his arms.

  It took a great amount of effort, but Helena managed to sit up onto her elbows, making the room spin around her. The motion was accompanied by an uncomfortable pulling sensation in her lower abdomen. She winced slightly in discomfort, taking a breath, before she realized that she had two IVs in her arm and lay back down, exhausted.

  Through the large window, she could see that it was either very early morning or late evening. Closing her eyes briefly, Helena tried to remember what had happened.

  Xavier told her that he was going to the bank with Brandy. They’d been gone for a long time…too long in fact…and then…

  “The baby!” The words left her immediately in a low, almost inaudible gasp as she reached for her stomach. The moment Helena touched the much flatter expanse of her tummy, she felt her heart sink. What had happened to her baby?

  Even though she’d spoken almost to herself, her soft tone was enough to wake Xavier. The dark-haired man blearily sat upright, shoving hair back off of his brow to look towards the head of the bed. His eyes caught hers, held, and for a moment, Helena thought she saw them shine with unshed tears. The raw emotion in the look he gave her – relief, love and terror – was enough to make her heart stumble in her chest.

  “Helena. Thank God.” Xavier immediately took her into his arms, holding her tightly against his chest. He was the first solid thing she’d felt since coming to and Helena buried her face in his chest, inhaling the scent of him and reveling in his warmth. For a moment, she forgot the deep emptiness she’d felt when she realized her child was gone, and simply clung to Xavier as if her very life depended on it.

  It was a long, long while before she found the wherewithal to speak, but once she did, there was only one question she wanted answered. “Where’s our baby, Xavier?”

  For a moment, Xavier said nothing. Helena felt every muscle in her body tensing. She wanted to scream but couldn’t draw the breath to do so. No, it couldn’t be. She’d known that everything was going to be alright…that the baby would be fine.

  In that moment, the door swung open and
Helena stiffened, her fingernails digging furrows into her lover’s forearms. She didn’t want to face anyone now. She couldn’t…

  Then, the air was split by a tiny, wailing cry.

  A loud sob escaped the young woman, and Xavier drew back from her to reveal Doctor Forge entering the room. The moment her gaze landed on Helena, her grim expression changed to one of supreme delight. The young woman herself, however, could hardly concentrate on her Doctor for the small, squirming bundle in her arms. For what seemed like an eternity, all she could do was stare.

  The baby’s skin was red and ruddy, and she could make out a head of soft, honey colored hair. Without a word, Xavier moved to the bedside to help her prop herself up so that Susan could gently place the small bundle in her arms.

  He was soft…

  The squalling baby’s eyes were a deep gray color, mirroring her own, and he had the most beautiful, perfect nose that Helena had ever seen. She raised a hand to trace over his tiny lips, soft forehead, and small thatch of hair. He had ten lovely fingers and ten miniscule little toes…and he was absolutely gorgeous. His crying was the sweetest noise she’d heard in a long, long time, and she held him tightly to her chest as she breathed deeply. He was here. He was in her arms.

  He was beautiful.

  “He’s gorgeous.” The words escaped her on the edge of a sob.

  Susan laughed, the sound filling the room with life where there had been none. “He’s hungry.”

  “He’s been on formula for a while, but it’s better if you feed him.” Xavier added gently, brushing a strand of unkempt hair from his lover’s brow as he looked adoringly down on his family. Susan stepped over to the family to touch Helena’s shoulder gently before making a quiet exit to give them the alone time they needed.

  Helena couldn’t help but take a few moments to stare at her son in awe before she actually managed the strength to arrange herself to start breastfeeding him. Though she had no prior experience, she had a relatively easy time getting the baby to latch on, and the feeling of him nursing from her was beyond compare.