“Sarah’s not —” Linsey gritted her teeth as another pain racked through her. They had started early in the morning and were finally coming closer together. Sarah had told her what to expect, and so far everything was happening just as she had said.
“Sarah’s not what?” Bear asked, agitation making his voice gruff.
“Coming!” The pain was at its peak, and Linsey almost screamed the word.
“Sarah’s not coming?” He walked back to the bed, waiting impatiently for her to be able to respond.
Linsey let her breath out with a deep swoosh and tried to relax. “You will deliver our child,” she said quietly.
“What?! Woman, have you lost your mind?”
“Not yet.” Linsey’s attempt at a smile quickly turned to bared teeth as another pain reached its peak.
“Kaleb went to get her!”
“No … I talked to him a few days ago and asked him not to send her here. This is such a special time, Luc. I don’t want to share it with anyone but you. Please?”
He knelt by the bed and brought her hand up to his mouth. Lightly kissing her palm, Bear tasted the salty flavor of sweat. Her brow and upper lip were beaded, and as he watched, her belly tightened again.
“I can’t, Autumn Fire.”
Linsey felt his big hands shake as they held hers, and she knew he was truly frightened. He had faced a tribe of Iroquois to save Kaleb, his thirst for revenge had led him to fight a grizzly with nothing but a knife and his bare hands, but the thought of delivering his child made him quiver with fear.
“It is too late, Bear.”
“I can get to their cabin and back in only a few minutes.”
“The pains are coming with almost no space between them.”
“I don’t know what to do!”
The pains were flowing together with no break. Through gritted teeth Linsey guided him. Bear stood beside the bed and between her open thighs saw the top of the dark, fuzzy head of his child, and for the first time in his life he wondered if he would pass out.
“I see it,” he murmured. “Mon Dieu, I see it.”
Linsey bent her knees and grabbed the back of her thighs with her hands. She panted as Sarah had instructed and kept her eyes glued to Bear’s face where the wonder of the moment stamped multiple expressions of joy, amazement, fear and hope across his rugged features.
Biting her lip until she tasted blood, Linsey forced back a scream as the head pushed out of her body. Tears streamed down her face to join with the sweat pouring off her as the tiny body slipped free.
Reverently, Bear lifted the child still connected to her by the cord of life. He held it up so that she could see the life they had created. Tiny legs kicked as small arms batted the air and new lungs filled with life-giving air.
“You have given me a son, Autumn Fire,” Bear whispered, tears filling his eyes to overflowing and streaming down his face. “A son … “
Linsey smiled and lay back, a feeling of utopia vying with exhaustion. Quietly she instructed him how to tie off and cut the cord. Bear laid the infant on her flat belly, his hands now sure as he finished with the birth.
Linsey stroked the damp head of her son; a feeling of pride and love filled her heart. His hair was dark, and she suspected when it was dry it would be thick and black. His face, wrinkled like an old man’s, showed his father’s wide brow and aquiline nose. He wiggled and kicked, screaming lustily his outrage at being removed from his warm, quiet world.
When the cord was safely cut and the afterbirth delivered, Linsey held her son against her breast, fascinated as he rutted around searching for her nipple. She jumped with surprise when his tiny mouth closed around it and he began to suckle fiercely.
“Being born must be hungry work.” Bear chuckled at the baby’s enthusiasm.
Linsey counted fingers and toes, examined ears, arms and legs while Bear gently ministered to her. When he was finished, he drew a light cover up to her breasts, then knelt down beside the bed.
“He’s so tiny.”
Linsey snorted. “You wouldn’t have said that if you’d been in my position!”
The reality of the moment set in, and Bear’s hands began to shake. They had been completely steady as he helped his son into the world, but now he felt weak with reaction.
“Was it bad, mon ange?”
Linsey turned her gaze from her son, and her eyes melted with love for her gentle giant. She lifted her free hand from the baby’s leg and caressed Bear’s cheek.
“No, my Bear. Holding your son in my arms and knowing he is our child wiped every bit of the pain from my mind.”
He believed her; the expression in her eyes was joy. No hint of the pain she had suffered marred their clear emerald light.
“Thank you, Autumn Fire.”
“For the baby?”
“Him, too. But I would have run for Sarah and have never known this incredible joy of sharing his birth with you.”
“Since you like it so much, we’ll have to do it again soon,” Linsey teased.
With a groan, Bear leaned down and kissed her, then softly kissed his son. “Can we wait a few days? I don’t think I’ll stop shaking for a week or two.”
The sound of their gentle murmurs and quiet words drifted on the crisp night air. A leaf twirled and twisted in the gentle breeze before it relinquished its hold on life and drifted to the ground below. One life had lived its short span of time on earth. The silence of night was broken by the tiny voice of a new life just beginning.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
CHAPTER EIGHT
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Epilogue
LeClerc 01 - Autumn Ecstasy Page 27
