“Which you should never do again,” I said, referring to his recent trip.
“Agreed.” His hand left my cock, finding my slick hole. He teased my entrance before slipping one finger inside. “Oh my, aren’t you ready for me.”
“Always.”
He rocked into me slowly, holding me close to him as we moved in sync, bringing each of us to the brink in a leisurely and loving manner. It was more than just knotting, more than just making love even, it was reconnecting while forging new connections under our now crystal-clear agreement that we were more than just a couple, more than just a convenience marriage, we were each other’s home.
As he knotted me and I came, the words that summed it all up flooded out of our mouths simultaneously. “I love you.”
What more could two men want than that? To love and be loved was really all life was about. And later in the day, we were going to profess our love to everyone who meant the most to us. Or, at least, that was the theory. I’d never thrown a surprise wedding before.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Lucas
A few hours later, I woke to the sound of stomping. Harrison’s cabin wasn’t the best, acoustic-wise, so every footstep could be heard across the house.
“Harrison? You okay?” My voice cracked, groggy and jet-lagged as I was.
A few steps more, and he stuck his head into the doorway. His cheeks were flushed, and his hands were on his back. “‘Back hurts a little this morning. Not anything major, just a dull ache that comes and goes. I’ll be okay. Go back to sleep. It’s only seven.”
I lay back down, but instead of falling asleep, I turned over and reached for one of the baby books I’d been devouring in the last month or so.
Flipping through to the last chapter, my suspicions were confirmed.
“Harrison, about how long has your back been hurting?”
He passed the doorway, this time with a glass of orange juice in one hand. “Started right after we knotted. It woke me up.”
I glanced back at the book. Sex could cause a person to go into labor. It was time.
“About how long are the intervals between pain?” I didn’t want to alarm him, but at the same time, I needed to know how fast to get my ass in gear.
He passed again, shrugging. “I don’t know. What do you want me to do, time it?”
That was when the redness from his cheeks drained out like a sink. He cleared his throat before answering himself. “Oh...yeah. I should be timing this.” He bent forward slightly and I jumped from the bed to support him. His breaths were steady, in through his nose and out through his mouth.
“Just hold me a minute,” my mate whispered into my ear as he rested against my shoulder.
I rubbed his lower back, watching the time on the clock above the kitchen sink. “There it is again.”
Two minutes. Two freaking minutes.
“Okay, sweetheart. I need you to sit down while I get your bags and the baby’s bag. Then we will head for the car.” I helped him to the nearest chair.
As I gathered our stuff and put on the first thing I saw, I heard Harrison chant to the baby to stay in until we could get to the hospital, and couldn’t help but chuckle.
No home births for us.
In a whirlwind of movement, I put the bags into the trunk along with the car seat, and started the engine.
“Ready?” I gently grabbed Harrison’s hands and helped him to stand. He groaned softly, but nothing like I’d seen on TV. He wasn’t screaming or trying to tear my hair out.
He held tight around my waist as we walked to the car. Just as I shut the passenger door, Jaxon showed up, ready to work.
“It’s baby day, Jax—your day off.”
His eyes bulged. “Okay. I’ll let everyone know.”
I went around the car to get into the driver’s side. When I got in, Harrison huffed and puffed.
“You’re going to be okay.” Tears ran down his face. “Is the pain bad?” I asked as I started the engine and turned around to drive down the road. I’d timed it. It took exactly twelve minutes to get to the hospital if I gunned it and since I’d seen the tears, I’d decided gunning it was the best option.
Harrison’s voice cracked when he tried to speak.
I took his hand in mine and kissed his palm. “I’m getting there as fast as I can.”
“I had something planned for us today,” he croaked out.
“There’s nothing more important today than having our baby. Nothing.” He nodded and swiped some tears away. Whatever my omega had planned must’ve been important. It wasn’t often I saw him get so upset about missed plans.
I pushed the phone button in the car and called the hospital to let them know we were on the way. We’d toured the labor and delivery unit, and with this being a small town, they knew who we were when I called.
When we pulled up to the hospital, a nurse was already in the doorway with a wheelchair at the ready.
I wanted to go with Harrison, leave the car right there running, but there was someone behind me so I parked it in the red zone, not even caring if it got towed or wrecked. The only thing on my mind was getting my omega safely into the delivery room and seeing our baby.
“I’m here. Let’s go.” Bags in hand, we fast-walked to the labor and delivery unit. They settled us into a room and put monitors on Harrison while I rifled through the bags, looking for the pre-registration paperwork.
“It’s in the other bag, Lucas.” I sighed and smiled as Harrison directed me to the right place. And he was right-the papers were exactly where he said they were.
One nurse left and Harrison reached out for me. I rushed to his bedside and took his hand. He squeezed the hell out of it.
“Do you want pain medication? What are they saying? Why aren’t they here?”
“Speak of the devil and here I am.” Joaquim, Brent’s husband came in, stopping to wash his hands. “Now, let’s see where we are. Vivian’s gonna be so jealous that I was in here and she wasn’t. I’m filling in today. Apparently, there’s a lot of birthdays. I’ll be with you two for the duration.”
Harrison took a deep breath, obviously comforted as I was about having someone we knew in the delivery room.
Joaquim went about his checks on Harrison, using a soothing tone and staying calm while he answered. He did a quick scan of the contractions Harrison was having, and nodded once.
There was something about that nod that made my stomach fall to the floor. It was time. Our baby was ready.
“Looks like she’s having some stress. Her heartbeat is all over the place. I’d rather be safe than sorry. Baby girl needs to come out now. I’m going to get the doctor and call into surgery. Take a deep breath, gentlemen. You’re about to be fathers.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Harrison
“What do you mean? Surgery?” Lucas was gray, and I was in all-out panic mode. Everything I’d read said to avoid that like the freaking plague.
“It’s okay, Harrison. See this line?”
I nodded.
“It should be much more consistent than that. See here?” He pointed to a low line that was straight. I nodded. “That was when you contracted. It means baby does not like them.”
“My baby?” I sobbed, and Lucas sat on the bed beside me, his armed wrapped around me
“Is fine. This is just an indicator that labor is not your baby’s friend. This happened with my husband, too, and he was scared, too, but you’ve met our precious babies.”
“They’re perfect,” I said between sobs. “But they say C-sections are bad and cause issues like breathing distress.”
“Look at me—both of you. Babies are my thing. You’ve got this. Baby is going to be perfect, you are going to be perfect, and today is going to be one of your favorite memories, but first I need you to trust me. Can you do that?”
“Yes?” I squeaked.
I did trust him and the hospital, but that didn’t make my fears any less.
“Excellent.�
�� He squeezed my hand and pulled out his phone. “Now let me call the doctor.”
“Too late, Joaquim.” A woman I’d yet to meet walked in, joy spread across her face and not the fake kind that rubbed me raw. She was over-the-top happy about something. “She’s already here. Dr. Hildebrand.” She held out her hand and we both shook it. “Looks like it is baby day.” Her smile faltered only a second as she looked at the monitor.
“I was just preparing them,” Joaquim explained. I was fairly sure that was outside of his job description, and probably his authority, but hearing it from him was what I needed at the time, and I’d never forget his kindness.
“Ahh, yes.” She tapped her chin, her eyes squinting at the monitor and the paper it had printed out. “I see a C-section is in our future. But good news is we have time.”
“Time?” I somehow managed to speak out.
Lucas was present. He was my rock, both physically and emotionally, even if he was silent this entire time, and I leaned into him just a little bit more, absorbing his love as the hard reality was still hitting us.
“Yes.” She smiled before indicating the end of the bed with a nod. She took a seat. It was better like that, not having her tower over us. “Sometimes, when things are decided last minute, there is no time for an epidural and Dad or Mom are asleep during the birth, but we have time.” She scribbled on her tablet as she spoke. “You’ll be able to hear your baby’s first cry. And you, dad”—she pointed to Lucas—“you will be able to be in there the entire time.”
She tapped, tapped, tapped the tablet before looking up at us again.
“Okay then, I just put in the orders so someone will be here pretty quick. I marked it stat so you don’t have to spend more time fretting.” I doubted that was why, but I accepted her lie as truth. It was easier than to think this was dire.
“It’s hard,” Lucas spoke for the first time since she walked in—heck since way before then.
“I know. See?” She lifted up her doctor’s coat and shirt and pulled down her scrubs to show us her scar. Not at all professional, yet somehow all the more reassuring for that fact. “I had three. But I got four beautiful children out of this scar, so I call it a win. Can you imagine pushing out twins?”
No. No I could not. Her humor had my beeping heart rate no longer beeping, which I knew was her goal.
“Joaquim, you want to let Leo take over as charge nurse and join me for this one?”
“Sounds like a plan.” He was now smiling brightly, too. The woman was contagious. “Nothing better than greeting a brand new life.”
“Excellent.” She jumped off the bed. “I’ll be back shortly.” And then she just walked away. She was a character and a half to be sure.
“Joaquim, are you coming in because you work the NICU?” I spoke my greatest fear, that something would be wrong with my sweet baby girl.
“No, I’m coming in because she saw your mate grab my arm and figured it would comfort you both.”
“Will it?”
“Very much so.” And it did, too. Just knowing I was going to have my mate and someone I knew was gifted at his job in there with me along with Dr. Pollyanna had me feeling a thousand times better about the entire thing.
“What questions do you have, Lucas? I’ve never seen you so quiet.”
“To be fair, you probably mostly have seen me on tv,” he countered, not answering the question.
“True. But still—questions?”
I could see why Joaquim was so good at his job.
“I don’t even know. That’s why I was quiet. I had assumed we would be doing this differently—normal labor, natural delivery, etc.” Lucas pulled me in closer. I got it. This wasn’t how I saw things going, either, but it was how they were.
“Ahh, yes. I get that. I’ve lived that.” Joaquim pulled out his phone and scrolled until he reached a picture of his Brent holding their baby girl, his head still in the OR hat thingy they wear on television. “But the important thing is not the journey but the result. Don’t let the sancti-parents on their high horses the convince you otherwise.”
He was so right.
“Wanna hear a secret?” Joaquim faux whispered all conspiratorially.
“What?” I bantered back, relaxing for the first time since we arrived.
“If you feed your baby with a bottle—they will still get fed and be nourished.” He held up his finger. “And disposable diapers won’t make their bums fall off.” He held up a second. “And if they take a pacifier, then they do.” He held up a third. “Shhh, don’t tell. I’m giving away all the parenting secrets.”
“Thanks.” I winced as another pain came through me. It had been a while, and I half wondered if I had gone through this all naturally how many years I’d have been in labor.
“For what?” Joaquin looked completely bewildered. Had he not realized the good he did just by being him.
“Well, for among other things, making me feel less stressed about feeding Luca.”
“Is that her name?”
“It is.” I snuggled into Lucas until I was practically on top of him. “After my mate.”
“I love it,” he agreed before heading off to get ready for the C-section.
Within a few minutes, the anesthesiologist showed up then every other medical professional ever. I didn’t pretend to keep track of their own. By the time they had me wheeling into the OR with my husband’s hand holding mine, I had no idea which direction was up, everything was blurring together, only becoming clear again when I heard her first cry.
That was why I was there; all the rest of it was white noise. Lucas and I were parents to the most beautiful and perfect baby girl in the entire universe. When they laid her on my chest , the tears flowed freely. I was a dad. We were dads. What could be more amazing than that?
Chapter Twenty-Five
Lucas
The hospital room was packed to capacity, Vivian, Kayson and Reid, Joaquim and Brent, Jaxon, Warren, all of them were whispering to one another, oohing and aahing all over our little Luca.
Luca. I still couldn’t believe my omega found a way to name her after me.
My omega, who I at one time thought would never give me anything but the stink eye for being famous. And yet, here we were, all of a sudden from two to three.
A family.
The past day had been a roller coaster of emotions. I’d been excited and scared when I brought Harrison here. Then terrified that something would happen to Luca, or them both when we walked into that bright operating room. I didn’t think my heart would ever beat again if I lost him in that moment.
And just when I thought I couldn’t love Harrison anymore, I looked down at him, while I held our child in my arms next to his face so he could see her after the surgery and we both wept, our hearts and lives full to the brim.
We’d experienced so many firsts I could hardly keep up. Harrison teaching me how to change a diaper. Joaquim showing us how to hold a bottle. Helping my mate to the bathroom and wondering if Luca would be a chef one day.
It was completely overwhelming, and yet joy clung to my soul.
“Lucas, let me buy you a cup of coffee. I have some items to go over with you really quick.”
“I don’t want coffee, Warren. And leave me alone about business.”
Pissy—again.
“Go with Warren, please. You’re getting grumpy on me.” Harrison pouted and waved me out. I tried to protest, but Harrison pulled me in for a quick kiss and whispered to leave him alone for a few minutes. I relented. Warren held the door and then scrolled through something on his phone as we walked.
We got down to the cafeteria, and he chatted over emails while I sipped the burned coffee. Who knew someone could burn coffee? Not me.
“So, yeah, that’s it. Um, when do you think you’ll be back to work? We need to schedule the opening of the restaurant and…”
Something was up.
“Warren, are you kidding me? Harrison just had a baby yesterday, and you’re
already hounding me about work? What gives?”
“Nothing.” He shrugged and pretended to check something else on his phone. “Just wondering. Did you want a slice of cake or anything else?”
He got up as if to get me whatever I asked for. I squinted. “What the hell, Warren? I’m going back to the room.”
He grabbed my elbow and my ears heated up in anger. “Just wait a minute, Lucas. Please. Don’t you trust me by now?”
“What’s going on?”
He smiled. His phone beeped, and he checked it and typed something in, and the swoosh sound told me he sent a message back.
“Okay, now we can go in.”
“You are so weird, Warren.”
“I am. But you love me, and I do good work, so shut it and get back to your mate.”
I took the stairs with Warren on my heels, two at a time, until we got back to the floor where Harrison and Luca were. When I opened the door, I gasped. In only a few minutes, the room had been transformed from stark and bland to...no, it couldn’t be.
“Luca interrupted our plans, so we adapted. Lucas, will you marry me today?” Harrison choked up as he spoke to me, and Vivian pulled out a tissue and wiped her eyes in a dramatic fashion. White balloons dressed up the room, and somehow they had brought in an arch filled with flowers, all white. There were no tuxes, no church bells, and no stiff preachers, but the scene was absolute perfection—just like my husband.
Luca kicked her legs while Kayson held her on the other side of the room.. Even she was excited to see her daddies married.
“Of course I will. You had plans to do this all along?”
He nodded. “I did. But now our daughter can be in attendance.”
Everyone filed out while Harrison got out of bed and insisted on brushing his teeth and fixing his hair with my assistance. This time, we slowed down during the vows, and Harrison leaned on me through the ceremony since he was still in some pain. Jaxon held Luca as we exchanged rings again.
Tasting His Omega Page 9
