HIS: An Alpha Billionaire Romance (Part Three) Read Free Page B

simply weren’t there. That fear dulled the pain for a brief moment. But then another wave started in my back and flashed around to my belly, drawing a small scream from my lips.
    The nurse mumbled something I didn’t catch. Then she was rushing for the door.
    “Where’s she going?” I mumbled.
    Nicolas didn’t respond at first. He was studying the machine as the nurse had done. And then more people were coming into the room. Someone pushed me onto my back and a warm hand slid up between my legs.
    I instinctively slammed my thighs together.
    “Ana,” Nicolas said, back at my side, “you need to let them take a look. Okay?”
    I focused on him as another pain sliced through me. “The babies?”
    “Fine,” he said, pressing his forehead to mine as he took both my hands in his. “In fact, it looks like we might get to meet them very soon.”
    I nodded. Fear had kept me from realizing what was happening. But his words brought back those terrible hours on Thanksgiving. These pains, they were the same as those. I was in labor.
    Dr. Bishop marched through the door a few minutes later, a cheerful smile on his face as he came up to the side of the bed.
    “Busy night,” he said as he touched my wrist, apparently checking my pulse as he studied my eyes. “Just delivered a baby girl ten minutes ago.”
    I felt like I should say something, congratulate him or something, but another pain sliced through me and I couldn’t make my vocal chords do much more than moan. He nodded, his smile disappearing as he turned to the nurses. I could hear their voices, but I couldn’t really understand what was going on. I saw a tight look on Nicolas’ face that frightened me. If something happened to the babies after all of this, I wasn’t sure I could ever forgive myself.
    Just a few minutes later—at least, that’s how it felt—I was being pushed through the hallway. I finally got to see the outside of my hospital room, but I was in so much pain I couldn’t really appreciate it. And then I was in another room, a stranger standing over me, asking me to count backwards from one hundred. I didn’t understand what was happening. I turned my head when he pressed a mask over my nose and mouth. And then Nicolas was there.
    “It’s okay, baby,” he said, smoothing the back of his fingers over my cheek. “It’s time for you to go to sleep. And when you wake up, you’ll be able to meet the babies.”
    “Are they okay?”
    “They’re fine,” he said, leaning close to me, his lips brushing mine. “Everything’s fine.”
    I nodded. When the stranger with the mask pressed it to my face again, I didn’t move away.

Chapter 4
     
    I woke with a start.
    There was no longer pain in my back, but my belly burned like a shallow paper cut that’d gotten salt into it. I touched my belly, and it was flatter than I remembered it. Flatter and softer.
    The babies!
    I tried to sit up, but pain sliced through me that was a hundred times worse than before. Constance was there. She grabbed my shoulders and pushed me back down against the pillows.
    “It’s okay,” she said. “You’re okay.”
    “Where are the babies?”
    “In the NICU.”
    I looked at her. “The what?”
    “The intensive care unit. They were a little early.”
    “But they’re okay?”
    “Yes.” Constance sat on the edge of the bed and pushed me more firmly down. I settled back against the pillows, realizing for the first time that I was in a different room than I’d been in before.
    “What happened?”
    “You went into labor,” Constance said. “You were bleeding pretty heavily, so they decided to do a C-section.”
    “Bleeding?”
    “The little girl’s placenta pulled away from the wall of your uterus. It made you bleed pretty heavily…gave everyone a scare from what I was told. But you made it through the surgery pretty well.”
    “And the babies?”
    “Fine,” Constance said, but there was something about her expression that frightened