The desperation and fear in his voice put an abrupt end to any lingering hurt I was feeling. Lifting my arms, I begged him with my eyes to come to me. Without hesitation, he was across the room and wrapping his thick arms around me.
A shudder went through his big body, and he buried his face in my neck. “I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure you stay healthy throughout this pregnancy,” he choked out. “I want those babies, but I can’t live without you, Mila. I’ve had to for months, and it wasn’t living at all. It was hell. Pure agony. I missed you so damn much, I ached, baby.”
I swallowed around the sudden knot of emotion blocking my throat. If I was being honest, I’d missed him too. When I wasn’t plotting cutting off his dick and mailing it to his pretty blonde. But now that I knew the truth, I could see I’d jumped to conclusions and only hurt myself in the long run. My only excuse was that I was jealous, and I had no experience with that emotion.
Maybe if I’d confronted him when I’d gone to see him and found him with Violet, we wouldn’t have spent the entire summer miserable without each other.
“I missed you too,” I was able to confess once the knot eased somewhat. “It’s crazy. We only knew each other for a few hours, but it felt like you were suddenly my entire world and…”
And that world had been perfect while we were together. But apart, it disappeared like we had only been a dream.
“You are my world,” he rasped, his arms tightening around me. “Time makes no difference. You were meant to be mine, and I knew it as soon as I laid eyes on you.”
Tears burned my eyes, and I clung to him. It seemed we were both a little insane, but oddly enough, it made me happier than I could ever remember being.
A knock on the door alerted us to newcomers. Keeping one arm around me, Lyric turned to see the doctor walking into the room with the nurse from earlier. I released a relieved breath that it wasn’t Doc Robertson, the doctor who took care of everyone in the MC.
I couldn’t let someone else tell Dad I was pregnant before I had a chance to talk to him. Especially if I wanted to keep Lyric around. And breathing.
Five minutes later, the doctor left, and the nurse was doing blood work on me. Things moved quickly after that. A tech pushed an ultrasound machine into the room just as the nurse was putting a bandage on my arm and telling me to get comfortable.
The doctor came back into the room with the on-call OB/GYN, thankfully a woman, but I suddenly felt like a specimen under a microscope. Clutching Lyric’s hand, I tensed as the tech pushed the wand into me to do a vaginal ultrasound, and I tried to relax when she asked me to.
Lyric lifted my hand to his lips. “It’s okay. I’m right here,” he murmured softly. “I got you.”
“Looks like everything is as it should be,” the tech commented a few minutes later.
“Not completely,” the obstetrician said and nudged the tech out of the way. She began adjusting the wand, being considerably more careful than the tech had been, and started pushing keys on the machine. “So,” she said, glancing first at me then Lyric before returning her gaze to the screen. “This is Baby. Heartbeat looks good. Everything is coming along very well. But here…” She adjusted the wand again, and I whimpered at the tenderness I was suddenly feeling. “This is Baby Two.”
I wasn’t even a little bit surprised she was telling us it was twins.
“Identical?” Lyric asked.
“It looks like we have two separate sacs, so no.” She was still messing around, and I was ready for her to tell us there were more than two. When she didn’t, I began to relax. Twins, I could deal with. More than that, I wasn’t so sure.
“I would like you to take things easy, Mila,” the doctor told me as she carefully pulled the wand from me. “Right now, your body is learning to adjust to being pregnant. That can affect a woman’s blood pressure, and it seems to be giving you more issues than most. I want you to avoid taking hot showers or baths. When you go from lying down to sitting, and sitting to standing, I want you to move slowly. Sit up, then slowly stand. With help, if you can. Falling is a big risk right now with your blood pressure so low.”
“I’ll make sure she takes it easy,” Lyric assured her, his fingers squeezing mine.
“Good. Also, try to keep stress at a minimum. Any time we have a multiple pregnancy, I treat them as high-risk, no matter the situation. I know avoiding stress is like trying to avoid breathing, but the more relaxed Mom is right now, the better.” She pulled off her gloves and tossed them in the trash. “I want to see you in my office in a week, Mila. We can do another ultrasound. I would l
ike to do a monthly one on you throughout this pregnancy, and closer to delivery, we should do them weekly. Just to keep a close eye on everything these two kiddos are doing behind closed doors.”
“Okay,” I agreed. “I just have one question.” The woman lifted a brow, waiting for me to voice it. “Is sex safe?”
Beside me, I felt Lyric tense, but I couldn’t look at him. I wanted him so damn bad, but first, I needed to know if it was safe to be with him. We both knew he wanted to ask the same question, but for some reason, he’d kept quiet so far.
The doctor’s lips tilted up. “As long as you aren’t experiencing any discomfort during intercourse, sex is fine. But if you start spotting, or happen to feel any pain or discomfort during, I would advise you to forgo vaginal sexual activity.”
Her gaze went from me to Lyric inquisitively. “Any other questions?”
When Lyric remained quiet, I shook my head. “No. Not at the moment.”
She smiled compassionately. “My staff will be in touch. See you next week.”
She and the ER doctor left, telling me a nurse would be in with discharge papers, and then I could go home. As the door shut behind them, Lyric released a relieved breath. “I’m glad you and the babies are okay.”
I nodded, suddenly feeling unsure of myself, which was an odd experience for me. I was usually the most confident person in a room, but right then, I wasn’t sure of anything. Pregnancy seemed to be turning me upside down. I felt off-kilter, as if nothing was ever going to be the same again, and I wasn’t sure if that was scary or exciting.