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Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Okay, Miss Ryan, here comes another one. Big, deep breath and push!”
I stared at the doctor in shock. “Again? The other one just stopped.”
He managed a sympathetic look while motioning for me to lean forward. “That’s what’s supposed to happen.”
I started to panic. “It’s been an hour. I’ll sit this one out.” I’d just relaxed into the pillow when a searing pain shot my upper body into orbit. “What the hell is that?”
“That’s your baby crowning. It’s called the ‘ring of fire.’”
“I don’t want it, send it back!”
Pushing his lips together, Ryker struggled to keep a straight face. “Another one’s coming.”
“Not until you tell me what this ring of fire does.” My body took command and pushed downward with blunt force. As the doctor counted to ten again, I dissolved into tortured cries. “Stop it! Push it back in!”
“Miss Ryan, hold steady.”
“No! Do something! Please shoot me up with some morphine or something. I’ll take whatever you’ve got.”
“I’ve told you no drugs, Miss Ryan.” He smirked. “Think of how proud you’ll be you did this the pure way.”
“I don’t want to be pure. I want to be dirty and medicated.” Ryker snickered, and without hesitating, I slapped his chest. “Unless you’re hiding a fat joint somewhere on that happy ass of yours, I suggest you shut the fuck up!”
His face contorted as the doctor calmly addressed my outburst.
“Don’t mind her, son. They all act like they’ve been inhabited by Satan. Whatever she says, she doesn’t mean it.”
I fought an urge to kick him in his bald head. “I mean every word of it! God, I hate men. You can all fucking die for all I care.”
“Okay, Miss Ryan, we’ll get right on that after this next round. It’s coming, so big breath and…push!”
As much as I wanted to disassemble the stirrups and beat every man in the room with them, I obeyed and pushed within an inch of my life. The burning ignited, and I heard and felt…tearing. The scream that emerged from my chest sounded like a tortured animal left for dead on a congested highway. I knew I’d black out at any moment.
“What was that? Shit, shit, shit. Oh god, it hurts!”
He patted my knee. “It’s perfectly normal.”
The fuck it is.
I wailed in agony. “What happened?”
“How do I put this?” He tilted his head in thought. “Let’s just say we’ll have to do some crafty stitching after this is over.”
“Are you saying that I…that it…” I stared at him in horror. “Oh my god.”
That was it. Jesus could take me now.
Ryker snickered and my head twisted around like some scene from The Exorcist. “This amuses you? Does the fact that I just ripped crotch to ass make you fucking laugh?”
“Miss Ryan, there’s no need for vulgarities.”
“Fuck you!” I cursed between my legs at the back of his bald head.
Ryker tried diffusing my ticking time bomb. “Pheebs, c’mon…”
“Fuck you too!” The enormity of the situation left me with contradicting emotions. Within minutes of delivering my baby should’ve had me ecstatic. But the anticlimactic crush of Julian’s absence completely shattered any joy inside me.
