Page 20 of Blaze

A muscle in King’s jaw jumped as he stared down at her. “Then stay exactly the fuck like that.”

“Absolutely not.” She slowly stood again and planted her fists on her hips. “I am more than ready to get this baby out of me. I feel like I’ve been pregnant forever. If sitting in a weird position is going to up my odds of going into real labor, then I’m going to do it.”

Pax pulled me against his side, his head dipping low as he murmured, “Hope you’re not like this when you’re pregnant.Your kinda sassy is cute, but I’d probably drive myself up the wall trying to figure out how to give you what you want. And it’s not like you can rush shit like this. Babies are born when they’re ready.”

“Actually, there are things you can do to help induce labor naturally,” I corrected, drawing everyone’s attention to me.

Stella shrieked, “Please tell me you have a list. I’m desperate enough to try just about anything. If you have an idea that’ll kick start my labor, I swear we’ll be best friends for life.”

I got a little tongue-tied with everyone staring at me, so it took a moment to gather my thoughts before I answered, “Umm, one of my coworkers mentioned a few things. Spicy food, acupuncture, and ah…sex.”

“I know which one I vote for,” King rumbled.

Stella rolled her eyes. “We all do, but what you’re actually going to do is find me some spicy food.”

“Whatever you want, baby.” He gave her a quick kiss before turning to the guy to his right. “Check to see if there’s any salsa in the pantry, Echo.”

“Will do,” he agreed before striding away.

“I think she also mentioned pineapple,” I added.

“Ooh, pineapple.” She rubbed her hands together. “That sounds delicious.”

“Doubt we got one of those,” another of the guys grumbled, shaking his head.

King glared at him. “Thought you were resourceful, Wizard.”

“I’ll get a whole damn box of pineapples dropped off ASAP,” he promised, grabbing a tablet off the nearest table and tapping on the screen.

It turned out that my suggestions and his effort weren’t necessary because Stella suddenly clutched her rounded belly with a gasp as fluid dripped onto the floor between her feet. “I think my water just broke.”

“Fuck, I gotta get you to the hospital.” King carefully lifted her into his arms as he ordered, “Bring your truck to the front, Onyx. I’m not gonna drive while my woman is in labor. I’ll stay in the back with her while you get us there.”

“You got it, Prez.”

I stared while he stalked out of the kitchen with Stella in his arms and Onyx right behind him. Then I turned to Pax. “Life in your clubhouse is a lot more exciting than I expected, and that’s saying a lot.”

“First time we’ve had an old lady go into labor in the clubhouse as far as I know, and I’ve been a member for almost two decades.”

“Two decades?” I echoed, tilting my head. “How old are you?”

Joining in on my teasing, the other guy who hadn’t said anything yet chimed in, “Yeah, grandpa. How old are you?”

“Shut up, Ink,” Blaze grumbled. “Doesn’t matter that you’ve been patched in, I’ll still kick your ass to demonstrate exactly how young I am.”

“Don’t worry, Pax.” I winked at him. “You already proved yourself to me.”

That shut down his friends, and they mostly left us alone while I whipped together some pancakes and bacon. Except to beg for food, so I made extra. Then Pax made them clean everything up while he took me back to his room to burn off the calories we’d just consumed.

10

BLAZE

“Take it you’re officially a dad?” I asked with a grin when I answered my cell, putting it on speakerphone and setting it on my desk. King was at the hospital with his old lady, so I assumed he was calling with the good news.

“Fuck yeah, I am,” he crowed.

I chuckled at his smug tone. “Boy or girl?”

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