She gripped their hands, sucked in her breath and pulled against them as she pushed with everything she had.
“That’s it, baby,” Logan urged.
“You’re doing it!” Rhys said excitedly.
The doctor’s words faded away. Even Logan and Rhys became a blur as she focused on her body’s urgings. Just when she was sure she couldn’t take a minute more, she felt the most exquisite relief, as if her stomach caved in. The pressure was gone, the pain relief immediate.
“The head’s out,” the doctor announced. “Give me just a minute and then one more push and your daughter will be here.”
Both Logan and Rhys peered over her legs, craning for a view of the baby.
“Push with your next contraction,” the doctor said.
She put her chin down and pushed. The sensation of her daughter sliding free was one she’d never forget as long as she lived.
She collapsed back against the bed as she heard a small cry from her newborn baby. And then she was placed on Catherine’s stomach, wrapped in a loose blanket.
With trembling hands, Catherine gathered her in her arms and pulled her close. Tears blurred her vision as she looked down at the blinking eyes of her baby.
Logan and Rhys bent down so they too could get a good look at their daughter. Catherine opened the blanket so they could all peek at the fingers and toes of the squirming bundle.
“She’s perfect,” Rhys said in a choked voice.
Logan reached out with a shaking hand to touch the side of the baby’s face. “Beautiful,” he whispered. Then he turned to look at Catherine. Her breath caught as she saw the emotion in his eyes. Love. So much love and tenderness. “Thank you,” he said in a voice clogged with tears. “Thank you for my daughter.”
“Lauren,” Catherine said in a quiet voice.
“Lauren. I like it,” Rhys said as he traced each of the ten tiny toes.
“Lauren Cullen-Wellesley,” Logan echoed in deep satisfaction.
The three of them huddled close around their daughter and then Catherine lifted her to her breast. Catherine laughed in delight when Lauren began rooting and nuzzling in her attempt to latch on.
Logan cupped his hand behind Lauren’s tiny head as she suckled at her mother’s breast. Rhys cradled her bottom while Catherine touched the dark hair at Lauren’s crown.
Then she stared up at her husbands and let her sheer joy in this moment shine in her smile. They smiled back.
“I love you, Cat,” Rhys said.
Logan leaned in close and kissed her gently. “I love you, baby.”
“And I love you,” she told them both. “So much. I don’t think we’ll ever have a day more perfect than this.”
Rhys smiled then looked back down at their daughter. “I don’t know, Cat. I think the days will only get better.”
About the Author
To learn more about Maya, please visit https://www.mayabanks.com. Send an email to Maya at
[email protected] or join her Yahoo! group to join in the fun with other readers as well as Maya: https://groups.yahoo.com/group/writeminded_readers.
Look for these titles by Maya Banks
Now Available:
Seducing Simon
Colters’ Woman
Understood
Overheard
Undenied
Brazen
Love Me, Still
Into the Mist
Coming Soon:
Reckless
Into the Lair
One woman’s campaign to win the hearts of the two men she loves.
Brazen
© 2007 Maya Banks
One year ago, Jasmine left Sweetwater Ranch and the Morgan brothers, no longer able to bear the painful dilemma of loving both men. She returns home with a new perspective and one goal. To make Seth and Zane Morgan hers.
Jaz may have left home an innocent girl, but she’s returned a beautiful, sensual woman. Despite the attraction they've both felt for her for years, Seth and Zane aren’t prepared for the full-on assault she launches on their emotions.
She wants them both, but Seth has no intention of sharing his woman. It’s up to her to change his mind because she can’t and won’t choose between the two men she loves.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Brazen:
Jasmine rubbed her palms up and down her arms as she crossed the small courtyard by the pool and headed for the kitchen door. She was tired, bone-achingly so. Her ankle throbbed, and it had rained on her again on the way home.
Every light in the house was on, and the courtyard was cast in the glow from the dusk to dawn light. She trudged up to the kitchen door and paused. Her hand curled around the handle, and she took a deep breath.
The door opened soundlessly and she walked inside. Seth stood abruptly from the barstool he was perched on, and without a sound, he yanked up his cell phone and punched a number. He put the phone to his ear.
“Zane, she’s home. She’s fine.”
He hung up and stared at Jasmine, his expression thunderous.
“Where the hell have you been?” he asked as he stalked over to her.
She didn’t reply.
“You had us worried out of our minds. And Carmen. She’s upstairs in tears. Is that any way to treat a woman who has been a mother to you?”
“A mother you’d take away from me,” she said bitterly.
He looked startled.
She took a step forward and winced.
Seth cursed and swept her into his arms. He gripped her tightly as he strode toward the stairs. Every part of him was tense. There was no sense putting up a fight so she lay limply against him.
He paused outside Carmen’s door. “Carmen,” he shouted. “Jasmine’s home. I’m taking her to her room. She’s fine.”
Carmen burst out of the door but paused when she caught Seth’s scowl. Carefully she leaned forward, captured Jasmine’s face in her hands and kissed her cheek. “Thank God you’re safe, niña.”
“I’m sorry, mamacita,” she whispered back. “I never meant to worry you.”
Carmen patted her cheek. “I know this, niña. You are a good girl. Now go, let Seth take care of you.”
Jasmine looked sorrowfully at her as Seth started forward again, his abruptness with Carmen bordering on rude.
Once inside her bedroom, he put her down close to the wall. She stumbled back, and instead of steadying her, he pressed in close to her.
He ravaged her mouth, his lips working so hot, so intensely over hers. Her back met the hard surface of the wall, and she was trapped between it and Seth’s body.
“You test every one of my limits,” he rasped as his mouth worked down her jaw and to her neck. “I have no control when it comes to you.”
“You don’t want me here anymore,” she said quietly.
He stopped, his lips pressed to the hollow of her neck. Then he slowly stood to his full height. His eyes looked haunted as he reached out to cup her cheek.
“I’ve always wanted you here, Jasmine.”
“You said that I didn’t belong here. That you…that Zane and Carmen weren’t my family.”
Tears glittered in her vision as she relived the devastation his words had caused.
Seth let out an agonized groan. He cupped her face in both of his hands and lowered his head to hers. He kissed her long, gently, his lips tender against hers. He pulled away the barest of inches.
“I just want what’s best for you, Jasmine. And sometimes…sometimes I worry that we’ve cheated you by sheltering you here for so long.”
“What if it’s what I want?” she whispered brokenly. “I don’t want to leave here. I love you.”
Seth pulled her closer until her face was buried in his chest. He laid his cheek on the top of her head and breathed in deep.
The door flew open, and Seth pushed her away almost guiltily. Jasmine turned to see Zane standing in the doorway, his expression relieved.
“Thank God, you’re okay,” he said.
Seth stiffened b
eside her and started to move away. “I’ll leave you two alone,” he said in a low voice.
“Don’t go,” she pleaded, knowing this was it. Do or die time.
He paused and looked at her with uncertainty written in his expression. “What are you asking, Jasmine?”
“Make love to me,” she whispered. “Both of you. I need you both so much. You were wrong. This is where I belong. With you. Both of you.”
There was calm acceptance on Zane’s face. Seth’s was a wreath of torture. He was torn, and she could see that despite his objections, despite all that he’d said, he wanted her. She moved forward, her intent to make it as easy on him as possible.
She melted into his arms. At first he didn’t respond, but when she trembled and faltered on her bad ankle, he caught her against him.
“You don’t know what you’re asking me to do,” he said hoarsely.
“I’m only asking you to love me,” she said softly.
She reached up on tip toe to brush her mouth across his. As he pulled her to him, she turned her head to look at Zane. She pleaded silently for him to understand, to accept. All she could see was answering desire.
Can friends become lovers…can lovers remain friends?
Photo Opportunity
© 2008 Jess Dee
Daniel Tanner’s through with being loved like the proverbial brother. He intends to make his best friend, Amy Morgan, blaze with the same desire he feels for her. The plan? Initiate a series of escapades that will have Amy falling into his arms—and into his bed.
When her trusted buddy suddenly turns up the heat, Amy finds it impossible to resist his sexy advances. But as his best friend, she knows a thing or two about Daniel. While he may be charming and gorgeous, he’s also commitment phobic.
If she trusts her heart to him, she’s sure he’ll leave it—and their friendship—shattered in a million pieces.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Photo Opportunity:
There was something incredibly intimate about drawing a bath for him. As she ran her hands through the heated water, she couldn’t help but imagine Daniel lying here, his head resting against one edge of the bath, his feet stretched out against the other end. Visions of steam as it swirled around his chest and face raised her body temperature. It spiked even higher when she saw his cock float just above his balls. A moan escaped her throat and echoed throughout the bathroom at the vivid vision.
It was a good thing she closed the door. The last thing she needed was for him to hear her fantasize about him. She turned off the taps, walked to the sink and threw a little more cold water over her face and chest. Better. Much better.
Composed and body temperature lowered, she went back to Daniel.
“My mother always claimed a bath’s the perfect place to soak away your aches and pains.” She offered him a hand to help him up. “I want you to go and climb in. The water’s hot and I’ve turned down the lights. I guarantee by the time you get out of that bathroom, you’ll feel like a new man.”
The question was, how would she feel, knowing he lay meters away from her, submerged in steamy water, naked as the day he was born?
Just fine. Just bloody fine, thank you.
“Thanks, Morgan, that’s pretty decent of you.” Daniel limped towards the bathroom but stopped before he went in. “Just one question.”
“What?”
His smile revealed an evil flash of dimple. “If I have trouble washing all those difficult-to-reach places, will you come and help me?”
Choosing to ignore him, she switched on the TV, sat down and spent the next twenty minutes obsessing about which places would be difficult for him to reach, and how she would use the soap to make sure she got them really clean.
Fortunately the phone rang, interfering with her increasing obsession. This time it was Lexi and Amy assured her Daniel was just fine—his ego more bruised than his body.
When she hung up, she heard Daniel ask, “Who was that?”
“Your sister.” She turned around. “She wanted—” Her tongue hit the floor, making intelligible speech pretty much impossible.
He stood before her wearing nothing but a white towel. It was wrapped low around his hips, the color accentuating his tanned skin. Below it, beads of water clung to the golden hairs curling on his long, muscular legs.
Water ran in tiny rivulets from his shoulders down his chest. Mesmerized, she watched a drop trickle over his nipple and slide down his hard, flat stomach only to disappear into the towel. Warm heat hummed in her belly and she repressed the urge to quench her sudden thirst by catching one of those droplets with her tongue.
God. He looked good enough to eat.
Desire shot through her. She wanted him. Wanted to run her hands over his wet torso, rip the towel from around his waist and devour him in all his naked, very male glory.
“Like what you see?”
“Huh?” She jerked her gaze up to meet Daniel’s and saw amusement dancing in his eyes.
“Just asking if you like what you see.”
Shit! She was ogling him and he had busted her.
What was she supposed to say? She loved what she saw? So much so she was almost as wet as he was? Not likely.
“I was looking to see if your, um…bruises were more visible than earlier.” To reinforce her point, she lowered her gaze to his knees. The only problem was that her downward gaze snagged on the towel. Was it just her imagination or was there a bulge there? Did he have an erection, or was it just the way his towel hung against his hips?
“Are they?”
It certainly looked like an erection to her. “Are they what?”
“More visible now?”
“Huh?” It was most definitely an erection. A substantial one at