wriggled some more and looked down at the jacket. ‘I’m so sorry...’
‘Claudia—’ he cut in as he looked intently into her eyes, not shifting his gaze for even a moment, not allowing himself to betray, to any degree, the very real risks that he knew lay ahead ‘—you’re in labour and you think I’m worried about a jacket.’
‘But it’s ruined.’
‘The only thing I care about now is finding something clean for the babies. Do you have anything in your bag? Anything I can wrap them in?’
Claudia shook her head. While her bag was the fashionably oversized style, it held very little, other than her wallet, apartment keys, her phone, a thin, flimsy scarf, a small cosmetic purse and a bottle of water. And her ultrasound films.
Patrick couldn’t wait any longer. There would be two babies arriving and they needed to have something clean to rest upon while he tended to their mother. He was not going to put them on the floor of the elevator. Without hesitating, he began to unbutton his white linen shirt and, slipping it from his very toned and lightly tanned body, he spread it out.
Claudia knew she was staring. She was helpless to pull her gaze away. The man about to deliver her babies had stripped bare to the waist. It was overwhelming and almost too much for her to process. The whole situation was quickly morphing from a bad dream into a nightmare. She was about to give birth to the sons of a man who didn’t love her and they would be delivered by a half-naked stranger in a broken elevator. Tears began welling in her eyes as the waves of another contraction came. This one was more powerful than the last and she struggled to hide the level of pain.
Patrick reached for her hand. ‘I want you to squeeze my hand when the contractions happen.’
‘I’ll be fine,’ she told him as the contraction passed and she felt uncomfortable getting any closer to the semi-naked stranger than she already was. His arms looked lean but powerful. And she could smell the light tones of his musky cologne.
‘I know you’ll be fine but if you squeeze my hand each time you have a contraction I’ll know how close together they are.’
‘I think you will be able to tell without me squeezing your hand.’
Patrick nodded. ‘Have it your way, but my hand is here if you need it.’
Still feeling wary, Claudia eyed him suspiciously, wondering who this man was, this man who was so willing to come to her aid. Only a few minutes before, they had exchanged less than friendly words. Now the man she had initially assumed to be a lawyer hiding a hangover behind dark glasses was in fact a doctor literally on bended knees helping her.
‘The contractions seem to be evenly spaced at the moment,’ he said, breaking through her thoughts.
‘But they’re awfully close and awfully painful. Does that mean the babies will be here soon?’
‘It could but it’s impossible to tell.’ Patrick hoped that it would be a prolonged labour. Prolonged enough to allow the technical team to open the elevator doors and bring in help.
‘Do you think there’s any chance they will get us out before my babies arrive?’
‘They’re doing their best.’
* * *
Ten minutes passed with no news from outside and two more contractions. Claudia caught her breath and leant back against the cold walls of the elevator. It was soothing on her now clammy skin. The air was starting to warm up, and she imagined it would be stifling in a short time if the doors were not opened soon. But they would be. She had to hold on to the belief that any minute paramedics would burst through the steel barriers and transport her to hospital.
Patrick stretched his long legs out in front of him and rested against the adjacent cool wall. ‘So which London hospital had you planned on having the boys?’ he asked as he looked up at the ceiling for no particular reason. All sense of reason had left the elevator when Claudia began labour.
‘I thought the Wright Street Women’s and Children’s Hospital. I checked in online a few months back and it has a lovely birthing centre with floral wallpaper and midwives and everything my babies and I would need. I’ve booked an appointment with a midwife there next week.’
‘Well, you won’t be needing that appointment. Not for this delivery anyway, but perhaps you could book in for your next baby.’
‘I’m not sure there will be a next,’ she replied quickly with raised eyebrows, still not forgetting the pain of the contraction that had barely passed.
‘Perhaps you will change your mind and have more but these children will definitely be born in LA. With any luck, the paramedics will have us out soon and they’ll be born at the Mercy Hospital.’
Claudia felt her pulse race a little. ‘What if that doesn’t happen?’
Patrick turned to her and took her hand in his. Suddenly the sensation of her warm skin on his made him feel something more than he had felt in many years. It made him feel close to being alive. He swallowed and pushed away the feeling. That sort of intimacy had no place in his life. For the last decade, whenever he felt a woman’s body against his, there was nothing more than mutual pleasure. It didn’t mean anything to either of them. They served a purpose to each other and walked away. Feeling anything more was not worth the risk.
He couldn’t get attached to a woman he didn’t know who was about to give birth to the children of another man. The idea was ridiculous.
‘Let’s not go there, Claudia. The medical team will be here soon.’
‘But they may not...’ she argued.
‘Then we’ll bring two healthy boys into the world on our own.’ He said it instinctively but as the words escaped his mouth he prayed it would not come to that.
Claudia took another deep breath. There was a chance they weren’t going to be rescued. And she had to prepare herself for the imminent wave of the next contraction and then worse. She closed her eyes.
Patrick studied her. ‘Now don’t go closing your beautiful eyes on me,’ he told her. ‘I need you to listen to me and work with me. You will get through this but you have to stay strong. You have your children to think of.’
Slowly she forced her lids open and found herself looking into the warmest eyes she had ever seen. Her stomach did a little somersault and it wasn’t a contraction.
‘That’s better,’ he told her with a smile filled with so much warmth she thought her heart would melt. Everything he was making her feel was unexpected. And the feelings seemed so real. Was it just the intense situation they were facing or was there something about the man that was very different from anyone she had ever met?
She wasn’t sure.
But his nearness was affecting her. She doubted he was trying to affect—he just was.
‘What about you—do you have any children? Did your family move here to LA too?’ She rattled off successive questions, trying to deflect the blush she suddenly feared he had brought to her cheeks. She could see there was no wedding band on his hand but, as she knew first-hand, the lack of a ring on a man’s finger did not bring any certainty there was no wife. It was out of character for her to be so direct but nothing about the situation was normal.
‘No, I’m not married, Claudia, and the rest of my family...well, they’re back in the UK...’ Patrick’s words trailed off. He wasn’t about to tell Claudia about his life, his past or his loss. After twelve years it was still raw at times but now focusing on Claudia removed his desire to give any consideration to his own pain. He had to be in the moment for the woman who needed him. He couldn’t think about what had happened all those years ago or the price he still paid every day.
He had to let something go.
And that had to be the past—for the time being. But he knew that it would come back to him. It always did.
‘Do