Page 17 of The Partner Predicament

“I hate you both!” I yell as yet another contraction wracks my body. I have been in labor for the better part of ten hours and I swear if I could move, I would strangle them both.

“Just one more big push, little one. And then you can rest,” Jaxon tries to soothe while Mason glares at the doctor.

“I can’t,” I sob.

“But you can,” Mason whispers in my ear. “And you will.”

The doctor looks up at me and smiles. “Your little boy is almost here. With the next contraction I need you to push with all your might.”

I nod but I don’t know if I have anything left in me. Breathing deeply, I try to gather my reserve energy. Mason and Jaxon are beside me each holding a hand and when the next contraction hits, I push with everything I have. For a long moment I don’t think it’s going to be enough but then I hear my son’s first cry and I know I did it.

There is movement in the room as they weigh and clean my little boy. My little miracle. Mason pushes my sweaty hair off my forehead as he whispers words of love and gratitude to me. Jaxon follows closely behind whoever has our son at any moment. And then he is handed to me. He is perfect and beautiful and now I’m crying all over again.

“What are you going to name him?” the nurse asks with a bright smile.

“His name is Sloan Kimble Meyer,” I whisper to him.

Both of my men stand nearby, each trying to hide the fact that they’re in fact a little teary at seeing their son for the first time. We don’t care whose seed created this perfect little life, he is ours.

After the doctors leave, Sierra is let in to see me and little Sloan.

“Oh my God!” she whisper-shouts. “He is too damn cute. Can’t believe these two assholes made such a cute baby.”

She leans in and kisses my forehead. “Girl, I am so happy for you.”

It’s hard to imagine she could be. The man she was partnered with was vile. And he hurt Sierra in unspeakable ways. That could have been me. That should have been me. But she means what she says. Sierra doesn’t live in the past.

Since the day Mason and Jaxon came to fetch me from the House of Fertility, she has become one of us. Mason couldn’t leave her there and I simply wouldn’t, so we brought her home with us.

What we didn’t know before that day was that Mason was the genius who created the formula for selecting the perfect Partner. He is some kind of gazillionaire, and he owns all the House of Fertility branches throughout the country. He has also made it his life mission to make sure what happened to me never happens to anyone else. The four of us are taking steps and changing the partnering protocol to make sure each young woman is safe when she is sent to her Partner. We won’t let what happened to Sierra happen to anyone else.

I smile as I look around the room. I have everything I could ever need. A kick-ass best friend. Two gorgeous men that love me beyond words. And my beautiful, perfect, little miracle. What more could a girl ask for?

The End