Free The Valtieri Marriage Deal by Caroline Anderson

really.’
    And with any luck, she thought, trying to ignore the little flutter in the region of her heart, he’d let her deliver the baby vaginally. She’d never seen a breech delivery, and everyone these days was so risk-averse they didn’t dare to let the mothers try.
    But Luca didn’t strike her as someone frightened of anything, and most particularly not authority. And hadn’t one of those papers she’d seen from him on the internet been about breech births?
    She wished now she’d paid it more attention, but she’d been so busy missing him she hadn’t really read it. There was a glimmer of a memory, though, and she had a feeling he was pro rather than con. Well, they’d soon find out, she told herself, and felt another little flutter around her heart.
    So stupid. So, so stupid, after their conversation last night. He’d come too close, seen too much, and there was no way she was going to let him any closer, but on the professional side, if he’d let Jodie deliver naturally, she’d be ecstatic.
    Assuming the hospital authorities would allow it, of course.
    She left a message for him at the central workstation to contact her as soon as he was out of Theatre and then collected a jug of ice chips for Jodie because she was on nil by mouth pending her C-section, but by the time she went back into the room things had moved on. A lot.
    ‘I can feel his bottom,’ Jodie said, and the fact that she said ‘his’ made Isabelle fairly sure she knew what she was talking about. A quick glance confirmed it. And that meant it would almost certainly be too late for a C-section by the time they’dmoved her to Theatre, so she was going to have her baby there on the ward, with only Isabelle to look after her, because everyone else was running flat out.
    And Isabelle had never done this before.
    She hit the button, opened the door and was about to call for help when Luca turned the corner.
    ‘What’s up?’ he asked, following her back in and assessing the situation instantly. She filled him in fast as he turned off the call button, reached for the hand gel, then the gloves, his quiet calm filling her with confidence. ‘OK, I’m Luca, Jodie, I’m going to have a quick look at you—what’s the history, Isabelle?’
    ‘Second baby, scheduled for elective C-section—I delivered the first two years ago with no problems, but things have just speeded up in the last few minutes,’ Isabelle told him, wondering now about the old saying of not wishing for something lest you get it.
    Well, it looked like she was getting her breech delivery, right now, and she just hoped Luca wasn’t cross that she hadn’t called for him sooner, but he was showing no signs of it, just smoothly, quietly taking over.
    ‘OK, I don’t want to move you to Theatre, Jodie,’ he said calmly. ‘I don’t think it’s necessary and you’re doing this beautifully, so we’ll just carry on here. Now, I want the baby’s back facing the ceiling, so I’d like to get you onto all fours, if you can, so his back is upwards and his bottom will hang down and curl his spine nicely as he comes out, which means his head is in the best possible position for delivery. And we’ll just let nature take care of it for us—OK?’
    ‘OK,’ Jodie panted, and with their help she turned over onto her hands and knees. ‘Oh, my God, it’s coming!’ she screamed,and Luca placed a firm, gentle hand on her back and rubbed it slowly, his palm moving in rhythmic, soothing circles over her sacrum, relaxing her pelvis. Just as Isabelle would have done.
    ‘It’s all right, just let go and breathe with it. Let the baby’s weight do the work. You’re doing really well. Good girl. We don’t touch anything,’ he added softly to Isabelle, ‘we just watch and catch. He’s a good colour, so I’m not worried at all at the moment.’
    And just like that, under his own weight and with Jodie pushing valiantly on command, little baby Kembroke was born, yelling his head off,