Royal Affair by Laurie Paige Page A

face and down her neck, then stood close while she used mouthwash, all the while wishing she could disappear in a wisp of smoke.
    â€œI’m fine,” she said in a near whisper, yet feeling weak and shaky and terribly unsure of herself.
    Grabbing a comb, she tried to bestow some order to her riotous curls. Her elbow bumped him in the chest. The room was much too small for both of them.
    She tossed the comb in a drawer, refusing to look at him or herself in the mirror. “I’m really okay.”
    â€œYeah, right,” Max said. He touched a curl. “I liked your hair long—”
    â€œIt was too much trouble,” she said, defending her decision to have it cut.
    â€œBut,” he continued, “I also like it this way. It suits you, I think.”
    â€œOh.”
    He inched closer, then encircled her with his arms and laid both hands on her abdomen. “Is there a child?”
    Startled, she met his eyes in the gilt mirror she’d found beside the Dumpster behind her building and had rescued and restored to its original beauty. The glass seemed to go hazy, then it began to darken.
    â€œNot again,” she said in equal parts disgust and despair.
    Max’s arms tightened around her as she held the edge of the counter. Then she slipped into blissful oblivion.
    Â 
    â€œChuck!” Max called. “I need some help.”
    Chuck appeared at the door. His eyebrows rose in amusement as he helped Max get the unconscious Ivy into the living room again. “You do have a waywith women,” he murmured, stepping back as Max bent over Ivy.
    â€œShould we call an ambulance?” Max wanted to know, his insides clenched into knots as he studied Ivy’s still figure. “I think there’s a baby. Could she be miscarrying?”
    Guilt at surprising her—shocking her, he amended—hit him deep and hard. He stared at her beautiful face, which looked like that of a cherub with its frame of golden curls. He groaned silently as desire mingled with the prickling of his conscience.
    Chuck looked worried now. “That’s her car in the parking space outside. Let’s use it and take her to the emergency room. That will be the quickest.”
    Max nodded. He needed action. “Find the keys. I’ll take care of her.”
    Chuck went to the purse on the kitchen counter and removed a set of keys. “Got ’em. Let’s go.”
    Max carried Ivy while Chuck opened and closed doors. In a couple of minutes they were off. They used the frontage road to the hospital instead of going on the freeway, and in less than five minutes pulled up at the emergency entrance to the hospital. An orderly brought a gurney out when he saw them lifting the unconscious woman from the car.
    â€œAccident?” he asked.
    â€œNo. She fainted,” Max said. “Twice.”
    The man wheeled her into the emergency room.
    Another nurse joined them. “That’s Ivy Crosby,”she said. “I was with her this morning in the nursery. What happened?” Her hazel eyes darted between Max and Chuck as if suspicious of them.
    â€œShe fainted,” Max said again, beginning to feel he was going to do something desperate if the E.R. staff didn’t stop asking questions and start treatment. “I thought…she could be miscarrying.”
    â€œI’ll get help,” the orderly said and left them to go to a phone at the receptionist’s desk. “Can one of you sign her in?”
    â€œI will,” Max said impatiently. “Where’s a doctor?”
    â€œOn his way,” the cheerful orderly said a few seconds later. “We’ll put her in a room.”
    Max and Chuck followed the others through swinging doors that said No Admittance and into a cubicle. The nurse already had a chart in hand and began filling in blanks as she took Ivy’s vital signs. She hooked up monitors and soon the steady blip of a heartbeat appeared on a screen.
    Ivy