Gabriel's Light (Doms of Chicago) (3 page)

When it finally passed, she realized everyone including Gabriel,
was staring at her. "What?" Her cheeks reddened.

"Either you find Gabriel's dick fascinating or..."
Caelan
cocked his head in concern.

"Or she's using Gabe's belt buckle as a focus object,"
Kalinda
interjected. Holding her hand out to Gabriel,
she wiggled her fingers in a ‘give it here’ motion. "Cough it up, Mr.
Calm, Cool and Collected."

Gabriel's expression eased, and he reached for his belt,
unbuckling it before sliding it free of its loops. Kneeling down in front of
Zhenya, he placed it in her hands, his gaze steady. "We're warm and
comfortable here. Eventually the emergency crews will get to us. If not?
Between the five us, we'll deliver your baby if it comes to that." He held
the belt between their hands. "The only thing you need to worry about is
having a beautiful little baby. Not about traipsing through the wind, freezing
ice/sleet crap and darkness. I'd die if another woman died on my watch, Zhenya.
Stay with us, with me...where it's safe."

Glancing around the room, she saw her friends, no her family's
worried expressions. "Like I'd make it past you three big bad
Doms
, even if I did manage to give
Nisey
and
Kalinda
the slip." She lifted a hand and
gently brushed his cheek, ignoring the way he shied away from her touch.
"I'll stay, as long as you’re the one to deliver Sophie, if it comes down
to that."

He nodded solemnly. "Of course."

Chapter
Three

“I see the head, you’re doing good,
louloúdi mou
.” Wiping his forearm across his brow, Gabriel ignored
the stiff muscles in his lower back. He’d been doubled over for too long
obviously, and Lord knew he wasn’t getting any younger, but if Zhenya could
bear the agony of childbirth without screaming the house down, well then he
could deal with a few stiff muscles. Kneeling between her elevated legs as she
lay on top of the sturdy banquet table, he only had to glance down between her
thighs to realize he was vastly unqualified to deliver her baby. The mess
between her thighs was something a lesser man would’ve been unable to stomach.

“Good…now you need to get ready for a spray of fluids, Gabriel,
as the head breaches the canal. It’s normal. Do you have the clean towels at
hand? Because once this happens, the rest of the body should come quickly.”
Randi, the OB nurse who spoke over the speaker function on
Caelan’s
cell, had been a godsend. Working in conjunction with the police department and
the hospital, she’d been the person they had connected him to when Zhenya had
gone from just being merely uncomfortable to having contractions every five
minutes in less than half an hour after her water had broken.
Long labor, my ass.

Then to complicate matters, the downed traffic lights which had
caused the road blockage on the east side of his restaurant had been compounded
by a huge traffic accident on the west side. So in essence
Pínaka
ti̱s
Mi̱téras
was blocked off on both ends with the weather getting worse by the minute
as the freezing rain turned into ice. So it was either deliver the baby himself
or tie Zhenya’s legs together until help could come. He had a feeling the
latter would’ve gotten him decked if he even suggested it, let alone tried it.
Placing a hand on her distended stomach, he tried to comfort her as a whimper
escaped her. “You’re doing a great job. It’ll be over soon, Zhenya.

“God…I hope so…I’m so ready for this…to be…over...” Panting
between contractions, Zhenya clung to
Kalinda’s
hand
who stood on her right and
Nisey’s
who stood on the left.
The two women had been amazing in keeping her calm and focused.

“So am I. Now on the next contraction you need to give me a good
push.” He repeated the mantra he’d been saying for the past twenty minutes. As
a Dom, he didn’t do true pain, so this was nothing more than outside his
comfort zone. Now on the other hand, Zhenya tied open as he ran an ice cube or
better yet dripped candle wax over her inner thighs…well that was another story
all together. As she groaned, he jerked back. This wasn’t the time to entertain
those types of thoughts. For fuck sakes, she was giving birth and he’d packed
his heart away.

“
Ahhh
…” Gripping the girls’ hands
Zhenya strained forward, while being supported by
Caelan
who was kneeling behind her, bracketing her body with his splayed thighs.

“Good girl…” Gabriel murmured, just before he got splattered.
His nose wrinkled. He’d been warned by the nurse. He just hadn’t thought it
would like this. It was almost as if someone had turned the kitchen sprayer on
him. Then he remembered what the nurse said as the baby started to slip out.
“Shit.” Shoving his hand under the slippery head, he tried to hang onto the
baby as the rest of the squirming body slipped free. Turning it over, he gazed
down at the red-faced infant. Even covered in goo she was a cute little nubbin,
her dainty little nose reminiscent of her mother.

“Has the head breached, Gabriel?” Randi’s voice remained calm,
even in light of Gabriel’s outburst.

“More than just the head, Randi. The whole little package.
Impatient little cuss just like her mother…” He reached for another towel and
awkwardly tried to clean the baby’s face off. Dark gray eyes stared up at him
raptly and he felt a softening in his heart. The awe of seeing a baby draw her
first breath was soul-shattering. Obviously however, she didn’t agree because a
moment later, her face wrinkled up and there was a lusty cry, as the little
girl screamed her unhappiness at the world in general.

“Obviously so.” Randi chuckled. “That sometimes happens. Did you
say you had leather sheers there?”

Gabriel nodded, then remembered she couldn’t see him. “Yes, but
didn’t you tell me we weren’t going to cut the cord? ”

“Yes, I did but I was just given a message the fire truck and
one of the ambulances responding to the accident on the west end of Jackson
Street, was just hit by another motorist causing a ten car pile-up, and they’re
no closer to fixing the downed traffic lights. I don’t see help getting there
anytime soon, and I don’t feel comfortable in keeping the placenta attached to
the baby for that long.”

Fuck…would this
ever end?
All he wanted to do was escape the
building emotions rising in his chest.
And
to do that I need to distance myself from Zhenya and her daughter.
“All
right. So what do I need to do?”

“Well, first we need Zhenya to deliver it – it being the
placenta. It’ll be similar to pushing the baby out. But before that’s done I
need you to sterilize the sheers. Three to five minutes in boiling water should
do the trick. Do you have something to use for binding? A shoelace, or any kind
of cotton cord which can also be sterilized?”

His brain whirled. “Kitchen twine. We use twine to prepare some
of our meat dishes and it’s made out of cotton. Would that work?”

“Yes, excellent. We’ll need two ten inch lengths.”

He looked up at an ‘obviously green around the gills’ Josh.
Deciding it might be best to distract the other man, he asked him to go to the
kitchen to get the needed items. “Go tell the chef you need him to cut two ten
inch pieces of our regular cotton twine and boil them and these shears for me,
A.S.A.P.”

A grateful look crossed Josh’s face before he scurried from the
room. Next to Zhenya,
Kalinda
sighed. “You’d think
the man would have an iron cast stomach after dealing with the lifestyle.”

Gabriel chuckled. “There’s a difference between whipping a
willing submissive and watching another grown man get sprayed with bloody water
and mucus.”

“I couldn’t have put it better, Gabriel…” Randi said, reminding
him she could hear everything over the phone. “Once Mr. Joshua comes back with
the twine, what we’re going to do is tie one piece of it about four inches from
the baby’s belly, and then tie the other piece two to three inches further
down. After they’re in place and the cord has stopped pulsating…I’ll have you cut
the cord with the shears. Then place the placenta in a plastic grocery bag for
the attending doctor.”

“Plastic bag, got it. Wait…what do you mean…pulsating?” All he
could imagine was something out of a horror movie.

“The umbilical cord is like a highway,” Randi was quick to
explain. “It’s how oxygen and nutrients flowed from mom to baby. The twine will
cut off the blood supply, once it does- it’s safe to cut. Don’t worry about
hurting Mom or the baby. Neither can feel it.”

He heaved a sigh of relief. “Good.”

“Now, Ms. Zhenya, you’re going to feel something similar to a
contraction. On your next one, I want you to push gently. Do you understand?”

“Yes,
 
Sir.” Even as
Zhenya spoke, her eyes met his. The trust within them had him wanting to shake
his head in denial. She couldn’t trust him. He hadn’t protected Sara. Because
most days he’d let her take the deposit to the bank by herself, both she and
their unborn baby had died. Then her honorific registered. Her soft reply
somehow struck too close to home. It reminded him of Sara. Pushing thoughts of
her memory away, however, he got down to the unpleasant task of getting rid of
the placenta. As soon as this was taken care of, he was going to go find a
stiff drink and some solitude. He wasn’t ready to let a pair of petite
brunettes into his life and chance getting hurt again.

* * * *

“She’s beautiful, Zhenya.” Gabriel hovered next to the chair
where Zhenya was holding Sophia and nursing her daughter. Even though he
couldn’t recognize it himself, he had such a look of longing on his face,
Zhenya was ready to offer herself and little Sophia up to him.
But he’s not ready for that now, and I doubt
he’ll ever be if the quick looks he keeps giving the doorway are any
indication.

“Thank you, Master Gabriel.” She soothed her finger down her
daughter’s soft cheek as the little rosebud mouth suckled at her, before
looking up at him. It would be best to keep this as non-threatening as
possible. “Which is why I’m going to name her after you…”

He shifted uncomfortably, glancing at the open door once more,
his promise to not leave her alone the only thing keeping him in the room. He
wouldn’t leave her and Sophia alone, while the rest of the group were out of
the room.

“That’s not necessary, Ms.
Addi
…I
didn’t do anything any other man wouldn’t have done. Besides it’d be a crime to
hang Gabriel on such a pretty little girl.”

She sighed, as she pulled the baby free of her breast. The Ms.
Addi
had come back out shortly after she given birth. It
was as if the man was gone and a stranger stood in his place. “If the man was
one as generous as you, I’d think the child would be honored.” Gently sitting
Sophia up, she rubbed her daughter’s back. “Which is why she is going to be
named after the man who was nice enough to aid her mother in her time of need,
even if he didn’t want to.”

“So what are we naming the new
rugrat
?”
Josh asked as he and
Caelan
reentered the room,
carrying huge trays of food, while
Nisey
and
Kalinda
followed behind them with pitchers of soda and
beer. It was one of the few nice things about having her daughter in one of the
private rooms of
Pínaka
ti̱s
Mi̱téras
. It guaranteed absolutely delicious food,
along with a front row seat to one of the most intriguing men she’d met in
sometime.

“Sophia Gabrielle,” Zhenya said smoothly, as she shifted her
hold on her daughter, tucking Sophia closer to her body.
Damn, what I wouldn’t give for a nice rocker or better yet a bed…

“How about Sophia Marie…” Gabriel countered, his arms crossing
his massive chest.

“No.” Zhenya rubbed a bit harder, coaxing a loud burp out of her
daughter. “It’ll be Sophia Gabrielle. I’m her mother and if I want her to carry
your name, she will.” She glared up at him. “And you, Sir, have no say in it.
You’re not my Dom, my husband, or my brother.” She tugged the side of her
blouse over her exposed chest, as he growled and left the room.

There was a sudden awkward silence and the surprised looks on
the men in the room had her scowling. “What?” She was suddenly pissed at the
whole situation. They were circling the wagons around Gabriel, and frankly as
far as she was concerned, he needed one of those interventions she saw on cable
television. His refusal to move on wasn’t healthy. “Am I not allowed to have a
mind of my own? Or is it the fact I dared talk back to one of your fellow
Doms
?”

A giggle escaped
Nisey
and
Kalinda
snickered, as both men sighed before setting down
the trays.
Caelan
walked over and pressed a kiss
across her forehead.

“Nope, not at all. I want you to use that brain, or you’ll find
yourself over my knee. Remember?” He brushed a light kiss over the crown of
Sophia’s head. “Now I’m going to go see if I can
unruffle
a certain restaurant owner’s feathers. Have
Nisey
bring you something to drink and perhaps something light to nibble on.”

He sauntered out of the room, followed by Josh. She rolled her
eyes. “And they say we travel in packs.”

After pouring a glass of milk for Zhenya,
Nisey
carried it over to her. “But I don’t blame you at all, Zhenya. Sophia Gabrielle
is a beautiful name.
Máister
and I would have words
if I had my heart set on a name and he refused me.”

Kalinda
joined them. “So don’t let that old grumpy bear change your
mind. He needs to go get laid or something. Perhaps a long session at the club
would help his moody ass. I know an hour or two with a flogger does the trick
for me.”

Zhenya looked back and forth between the two women and then to
the open door. If she’d dare ever speak of Ossie that way, even if he wasn’t in
the room, it would’ve still gotten back to him, and she’d have been walking
around with a sore bottom and feeling about the size of Thumbelina. She wasn’t
sure what was worse: the pain of punishment or the guilt associated with it.
She nibbled on her lower lip. “Are you sure you’re
submissives
?
Aren’t you afraid your masters will hear you?”

Nisey
rolled her eyes. “And what will they do? Spank us?”

Kalinda
giggled as she handed her a small plate with some cheese and
crackers on it. “As if that wasn’t what we wanted in the first place.”