His grip tightened.
‘You might have bought your degree,’ he hissed, ‘but that doesn’t make you a practising doctor. You can’t play superhero with this woman’s baby.’
Oti had had enough. Never mind her own sense of privacy or keeping her secrets. This woman needed her, and she wasn’t about to let Lukas stop her from doing the one thing she did best.
‘For pity’s sake, Lukas, I am a professional,’ she hissed up at him. ‘I haven’t been on the beach, or whatever my father has claimed. I’ve been working in South Sudan for the past four years, looking after women and children, including delivering babies. On an average day, our small unit can help deliver sixty babies in a twenty-four-hour period. I know what I’m doing.’
Later, she would savour that stunned expression which passed over his face. The way he stopped looking at her with quite such a mixture of pity and disdain. The moment he began to see her in a different light.
Later.
But right now she had a job to do.
‘Get the first aid kit from your limo—your driver will know where it is if you don’t. I need gloves, and hand sanitizer if there is any.’
She occupied herself with helping Debi from the passenger seat to the back seat, settling the woman into position just as Lukas returned with the gloves and gel.
‘Okay, Debi, it’s going to be okay. I just need to check how dilated you are, and see if I can feel the baby’s head.’
‘The ambulance is on its way,’ Lukas murmured just before Oti moved back to her patient. ‘But that accident we were avoiding is blocking the road for everyone.’
‘Understood.’ She nodded, stepping away from him. ‘Okay, Debi, let’s see how you’re doing.’
She dropped down to begin her check, but even in that instant her suspicions were confirmed. Still, she took a moment to confirm all was okay before pasting a bright smile on her face as she stood up.
‘Okay, so you’re fully dilated, Debi, and I can see the baby’s head. Your baby is clearly eager to meet you, so I don’t think we’re going to be able to wait until the ambulance arrives.’
‘I can’t deliver here,’ Debi gasped. ‘In the back seat of the car, in the middle of the road.’
‘It happens more often than you might think,’ Oti soothed, turning quickly to Lukas. ‘Can you get me water, paper towels or something like it, and scissors?’
Then she glanced him up and down, her eyes alighting on his suit footwear.
‘And give me your shoelaces.’
His curt nod before swinging around to obey her gave Oti a ridiculous kick of pleasure. As though something had shifted between them. In a good way. She thrust it aside, focusing on her patient instead and busying herself with keeping Debi calm, and breathing properly.
But the birth was happening fast.
Crouching down on the ground, she watched the baby as she heard her patient give a more guttural grunt. There was nothing else for it.
‘Push,’ Oti ordered. ‘Push.’
With a loud cry, the woman pushed, and the baby slithered straight out and into Oti’s arms, and all she could do was pray that she didn’t drop it.
‘Scissors, water, paper towels, and the rug from the car.’ Lukas’s voice came from behind her as she swung around to face him. ‘Oh.’
He stopped abruptly, gazing in horror at the baby in her arms. It might have been comical under any other circumstances. To see the all-powerful, always controlled Lukas Woods look so thrown.
‘Lay the paper towels on the seat,’ she instructed. ‘Quickly.’
To his credit, he gathered himself instantly, laying them down so that Oti was able to clean and massage the baby until she heard that first beautiful cry.
‘Shoelaces and scissors?’ She turned to Lukas as he was just standing up from untying them.
Wordlessly, he handed her both and, conscious that his eyes were still on her, she busied herself with tying off the umbilical cord and then cutting it. Finally, wrapping the baby up warmly, Oti handed the precious bundle to an emotional but happy mother.
‘Meet your daughter—ten fingers, ten toes and a healthy set of lungs.’