The Executive’s Affair Trilogy Bundle (Trinity, Desire, Unconditional) (17 page)

Laszlo paced the hall of the hospital. The top few buttons of his shirt were undone; his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows and his tie hung loosely around his neck. He was a fucking wreck. Plain and simple. As soon as he and Trinity had been announced husband and wife, she
’d collapsed. Then she started bleeding. He stopped and rested his head on the cool, tiled wall. The image of Trinity in his arms, unconscious, pale, bleeding flooded his mind. It was like that night he found her beaten and bloodied on her foyer floor all over again. He’d rushed her to the hospital and now he was being forced to wait. He hated waiting. Fucking hated it with a passion. And the fact that he was waiting to find out if his wife was okay and if his baby was alive—his stomach lurched and he thought for sure he was going to vomit all over his shoes.

“
Hey, any word yet?” Dean walked down the hall toward Laszlo.

“No,”
Laszlo sighed with frustration, but was grateful for Dean’s presence. “I don’t know what I’ll do if anything happens to her.”

“
Nothing is going to happen to her.” Dean patted Laszlo on the back. “C’mon, why don’t you come down to the cafeteria with me and get a cup of coffee or something? Pacing isn’t going to help anything.”

Laszlo shook his head.
“No, I can’t. I have to be here when the doctor—”

“
Laszlo!” Frank ran down the hallway, clearly frantic and agitated.

“
What?” God, Laszlo could not handle anything else right now.

Frank stopped and
drew in a deep breath. “There’s. . .a woman. . .and. . .”

Laszlo had zero patience and the fact that Frank couldn
’t get his sentence out wasn’t helping. Christ, Frank acted like he’d just run a marathon; he was so out of breath. “Spit it out, Frank.”

“
There’s a woman in the waiting room, Natasha. She said she needs to speak to you right now.”

A scowl formed on Laszlo’
s face. What the fuck was Natasha doing here? He’d made it pretty clear that she wasn’t welcome at his wedding or in his life. He dragged a hand through his hair. “Tell her she’ll have to wait. I have more important things to deal with right now.” He was in no mood for Natasha or her dramatics.

“
Okay.” Frank nodded. “How’s my sister?”

“
I—”

“
Mr. Cstary?” The doctor finally emerged from Trinity’s room.

“
Yes, that’s me.” Laszlo tried to gauge the doctor’s demeanor, but wasn’t able to discern anything from the look on his face. “How’s my wife?”

“
Both Trinity and the baby are fine,” he said.

Laszlo fel
t his knees buckle with relief. “Can I see her?”

“
The nurse is cleaning her up and getting her settled. We want to keep her overnight for observation, but you can see her soon.”

Never in a million years
had Laszlo thought he’d be spending his wedding night in the hospital. He should be in a plush hotel bed, making love to his new wife until the early morning hours. “What happened to her?”

“
She has a condition known as placenta previa.”

“
What’s that?” Frank asked before Laszlo had the chance.

“
The placenta is attached too closely to the cervix, which results in bleeding. In Trinity’s case, the placenta started to tear from the uterus,” the doctor said.

“
What caused it? And what does this mean for the rest of the pregnancy? Will she be able to carry the baby to term? Will there be complications with delivery? Or the baby?” Laszlo fired his questions in rapid succession.

“
There really isn’t a cause for it. Sometimes during implantation the egg doesn’t fully adhere to the uterus like it should. Vigorous activity, a history of sexual abuse or miscarriages, and stress are all factors associated with placenta previa. It’s common in about one out of every two hundred births. The good news is that Trinity isn’t experiencing any pain in her abdominal area, which makes me confident that she can carry this pregnancy to term. However, this condition does increase her risk of pre-term labor.”

Laszlo sighed. Okay, it wasn
’t the worst possible news he could’ve gotten, but it wasn’t the best either. Pre-term labor opened up the door to a whole host of new problems, including the possibility that the baby wouldn’t live, depending on how early it was born. No, he wouldn’t think like that. He’d take this one step at a time. Laszlo was a problem solver. It’s what he did. And he could do it now. “Okay, so what can we do to make sure that doesn’t happen?”

“
At this point, nothing. If she goes into labor anytime within the next three months, there’s nothing we can do to stop it. If she makes it past thirty weeks, we’ll prepare for a premature birth.”

Nothing?
He just had to sit around and wait, hoping and praying that Trinity could make it to thirty weeks? That simply wasn’t acceptable to him. “There has to be something we can do to decrease her chances of pre-term labor.”

“
Lots of rest, keep her stress level to a bare minimum, no sex.” At that last piece of advice, the doctor gave Laszlo a sad smile.

No sex? Well, that really sucked, but if it meant the safety of Trinity and their baby, he
’d do it. He sighed and nodded. “Okay, I’ll make sure she takes it easy.”

A short, stocky nurse walked out of Trinity
’s room and smiled. “She’s asking for her husband.”

Laszlo smiled. Her husband
, that was the first time he’d been referred to as such. He turned to Dean and Frank. “Let Becky know she’s okay and I’ll be down after I’ve seen her.”

Without another word, he walked into the room. The sight of her brought tears to his eyes. She was sitting up in bed, a thin sheet draped over her legs, and an IV
on her right hand. Her face was pale, but she was smiling. He walked over, sat on the edge of the bed, and put his arm around her shoulders, pulling her to him. Kissing the top of her head, he whispered, “My God, Trin, I thought I’d lost you.”

She hugged him and he closed his eyes, relishing the feel of her.
“You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

“
You’re going to be okay,” he said, squeezing her tighter. “The baby’s going to be okay, too.”

“
I know.” After several moments of silence, she said, “I’m sorry I ruined our wedding night.”

“
Hey.” Laszlo adjusted so that he could look at her. He gently placed one hand on her face and stroked her cheek with his thumb. “I don’t care that it’s our wedding night, or that we’re spending it in the hospital. All I care about is that you’re okay.” Fear of what happened gripped him again. Fear that he’d almost lost her. Fear that he could still lose their baby. Fear that he wouldn’t be able to protect her. He lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers. She leaned into him and welcomed his kiss; her tongue dueling with his in an erotic dance. “God I love you so much, Trinity.”

She smiled against his lips.
“I love you, too.” Then she kissed him again, slow and needy, just the way she had after they’d said “I do.”

“
Mmm.” He pulled away and licked his lips. “It’s going to be so hard to stay away from you.”

Trinity looked at him with confusion and shock.
“Why would you want to stay away from me?”

He rested his forehead on hers.
“The doctor said no sex for a while.”

She groaned.
“How long is a while?”

“
I don’t know.” He chuckled. “But I have every intention of following the doctor’s orders.” Laszlo placed his hand on her stomach. “We have to.”

“
Yeah, I know.” She sighed and settled against him again, her head on his shoulder and her arm draped across his waist. “He was there, at our wedding, I saw him sitting in the back row with Natasha.”

Laszlo swallowed the lump in his throat.
“I saw him, too.”

“
Why was he there, Laszlo? I thought he was out of our lives for good.”

He hugged her tighter to his side and kissed her on the forehead.
“I don’t want you worrying about Jason, okay? I’ll take care of him. And Natasha.” Laszlo really had no idea why Trinity’s ex, Congressman Jason Ross, or Natasha were at the wedding. But he had a sinking feeling that they’d come together and that they weren’t going to go away so easily. Little did they know, Laszlo wasn’t going to let them get away with whatever they had planned. They’d fucked with his family and that was unforgiveable in his eyes.

***

Once he was certain Trinity was asleep, Laszlo slipped out of her bed and into the hallway. Dean, Frank, and Becky were sitting in chairs along the wall, each looking more worried and bored than the next. “She’s sleeping,” he said, rubbing his hands over his face. “I need to take care of some things. Can you guys—?”

“
We’ve got her, Laszlo. Don’t worry.” Dean stood and nodded.

“
Thank you.” Yawning, Laszlo turned and walked down to the lobby. His suspicions were correct. Natasha was there waiting for him. And she was sitting next to Congressman Ross, holding his hand. Well, that explained a lot. “What the hell are you two doing here?”

Jason stood.
“How’s Trinity?”

“
She’s none of your concern,” Laszlo snapped. “It would serve you well to leave. Both of you,” he said glaring at Natasha.

“
Last I checked this was a public hospital.” Jason smiled smugly.

Laszlo took a step closer and put his face in Jason
’s. “What the hell do you want?”

Jason
’s smile grew wider. “I’d like to do business with you, Mr. Cstary.”

“
Business?” Fucking Christ, what was with this guy? And what type of business did he think the two of them could do? Knowing the congressman, probably something illegal. Laszlo sighed. This was the last thing he wanted to deal with right now. “My primary concern right now is my wife. If you want a business meeting with me, call my office and schedule one like everyone else.” Then he turned his attention to Natasha. “And you,” he said with a disgusted shake of his head. “I knew you’d pull something, but I didn’t expect you to stoop to this level.”

Natasha smiled sweetly, but didn
’t say anything.

Laszlo was downright pissed. If they wanted to fuck with him, he
’d give it right back. “I thought you had better judgment than this, Natasha. Did prince charming here tell you that he was the one who beat up Trinity a few months back, put her in the hospital?” He didn’t wait for an answer. He didn’t need one. The look on Natasha’s face was enough for him.

He went to the closest restroom and splashed cold water on his face. Gripping the edge of the sink, he lowered his head and closed his eyes. It was his wedding night and instead of spending it making love to Trinity, he was dealing with that slimy, bastard Congressman and his ex-PR manager. God. What a fucking nightmare! At least Trinity was okay. Once the doctor cleared her, he was going to whisk her away to someplace far away from here and Jason and Natasha and everything else.

Drying his face with a paper towel, he left the bathroom. On the way back up to Trinity’s room, he stopped by the vending machine and bought a bottle of water. He drank half of it in a few gulps. It was going to be a long night.

***

“Laszlo?” she mumbled, her head tossing back and forth on the pillow. “No. Laszlo, please.”

“
Hey, Trin, it’s me, Frankie, your brother.” He gently shook her awake.

“
Huh?” Her eyes fluttered open.

“
You were dreaming,” Frankie said.

The events of the day rushed back into her consciousness. She closed her eyes and fought back tears. Today she
’d married Laszlo, and then she’d collapsed, almost lost their baby, ruined their wedding night, honeymoon. She draped her arm over her face and let the tears fall freely. “I want Laszlo,” she whispered.

Frankie gently touched her shoulder.
“Okay, hold on, I’ll go get him.”

A moment later, Laszlo walked into the room. Like before, he climbed into bed with her and pulled her into his arms.
“Why are you crying, love?”

Trinity buried her face in his chest and cried.
“This isn’t how things are supposed to be.” God, she felt like such a horrible person. What kind of woman collapsed on their wedding day? A weak one, like her, that’s who. Laszlo didn’t deserve this. It was unfair that he was always rescuing her, getting her out of trouble.

“
I know, baby.” He hugged her tighter and kissed her on the top of her head. “But like I’ve told you before, I don’t care where I am, as long as I’m with you.”

She wiped her tears and looked up at him. How had she gotten so lucky to marry a man as incredible as Laszlo? That thought caused more tears to fall. She hastily wiped them away.
“Stupid hormones,” she said.