“You first,” he sputtered. He was close, but he wasn't going to let it off until I got mine. His gaze, the proximity of him, and the naughty, filthy show we were giving each other sent me over the edge. I came crying out his name. My legs would have buckled if I was standing on them. My eyes sealed shut and my body convulsed in electric waves of passion and pleasure. I shuddered, feeling it peter out through my limbs.
Charlie was in front of me when I opened my eyes. He kissed me, roughly pulling me onto the bed, so he could get on top of me.
“Did you come?” I asked him. He smirked.
“Not yet.”
29
Charles
“Charlie!”
“That’s it, baby,” I whispered in her ear. She moaned, clawing my back. She was so incredibly sexy. I was surprised I had lasted this long. I felt the metal of her ring on my skin. She was mine and now everyone would know it. I wanted to claim her as loudly as possible.
I kept my stroke steady. It turned me on to make her come. It was an honor every time she let me touch her. She was it for me. Nothing and nobody else would come close. She whispered my name again. I looked down at her. I would do anything for her. When I was with her I was the man I was supposed to be. My true self, without my history, without the title, without the expectations everyone put on me. Just me.
She came and I could barely hang on, feeling her clench down around me. I shot my load inside her, pumping until I was completely spent. I eased myself off of her but didn’t let go, holding her so we were spooning. We basked silently in the afterglow of our lovemaking. My nose was in her hair. It smelled like sweet tropical fruit.
“I missed you so much,” I said.
“I was gone for like an hour and a half,” she said. I laughed.
“Not today,” I said. “When you left without a word seven years ago.”
“Oh.”
“Oh? Is that all you have to say? Oh? After I tell you I was driven mad when you left me?”
“Okay, you didn’t say all that, first of all, and even if you did, I wouldn’t believe you.”
“Why not?”
“Because you didn’t contact me.” She shifted in my arms so she was facing me.
“I looked, Brenna,” I said. “I swear.” She didn’t look convinced. “I didn’t even know your last name after that summer. I had to find out from some other folk who worked on the beach. You were not an easy woman to find, babe.”
“You looked for me?” she said.
“Of course. I’ve never felt the way I felt about you about any other woman.”
“That’s kind of unsettling, Charles.”
“What?”
“I’m a little mad that you stalked me but somehow even more mad that you stalked me and failed to find me.”
I laughed and hugged her. “I’m sorry I’m so bad at stalking. This time, I just won’t let you leave again.”
“Thanks… I guess.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too, Charles.”
“And I love our baby. I can’t wait to raise this family with you.”
She was quiet for a second. “What about your family?”
“You’re my family.”
“You know what I mean,” she said.
I laughed remembering the confrontation with my mother. I wasn’t proud but it had to be done. I had to show her that I meant business. She wasn’t going to bully the woman that I loved. She wouldn’t have any say in her grandchild’s life if she wasn’t going to accept her mother. I was fully prepared to cut her off if she decided Brenna was too beneath her station. I loved my mother and I didn’t want it to come to that but I knew my priorities. Her problems with Brenna were nonsensical anyways.
“I told her she could fuck off if she didn’t like the fact that we were going to be together.”
“No, you didn’t,” she said.
“Either she accepts you and our relationship, apologizes to you and becomes a grandmother, or refuses and we’ll never see her again.”
She looked up at me. “Did you really tell her that?”
“She hates that she didn’t pick you. That I went over her head and my selection wasn’t some woman waiting for her parents to die so she can inherit millions. A girl who spends summer in the Hamptons when she isn’t in Cannes and winter in the Caribbean.”
“If you’re trying to make me feel like the better choice, it isn’t working,” she grumbled.
I chuckled, hugging her tighter. “I didn’t want that woman because that woman isn’t you. Her objections are baseless and a little fucked up. The choice was mine to make. She doesn’t have to agree with me, but the cost is no longer being a part of my life.”
“I can’t believe I broke you and your mother up,” she said.
“It was time. She needed a reality check. I’ve been her emotional support dog for too long at the expense of my own happiness. I didn’t want it anymore.”
We were silent again. “Are you actually a Duke?” she asked.
I laughed again. “The twenty-seventh Duke of Marston. Yes.”
“Wow, fancy. Do you know the queen?”
“I’ve met her but we don’t get a Christmas card,” I said.
She laughed. “So, our baby…”
“The twenty-eighth duke or duchess of Marston. Yes.”
“I hate to say it, man, but I think your mother was right.”
“How?”
“I can’t raise a duke. Have you met me? I wouldn’t even know how to do that.”
“You won’t be raising a duke; you’ll be raising a baby and you won’t be doing it alone. You’ll be doing it with me.”
“I’m not part of that world, Charlie.”
I shrugged. “We can make our own world, babe.”
“So, no charity balls and stuff.”
“I’d pay money to never have to attend one of those again,” I said. “As long as we’re together.” I kissed her head.
She sighed snuggling into me. “Thank you,” she said.
No, she was the one I had to thank. She was mine, she was giving us a child. I had a family. My world was right there in my arms. She had given me everything and nothing, nobody was going to change that.
Epilogue
Brenna
One Year Later
“Where's my little girl?”
I peered over my shoulder.
“Out here, mom.” I looked out over the ocean. The water was so blue, it didn't even look real. Ashley was calm, cooing in my arms. She had just gotten up from a nap and now wanted attention. Boy, did she get it. Between me, Charlie and my mom, she was spoiled rotten. My mother walked out onto the veranda.
“There she is,” she said, scooping the baby out of my arms.
“I thought you meant me, mom.” I watched my mother tenderly cradle my daughter. This was technically a honeymoon. Because Charlie and I did things the wrong way and got pregnant first, we decided to postpone a honeymoon until after the baby was born. Well, technically, Ashley didn't really give us the choice to go on a honeymoon before she was born. The first half of the pregnancy was pretty smooth sailing, but I had had to be on bed rest twice during the second half.
The delivery itself was okay. It was the most taxing, hardest thing I had ever done, but then hearing my little girl crying for the first time made it all worth it. Traveling with an infant was, in a word, hard. Charlie had been adamant though. We had to have our honeymoon now. So here we were.
Admittedly, I wasn't even sure where the Cook Islands were when he mentioned that that was where we were going. He had planned the whole thing. Between the stress of the wedding, then the stress of the birth, then the stress of raising a new-born, I had been down for anything. It's like Bora Bora, but with fewer tourists, he had told me, like that meant anything to me. Now, I was sorry for ever talking shit.
We were at an exclusive resort, overlooking a beautiful, serene lagoon. We were coming up on a week here already. All we had done all day
, besides taking care of Ashley, which we had been getting help with from my mother and the resort’s childcare service, was, well nothing. Laying around on the beach. Drinking cocktails way too early in the day. Having sex in a tropical paradise. It was perfect.
“Is she hungry already?” my mother asked.
“She just woke up, so she might be in a little while.”
As much as I appreciated the help with our infant, my mother wasn't here just for free childcare. Well, to be honest, that is the way that she convinced Charlie to let her come. Usually, people weren't caring for a new-born when they were on their honeymoon. It had been great getting to spend time together without worrying that our baby was well taken care of. My mother was a hundred percent cancer-free. I thought that was cause for celebration. As much as I appreciated the free childcare, I loved that this experience, one that she deserved was one she was getting to have.
Besides, she loved Ashley. She had probably spent as much if not more time with her as I had. I was her only child, and Ashley was her first grandchild, which meant she had hit the jackpot. That baby was in for a lifetime of being spoiled to death. I loved that for her, both my mother and my baby. I was so glad that she won her fight with cancer and got to meet her first grandchild.
I had felt many times throughout my life that my mother was proud of me, but never so proud as she was when I became a mother myself. Now, I understood her in ways that I was never able to before. Just like I would do anything for my baby, she would do anything for me, including volunteering to be my honeymoon babysitter.
“I don't know if you should have her out here,” she said. “It's getting a little hot.”
The veranda was covered. We were standing under the shade. It was four-thirty in the afternoon, far past the hottest time of the day. My mother was just being overprotective. Sure, I was a new mother who didn't know what the hell to do half the time, but that didn't mean I hadn't Googled the shit out of every stupid and also reasonable question when it came to taking infants on tropical vacations.
“I think she’ll be fine, mother,” I said.
“Are you sure?” she said, tugging at the neck of Ashley’s t-shirt. It was so warm here that we hadn’t worried too much about her getting cold. In fact, the t-shirt was a bonus. For the past few days we had let her hang out in just her diaper.
“Yes, I’m sure,” I said.
“There you three are.” I looked up, seeing Charlie walk out onto the veranda. I smiled seeing him. He came up and kissed me and the baby. Trailing after him was Veronica. Yeah, Charlie and I were the couple who turned our honeymoon into a family vacation. Truly, when Veronica had heard that my mother was going to be coming, she wouldn’t let it slide. One mother was enough, but two hadn’t been as bad as expected. It was a honeymoon. Both mothers respected that the two of us were going to be doing newlywed things but it was a little strange. That was undeniable.
I smiled at her. “Veronica,” I said. She smiled back and gave me a small nod. Charlie had been ready to tell her she couldn’t come because of our history, but things had turned around tremendously in the past several months. When forced to choose between her pride and her son’s family, she had chosen us. It was still slow going, but we were beginning to build a relationship. She loved Ashley as much as my mother did and she was showing effort. I couldn’t refuse to give her another shot when she showed how serious she was about earning forgiveness.
I was more scared about how she and my mother were going to get along. Things seemed okay so far. They both loved Ashley and so far, having that in common was giving them something to bond over. Charlie hugged and kissed me.
“Wanna go for a walk?” he asked. I looked over at my mother and Veronica who were fawning over Ashley. They barely registered that we were there. They wouldn’t miss us.
“How does it feel to be completely edged out and replaced by a younger model?” I asked.
“Oh, you mean Ashley?”
We walked hand-in-hand down the beach. We were the only ones out there. The resort was so exclusive, they only took single groups at a time. That meant that if it was just Charlie and me, we would be the only ones on the island, save for the staff. I thought it was a little over-indulgent to basically hire out an entire island for ourselves, but Charlie didn't pay attention to my objections about spending too much money these days.
I didn't want to be ungrateful, complaining about the man I loved giving me literally anything that I wanted, but it was still taking a little while to get used to.
“Yeah. I mean, we're both only children. Is this what it would have felt like to get a sibling back in the day?”
“Mm. A cute, new baby who your parents can project all their fantasies onto since you already failed them.”
I laughed. We walked a little more over the silky white sand as the tide lapped slowly against our feet.
“You know, I think about that summer every time I see a beach. I think it’s high time you admit you missed me too!”
“Is that what you've been thinking about the entire time we've been here?”
“Not the entire time,” he said suggestively. Sure. Maybe just the time when we weren't taking care of our baby or otherwise taking care of each other.
“Dana Point was great and all, but it has nothing on this place,” I said.
Charlie laughed. “I'm just saying. And whenever I think about that summer, I think about you.”
“Are you happy?”
He looked over at me. “Happy might be an understatement. I've been happy before, but this is something else. Have you ever had the feeling that you don't want anything anymore? Like you already have everything. You're so satisfied that nothing could make you feel better than you already do.”
“That good?” I asked.
“I have you and our healthy baby. I have a family. I wouldn't trade you guys for the world.”
“Well, this is awkward.”
“Why?”
“You just said that there is nothing that could make you happier. I had a surprise for you.”
“What?“ he asked, slowing down. I looked up at him, wondering if there was any possibility that he truly didn't know. I had been feeling a little off during this trip. It had lasted for longer than that actually. Since it was different from the first time around, I immediately dismissed the possibility of it happening again, but a few days ago, I asked the concierge to get me a pregnancy test. They did, going absolutely out of their way to get a pregnancy test for me from one of the main, bigger islands.
I knew that the whole thing about not being able to get pregnant while you were breastfeeding was a myth. While we had not been actively trying to conceive, we hadn't been taking the best precautions against conception either. So, I guess you could say we were down for whatever happened. And it had happened.
“You know how I was feeling kind of bad the first few days and we thought it was just really bad jet lag?” I asked. His brow furrowed as he looked at me.
“Yeah. I offered to get you a doctor but you said no.” I watched his face as realization hit and his eyes widened. The symptoms were easy to confuse for something else, but a positive pregnancy test was almost impossible to deny.
“Wait. Are you telling me?”
I nodded. “You owe me another million dollars Charles Hampton. I'm pregnant again.”
He laughed hugging me. He scooped me up and spun us around. I laughed, relieved. I wasn't sure how he was going to take it. Our days of being contractually bound on the basis of a baby were over but since having Ashley and getting married, we hadn't really talked about where to go from there with our family. It was all so new. We hadn't even gotten the hang of being the parents to a new-born yet. I was expecting panic, even annoyance from him when I told him the news. I knew that over time he would come to terms with it and be happy, but I didn't think he'd actually be excited about having another baby so soon.
“I thought you were going to be mad about it,” I said.
; “Why the hell would I be upset about growing our family?”
“It is kind of soon.”
“It is, but let's face it, we haven't had the best luck with timing in the past. I'm a patient guy, I waited those seven years, but I don't have to wait anymore. If you are comfortable...”
“I am. I'm excited. I just wanted to make sure you were happy too.”
“I'm more than happy Brenna. I'm ecstatic. You gave me the gift of being a father, and you're giving it to me again.” We kissed. It was full of his restrained excitement. I felt amazing. That went way better than I ever could have imagined it going. We resumed our walk, talking about how I figured out that I was pregnant.
“You know, I didn't actually end up paying you for Ashley,” Charlie said.
“You're right. You know what that means.”
“What?” he asked.
“I have to charge late fees now. And interest.”
He laughed, pulling me in to kiss me. “I’d empty all my accounts tomorrow for you, babe.”
“Good. Do it.” He laughed again, then cupped my face.
“As long as you swear never to stop loving me.”
“I prefer cash, then,” I joked. It would never happen. I had tried and failed once already. We both laughed and he kissed me. The cash would have been nice but this was so much better.
Did you enjoy Charles and Brenna’s story?
I really hope so because I had an absolute BLAST writing it.
Charles’ cousin, Niall, gets his own unexpected romance with a savvy BBW that’s hiding a HUGE secret.
I’m writing it now and getting all the feels….
This one is a secret baby second chance romance you won’t want to miss.
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Admit You Miss Me: A Surrogate Pregnancy Romance (Irresistible Billionaires Book 1) Page 18