by K. C. Crowne
I couldn’t help but admire Ryan as he told me his story. The guy’s life had been turned upside down and there he was, cool and calm and good-humored about it all. I’m sure there was more pain involved then he was letting on, but he kept that to himself.
“I can understand,” I said. “I mean, the not wanting to get involved part. It makes a certain kind of sense.”
I had my own story on that front. But I wasn’t about to let it all out. It was still too much to bring up.
Thankfully, he didn’t pry. “Then you understand. Sure, a mum in the picture would be ideal. And who knows? Maybe I’ll find one eventually. But for now, I’m so bloody ready to be a dad that I can’t wait any longer. And now that I’ve met the perfect woman to be the surrogate, I’m even more eager.”
I could see it in his gorgeous eyes, the way they lit up as he talked about being a father. If there was a man who was ready to be a daddy, it was him.
Ryan shook his head, as if coming to his senses. “Anyway, I’ve given you heaps to think about. I don’t want you to feel like you’ve got to tell me now.”
He was eager, sure, but he was also being respectful of how this might’ve felt for me.
The truth of the matter was that I was all kinds of conflicted. Part of me felt overwhelmed. But another part of me wanted to take him home, to get started on this whole making a baby thing tonight. No contracts, no clinics, no labs. I was turned on by him like crazy, the lust flowing through me like liquid warmth.
“Let me give you my number,” I said. I picked up the silver pen and another cocktail napkin, jotting down my number. He glanced over and typed it into his phone, my own phone buzzing with a text.
“And Bob’s your uncle,” he said with a sly smile. “Now, let me get these drinks.”
He raised his fingers to get the bartender’s attention, but I reached over and wrapped my hand around them. It was a bad move – the feeling of his skin against mine like that was enough to drive me wild. I had to bite down on my lower lip to work through how I felt.
“No, no, no,” I said, shaking my head. “You already got dinner. Let me at least get the drinks.”
With a smooth motion, my hand still wrapped around his fingers, he slipped his wallet out of his suit jacket pocket, removed his card, and handed it to the bartender.
“Beautiful women like you don’t pay for their own drinks on Valentine’s Day.”
I let go of his fingers, secretly wishing I could touch more of him.
“You’re a little pushy, you know that?”
“I’m a man who knows what he wants.”
He wasn’t pushy – he was dangerous. My body was reacting to him in a way I could barely control.
And more than that, I didn’t want to control it.
Chapter 7
RYAN
I bloody hated to admit it, but all this talk of getting Carly pregnant was making me all kinds of turned on. My cock was half-stiff all through the conversation at the bar. And when she’d put her hand on mine, I’d had to fight back the urge to say screw it to the lab and take her right back to my house.
“Anyway,” she said with a slight smile. “Tons to process here. I should get back home and think it all over.”
“Of course,” I said. “Take as much time as you need. Not a small thing to decide whether or not you’re going to carry someone else’s child to term.”
I was wrong, however. It wouldn’t be just my child – it would be ours. And good thing; Carly had some good genes on offer.
She rose, and I did the same. Together, we returned to the table and took our coats off the back of our seats. When Carly put hers on, my chivalrous instincts kicked in and I rushed over to help her get into it.
“Oh, that’s not necessary,” she said. But I was too quick for her. I moved behind her and slipped the coat over her arms, my fingers brushing the nape of her neck.
Similar to when she’d touched me at the bar, the sensation was enough to make what felt like all the blood in my body rush to my cock. We both froze, my skin against hers.
I wanted her so damn badly that it hurt. But I had to put all of that out of my head as quickly as I could. She was, possibly, going to be my child’s surrogate. An arrangement like that would be complicated enough on its own, and there was no room for anything else.
I took my hand away, Carly glancing over her shoulder at me with her mouth slightly open, as if she’d just taken in a sharp gasp.
“Ah, let’s get moving,” I said.
She nodded, not saying a word.
We reached the front doors, which I held open for her. Once we were back outside in the crisp winter air, our breath puffing in front of us, I turned back to Carly.
“Where are you parked?” I asked.
“Um, that’s a good question.” She reached into her purse and took out her phone. “I have this trick. Whenever I park far away, I take a screenshot of where I am in Google Maps. That way I don’t have to wander around like an idiot. Believe me, I’ve learned the hard way.”
She turned on her phone and did some swiping. As she did, I flagged down the valet. Carly was so into her phone that she didn’t notice me get the kid’s attention, the valet hurrying off with my ticket as soon as I’d handed it to him.
“OK, right here.” Carly placed her fingertip on the phone and glanced up at me.
I craned my neck to see where she was pointing.
“Are you kidding me?” I asked. “That’s a twenty-minute walk from here.”
“Right, I know.”
“You’re out of your bloody mind if you think I’m going to let you walk twenty minutes to your car at this hour.”
“Oh, don’t worry about me,” she said as if it were the least worrying situation imaginable. “I’ve got my taser.” To make her point, she pulled out a brass-knuckles-shaped device from her purse and slipped it on, flicking a switch that caused a blue-white crackle of electricity to dance across the surface of the “knuckles.” The electricity vanished as quickly as it had appeared. “Anyone tries to mess with me, and they’ll get fifty-thousand volts right to the balls.”
I had to chuckle at her moxie but I still wasn’t going to let her go.
“There’s no reason to make you walk all the way. I can give you a ride, no problem.”
As if on cue, the valet pulled in front of the restaurant with my BMW, the lights cutting through the evening air.
“Look at Mr. Fancypants in his BMW,” she said with a cheeky grin.
“That’s Dr. Fancypants to you. Now, let’s go.”
“Fine, fine. I guess it is a bit cold.”
“It is,” I said with a grin as I stepped over to the car. I slipped the valet a pair of twenties and he gave me the keys. Then I opened the passenger side door and held it for Carly. I turned to see she was simply looking at me, a quizzical smile on her face, the meaning of which I couldn’t quite puzzle out. “You gonna stand there all night?” I asked with a smirk. “You’re letting all the heat out.”
“Pushy and impatient,” she clucked as she slid into the car, and I shut the door behind her.
She smiled, turning her attention back to the road. Carly directed me along, telling me where to turn. It only took a few minutes before we were pulled alongside a run-down Honda Civic, a car that had most definitely seen better days.
“Here I am,” she said. She pursed her lips together, and I could sense she had something on her mind that she didn’t quite know how to say.
I decided to take the lead. “It was a hell of a thing meeting you, Carly,” I said. “I don’t know how much stock I put into fate and all that, but us meeting each other like this, it’s almost like it was meant to be.”
“Yeah,” she said with a warm smile. “I’ve got a ton to think about. But at the very least, I can say that this is easily the best Valentine’s Day I’ve had in a long time.”
“Right back at you.”
Then a heavy silence fell over the two of us. Carly’s eyes stayed
on mine, and mine stayed on hers.
All I wanted was to kiss her and kiss her hard. Carly’s lips parted slightly, as if she were involuntarily inviting me in for the kiss it seemed that both of us wanted.
But instead of kissing her, I took her hand. “Think about my offer. Let me know, OK?”
She nodded, the flashing of her eyes letting me know the spell was broken – for the time being, at least.
“I will. Thanks again.” Carly opened the door and hopped out.
Once she was in her car, I gave her room to pull out of her spot. As her car pulled in front of me, my beams highlighted just how bad of shape the car was in. There were dings and dents and rust spots all over the thing. It was an accident waiting to happen.
On top of that, it made me realize that the money I’d offered to her – while not a lot to me – would be enough to make a huge difference in her life. Part of me wanted to throw in a new car on top of it, an urge more rooted in getting her out of that deathtrap she drove rather than trying to sweeten the pot.
A woman like Carly, however, independent and capable, likely didn’t need more talking into. I’d laid a ton on her lap, and she needed some time to process it. I couldn’t wait for her answer.
She and I looked to be going in the same direction, but all the same I waited for her to pull ahead and disappear into the distance. Last thing I wanted was to freak her out by giving the poor woman the impression I was following her or some such nonsense.
But even when she was gone, Carly was still there. Her scent lingered in the car, and I closed my eyes to savor the aroma before it vanished. There was something about her, something I couldn’t ignore. And it was something that made me think making her my surrogate was a bad, bad idea.
It would mean I’d have to go nine bloody months without anything happening between us. Part of the contract was that I’d be along for the ride through the pregnancy. That meant she wouldn’t simply carry my kid – I’d be there to see her through it all, going to doctor’s appointments with her and being there when the baby was born. But with the way I felt being around her, it would’ve been hard to go nine minutes without moving in for a kiss.
I had to play this smart. There was a good chance I wouldn’t find anyone better than Carly. I’d only known her for a few hours, sure, but there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that she was the one.
I was conflicted like I hadn’t been in years, and I almost considered texting her and saying not to worry about it, that the agency I’d hired could find a suitable surrogate. That wasn’t what I wanted at all, but it sure would make matters a hell of a lot easier.
Carly wasn’t just the perfect surrogate – she had all the traits I wanted in a partner, too.
How the hell was I going to play this?
As I drove home through the cold, winter’s evening, it dawned on me that I was in for a hell of a ride.
Chapter 8
CARLY
I was practically freaking out by the time I was back in my car. Between the wine and the date and the offer, my head was swimming. I needed to stop and clear my head for a bit – driving was the last thing I needed to be doing in the state I was in.
Luckily, Allie lived nearby. After pulling over, I fired off a text letting her know I was on my way to her place.
So soon? That’s not a good sign.
I didn’t need to think about my response.
Trust me, this isn’t something I can explain over the phone.
Yikes. Then come on over.
Before I did, I needed to let Adam know not to expect me until later. It was only a little after nine, but I liked to keep him in the loop. I sent him a text to let him know where I was, and he responded telling me that he was so into playing online video games with his friends that he hadn’t even noticed I had not come back yet.
I was near enough to Allie’s to park and get out. By the time I reached her apartment building, the brisk weather and the walk had taken the edge off the fog. And that was a good thing – I needed a clear head to think about what had just happened to me. She buzzed me up, and by the time I was at her door I was ready to plop on the couch and vent.
“Hey!” Allie was wearing a white, fluffy robe, a glass of red wine in her hand. “What’s the story?”
“Ugh.” It was all I could think to say.
She looked me up and down, as if there might be someone with me that I’d somehow hidden from sight.
“Well, I’m going to guess that since you’re alone, that means the date didn’t go all that hot.”
“Did you not get my text?”
Allie gave me a cockeyed look, as if she weren’t sure what I meant. She stepped aside and gestured for me to enter.
Allie turned her attention back to her phone, reading my earlier texts. “You’re kidding me! The guy didn’t even show up?”
“Didn’t even show up.”
Without another word, she got up and marched over to the kitchen counter where a bottle of wine was already opened. She poured a glass for me.
“Oh, I’m good. Gotta drive home.”
“Then I’m calling you an Uber, because I need to hear this story.”
“Believe me,” I said as she sat down next to me, “there’s a hell of a lot to it.”
I took a small sip of the wine and went into it. I told her about getting stood up, told her about how I bumped into a certain handsome doctor. The smile on her face made it clear she liked where this was going. And when I got to the big part, the whole carrying his baby thing, her jaw just about hit the floor.
“Wait, what? He asked if you’d carry his baby? How is he going to…you know.”
“In a lab. Not the fun way.”
“Oh.” Her shoulders slumped in disappointment.
“Anyway, I have no idea what I’m going to do. I was leaning toward no, but then he told me how much he’d be paying me to do it.”
“And how much is that?”
I shoved my hand into my pocket, feeling around for the cocktail napkin. I passed it over and she opened it.
“This is doctor’s handwriting alright, and…holy shit! He wants to pay you this much to get his sperm shot up into you?”
I laughed. Allie was always good for being blunt.
“I mean, that’s one way to put it. But yeah, that’s how much he wants to pay me for this.”
Allie held the cocktail napkin in front of her face with an expression of total disbelief, as if it were the Pope’s autograph.
“Babe, this is huge amount of money. Hell, that doesn’t even cover it. This is a life-changing amount of money. With this you could…I don’t know, put a down payment on a house, send Adam to college, buy a new car.”
“I know, I know. It’s almost unfair because, like, it’s so much money that it almost makes me forget about the little fact that I’d be growing a human inside of me and then just giving it away.”
Allie neatly folded up the napkin and handed it back over. “Yeah, you’re right. So, what are you thinking? You going to do it?”
“I have no idea. I’ve got so much going on in my life right now that adding a pregnancy on top of it all doesn’t seem like the smartest thing to do. I mean, I’d be getting sick and tired, and having weird cravings in the middle of the night…I don’t know if I can handle that on top of teaching and watching out for Adam and everything else that I need to get done.”
But Allie, easygoing as always, dismissed my concerns with a wave of her hand.
“You’ll be fine,” she said. “And I bet you anything he’d make sure you’re totally taken care of while you’re, you know, having his kid. The guy’s not going to let you work yourself to the bone.”
“But I don’t want that either. I want to work. I love my job and I love taking care of Adam – even though he hardly needs me to take care of him at all these days.”
Allie took a sip of her wine, thinking the matter over. “I mean, you have a good point. Not to mention that in nine months you’d be holding this prec
ious, adorable little baby in your arms only to have to give him or her up.”
I’d never been a mom before, and I had no idea what it would be like. But even so, imagining giving up a baby I’d given birth to? That seemed insane.
“But the money,” I said. “If I had a chance to make sure Adam went to college without having to graduate with a ton of debt…I feel like I’d be screwing him over if I didn’t try to help him out.”
I let out a sigh as I tilted my head back.
“And on top of it all,” I went on. “I feel like I’m being so money-grubbing, you know?”
“You’re not,” Allie assured me. “You’re being a woman who’s weighing her options. This is a huge thing, and it’s asking a lot out of yourself to try and sort through it in one night. Take some time, think it over.”
She was right, and her words put me a little more at ease. This was a huge deal, a decision that would change my life.
“What’s your advice?” I asked. “What would you do in my situation?”
She placed her fingertip on her chin, thinking it over. “Alright. So, we’ve got a hot doctor. A hot, foreign doctor with a sexy accent, who’s in a rush to have a kid. And he wants to pay you a shit-ton of cash to carry his baby. If it were me, I’d be telling him we could skip the lab and just, ah, perform the procedure at the nearest motel.”
That got a laugh out of me. “Should’ve known you would say something like that. But you wouldn’t be worried about, you know, the whole being pregnant part? That’s nine months of carrying a baby, then actually squeezing it out.”
Allie shrugged, not seeming too bothered by the idea. “Well, yeah. But it’s only nine months, and then there’s the money to look forward to. Plus, you’d have the dad there to help you out.” But then she looked away, as if something had occurred to her.