by Eva Luxe
But hard didn’t mean anything. I was Grant Carter. I could move mountains; hell, I owned some.
“Ms. Endow. I have a few errands for you to run.”
Internally, I cursed myself for not pinning her down on the table and telling her that I wanted to plant my seed in her womb.
But patience did yield the best fruits. The hot irritation burning in my crotch damned me to hell, but it’d be wrapped in her warm wet folds soon enough.
“What type? I’m afraid I don’t even know how to navigate this building properly yet. But, just tell me what you need and I’ll do it, Sir.”
I liked the sound of that.
I pinched my eyebrows together, remembering that I had to insert her name into the system so I could give her an employee card.
“Don’t worry, I’ll have my secretary help you with some things while I get your employee card ready. I need to be off to a private meeting, and after that you’ll help me with a few things regarding it.”
Stacy stood proud with her back straight, ready for work. She was rare indeed…
That was when it rolled off of my tongue.
“Ms. Endow. I have something important to ask you.”
I leaned onto my table with my elbows. Fuck this. I hated waiting. And I didn’t have a lot of time. I was a man of decisiveness and action, and this situation, although strange, was no exception. In fact, if anything, it was the most urgent. I could lose everything.
“That woman who left my office gave me some rather odd news. And if you agree to help me. I’ll pay you very well. Five hundred thousand dollars well.”
Her eyes widened and she took a step back. The scent of lilies radiated from her; it must have been her perfume as they weren’t even in season. I could already feel my hands around her wrists, holding them down…
“What is it?” she asked, fear laced in her voice.
“I need a baby.”
“Huh?”
Poor thing. Confused. “I need you to let me impregnate you.”
“What?!” She took a few more steps back, readying herself to bolt out of my office at any moment. I had to tread on my words carefully.
“I need to satisfy one more thing to keep my life the way it is right now by producing an heir. Give me one, and I’ll make sure you’ll never have to work a day in your life again. I’m not asking for a relationship—”
Stacy threw her hands on her hips. “Good, I’m not in the market for one,” she asserted. “What made you feel comfortable asking me? I only came here to work a regular job.”
“Five hundred thousand dollars…” I repeated, drilling it into her head.
Her mouth gapped open a little. She was thinking about it.
“No. I’m not on sale. And I quit.”
She turned on her heels and marched towards the door.
I bit my lip as I watched her ass swish side to side.
Fuck me. “No” wasn’t going to be an answer I’d accept.
Chapter 11 – Stacy
“Willow, you won’t even believe it,” I said, huddled up on my small couch that was in front of my bed. I’d called Willow as soon as I got home from work.
My first impression, as always, was to talk to her about this defeat. Defeat wasn’t even a good enough word to summarize how I felt.
“What’s wrong? Did something go wrong today?” she asked.
Grant Carter was supposed to be a friend of hers and Darien’s, so the words kind of got stuck in my throat. I didn’t want to be that person that ruined a friendship or anything. After all, Grant Carter was just one of those alpha males that went around claiming anything he wanted.
I’m pretty sure Darien was like that before he met Willow. Or maybe not. I didn’t know. But I did decide to keep what happened to myself today. Which was difficult, because I didn’t have anyone else to tell.
Willow wouldn’t understand. She had Darien to confide in, and her brother too. Even though she says that after he was in a car accident, he just hadn’t been the same, physically or mentally. He had a long recovery process to ensure and he always seemed depressed.
She’d tried to hook him up with friends, including me, but it wasn’t my style to date my best friend’s brother, even if things had been normal, which they weren’t. He had become a downer, which I understood, but I couldn’t have that kind of negative influence in my life. Willow claimed to have let me in on even more secrets now that she didn’t have her brother in her life the same way as before, and in turn I did the same, but, this wasn’t just any secret. This was a pretty big deal.
“No, nothing,” I finally said. “Thanks again for hooking me up with the job. It’s just that… I ran into a creep at the bus stop on my way there, though. He had followed me home from the club and then must have been loitering around waiting for me to go anywhere else. It was crazy.”
Willow gasped. “Are you okay? What happened?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. He got the heel to the foot,” I explained, positioning myself upside down on my sofa so my feet could rest against the wall. “At first I was afraid to go back home but then I realized what a wimp he was.”
And in between, I got propositioned at work. To have a friggin’ baby. I couldn’t believe it. But I wasn’t about to explain it to Willow. I didn’t want to mess anything up for Grant, even though I didn’t feel I had any allegiance to him.
Grant Carter. What an asshole… a handsome one, but still an asshole. Sure, I’d fantasized about being with him at the office. But in reality I wasn’t the type to mix business and pleasure, plus, all that lovey dovey stuff didn’t really work out with people anymore.
To be honest, I probably came off a little strong when Grant came onto me because I did want him so badly. I was afraid that if I let myself open up to him at all, I’d just throw myself into his arms and never want to let go. So, it was better I did nothing at all.
“Good, I’m glad you’re safe. Lindsey did say we should know how to protect ourselves,” Willow said. A baby cried in the background and I smiled at the warm sound of her family. Then I remembered that she probably had more important things to do than talk to me.
“Thank you,” I tell her.
“Okay. Darien said hi to you by the way,” Willow mentioned.
“Tell him I said hi back. By the way, how’s the fam doing?”
“Good. In fact we’re trying for another. Dahlia would love being a big sister in addition to Ariel’s little sister. And Ariel is very helpful with babies and she’s already asking me for a little brother, ha!”
There was another cry in the background and then Willow said, “Well, talk to you later. I’ve gotta go feed the girls and Darien.”
“Feed Darien what?” I teased.
“Oh, hush you.”
We hung up and I closed my eyes.
Wow, Grant Carter was bigger in person than I could’ve ever imagined. His handsome eyes seemed to still be boring into mine now, although I had done my best to get far away from him.
I couldn’t believe he had the gall to not only try to seduce me on his elevator, but also to ask me if he could get me pregnant.
Opening my eyes, I grunted and pushed myself off the couch. Five hundred thousand dollars. Damn. That amount of money wasn’t anything to sneeze at.
Glancing around my small studio, I took another stab at thinking about that offer…
Tuition was raised, I was out of a job, my mom and my sister needed occasional help, and… fuck. What was I going to do.
Rent was even due soon. My savings could pay it, but then after that I’d have nothing but peanuts left.
My phone rang again and I was surprised to see it was my sister Alice.
“Hey, Alice,” I told her when I answered. “I haven’t heard from you in a while. What’s up?”
I moved over to my bed and nestled myself down into it.
Alice sighed. “Stace, we got a real problem on our hands.”
“What?” My heart skipped a beat and I sat up on my be
d.
“I found the mail… my suspicions were true. We’re up for eviction. Mom even lost her job last week. She kept saying everything was going to be okay, but I knew otherwise. I hate to call you with shitty news, but—”
“No buts. Thanks for telling me.”
I shook my head and scratched it. “I’ll see what I can do. How much time are we talking?”
I braced myself.
“We have thirty days. She owes the apartment management three thousand five hundred dollars. I’m surprised they let her go that deep into the hole,” Alice said, her voice breaking.
No, I couldn’t hear my little sister cry like this. She did her part to bring money to the table too, but she was still young and couldn’t do too much. Me? I was the eldest. This was my responsibility.
Mom raised us well. She had always worked hard for meager pay, and still did. I didn’t even understand how she was fired in the first place.
I sunk down into my bed, hand over my forehead. Life made it a habit to crash down on me every so often, but this was the ultimate dump. What? Was my life so fed up of things going sort of smooth that it had decided to wreck this much havoc on me?
I pulled my covers over me. Five hundred thousand dollars.
That much money meant so damn much. Freedom. Pure freedom
Chapter 12 – Stacy
Now, I was staring to consider Grant Carter’s crazy offer. I couldn’t believe it but then again, I guess it made sense. I’d be a liar if I didn’t say that Grant Carter didn’t make my panties drip for a second. Or maybe more like an hour, or a day, or a lifetime.
God, what was I going to do? Getting pregnant wasn’t so simple. There was sex… and health… and all of that complicated stuff. And I had never even had sex. To have it for my very first time, in these circumstances, seemed pretty insane.
How bad could this really be? It’s not like I hadn’t already thought about losing my virginity to Grant. He was Adonis incarnate. A real god. Sure, the situation was unorthodox, but maybe I could get used to it. I’d always wanted a baby; I just hadn’t realized how soon the decision might present itself to me. Because who the hell could anticipate this?
Sitting up in my bed again, I went over to my sofa, popped out my laptop and went job shopping.
I scrolled through many websites.
Nope.
Nope.
Definitely wasn’t gonna work. Being a waitress was like working for measly amounts of money while pretending I was so happy to be serving up gross food to rude people. I would rather go back to stripping than do that.
I would rather have Grant’s baby.
Yup, Grant was going to be my meal ticket. But this womb right here wasn’t going to go for five hundred thousand.
The phone burned in my palm as I searched out his office number and dialed it. Normally I wouldn’t expect someone to be there at this hour but I had a feeling Grant was a workaholic. It rang once before he picked it up.
“Stacy,” he said, his deep voice threaded with authority.
“A million dollars,” I demanded. “I know you’re good for it. And we need to talk details.”
I tried to keep it together, but my voice wavered, giving me away.
“You drive a hard bargain. But fine. We can do that. Let’s meet.”
“O-okay,” I stuttered. So much for keeping cool, calm, and collected.
His voice came through the phone so clear and distinct. There was no holding back; he was a thousand percent sure of what he was doing.
Me? Well, I was trying.
We hung up and I realized that I didn’t even ask him where we were meeting up. Getting dressed, I decided to get a little sexy.
The whole time I was getting dressed, I couldn’t believe my sudden good fortune. Sure, I’d have to get knocked up and have a baby to cash in, but, it was still a pretty good deal to me.
A million dollars.
Damn, that was amazing. I had really pulled it off.
There was a light knocking sound at the door. It must’ve been Lindsey. She always made it a habit to come check up on me.
Skipping over to the door while I was slipping on my dress that zipped up in the back, I opened the door without even bothering to look in the keyhole first. As soon as I did so, I was face to face with him. My future baby daddy. The guy who would be taking my virginity, and taking over my womb with his own blood: Grant Carter.
Chapter 13 – Stacy
“Wait. You?”
It wasn’t the most eloquent question to come out of my mouth, but it was the first one that had popped into my mind.
He smiled. “Yes, Darling. Me.”
“But how did you…?” I realized that I wasn’t even fully dressed. I was fifty percent into my dress.
“How about I help you zip up and I’ll take you down to the limo to explain more.”
Grant took a quick glance at my studio and turned me around by my shoulders. The electric surge of his skin touching mine was intense and it gave me a severe case of goosebumps.
The zipper glided up and I turned around to meet his eyes. I was surprised to see a softness there, mixed in with the obvious desire. The thought struck me: perhaps he’d chosen me to have his baby because he liked me. Perhaps I liked him too.
No, Stacy, you can’t do this! I yelled at myself. Take his money, sure. Have his baby, sure. But don’t go thinking about romance. Romance was just a trap door to failure.
It ruined people like my mother and it was doomed to do the same for me. My mother had put all her trust into my father, just to be left alone and penniless.
This was strictly business… fun business. If it was sane for me to think of this that way. That was really what it was.
“You look stunning. Please, take my arm.” Grant held out his arm for me to take. This wasn’t a date, I wasn’t his honey. I was his incubator for an heir and that was it.
“I’m fine. Let’s go to your limo and talk about all this stuff further,” I grunted. Heat flushed my cheeks. I was still flattered that someone like Grant offered me his arm. What a playboy. He sure knew his tricks.
“I’d like it if you took my arm, Stacy.”
“I bet you do. Come on.” I closed and locked my door, then turned to the steps.
He grabbed my shoulder and locked his eyes on mine. “Stacy, take my arm.” This wasn’t a request, it was a demand. He was lucky he was good looking or else he’d get smacked. Instead, the dominance in his voice made my core heat up.
Placed in a daze, I grabbed his arm and frowned. I was never the kind to drool over authority figures… but his authority made me listen.
What the hell had gotten into me? This was so not like me.
Whatever.
It wasn’t like agreeing to having the baby of a guy I had just met was anything like me, either. I suppose I was finding out all kinds of things about what I was capable of doing.
He took me down the creaky steps that groaned with every ounce of weight, but he didn’t look fazed. Although I had always been a bit on the heavy side, Grant had to be over two hundred pounds with all those muscles. He didn’t even break a sweat.
Was this arm of his even real? How was it so strong? How did he have time to go to the gym and get these muscles, when he worked so much?
“Wanna explain how you found me?” I asked.
Grant opened the door to his limo and I slid in. Once he was inside, he cleared his throat.
“I had you followed.”
“You what?!” I screeched.
Grant remained nonplussed by my outburst and told his limo to begin driving. To where? I didn’t know.
“Hey, you can’t do that—”
He held up a finger and wagged it. “I’m Grant Carter, I can do anything.” He winked and shot me another grin. A smart ass one this time.
Considering what I was about to agree to do— have a baby with a man old enough to be my own father— I had to admit he was probably right about that.
Chapte
r 14 – Stacy
He took out an envelope and handed it to me. It was one of those big tan ones. “What’s this? The contract?”
“Yes.”
I took it out and looked at it. I was expecting a novel’s worth of paperwork, but instead it was only two sheets long.
The sex was only when both parties were willing.
No physical violence allowed, and I was to be taken care of by him when the pregnancy was confirmed. There were a few other things that were not out of the normal.
All except one.
He wanted sole custody of the kid once born and I was to disappear.
Not that I had been under any delusion that this was going to be a love child, but it panged at my gut to read that. I sighed.
Sacrifices weren’t easy. And if I didn’t let Grant raise the kid, I’d only end up losing things my own family needed due to lack of money.
Hopefully Grant knew how to love and raise a child.
“Fine. I agree.”
“Nothing about the custody agreement concerns you?” he double checked.
“Not at all. I’m only twenty. Too young to be a legit mom, you know? Plus, you can afford a nanny and all that good stuff. Just be sure to look after your kid and love them, alright?”
Grant lifted an eyebrow. “Of course…”
“Good. Got a pen?”
I didn’t want to discuss this any further. I didn’t want to get attached.
I had already made up my mind that I was going to go through with this agreement, or I never would have called Grant in the first place. But that didn’t make it easy.
He handed me a heavy golden pen that was probably pure gold and I signed the contract.
“I was already on my way over here when you called,” he said. “I had set my office phone to patch any calls through to my cell phone. I was hoping you would contact me. I was already going to offer you more money. I really appreciate what you’re doing for me.”
“There you go,” I said, handing him the pen and contract back in its envelope, and cutting him off without a response. I really, really didn’t want to talk about this any further. “How soon do I get paid again?”