He was still very, very attractive. It was a different sort of attractive than when we were both younger. He was bigger and more muscular, but it seemed that his aura was more mature and self-assured. He was a boss now. He was powerful and it was evident in the way he dressed, walked, talked, everything.
Was I thirsting over Charles Hampton who just made a scene at a bar and kidnapped me? No, it was the alcohol. It had to be. I wasn’t this horny and especially not for him. I giggled at the thought.
“What are you laughing at?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Nothing,” I said. It just made me laugh harder.
“You can't do that. Don’t leave me hanging.”
“It’s dumb. Do you remember that summer?”
“How could I forget,” he said. I looked at him and ignored the implications of his words.
“Well, do you remember Tommy? Tommy Archer?” I asked.
He pursed his lips. “Doesn’t ring a bell.”
“He tried to feel me up at the beach bonfire,” I said. His eyebrows went up and he made that ‘oh’ face remembering.
“Oh, that guy,” he said. His cheeks flushed. I couldn’t help laughing at that. It was cute, after seeing a different side of him make an appearance tonight.
“Remember what you did to him?” I asked.
“What are you playing at?” he asked.
“His right eye was swollen for a whole week thanks to you.”
“He got what he deserved.”
“Did he really deserve to have his lights knocked out?”
He laughed a little, relaxing. The mood settled. It was hard to stay mad when we were reminiscing about the past. There were more good times than bad. That summer we spent together was a pretty good one. Well, it had been, up until the end.
“He shouldn’t have tried to touch you,” he said. And seven years later he was still beating guys up for me.
“What would I do without you. My knight in shining armor,” I said. He laughed again. I probably would have ended up punching Tommy in the face myself. The details were a little fuzzy by now but it wasn’t even that serious. He didn’t back me into a corner and try to overpower me or anything. He just sidled up to me and started getting a little too close, then refused to back up when I told him to get away from me.
Really, I could have handled it myself but it was nice to know I had someone like Charlie there. It was a pretty chivalrous move, even though I didn’t like violence. I looked at the man Charlie had become, sitting next to me in the limo. We were closer together than I thought we were. Had one of us moved? Our legs were touching. When I looked up again, his hand had come up. I flinched back.
“Whoa, relax,” he said, laughing.
“You just startled me,” I said, shifting in my seat. We moved even closer together, that time on purpose. We were alone for the second time that night but this time I wasn’t trying to get him to leave me alone. I felt like we had gone through the whole range of emotions together and now all that was left was the one we hadn’t addressed yet.
“I'm sorry,” he said. His hand moved my face up to look at him. “Tommy never should have touched you.”
“It’s okay. You socked him in the face before he really could,” I said.
“He wasn’t fit to touch an angel,” he said. Angel. That was what he used to call me. I felt my cheeks get hot. It used to make me giddy in the past and it still worked. He leaned in. I knew what he was going to do. I knew that if I asked him to stop, he would.
Suddenly, his lips were on mine and all bets were off.
My whole body responded. I grabbed for whatever part of him I could touch. I pulled him in by the lapels of his jacket. We kissed and we were back to seven years ago. It was as hot and passionate as the first time it happened, even hotter because it had all the pent up tension of the hours we had spent together tonight. We had crashed back into each other’s lives with seven years’ worth of pent up emotion. Guess this was the easiest way to get it out.
I started pulling his jacket off. He broke the kiss and pulled it off himself, almost ripping it in the process. He reached for me and pulled me into his lap. Thank god I wore a skirt today, it was like I knew that I was going to be hooking up in a limousine with my crush from seven years ago.
“Wait,” I said, unmounting him.
“What?” he asked, breathless. Oh, no, it wasn’t that I wanted to stop. I shimmied out of my underwear. He helped me back into his lap. I worked on his belt and the button of his pants. I could feel him getting hard through them already. I ground my hips against him. He groaned, holding me down.
“Babe, I don’t have a condom. Are you sure?”
I was sure seven years ago and I was sure now.
9
Charles
I never forgot the way she felt. She drove me crazy then but damn if it wasn’t worse now. That time we were together seven years ago had been masturbation fuel for me for years now. She was inexperienced at the time, a little nervous, maybe even scared but nothing could have made that night better. I remembered everything, the way her skin felt under my hands, the way she sighed and moaned. I wanted to make that the best night of her life.
I kissed her like she was going to disappear. Our clothes were still mostly on but everything that needed to get out of the way was out of the way. My cock brushed against her folds. I held her down against me and rocked back and forth. She reached a hand down between us and guided my cock inside her. I sighed, closing my eyes as she engulfed me. I had to stop. There was no condom and the woman I had fantasized about for the last seven years was on top of me. I didn’t want to embarrass myself. I kissed her slowly, running my hands over those insane curves. I wished she wasn’t wearing her clothes.
I was crazy about her body then. Now, she was even more sensual. She was more assured of what she wanted and the effect that she had on people and it was sexy as hell. I felt my cock throb inside her. She ground her hips, I had to keep her from moving too fast. She was tight and hot clenched around me.
“You feel so good angel,” I told her. She giggled.
“Then fuck me.” I could have blown my load right there. She was so sexy I didn’t know if I could get any stiffer than I already was. I thrust up into her as she rode my cock. We found our rhythm fast. She bit her lip, trying not to moan. I wanted to watch her. I wanted to remember this for as long as I lived. Her eyes were closed the skin between her brows was pinched.
“Does that feel good, babe?” I asked. She didn’t reply, just kept moving, moaning and driving me insane. I needed her to come tonight. She wasn’t leaving this limo until she had climaxed. I dropped a hand to her clit and brushed her gently. She grabbed my hand, guiding it exactly where she wanted me to touch her. I watched, transfixed as she rode me, using my hand to get herself off. I didn’t want to come until she had but she wasn’t making it easy for me.
Suddenly she yelped, collapsing into me, shuddering violently. I gripped her hips and fucked her with everything I had, crashing into my own orgasm. I closed my eyes. I waited for my heart to stop pounding so hard. Everything slowed down. Reality slowly shifted back into place. I held Brenna and felt her breathing normalize. Neither of us moved. I ran my hand over her back, just to touch her, no reason really. This was it. This was what I wanted from the start. Brenna Andrews in my arms. She was back in my life and fuck if I was going to let her out of it again. I cleared my throat.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Mmh,” she said quietly. I stroked her back again. My cock was still inside her and I could feel myself getting soft but I didn’t want to let her go.
“Let’s go back to your apartment,” I said.
“Why?”
“We’ll go back to your place, get your stuff and come back to my townhouse. You’re moving in tonight.”
She pulled away from me.
“What?”
“If you want, we can go straight to my place and have your stuff shipped over. I just thought yo
u’d want to pack your own things.”
“Are you kidding me?” she asked, sliding off my lap into the seat next to me.
“What?” I asked. She was running her hands through her hair and straightening her blouse.
“So, we have sex once and I have to move in with you? Are you crazy? We haven’t even signed anything yet. I’m not even pregnant yet. I haven’t even looked at the damn contract yet.”
“We can do that tonight.”
“After I move in?” she asked. She pulled her skirt down over her thighs. “This was a mistake. This wasn’t meant to happen. I got carried away. I’m sorry for giving you the wrong idea.” She started looking around the backseat for her underwear. It was on the ground. I reached for it and held it out to her.
“We can do this at our own pace, Brenna. We don’t have to wait.” She took the underwear from me and stuffed it in her bag instead of wearing it.
“You’re out of your mind.”
“The contract is straightforward. It won’t take long at all. We can get through it in an hour.”
She looked at me like she didn’t really recognize me anymore. Then she turned in her seat, got up, opened the door and walked out.
The traffic was at a standstill, she didn’t walk out of a moving vehicle, but she disappeared in an instant.
“Fuck!” I stuffed my cock back in my clothes and clambered out of the limo after her. I scanned the foot traffic on the sidewalk. She was nowhere in sight. How the hell did she get away from me so fast? I spun around, she could have gone either way. She must have been running, how did she manage to get away so fast?
Look at that. You get the one thing you want in your life and in a matter of hours, not even a whole day, you manage to scare her away. I got back into the car.
“Fuck. Fuck!” I slammed my fist into the seat. I fucked up. She was right there. We just made love and now, I didn’t know if she would come back to me again. We had the deal, she was still going to be my surrogate. Unless I had turned her off so much that she was going to withdraw her surrogacy services with the fertility clinic. At this point, that didn’t even seem unlikely. I would wake up tomorrow to a voicemail from Nova Fertility telling me that my surrogate of choice was no longer available, but it was okay; they had prepared a list of new ladies for me to choose from.
No. That wasn’t happening. I wasn’t having this baby if it wasn’t with Brenna. I needed to work with her. I couldn’t afford to scare her away. This wasn’t just about the baby, it was about us. This was the second chance that I always wanted. I hadn’t asked her but the way she was with me before I scared her off… She couldn’t tell me she didn’t feel it too. I’d believe that she was nervous, overwhelmed, scared, maybe even regretful, but not that she didn’t feel the same thing that I did. She wanted to be with me as much as I wanted to be with her, we just had to take it slow.
That was the last thing I wanted to do but I wasn’t losing her again. She was too close for me to let go. She was too precious for me to lose again.
10
Brenna
I took the dish out of the oven and placed it on the counter. I watched what I ate, you know, in the casual way where I didn’t do crazy stuff like eat Cheetos for breakfast but since moving back in with my mother, I was slaving over a hot stove every day. She was sick and had some dietary restrictions. Along with that, there was food she just couldn’t stomach anymore. Dinner was salmon with roast veggies. It wasn’t that I didn’t like cooking. I did but cooking in my cramped New York apartment kitchen was just demoralizing but I couldn’t afford to let her have food someone else was preparing all the time.
“That smells great Brenna,” she said from the table.
“Let's hope it tastes as good as it smells,” I said. I prepared our plates and took them to the table. Just like I thought, my mother managed a couple of mouthfuls before she started pushing the food around her plate and filling up on water.
“No good?” I asked.
“It’s great. I wish I could eat it. I’m just a little nauseous. It’s from the medication. It can't be helped.”
Fuck cancer, I swear to god.
“You should still try,” I said. I watched her choke down a few more mouthfuls. “We have to go back to the doctor.”
“Those appointments cost money, Brenna.”
“If you can't eat you have to get something else. What are you supposed to do? Just keep losing weight? How much is going to be enough?”
“It’s not as bad as you think. I’m just nauseous. I’m supposed to be. It’s a side effect of the medicine. In a way now I know that it’s working.” This was her way of staying positive and I would take a page out of her book if she wasn’t talking about the cancer that was trying to kill her. Maybe she wasn’t seeing it the way that I was. Maybe she just didn’t want me to worry and I empathized with that. It didn’t matter how much I told her I didn’t mind helping her out, she would feel like she was taking advantage of me.
It didn’t matter what I wanted to do anymore. What I wanted more than anything was for my mother to stay alive and it didn’t matter how. I was going to do anything. Anything. She was worth it. I could take dealing with Charlie for nine months to a year. I was going to have to. The reward was going to be so much greater than that. The money was going to make sure she didn’t die, and then it was going to let us move into a bigger place. After that, we could probably get close to being totally debt-free.
It was worth all that. Once I did this, we would never be in this kind of situation again. After making sure my mother was okay for the night I went to my room. I took a shower and dressed for bed. I wanted to be as comfortable as possible for this. I felt decided. I was at peace. This phone call was going to change everything and I was ready for it. I dialed the number and waited with my ear to the phone. He picked up on the second ring.
“Brenna?” he said. His voice didn’t have the effect that I thought it would have on me. I wasn’t nervous anymore. I wasn’t anxious about what he wanted from me or what was going to happen. I had done a lot of thinking since I ran out on him a few days ago and now, I was ready to fall on the pyre.
“I’ve decided to take your offer.”
“That’s great to hear,” he said. “I’m glad you decided-”
“No, wait. You had your demands and I have mine. I’m going to do it, but I need a deposit before anything takes place. No more appointments at the center and definitely no signature on any contract, nothing before I get part of the payment as a deposit.”
“No problem. What bank do you use? You’ll have the transfer immediately.” I envied him momentarily for how much money was a non-issue to him. He could make the payment without thinking twice about it. He never would have found himself in the kind of predicament I was in.
Good thing he was being so generous and sharing then. I gave him my bank details.
“I need your signature on the contract before the process can start. When can you sign it?”
“I can come to your house tomorrow after work.”
“When can you move in?”
“Same time,” I said.
“Wonderful. Everything will be prepared for your arrival.” I thanked him and hung up. There. Done. Now for the hard part.
I got up earlier than usual the next day. Rough night. I guess my body didn’t realize this was going to be the last night in my apartment for a long time so a good night’s sleep would have been appreciated. I couldn’t stop thinking about my mother. I had gotten used to seeing her every day. I didn’t trust anyone else to take care of her the way I could. In a way, I relied on being with her every day the way she relied on me.
Charlie hadn't been kidding about the transfer being immediate. I had paid an at-home care service to send a worker to her every day, two times. I was going to go ahead and splurge for every day, twenty-four-hour care but I knew that she’d take personal offense to that. She wasn’t really that bad off, but I didn’t like to take chances. I was scared of he
r getting lonely without me around.
“Morning honey,” she said coming out of her bedroom.
“Hey, mom,” I said, “hungry?”
“Starving,” she said. Thank god. She barely ate a thing last night. I got breakfast ready and sat down with her. I wasn’t hungry, my stomach was in knots. The calm from last night had worn out and now I was secretly dreading telling her the news. Almost as much as I was dreading actually going through with what I agreed to do.
“These eggs are delicious, Brenna,” she said. I smiled and thanked her for the compliment.
“Why? Because it’s the only thing you can keep down right now? I caught you on a day you were actually hungry?” She laughed. “I actually needed to talk to you, mom,” I said.
“What is it?”
“I took a second job. I’ve been applying and recently accepted an offer.”
She lowered her fork. “Another job? They work you like slave drivers at your current one.”
“I need another one, mom,” I said.
“No, you don’t.”
“We need the money. I wouldn’t do it if I was working too hard already. I just have to make more money since I can't seem to get a raise where I work now.”
“I don’t like this Brenna.” Good, then she was going to hate this part.
“I actually have to live on-site for the role.”
“On-site where?” she asked.
“Don’t worry. I’ve seen the accommodation already. It’s pretty nice. I’ve hired someone to come help you out a couple of times a day.” I didn’t like lying to her but this was a case where she would take the truth far worse than she would take this.
“Where did the money for that come from?”
“They gave me an advance. I explained my situation to them and they were sympathetic.” She didn’t look convinced.
Admit You Miss Me: A Surrogate Pregnancy Romance (Irresistible Billionaires Book 1) Page 6
