“Veronica, he’s even better looking in real-life,” she said. My mother beamed. I held a hand out to her to shake.
“Elizabeth, pleasure to meet you.”
“You aren’t actually leaving, are you?” she asked.
“I am.”
“Surely not yet,” Veronica said, laughing, covering my faux pas. You will not embarrass me in front of this woman, her eyes said. “You haven’t even heard the address yet. You two get to know each other. I just know you’ll have plenty in common,” she said, before floating away to talk to someone else.
“Is that Audemars Piaget?” Elizabeth asked, motioning to my watch.
“Vintage. It belonged to my father.”
“Very good taste,” she said. I thanked her. She flipped her glossy hair over her shoulder. “So, what do you do, Charles?”
“Oversee my father’s old businesses, mostly. My mother didn’t tell me what you do.”
“Oh, this and that. I spent the beginning of the year in the Arab Gulf on a friend’s yacht.”
“Did you have fun?”
“Finally got an even tan,” she said laughing. I smiled but didn’t laugh.
“Any business over there? Or was it just a holiday?”
“I just needed to get away. Fashion Week was so stressful. I just wanted some peace and quiet.”
“Oh, do you model? Are you a designer?”
“I’ve walked in a few shows,” she said. “I don’t enjoy it. The other girls on the runway… you really don’t know who they are or where they come from. I’ll only walk if the designer is willing to accommodate me.”
I felt my chest tighten. We had more things in common than not; our backgrounds, social circles, probably a boatload of mutual friends. I tried my hardest not to judge some of these women but the way they talked about people who weren’t lucky enough to be born with a silver spoon in their mouths was disgusting.
“What do you do in New York?” I asked.
“Oh, this and that,” she said. That meant nothing. She didn’t have a job and she relied on her family’s money, which was fine, but didn’t she even have hobbies? Didn’t she volunteer? Maybe she liked to jog or paint? Anything at all besides going to parties and taking private jet flights?
“A lot of charity stuff? Your family seems passionate about endangered wildlife?” I asked.
“Oh,” she said, waving a hand. “My parents do it, I think it’s a tax thing. I don’t know.” She took a swig of her champagne and I caught myself hoping she would choke on it. I wanted to die. I wanted to bash my head in. How was I here discussing this woman’s completely meaningless and dull life with her at a charity auction for a bird she didn’t care about when I could be with Brenna?
“Elizabeth? Elizabeth, there you are,” a woman said, coming up to her. “We need you on stage. Your parents are ready for the address.”
She flashed me another dazzling smile. “Excuse me please,” she said, handing me her champagne flute. I gladly let her go. I gave the champagne flutes to a passing waiter and prepared to make my exit.
“How was she? Isn’t she a dream?” I jumped hearing my mother’s voice suddenly behind me. How the hell… you know what? I shouldn’t even have been shocked anymore. She might have been watching us from a not-too-far distance this entire time. I shouldn’t have expected anything less from the woman who thought my future bride was at a place like this.
“What?”
“Elizabeth of course,” my mother admonished.
“I think your picker is off, mum. You lost the plot with this one,” I said, whispering as the Thomases took the stage. “But you wanted me to meet her and I have. I’m going home.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We’ve talked about this before. You aren’t picking my wife for me, mother. After consistent failure with your selections, I thought we’d be done with this by now.”
“What on earth are you talking about? Do you realize who these women are? Charles, they’re the most desirable women in the world and they’re yours for the picking.”
“Not interested.”
“Charles,” her voice lowered. She meant business now. She was calling on the last of her patience to deal with me. We were at an event held by one of her peers and she wanted, no, needed to make a good impression. In her mind, I had just rejected the woman of her dreams for me and she couldn’t even yell at me properly like she wanted to. I didn’t enjoy vexing her but I was done playing her games. I had Brenna back in my life and we were having a baby. As far as I was concerned, that was the life I wanted to build and I didn’t need her approval or permission to do it. She could stop now, I had done the work for her.
“Yes, mother?”
“You have a duty to your family. We need an heir. They’ll inherit the family’s entire estate. Their mother has to come from respectable stock,” she said. Respectable stock. It was like she was a breeder talking about dogs or cattle or something. Didn’t she hear how eugenics-ey it sounded? It was gross.
“I’m aware mother. Don’t worry. I’ll get around to it eventually, but the way I want to do it, not you.”
I walked away before she could say anything back. I got a cab back to the house since I sent Barry home after bringing me to the hotel. A current of anxiety was humming through my body. I didn’t like to challenge my mother. It was something I learned young. After dad died, I never wanted to make her upset or stress her out. I was all she had. She never remarried or had any other kids. I wanted to be the good son, which in a perverted way meant that the older I got, she never felt the need to take her foot off my neck. I was done living the kind of life that she would approve of. What she wanted was her business, not mine.
Hopefully, Brenna was still awake.
I let myself into the house and immediately ripped the tie off my neck. I fucking hated those things. I dropped it on the floor and walked through to the living room. I dropped my jacket and started on my shirt, popping a few buttons off in the process. I dropped it at the foot of the stairs. I kicked my shoes off before climbing up. My pants went next. I left them at the top of the stairs and stopped at Brenna’s room. I knocked.
Please be awake, I thought. I needed to see her. She was the only antidote for the farce that I just walked out of. I never should have left her in the first place. She was who I wanted in my life, not them.
I heard soft footsteps through the door and it opened. Brenna jerked back a little, surprised when she saw me. I was down to my vest and underwear, standing there after ditching her for a charity function for an endangered bird I didn’t even know the name of. Not to mention I had basically left with no real explanation, at the behest of my mother like I was still a thirteen-year-old kid being forced to go to church.
“You lost?” she asked. I stepped through the doorway and pulled her to me, hugging her. She stood there, letting me, arms limp at her sides.
“Charles?” she asked. I stifled a laugh. She never called me by my full name.
“Hm?”
“What are you doing?” she asked. I squeezed her, smelling her hair.
“I needed to feel you,” I said.
“Oh. Okay.”
We were silent for a second.
“Charlie?”
“What is it, babe?”
“What happened to your clothes?” she asked. I laughed.
“I wanted to be comfortable. I don’t feel like myself like that.”
“Like what?”
“Suited and booted like 007’s geeky cousin.”
She laughed a little. “No?” she asked. “I take it the charity auction didn’t go too well then?”
“It sucked.”
“Oh. Are you feeling better now?”
“I feel like myself when I’m with you,” I told her.
She pulled away and looked up at me.
“Aw, Charlie, that's really sweet.” She smiled at me. I wasn't sure what she was doing before this, but it didn't look like she was sleeping. Her
hair was down, and she had cleaned her makeup off. She was wearing her pajamas, so I had probably caught her just before she turned in for the night. I was so glad I caught her before she fell asleep. I was so glad that I got to come home to her.
Sometimes, it still didn't feel real. It was overwhelming when I remembered that we were together again and we were expecting a baby. This reunion had gone from zero to one hundred. Just weeks ago it was a Mexican standoff at the fertility clinic when she found out they had placed her with me. Just before that it was another one of my mother’s failed attempts to pair me with a woman of her choosing. Now, it was the future, my family, right here for me to enjoy.
I cupped her face. I couldn't help myself. I leaned in, and when she didn't resist me, I went for it. We kissed. I wanted to know how she had kept herself busy when I was gone. I wanted to ask her whether she wanted to get some food or something, but first, I had to touch her.
Her hands climbed up my arms, clutching my biceps, then running up over my shoulders. We walked backward into the room. She yelped, falling onto the bed. I was going to join her when she stopped me.
“What?” I asked her. She looked up at me with a wicked look in her eyes.
“Wait,” she said, pulling at the waistband of my boxer briefs. “I haven't done this in seven years.” Just the suggestion sent a rush of blood to my cock. I hardened as she pulled my underwear down over my hips. It pooled on the ground and I kicked it off.
“You sure you don't want me to do you first?” I asked her. It was how we always did it back in the day. I was very, very serious about making sure she had a good time whenever we had sex. I considered it a personal failure if she didn't end up climaxing.
She looked up at me, taking hold of my cock by the root.
“What? Are you in a hurry or something?” she asked. I laughed. The bed was too high for her to suck my cock while she was sitting on the edge, so we swapped places. I lay on the bed and she knelt on the floor between my legs. the first touch of her tongue to my cock felt like heaven. I closed my eyes, sighing. She engulfed the tip of my cock in her warm mouth and I thought I was going to pass out.
I leaned up on my elbows so that I could watch her. There was something so perversely satisfying about watching a woman I loved so tenderly doing something so filthy. Truth be told, it had been a little while since anyone had done that for me, but having Brenna between my legs again was its own treat.
She worked her lips up and down my shaft, bathing it with her tongue. She stopped for a second and gave the same attention to my sac. She was good. She had been practicing. I knew that meant that there had been other guys, but that didn’t matter right now. Here in my house, pregnant with my baby, she was all mine.
“Babe,” I whispered.
“Hm?” she said with my cock still in her mouth.
“I don't want to come in your mouth,” I told her. She giggled.
“What if I want you to?” she asked.
Well if that was what the lady wanted then I would just have to oblige, but not nearly enough had happened yet. For one thing, she was still fully dressed. Besides kissing her, I hadn't touched her yet. I reached down and squeezed her shoulder, getting her attention. She ran her lips up my cock and let the tip pop out of her mouth, looking at me.
“Come here,” I told her. She crawled up the bed over my body. Hovering over me, she pulled her top off. She wasn't wearing a bra underneath. Her breasts were perfect, juicy double D cups. I ran my hands over her waist, her hips, and then cupped her ass over her shorts.
“God, I missed this ass,” I said, squeezing her cheeks in my hands. She giggled, leaning down over me. I grabbed her waist and flipped us over. She laughed, throwing her head back on the mattress.
“Flip over, baby,” I told her. She grinned and rolled onto her stomach. I smacked her ass. She raised her hips so I could pull her shorts off. I pulled her towards me so her back arched and her ass was in the air. I could see her pussy lips from behind. She was wet already. I kneaded her ass cheeks in my hands. I loved her body, every part of it. She used to be a little nervous in the past about me touching her but she was over it now. Her confidence was so sexy, it made sex with her that much hotter.
She pushed back with her hips. I brushed her lips with my cock from behind.
“Don’t tease me,” she said. I laughed. I lined my cock up with her entrance and slid into her. I groaned, feeling her walls clamp down around me. She felt so good. I gripped her hips, moving slowly inside her. The sight in front of me was so perfect I could hardly stand it. Brenna’s beautiful ass offered up to me while we had sex. She started pushing back, meeting my thrusts. We always had explosive sexual chemistry. After we got over the hump of first-time jitters and awkwardness, we went at it like rabbits. I wasn’t sure how I had gone so long without being able to do this with her.
I pushed her hips down so she was prone on the bed and our bodies lined up. She folded one of her legs, opening up for me. She muffled a shout when I thrust into her.
“You okay?” I asked her.
“Don’t stop,” she whispered.
18
Brenna
Nobody rocked my world like Charlie did. He had never lost his way with my body after all these years. I hadn’t lost my mojo either. His cock was the first one that I ever sucked. He was the reason I had gotten so good at it. As much as I liked to have him in my mouth, feeling him deep inside me, so powerful and solid, drove me out of my mind. My orgasm was coming on. I slid a hand to my clit.
“I love it when you touch yourself, baby,” I heard him say. My eyes were squeezed shut. The hard length of him inside me was overwhelming enough. His weight on top of me, his breath and voice in my ear, our bodies perfectly in sync doing incredible things to each other pushed me over the edge. I didn’t want it to stop but I did at the same time. It was almost too much. I wanted to let go.
When I came, I was blinded for a second. Everything in me collided, sparks and shrapnel flew, torrents raced through my limbs. Charlie sped up. I felt the pulse of his cock inside me as he blew his load. He panted, catching his breath. I was spent, slumped on the bed underneath him. He rolled onto the bed at my side, wrapping me in his arms so we were spooning.
Words, well, they were easy. It was harder to mean what you said and even harder than that to show it. I felt it when we had sex. When we came together, I believed him when he said he wanted me, needed me, wanted us to be together. It was peaceful again. If Veronica’s visit was the storm, this was the rainbow once it had cleared. It was impossible to keep my eyes open after that.
I felt myself come back to consciousness, the sleep clearing from my mind. I became aware of where I was. Bed. I must have passed out last night right after sex. Everything told me that it was morning, but my body didn't want to cooperate. I opened my eyes, squinting from the light. I fell asleep with Charlie last night after he came here after his charity thing. Speaking of...
I pushed myself up off the bed and looked around. Oh. I was alone. Oh, that was nice. He made that whole speech about how he only felt like himself around me, fucked me, then ditched me the next morning.
Nice.
Wait a minute, I thought. Maybe he just had an early morning. Maybe he was downstairs waiting for me to join him for breakfast and I was upset for no reason. I felt a little pit in my stomach, thankful I was alone because I was embarrassed.
Upset? Who said I was upset? Whatever. I needed to manage my expectations with him anyway. This was a good way to start. I sighed and shuffled to the edge of the bed to grab my phone off the nightstand.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” I swore, practically jumping off the bed. It was already eight-thirty. What the hell. I never ever slept in. I had half an hour to get myself ready for work and actually get there on time. I didn't even have time to be mad at Charlie. I ran into the shower and took the quickest one of my life, washing off the evidence of last night. I got dressed and ran straight past the kitchen. I’d just have to figure ou
t coffee and food when I got out the door.
What the hell was I thinking last night? I was going to set my alarm but then Charlie showed up and, well things ended up going in a very different direction. I still should have done it before I fell asleep. I had some money now because of the down payment and I was going to get the rest of the value later. That, however, was no excuse to get sloppy with my day job. I was not putting all those eggs in one basket. I wouldn’t allow my full trust to lie on this man who I didn’t know whether I hated or loved currently.
I ran out of the house and started down the sidewalk when I heard someone calling my name. I stopped. A slightly older man in a suit, Barry, Charlie's driver was chasing after me.
“Miss Andrews,” he said. “Mr. Hampton instructed me to drive you to work today.”
I stared at him, out of breath, annoyed, and almost late for work. I took a couple of deep breaths so that I didn’t lash out, taking my frustration out on an innocent party.
“Mr. Hampton said what?” I asked.
“He had to leave for an early meeting this morning. He apologizes that he was not able to be there when you woke up but he wishes you a good day. He instructed me to drive you to work.”
The most important part of that statement was that I was getting a ride to work. I jumped in the back of the car and Barry started the trip. I exhaled deeply, feeling like I hadn't stopped moving since I woke up. I was still probably going to be a few minutes late, but not as late as I would be if I had used the subway.
Early meeting? Seemed likely. I didn't actually know what Charlie did as his day job, but bright idea sending the car back to me. It was almost like he knew I would be completely knocked out after last night and would need a little help. last night was a mistake. No, last night was great. No, both of those things could be true at the same time.
Had we heard the same speech from his mother? Was it just me who was missing some information? What actually happened at that charity function? After Charlie left, I thought that was him basically taking his mother’s words to heart. He was just going to do what she said and cooperate. Sure I was pregnant already and that was going to be its own burning bridge to cross, but I figured it would be his problem, not ours. I intended to disengage.
Admit You Miss Me: A Surrogate Pregnancy Romance (Irresistible Billionaires Book 1) Page 11
