Her eyes closed and she shuddered, reaching her climax. I kept at her clit until she pushed me away. Then all bets were off. I thrust fast and deep feeling it deep in my balls. They pulled inwards and I came, hard, blowing my load inside her.
In the quiet right after we collapsed on the mat, I gathered her in my arms and buried my nose in her hair. Sweaty and panting, we basked in the heat of what we had done.
Brenna wriggled out of my grasp and sat up on the mat.
“I think we should probably get dressed,” she said. “I don’t want to scare Freya and give her grounds for a sexual harassment suit.”
“Nothing she wouldn’t have seen before,” I said. She whipped her head around to look at me.
“Are you trying to admit something to me?” she asked.
“What?”
“A secret romantic past with the woman who is now your housekeeper?” she asked. I threw my head back laughing. I really didn’t see that one coming.
“What? No, what are you talking about? I’m just saying she’s a consummate professional. She knows that the home, while being her workplace, is our home. She’s bound to see things that would earn a lawsuit in some other environment. She washes our underwear, Brenna, she’s not going to be precious about a little nudity.”
“Rich people are wild,” she said, standing.
“You’re one of them, baby.”
“No, I’m just a spectator and let me tell you, I’m horrified,” she joked. We got dressed and rolled the mats up. I had had my run-ins with housekeepers in the past. When I was a teenager, our housekeeper walked in on me having sex, masturbating, watching porn, everything. I understood what Brenna was going on about. As an adult, this was the first time I was having someone work for me full time. I loved the convenience of having a staff, especially with Brenna around and the changes we had coming. I just never had much use for someone fulltime in the past. They kept my life running, respect was the least you could offer them. A salary, no matter how fat didn’t make up for being harassed at work.
I was just about to go to the kitchen to grab us both a couple of waters when Brenna’s phone, still on the ground went off, ringing. She picked it up.
“Hello… yes, this is Brenna Andrews speaking… what?” her face dropped. She went silent as whoever was on the other side of the line spoke to her. Suddenly, she darted out of the room. I followed her. She ran down the stairs.
“Yes, yes, of course, I’ll be right there.” She hung up, practically sprinting into her room.
“Brenna, Brenna! What’s going on?”
She ignored me, running into the bathroom. I heard the shower turn on. Her phone was on the bed. I watched the little light go out. If I was really that curious…
No, I’d never invade her privacy like that. The relationship that we were building had to be built on trust or else we had nothing. In less than two minutes, she charged out of the shower wrapped in a towel.
“Baby, what’s going on?”
“Something happened,” she said, shuffling into the closet for some clothes.
“What? What’s something?” I asked her.
“Charles, I can’t talk right now, please.” She came out of the closet pulling a sweater over her head. She grabbed her phone and fumbled for her purse.
“Just tell me what happened? Where are you going?” I asked. She stopped finally. She was so wired that she was panting. What the hell was going on? What was enough of an emergency to get her like this?
“Later, okay? Right now is just not the greatest time, please understand that.”
She ran out of the room past me. I followed her. She flew down the stairs like she was being chased. I struggled to keep up with her. “Well, then whatever it is, call Barry. Take the limo,” I said.
“Great, thanks,” she said, too distracted to look at me on her way out the door. It had been weeks but calling Barry when she wanted to go somewhere wasn’t second nature to her yet. At least this time she actually said yes instead of insisting on using the subway.
What the hell was wrong with her? What had happened? Why had she run out of the house like it was on fire?
Why didn’t she tell me? Just a couple of words would have sufficed so I wasn’t totally in the dark. I mean, I could have helped her, whatever it was. You couldn’t just disappear on someone like that without any explanation. I wanted to be mad at her. I was but I was more worried about whatever had gotten her to that state. I went to the kitchen and pulled a bottle of water out of the fridge. Alone in the house after my girlfriend just left running like it was on fire was the perfect environment for overthinking.
I could help her. Whatever it was, I could fix it, why didn’t she see that? She didn’t still think she was alone in this, did she? If anyone would though, it was Brenna. She was so independent, just getting her to let Barry do his fucking job of driving her around was like pulling teeth. I admired that about her but then sometimes, it made her like this; totally resistant to receiving help. How would I even help her? She wouldn’t tell me what was wrong. I started to feel anxious.
Eventually, I heard the limo pulling back up to the house. I ran out, accosting Barry as he was exiting the car.
“Mr. Hampton,” he said, surprised.
“Brenna’s not with you, is she?” I asked.
“No, sir, I dropped her off at the university hospital,” he said. My heart dropped into my stomach.
“Take me there, right now,” I said. Barry took the sudden request in his stride, getting right back into the car. I ran back into the house quickly to grab my phone and some money, then came back out then we left.
Nobody went to the hospital for fun. Something was wrong. Something was wrong and she didn’t want to tell me. That had to mean it was the baby. Why else would she want to hide from me like that?
No, wait a second. Wait a minute.
My pulse was going crazy and I was starting to get short of breath. I couldn’t deal with this if I was panicking. I took some deep breaths, trying to calm down. Surely, something like that, she would have said to me.
I mean, she would have, right? We had been doing great for the past few weeks. We were spending time together, having sex, laughing a lot, having fun. What if that wasn’t enough for her? What if she still didn’t feel like I was there to support her, no matter what happened? Thinking she had one foot out the door rattled me all over again. I should have told her how I felt about her.
Would that even mean anything to her? She was out the door on her own without a word in my direction just now, why would hearing that I loved her change that?
I had to have hope. I could not lose her again. We had so much this time. We actually had a chance now. Our baby had a chance to grow up in a two-parent household, a total one-eighty from what I intended when we found each other again. I had to say something. I lost her the first time and I don’t know, maybe that couldn’t have been helped. This time, if it happened again, it would be because I let her go.
24
Brenna
“I wish they never called you,” my mother said. I had been waiting in the hospital for almost twenty minutes. The staff had finally let me into my mother’s room after I rushed here following their call. She had been brought to the emergency room. She was still undergoing treatment and had the nerve to tell me that she didn’t want me to worry about her.
Oh my god, that was where I got it from. She was stubborn and pushed people away when they wanted to help her and so was I. The key difference was that I wasn’t the one fighting for my life against a deadly disease.
“Too bad. They have to,” I said. I didn’t want to show her just how worried I was before getting here. I had to be the strong one. She wasn’t weak but the disease was eating her away. If anything, I wished she would act more like someone who was terribly ill. The disease could take her hair, her health, energy and money but it couldn’t break her spirit.
Bless Barry and his lack of respect for traffic laws. When I asked whe
ther he was worried about getting a ticket or something, he said fines were nothing to worry about. Mr. Hampton would deal with any charges that came up. Basically, the law didn’t apply if you were rich. I channeled my anger for that into worry for my mother because Charlie’s money had been doing me a lot of favors lately. It was paying for both this hospital stay and the very expensive ambulance that had brought her here.
She sighed and looked away from me. We were in the room with a nurse who was politely ignoring the back and forth.
“Can you tell me anything? I’ve been waiting almost half an hour,” I asked her.
“We’re all very thankful that she wasn’t home alone. That could have been a disaster. We were able to get to her before anything bad happened. Her home-care aid called it in. She was shaky on her feet. Almost fell over.” I looked at my mother accusatorially. Dark thoughts fought for the position to make me feel the worst in my head.
What had I been doing when my mother was basically on the brink of death? She looked fine, I knew she wasn’t really on the brink of death but the point was keeping her from getting there. That was my job but I had been fooling around with Charlie while she was being rushed to the hospital. The guilt sat on my chest and made breathing a little bit difficult. I thanked the nurse then I swallowed the guilt down so I could talk to my mother.
“How are you feeling mom?”
“A bit light-headed but it’s okay. Much better than before.”
Before I chastised her out of my own fear and insecurity, the doctor walked in. She greeted me and I told her who I was.
“We’re glad you're here. Your mother is lucky she wasn’t alone. She’s stable now but we want to keep her for more tests.”
“You’re admitting her?”
“We need to know that she remains stable. It's too soon to tell yet.”
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“I understand your frustration but we simply need to make sure that this isn’t a reaction to her treatment. Otherwise, she’ll be right back here as soon as she needs it again.”
“But she was responding well previously,” I said. I realized how petulant and small I sounded. It wasn’t this woman’s fault that my mother was unwell. She was trying to help her and I wasn’t making her job easier by being paranoid and rude. I tried to reel it back in.
“Treatment is not linear unfortunately, the body is in constant flux. Something that worked could stop with no apparent reason. We need to run the tests to know where to go from here. We’re moving her at the moment so you can wait in the waiting room and someone will let you know when she’s ready.”
I wanted to complain. I was so worried, guilty and hurt that I didn’t want to feel that way alone. It wasn’t fair and it was stupid. The doctor was doing her job and she was trying to help me. I couldn’t make that harder for her and the rest of the medical staff. I left the room, feeling drained. I was on edge the whole ride here thinking about what had happened to my mother. Now, I was tired, almost worn out, weak, like I could lay down and sleep twelve hours.
More tests, more treatment, more time in the hospital being poked and prodded. She didn’t deserve all this. Thanks to Charlie’s down payment, the money wasn’t a problem anymore. I thought that it would make these feelings better. Basically, the money seemed like the biggest problem, even bigger than the fact that my mother was sick. I thought I wouldn’t feel like this anymore. It was supposed to fix it. No. It would just pay for all the treatments she had to get done, it wouldn’t make me any less stressed that my mother was sick and there was a chance she wouldn’t get through this.
I trudged into the waiting room ready to simultaneously cry and lie down.
“Brenna?”
I looked up hearing my name. Charlie, looking like he had run all the way here from the house rushed up to me.
“What happened? What are you doing here?”
“What?” I asked. He grabbed my shoulders.
“Is it the baby?”
I blinked, catching up to him because we weren’t at the same speed. “No. No, it’s not the baby. I’m fine. The baby is fine.”
“Then what happened? Why are you here?”
“Why did you follow me?”
“Are you really asking me that?”
“You disappear without a word after getting a phone call, running out of the house like it was coming down on top of you and you think I shouldn’t be worried?” His apparent concern was puzzling and annoying at the same time because of how frazzled I was feeling.
“It's not me,” I said, catching myself before I took my negative feelings out on him. “It's my mother. She’s sick right now.”
He sighed, pulling me into a hug. “God, I was so worried,” he said. I bristled.
“That’s not a good thing,” I said.
“No, but now I know what’s happening. Why didn’t you say anything? I was so worried, babe.”
My eyes filled up. I hated that my response to worry, frustration, and sadness was the same. I was frazzled and it had been a while, a long, long while since I had someone to rely on. Since I had had someone worried for me instead of the other way around.
“Babe.” He cupped my face and wiped the tear that had spilled out. I loved him. How long had I been refusing to own up to that? Had I ever stopped or had I just let my caution get in the way of seeing that I had been stuck on this guy for the last seven years. I cried, letting him embrace me. It was everything that I had been feeling since the phone call spilling out mixed with the gratitude I had that he was there for me.
I didn’t have to be strong all on my own. I told him everything. I started at the very beginning, before my mother and I had to move in together. Her feeling off all of a sudden and then eventually getting her diagnosis after multiple doctor visits found nothing wrong. I told him about how the money had been tight from the start but the noose had been getting tighter and tighter. So tight that I had done something I wouldn’t ordinarily do; submitted myself to becoming a surrogate.
It was incredibly cathartic to let it all out. I even stopped myself when I was telling Maggie about the stuff going on in my life, not wanting to worry or upset her too much. I had been so strong for so long, I longed for the release. Charlie listened intently, letting me cry, wrapping me in his arms. I knew we must have looked crazy all hugged up like that in the hospital waiting room but I didn’t care. I felt free suddenly. Nothing had actually changed. We were still in the hospital and there was a chance the doctor would be back with bad news but I finally felt light.
“I’m so sorry this happened to you. Neither you nor your mother deserves this.”
I sniffed. “Yeah, well we just try and take it a day at a time now.”
“You're strong and you're going to get through it.”
“It's not like I have an option,” I said.
“You're doing the carrying for you and your mother, but you don’t have to anymore. I’m here, babe. Whatever you want, whatever you need, I want you to rely on me.”
“Yeah, yeah, your money can fix all my problems. That’s why I signed the surrogacy contract.”
“Treatment costs are no longer going to be an issue but that isn't what I meant. You’ve been taking such good care of your mother that you haven't been paying any attention to yourself. You don’t have to do that anymore. I’m going to take care of you, Brenna.”
I cried again. His words physically lifted the weight off my shoulders. I was so overwhelmed in so many ways, I didn’t know what to do, so I just cried some more. It felt so good knowing he was there, I didn’t feel embarrassed ugly-crying in public. I didn’t have to be afraid anymore. He was there.
It scared me though. If he was back… then he could leave again.
25
Charles
I watched Brenna as she pulled a dress over her head.
“I don't like that dress,” I said.
Brenna looked at me through the mirror.
“No?”
I shook my head.
“You should take it off. Even better, you should go back to bed.”
She laughed softly, looking at her reflection and smoothing the dress over her hips and thighs. It was dark grey, just below knee-length. She gathered her hair in a bun at the back of her head.
“Could you zip me up please?” she asked. I walked into the closet and zipped her dress up for her. It was a very nice piece, in fact. It was hard to believe she had gotten it for just twenty dollars on an online store. I didn’t dislike it at all. I just didn't want her to go to work.
“Call in sick,” I said.
“I'm not sick.”
“No, you are exhausted from spending most of your time in the hospital. You are stressed because you have a mother who is fighting a life-threatening illness. You need to rest.”
“What I need to do is keep my job.” She walked out of the closet to the vanity where she sat down to do her hair and makeup. I followed her out.
“You don't need your job, babe.”
“Yes, I do.” She sat and turned on her hair curler. I had watched her do her morning routine before, but I liked to watch her do it. It didn't even make sense. Just the little movements and faces she made as she concentrated on her tasks were so cute.
“No, you don't. You’re pregnant anyway, just take maternity leave.”
She laughed. “My job only offers a month off for maternity leave. Most women wait until they actually have the baby to take it.”
“Well there you go, there’s your reason to quit.”
She laughed. “I am not quitting my job Charles.”
“You’re not most women, Brenna. You don’t have to suffer with an employer that thinks a human newborn is okay with only four weeks of contact with their mother.”
I saw her roll her eyes in the mirror as she ran her fingers through her hair. “I realize you are trying to help Charlie, and that's really sweet, thank you. But, and this might shock you, but I actually like working.”
Admit You Miss Me: A Surrogate Pregnancy Romance (Irresistible Billionaires Book 1) Page 15
