Kady stood up and disrobed while Archer watched with avid eyes.
“Beautiful,” he told her as she went. His eyes were warm and seductive as they trailed her body, finding every hidden crevice, every lush curve. “Magnificent! Gorgeous! Stop blushing, sweetheart, you know it’s all true.”
“Take off your pants already,” Kady snapped, partly to cover her own embarrassment and partly because she desperately needed to see him naked. Like right now. Then she giggled and surged forward, crawling across the floor on her hands and knees so she could undo his zipper, to impatient to wait for him to do it.
“Impatient girl,” he teased, reading her thoughts, running his fingers through her hair as she worked the pants down his hips. He lifted his ass up enough for her to manage to work pants and underwear together down past his knees, then sat right back down again to kick the garments off his feet.
Both naked now, the pair of them wasted no time regrouping, with Kady underneath Archer yet again. This time, however, Archer had a destination in mind. He feathered kisses all down Kady’s body until his head was between her thighs. Kady moaned softly and threaded her fingers through his ponytail, giving it a little tug as his tongue reached her clit, just to tease him.
“Archer, yes, keep doing that!” she gasped, her body writhing under his the pressure of his attentions.
“With pleasure,” he said against her flesh, making her giggle, then moan at the long, wet slide of his tongue against her center.
“Always with pleasure,” she said on a breathy sigh.
He had her body singing with passion in an instant. Her heartbeat thudded in her chest, her breath hitched, and she had to remind herself to keep inhaling air as he continued the onslaught. She couldn’t stop herself from writhing and trembling. Soft little moans kept escaping her throat, and then they turned into gasps and sighs, and finally outright groans and shrieks as he brought her to her climax.
Without another word, Archer moved over her body and plunged his eager cock deep inside her. Kady gasped and clawed at his back, moving her hips to meet his thrusts. He pounded into her, possessing her completely. His lips found the pulse at the side of her neck. He nibbled and sucked the little spot, having discovered that Kady really liked it, making her body tense around him.
“Oh!” she gasped, her nails digging into his flesh a bit more than she’d intended. But she couldn't seem to stop, as her entire being was racked by the force of her needs. Archer, ever in tune with that mysterious force within her, knew right when to bite harder, and his hands moved over her nipples as well, giving them a squeeze at the same time. Every touch, caress, thrust, and kiss coalesced together into a maelstrom that left her unable to do anything but be swept away on its current. It was like her body belonged to him.
Kady’s reaction was explosive in its intensity. It shattered Archer’s resolve to go slowly into nothing as she clamped her walls down around his cock, milking every drop of come right out of him with an earth-shattering shudder.
“Woman, I’m so glad I found you,” he whispered in her ear once he could finally breathe again, his ragged breath sawing against the sensitive part of her neck, causing aftershocks to ripple through her.
“Hey now, that’s not quite right,” she chuckled. “I’m the one who found you.”
“Yeah?” he scoffed lazily. “Maybe, but only because I had to advertise.”
“Shut up, Archer,” she chuckled, clutching his sweaty body to hers as they both rode the wave of bliss back to reality.
“Time to take this party upstairs for the night, love,” he said then, his words husky with emotion as she pulled her to her feet. Kady had to blink back tears when he called her love. Stupid hormones, she complained to herself, but she knew that wasn’t what was really causing the tidal wave of emotion roiling through her. It was all him. All Archer. The two of them got dressed just long enough to make the move to their bedroom. The rest of the night had very little to do with sleeping, but was spent in each other’s arms.
Chapter 21
Kady sat in the back of the courtroom when Archer’s case was called, but he was never brought into the room at all. Instead, a lawyer came inside and handed some papers to the court. As he did so, he said, “If it pleases the court, in the matter of Archer Devonshire, his lawyer is unavoidably absent and has asked that a continuance be issued in concordance with his schedule, which said document has just been handed to the facilitating representative for selection of an appropriate date.”
“Very well,” the judge replied. “I believe Mr. Devonshire has been in compliance with the terms of his release into the community. You may find an appropriate date not to fall outside of a period of four months for the selection.”
The woman who was searching gave him a date about three months out, and the new appointment was entered into the ledger, which could also be seen on an overhead off to one side.
That was it. They moved on to the next case. Kady sat there for two minutes just to make sure they weren’t going to call Archer’s name yet again, and then she quietly wandered out into the hall, where she saw that Archer was speaking to the lawyer and some woman she could only see from behind.
“Hey, Miss Kady,” said Daryl, stopping her before she could reach Archer and the little group huddle in intense conversation a few feet ahead. “Archer’s going to be busy for a while, so he asked me to bring you over to the restaurant for lunch and then back to the hotel. He’ll probably be rejoining us there in a couple of hours.”
“Oh, okay,” she said on a sigh of relief. “Who is that with them?”
“His mother,” Daryl replied, and Kady turned with interest, trying to get a better look at her. However, the group had stepped into one of the rooms, and the woman was already out of sight. She sighed, wondering if Archer would bring her by later so they could actually meet.
Daryl swept her outside, leaving the courtroom and anticlimactic trial behind. She knew she should feel happy, but mostly what Kady felt was confused and exhausted. She had been dreading this day for months now, and when it came…nothing. Nothing happened, and it seemed like nothing would happen for another three months if she correctly understood everything that had transpired earlier.
The whole thing seemed beyond her at the moment, as hunger made itself known in full force. She had been too nervous to eat anything before the trial, and with the small human she was busy growing inside her, she was eating for two. Her stomach rumbled, adding an exclamation mark to her thought.
They were just driving by a cozy looking diner, and Kady asked Daryl to stop. It was a gorgeous day so they decided to have lunch outside, and they passed the meal in light, friendly conversation, the whole time Daryl giving her advice on dealing with the pregnancy along with funny anecdotes about when his own wife was pregnant with their child.
It was almost impossible for Kady to imagine her life without his, sometimes unwanted, but always kindhearted fatherly advice. Or Dee, fussing over her, even though she was still early enough along that she could still take care of everything on her own. It was such a 180 degree turnaround from the life she had led before, almost as if she was a different person.
But she was a different person now, Kady mused as they rode back to the hotel in companionable silence. Before she had been scared, alone, desperate for any scrap that would come her way. Now she was so much stronger, so much more confident in herself and her own worth. And she had plenty of time to work on her fashion designs, which were coming out splendidly if she did say so herself.
She pulled out the sketchbook she always had with her, a habit she doubted she would ever be able to break, and then found her pencil and started drawing. Ideas and visions whirled through her head in swirls of color palettes and fabric swatches. Her hand moved furiously across the paper in an effort to capture them all as they turned into the parking lot for the boutique hotel. Daryl stopped the car in front of the main entrance, getting out to open her door to find her still sketching.
&n
bsp; “Hey, Miss Kady, those look fantastic.” Daryl leaned closer to get a better look
“Oh, these are nothing yet. Just rough ideas. But hopefully I’ll be able to turn them into something more soon enough.”
“Nothing!” He sounded affronted. “Those aren’t anything, those are beautiful. You have a true gift.”
His kind words warmed her heart, and gave her a much-needed boost as she stowed the notebook and pencil and climbed out of the car. She walked into the hotel, still glowing from the compliment, and took the elevator up to the suite she shared with Archer. She was already dreaming of when he would join her. There were still a lot of surfaces they could explore besides the bed, and huge walk-in shower, which they had taken for a test run this morning. She could feel herself become wet with desire just at the thought of it. She blushed, thinking that he might be bringing his mother back with him to meet her, and walked around, tidying up the space just in case.
Of course when he returned, he was alone.
“You’re still here,” Kady said with a relieved smile. “Not in some prison cell, not dragged off by your mother?”
“Nope, I’m all yours for now,” he replied, although he sat down with a heavy sigh. “To tell the truth though, I was looking forward to them making up their minds one way or the other. Now we’re just stuck in this damned holding pattern all over again.”
Kady nodded. “There’s a way around that, you know.”
“Hmm?” he asked, as he drew her into his lap. “What’s that?”
“Stop thinking that life revolves around that judge or anything he has to say,” Kady suggested. “I’ve already made my mind up about where I want things to go with you.”
“Kady? I’m—what—um—damn, I can’t even talk!” he laughed, spluttering as he tried to find his words. “Tell me what you've decided, sweetheart.”
“I’m not going anywhere, Archer,” she told him then, staring him in the eyes so he could see the raw honesty shining in her own as well as all the other unspoken feelings and emotions. “No matter if they give you five months, five years, or five decades. That’s what I’ve decided.”
“If they gave me five decades, I would make you go,” he replied with a smirk.
“Well, good thing that’s never going to happen then, huh?” she answered with a smirk of her own. “Because who knows if your thirty year-old butt would even last that long.”
“Don’t you know I’m too stubborn to die?” he chuckled. “You’re never going to get rid of me that easily.”
“Well, enough morbid talk,” Kady said then. “I think it would be a lot more fun deciding on stuff to decorate the nursery.”
“Oh, now I see how you are,” he laughed. “You’ve decided to stay because you want to pick out the curtains for the nursery. I might have known, my lovely mistress of fashion.”
“Yes, it’s all part of my master plan to redesign every room in the house and refit you with an updated wardrobe. Something dazzling ought to do.”
“Dazzling,” Archer repeated, his nose wrinkling slightly. “What is it about that word?”
“What word?” Kady asked curiously.
“Dazzle,” he said with a shrug. “It’s been a bit overused lately, I think.”
“Mm, I wouldn’t know,” she said. “I applied to work at a place with that name, but I never made it to the interview.”
“I see,” he said with a curious nod. “Why was that?”
“I decided to come be with you instead,” she said, winking at him, and it had been the best choice she had ever made.
“Good choice,” said Archer, unconsciously mirroring her thoughts as he kissed Kady soundly. It didn’t take long for their passions to ignite after that. Archer lifted Kady up into his arms and carried her over to the bed, laying on it with her to continue what they had begun.
“Archer!” Kady breathed on a soft sigh as his fingers deftly began to unbutton her blouse, shedding it quickly as he found the hidden spaces he had been searching for. His lips sought and found her dark nipples, and he flayed each of them with his eager tongue, one at a time. Then he sucked one into his mouth while his free hand slid down her belly and under the elastic waistband at the top of her skirt. It was a tight fit, but he managed to push his hand inside her underwear as well.
“Silly, you could have just went underneath instead,” Kady said with a laugh, as she unbuttoned the back of the garment, enabling him to move more freely, squirming restlessly under his touch.
“What fun is that, always taking the easiest way?” Archer pointed out, his words little more than breathless whispers.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I don’t think I’ve ever managed to take the easiest way yet, so I’ve yet to find out.”
Archer’s face softened, hearing that. “I know things haven’t been very easy for you in life, Kady,” he said softly. “But if you’ll let me, I want very much to show you what taking the easy path sometimes is like.”
“Thanks, Archer,” she said with a wavering smile, as tenderness flooded through her at his words, twining with the red hot desire his magic fingers had evoked in her. “That really does mean a lot.”
Slowly, gently, with a level of emotion deeper than either had experience before, they made love for the rest of the night.
Chapter 22
The next time they went to court, a few things had changed. Firstly, Archer had finally employed a full-time security guard to prevent Mia and her friends from breaking into their house. Secondly, Kady’s belly was rapidly getting bigger and he’d begun teasingly asking her if she was having twins. And the third was that Archer’s mother had finally decided it was time to meet the young woman Archer had been dating for the past six months.
Kady hadn’t been expecting the visit, of course. And since she was Archer’s mother, Athena Caldwell didn’t bother to knock on the door before she’d simply stepped inside. It was a huge surprise, to say the least, when they came face-to-face, as Kady began heading down the stairs and had found a familiar face on the way up.
“Hey, you’re that woman from Dazzle,” she gasped. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m Archer’s mother—what are you—oh, I see,” she was staring pointedly at Kady’s baby bump. “Now I understand. You must have seen Archer’s silly billionaire surrogate ad and decided to go there. But I don’t understand why.”
“Oh, I—I’d just lost my place, and I just couldn’t see how I’d be able to keep the job even if I did get it at that point,” said Kady. “But I don’t understand. Why would you have been trying to get hired at Dazzle when you’re so rich?”
“Daft girl, I should have known,” she chuckled, but there was a note of kindness that blunted any sting it might have incurred. “You didn’t realize who I was then, and you still haven’t figured it out now, have you?”
“I guess not,” she said with a frown, as they both stepped down the stairs and headed up the hall towards the study. “Why don’t you explain it then?”
“I am the owner of Dazzle,” she said, as if it were painfully obvious, a fact everyone should know. “If you’d stayed there just a few minutes more, you could have been working all this time.”
“But—no, I wasn’t able to hold a job right then,” Kady negated what she was saying. “I didn’t have a home to return to beyond that night. If I hadn’t come here, I don’t know where I’d be now. And besides, Archer really, really loves me. I have no doubts about that. I think things turned out exactly as they should have done.”
“And all your dreams of your future in the fashion industry have just vanished in a puff of smoke, just for the sake of my son and this child?” she scoffed. “I hope you don’t intend to fall into a trap like that one!”
“Trap?” Kady repeated, somewhat annoyed at the snap judgments this woman was making about her, even if she was Archer’s mother. “Is it a trap to want to bear your lover’s child and spend your life in his arms?”
“Of course not,” she sco
ffed. “I’m talking about the trap of not pursuing your own dreams while you’re doing all of that. So many women who could be doing something more get caught up in doing everything for their loved ones and nothing for themselves. I don’t want to see that happen to you as well.”
“What are you trying to say, exactly?” Kady asked, not exactly sure where she was taking their odd conversation.
“That I have been looking for you since the day we met, months ago!” she explained. “You had left your home without a trace, and you’ve never told anybody what became of you.”
“Why would you have been looking for me?” Kady wanted to know. She pressed the intercom button beside the couch and said into it, “Maggie, could you bring in some tea for myself and Archer’s mother in the study? I believe the two of us might be here for a while.”
“Archer’s mother is here?” she answered on a gasp. “I’ll get it out to you right away, Miss Kady!”
Bemused by this, Kady cast the woman a shrewd glance. “Why are all the staff members around here so afraid of you, anyway?” she wanted to know. “I don’t find you all that intimidating. I think you’re rather pleasant, in fact.”
She smirked. “Just don’t get on my bad side then.”
“You were looking for me?” Kady prompted, bringing the conversation back to where it had been before the interruption and subsequent detour.
“Yes, after you disappeared before I could interview you, I just couldn’t stop thinking about the ambitious young woman with the great sense of fashion, so I figured out which application must be yours and did some leg work,” she explained. “I even called your mother looking for you, but you haven’t contacted her in the past six months either. She didn’t even know that you were gone.”
Dazzle: The Billionaire's Secret Surrogate (Contemporary BWWM Romance) Page 9
