Dazzle: The Billionaire's Secret Surrogate

“Sure I do,” she answered. “I have to keep my body toned up somehow. I like it better than some of the more strenuous exercises since I don’t want to form muscle mass. Who wants to see a girl on the runway who looks more like a bodybuilder than a lady?”

“Oh, you’re a model?” he questioned, glancing at her body appreciatively. “I might have known.”

“Well, yeah, I do a bit of modeling, even though that wasn’t my major or anything. I actually went to college for computer science, but I have a special interest in fashion. I always thought it would be great to come up with my own designs someday.”

“Sounds like you’ve got a lot of ideas about how you want your future to go for you,” he smiled. “Let me guess: you’re having a tough time getting there from where you are right now?”

“I’ve recently been dealing with housing issues thanks to my roommate,” she admitted, although that was putting it mildly. “She didn’t pay her half of the bills, so things have gotten really tough really fast.”

“You’re more worried about a roof over your head right now than the money, aren’t you, Kady?” he inquired softly in her ear so the others wouldn’t hear.

“You could say that,” she admitted quietly, the feel of his breath brushing down the side of her neck made her own catch as tingles of awareness spread throughout her body.

Archer nodded as he gave her shoulder a little squeeze before stepping back. Kady wasn’t sure if she was relieved to have a little more breathing room, or regretted the end to the closeness of his well muscled body. She could still feel the warmth of his touch on her shoulder like an echo.

“Well ladies, I had intended to go for a bit of a swim before getting down to business, but I just don’t think lending any of you my swimming trunks would be at all helpful,” he teased. “So, since you’ve seen pretty much every part of the house, I suppose we could return to the study and begin our interviews.”

“Oh, but Archer!” complained Mia. “It’s so hot out today, a nice swim would have been perfect!”

“Miss, I’m not in the habit of allowing my decisions to be questioned,” he told her sternly, his eyes suddenly shuttered for a moment, before returning to normal. “Now, come along everyone, we’ll get the interviews started and perhaps we’ll have a bite to eat at the same time. Kady? I’d like very much to talk with you first.”

“She’s not so great,” Mia smirked as she spoke to her friends. “I bet he just wants to get her out of the way so he can choose one of us.”

Archer’s hand was still on Kady’s elbow when he heard the other girl’s words. She felt rather than saw him tense up, but when she turned to look at his face, he wore the same mellow mask he’d been affecting the entire time. Only a slight downturn of his lips gave away any indication at all that he was displeased.

His hand came down and took Kady’s as they continued to walk. The gentle touch left her feeling butterflies all over her body.

Damn, she needed to stop that. He probably wasn’t going to pick her, so all that would happen if she kept wanting him so much would be that she’d find herself alone on the park bench and not even able to deal with the needs he had stirred to life. Well, unless she wanted to get arrested for trying and thrown in jail with a bunch of women who would be more than willing to help her out instead. Not!

But the feel of his large, masculine hand encompassing hers felt so right, so natural. It was like they had done just that a hundred times before. A thousand. And it made the ache that had been on a slow burn since she had first seen him earlier throb to life as she imagined what it would feel like to have his hands on other parts of her body. Knock it off! She mentally chastised herself, trying to dispel the image of their bodies twined together.

“This way,” motioned Archer, interrupting her thoughts as they all headed back the way they had come. When they reached the dining room, he paused. “You three remain here. I’ll send someone for you when it’s time.”

Chapter 7

Archer did not surrender Kady’s hand once they left the other women behind. In fact, he drew her slightly closer to his side as they continued on their journey. He smiled down at her and she shyly looked away, suddenly overwhelmed by his magnetic presence as it was focused solely on her. There was no one else there to buffer the affect he had on her, and now, walking alone with him through the empty hallway, those butterflies in her chest started beating their wings again. She had to swallow against her growing nerves, the tension evident in the stiff line of her shoulders.

“Tell me why you’re here, Kady,” he inquired softly, obviously trying to put her at ease with his gentle tone. “I want to hear the whole story. I want to hear your whole story.”

“There’s not a whole lot to tell, unfortunately,” she replied, letting out a sigh of frustration as she dredged up memories of the unfortunate last few years. “I finished college around the same time my mother decided to marry a complete jerk who said I was too old to come home, so a high school friend and I got a place, and I started taking all kinds of modeling jobs while still trying to find work in computers, since that’s what I have a degree in. Then she decided to get heavy into the drug scene and failed to pay her rent. I never thought that she would steal from me, but now my nest egg went missing and she ran off with two guys and left me to clean out the apartment alone. I just gave back the key yesterday and slept in some seedy motel for the night. But now I have nowhere left to go, and I saw that flyer, so I figured I would try coming here. Just to see. Maybe this would give me the time I need to land a real job or make a few designs or something. I could get back on my feet again.”

“And have a baby that would remain here with me?” he reminded her gently of the one thing about the position that had her heart breaking a little every time she thought of it.

“Yeah, and that, too,” she agreed, with a shaky sigh.

“That’s not to say I wouldn’t be willing to share, though,” he pointed out. “We’ll have plenty of time to get to know each other and make that decision before it’s done.”

“I guess we would, huh?” Kady said, the thought of sleeping every night in the same house as this charismatic man made her pulse start to pound faster, heavier.

“Of course we would,” he said, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze, although its effect was just to make her heart race faster, rather than calm her at all.

“It’s just that I—I need you to know something important, but it’s kind of embarrassing,” she stammered, thinking of the caveat he had mentioned earlier. His, uh, preferred method of getting whomever he chose pregnant.

“Talk to me,” he encouraged her, sensing her sudden spike in nerves.

“Well, I—I haven’t ever actually had sex before,” she managed to say, flushing bright red at the admission.

“What?” he asked, surprise and a flicker of something else, something darker, more masculine, and decidedly satisfied shone from his eyes. “A beautiful girl like you?”