The Surrogate

My knees were shaking so hard I had to clamp them together and hold them with my hands on my knees. He actually knelt down in front of me and brushed his fingers down my cheek. “You okay?” I shook my head, no.

“Are you playing with me?” Maybe he doesn’t know that I’m not all that experienced with this kind of stuff; that I’ve never had a real relationship before. I mean, I told him that I didn’t have any other sexual partners except for the ones he mentioned the night before, but maybe he didn’t get it.

“Why would you think that?” I looked down at my stomach and back up at him, shoring myself up for the words that were about to come out of my mouth. My face was fire engine red before I even got started, but I forced myself.

“When you first saw me, I was being fucked doggie style by someone else.”

“And I was balls deep in my sister what’s your point? That was then; this is now.”

“And the baby, I’ve had two kids…”

“No, you helped my sister and her husband build a family. Look at it this way, at least now you’ll be in the children’s lives forever.”

“I need to think about this.”

“No, there’s nothing to think about. When we leave tomorrow, I’ll drive you back to campus. I may have to be gone for a few weeks until I find a place because I figure you want to finish school?”

I nodded my head, still not quite believing him. “Fine, I can work from anywhere, I don’t know the area well enough yet, I need to see it before I decide whether to rent or buy.” He lifted my fingers to his lips. “Now, let’s go.”

“Where are we going?”

“Home!”

Chapter 23

He bundled me into the Camry Penny, and Nick had bought me after breakfast because he said his driver had already left with his car the day before since he’d been planning to spend the whole weekend with Penny and Nick.

He took the wheel and drove while I was still trying to make sense of the last twenty-four hours. I felt like there was something missing, some piece of the puzzle that had gone over my head.

“What’re you thinking about so hard over there?” He reached for my hand and held it under his against his thigh. I didn’t want to sound like a complete rube, asking him the same things over and over again, but until I got it settled in my mind that this was real, I don’t see how I can avoid it.

“I’m having a hard time accepting all this. I mean, I know how I felt when I first saw you, but I can’t believe that you felt the same. It just seems too preposterous.”

“I saw you before then. In the pictures, remember, I told you Penny had sent me pictures of you?”

“So? I’m sure I looked like a dork in them.”

“No, you looked young, fresh, and innocent.” All the things I haven’t been in a long time. I’m glad I caught you before things got too out of hand.”

“What do you mean?”

“Orgies aren’t for you?”

Hey now! “But, they’re for you?”

“They used to be.” He turned his head and looked at me before looking back at the road. “I did it because I was empty. I was always searching for something.”

“And you’re not anymore?”

“Found it.”

We drove the rest of the way in silence while I became lost in thought. It figures my life would be like this. Knocked up with someone else’s baby no matter the reason behind it, when I meet the man of my dreams. A dream I didn’t even know I had.

He pulled through the gates of this…castle? I’m not sure what you’d call it, but I can’t see how it could be called anything else. It was a massive structure of grey stone and glass, and the lawn had to be about ten acres.

I sat up in my seat, looking out the window wide-eyed. “Where are we?” For a minute, I thought he’d brought me to another swinger party. Believe it or not, most of those people have heaps of cash. “I told you home.”

“You live here?” The driveway had to be more than a thousand feet long; you could no longer see the road from where we were, and we were only halfway to the monstrosity of a house.

“Yes, I do, and so will you, once school is over, or sooner if I can figure out something else before then.”

I didn’t want to believe him, and yet I wanted to so badly, with everything in me. But I didn’t want to do it for the wrong reasons.

“Aren’t you afraid that I’d say yes for the money? The lifestyle?” He looked at me with the most serious look I’ve seen on his face thus far.