“We fucked,” he interrupted, his voice vibrating off the bare walls.
“Maybe,” I said calmly. “But more than just a body part entered me. I felt it just as I know you did. I had your brother’s seed as you like to call it, and yours blending within me. Something happened at that moment. A bond. I can’t imagine losing it forever while I bounce around like an expensive piece of artwork never to be appreciated or touched. I want more out of life.” I paused for a moment, preparing for the rejection that I was sure would follow my next question. “Was I the only one who felt it? Did you not feel the connection with me? When the three of us were together?”
“I felt it,” he admitted. “Which is why I haven’t fucked you with my brother since. My brother and I have never shared a woman before. I didn’t know that something like that—that type of connection—could happen by doing so.” He stood up and slammed his hands down on the table. His eyes grew black and he snarled, “I’m not interested in forming that bond, so I stopped it that day.”
I sat dumbfounded. So that was why? I wondered why he and Thomas never tried to take me again together. Even when I could see his cock straining against his pants during a discipline session with Thomas, he never acted on it with his brother in the room. Never. Now I knew why. He was protecting himself. He felt the bond and didn’t want it. He was scared.
Stefano began pacing back and forth, the aggravation he felt visible in his posture. I sat and waited for the storm to erupt. I was asking for a severe beating by continuing on, but I had to. If there was even the slightest hope. He turned to me ready to speak when Thomas walked into the room, carrying a pile of manila envelopes and files. He looked at Stefano, then at me, and back at Stefano.
“What happened?”
Stefano pointed to the stairs. “Hailey. Leave. Now. My brother and I have nothing to offer you. That’s final. Go back to your room.”
I stood up quickly and ran to my room. Not out of fear, although I was scared of Stefano’s wrath, but because I didn’t want them to see how truly devastated I was.
Had I gotten this all wrong?
How?
How could I be so off?
How could this be so one-sided?
I was in my room crying when I heard a knock at the door rather than it just being opened like every other time. I knew it was Thomas before the first knock had even finished echoing through my room. In the mood that Stefano was in, he would never knock. Never.
I quickly dried up my tears. “Come in.”
Thomas opened the door and gracefully entered the room. “Hailey, I can see… no, I can feel that we have upset you.”
I looked into his deep eyes and said nothing. I met his gaze and allowed him to truly see my pain. I wanted him to see how the thought of not being with them once we confirmed I was pregnant caused anguish like no other. I understood I was simply a surrogate, but that didn’t mean I liked it.
Thomas pulled me into his arms harshly. He pressed my head to his chest with more force than I was prepared for. “It kills me to see you hurt. I want to never be the cause of your heartache.” Without releasing his grip, he continued, “But what you want is not possible. It’s not the way your life should be. Even if we could safely keep you with us at all times, a life of crime with Stefano and me is no way to live. It’s just a matter of time until one of us is either in jail or dead. We need someone who can stay clean and removed so that our child will always have a parent.”
I pulled from his strong embrace. “I don’t care what we do as long as I’m with the two of you. And our child deserves to have all his or her parents. Not just me.” I sniffed and wiped away the tears, trying to regain my composure. “Anything is better than me being cast off alone.”
“You won’t be alone. You will have around the clock security watching over you. We will give you staff as well to help with cooking and cleaning. You won’t be alone.”
“But that is alone! It might as well be. What kind of life will I have with no real connections?”
“A better one than you would have with Stefano and me. Look at us. Neither one of us is the man you are picturing. We aren’t that white picket fence dream.” He paused as if he may change his mind but then quickly snapped out of it. “And you won’t be alone. You will have the baby. And who knows, we may want a second child down the line.”