Page 16 of His to Keep

I couldn’t risk not being around them, even as my entire body screamed for me to pull her closer.

And now, as I sat parked outside of her work, responding to emails on my phone, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

The baby would be mine, no matter what.

But this was the chance I’d always wanted. I wanted a family of my own. Through some insane twist of fate, I was falling in love with the women who had agreed to be my surrogate. And I wasn't about to let her slip through my fingers either.

I had to figure something out.

An alarm went off on my phone, and I didn't need to look at the description to know that it was Whitney’s lunch hour. In the past few weeks, she’d gotten used to coming out here and eating with me. It had all started when I had messaged her. I’d found her craving that day, chocolate-covered almonds, and day after day, she continued to show up. Even on days we just sat quietly and ate the packed lunches she had made that morning.

Today was no different, and I raced around the SUV to open the door for her as she approached, a relaxed look on her lovely face.

“Can we drive down to the park? I’d love to soak in some fresh air.”

“Bad day?” I asked, slipping my hand into hers. Inevitably, my other hand slipped to her side, and my heart thumped as I pressed tightly against the side of her belly. Once she was settled, I forced myself to release her and go around the car.

“No, just feeling…I don’t know, a little trapped in it all.”

I understood completely. I put the big vehicle into gear and made my way down to a beautiful park, finding a spot near the abandoned gazebo to park.

“Hot ham and cheese or chicken salad?” Whitney asked, her delicate hands sweeping through the tote bag at her feet.

I rolled my eyes. She always asked. I always told her to choose first. “You choose first. I’ll eat anything.” My trademark answers.

She snorted. “Chicken salad it is.” She tossed the sandwich to me.

I smiled but kept my face to the window, watching the trees sway in the breeze as we enjoyed the feeling of just being. It was comfortable, this silence between companions. Maybe too comfortable, because the question I wanted to ask her more than anything else suddenly spilled from my lips.

“Why are you doing this?”

Whitney’s blue gaze found mine. “Eating lunch with you? Or the park?”

“You know what I mean. Why are you carrying this baby?”

Whitney stilled, her chest expanding as she took a huge breath. “People love to ask me that, but they rarely want to really hear the answer.”

“I’m listening.”

“My family is…repeat underachievers. My grandparents and half the town were always waiting for me to fail. And when I didn’t, somehow the decision was made that I wasn’t failing because I never really did anything. I didn’t want to plan anything for myself. That way I couldn’t let anyone down. I couldn’t let myself down.”

I sucked in a breath, every part of me completely focused on her and the carefully hidden pain in her words.

“But I wanted to do something important. The most important thing I could think of.” She pressed a hand over her belly again, her unpainted nails pale against the dark fabric of her dress. “I want a huge family someday. I want to make their lunches every day and hear about soccer practice every night. But I don’t have a partner to do that now, and that hurts. Why wouldn’t I do that for someone else who was wanting that with every fiber of their being?”

She pushed her trash into the tote, as if what she’d said hadn’t just rocked my entire being.

“Whitney…”

Her face jerked up, surprise making her lips curl in a beautiful smile. I’d never called her by her first name.

I took the moment to slip my hand under the smooth line of her jaw, to capture the neck she exposed so beautifully. And then I held it, held her in place.

“Why do you have to be so perfect?” I asked her, my words guttural. And then I kissed her, the sweet, hot press of her skin on my lips making me rear up out of my seat to sink my other hand in her hair.

She was trapped, held in place and completely under my control. I’d half expected her to pull back. When she softened her mouth, letting her head sag into my control, my cock twitched between my legs. I was hard, aching as I tasted her. And when she moaned softly into the kiss, I slipped my tongue out to tease at the seam of her lips.

The gasp she gave me was enough to let me push my tongue in. And I took every inch she gave me, tangling with the soft heat of her until I couldn’t take another moment.

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