brows furrowed. Confused. ‘You do?’
He nodded. ‘I do. You’re going to say something along the lines of, Look, we’re colleagues...we really shouldn’t be going out with each other...can we just be friends? Am I right?’
She bit her lip again.
He really wished she wouldn’t do that. It was downright distracting. Wonderfully so.
‘Well, yes...kind of.’
He turned to face her, making sure there was no one else in earshot. ‘I think you’re wrong.’
She blushed, and he felt his insides go funny again.
‘I’m not wrong. You wouldn’t be interested in me. Not at all. Not if you knew the truth...’ She trailed off, clearly trying to find the right words to explain whatever predicament she thought she was in.
‘Are you married?’ He didn’t think she was. There’d been no sign of someone living with her in that flat of hers.
‘No.’
‘Do you have a steady boyfriend?’
She looked about, also checking there was no one else listening in to their conversation. ‘No.’
‘Then what’s the problem? You’ve got to see this from my point of view. Boy meets girl...boy goes back to girl’s apartment and they have a great time. Boy knows this. Girl knows this. It makes sense that they do it again to see how great they can really make it.’
He grinned, feeling all sorts of things firing inside his belly at the thought of another night with this woman. And not just his belly. Being this close to her, almost touching her, inhaling that gentle perfume of hers...it was intoxicating! Surely she wasn’t going to throw this opportunity away? They could have fun for a bit...
She was staring deeply into his eyes, almost as if she were looking into his soul, and then suddenly she blinked and sat back, moving away from him. She glanced nervously around them, before scooching closer again on her chair.
‘I had a great time with you, yes. Of course it was...’ She blushed. ‘Hot. But I’m not the kind of woman you would want to get involved with right now.’
‘You’re wrong—’
‘I’m going to have a baby.’
He sat up straight and looked at her, the smile gone from his face.
A baby? What? He looked down at her abdomen, trying to think back to how she’d looked, naked in the moonlight streaming in through her open curtains. The soft swell of her abdomen...her wondrous curves...
‘No, not me. Not me in person. I have a surrogate. My best friend Sally—she’s carrying my baby for me and she’s got seven more months before she gives birth.’
He stared. Shocked beyond words. He’d found the perfect woman. At least he thought he had.
This changes everything!
She was going to have a baby. She was going to become a mother. Which was great for her, but not for him. He didn’t need that kind of complication in his life. Parenthood? Responsibilities? Resentment? Exhaustion?
No, thanks. No way, José.
‘YOU’RE SHOCKED. I know you’re shocked. I would be, too, if I were in your shoes.’
She smiled a little, to show him she understood. That she wasn’t going to blame him if he walked away now. In fact she needed him to walk away. Because he was a complication that she didn’t need in her life right now. A stunningly attractive complication, yes, but not the kind she would be able to rely on with a baby around. He’d hardly signed up for this, after all. It was only right he knew from the start, so he could make decisions with all the facts at his fingertips.
He could cause wonders with those fingertips... Don’t think about those. Focus!
‘A baby? You’re going to be a mum?’
‘Yes. I am.’
‘But...isn’t surrogacy like a last chance kind of thing?’
She could see what he wanted to ask. Why can’t you have the child yourself? Perhaps she needed to explain? But this felt awkward. She barely knew him, after all. Carnal knowledge of a person didn’t count in this situation. She wasn’t used to sharing personal information with someone she hardly knew. But it had to be done.
‘It is a last chance kind of thing.’
‘But why? You’re only in your thirties, I’m guessing. You still might meet someone.’
‘I appreciate your optimism—I do. But it’s not that simple.’
‘I don’t understand. What aren’t you telling me?’
Boy, those eyes of his are intense!
She sucked in a deep breath. Here goes.
‘I’ve been told that I probably can’t carry a baby to term due to an anomaly in my uterus, but I want to start a family and this seemed the safest way to do that.’
Ben frowned, a small divot forming between his brows. ‘What kind of anomaly?’
‘A bicornuate uterus.’
He sucked in a breath. ‘It’s partially split?’
He was a good listener. It made him easy to tell.
‘Mine’s quite severe. My doctors told me that any baby I carry would most likely be lost in the second trimester, or that there’d be foetal growth retardation—especially if the foetus implanted in one of the two halves.’
He nodded. ‘I’ve heard of it. But I’ve never met anyone with it before.’
‘That you know of.’
He smiled. ‘You’re my first.’
She nodded, smiling. ‘Yes, well. There you go. Intimacy and a medical revelation. Aren’t you a lucky guy?’
He nodded.
‘I’ve never had family,’ she said. ‘I want to belong to someone. I want someone who is my blood. Someone to love and cherish, who cherishes me in return. I always knew I wanted a child and I just felt that time was running out for me to find that with someone I could trust enough.’
He looked doubtful. ‘So you’re doing it on your own?’
She smiled, glad that he understood and didn’t appear to be judging her. ‘So I’m doing it on my own.’
He
