but her sudden and unexpected response stopped him short.
“Are you certain?” he asked, his face almost pained by the words.
“One hundred percent. I haven’t seen you since November, and I’m only at twenty-two weeks. Unless some of your li’l swimmers decided to camp out in my apartment for the holidays and attack when I was least expecting it, you’re in the clear.”
His brow furrowed, and she could see the anger slowly fade away as the muscles in his neck relaxed. His whole body started to uncoil and he took a deep breath, the casual, easygoing posture she remembered finally gaining hold.
Alex ran a hand through the shaggy strands of his golden hair and shook his head. “You really scared the hell out of me, Gwen.”
She was certain of that. Blended in with the anger glittering in his amber eyes had been a healthy dose of fear. When they were together, they’d been quite meticulous when it came to taking all the proper precautions. They both had their reasons. Alex said he didn’t want the entanglement of a child, although she expected there was more to it than just that. And as for Gwen, well, she was sure he couldn’t guess why it had been so important for her at the time, but an unexpected pregnancy would’ve derailed everything.
“I’m sorry,” Gwen said, the words coming easier with the tension in the room fading. “If you were the father, I would’ve told you. I couldn’t keep a secret like that for long, and Adrienne would’ve had my hide for even trying.”
For her own self-preservation, Gwen had kept her fling with Alex a secret. Adrienne would make a bigger deal out of it than it was intended to be. And by the time her friend had returned from her honeymoon in Bali, Alex was gone and there wasn’t much point in mentioning it. It was just one fantastic last hoorah before her man-break. Nothing more.
Instead, she’d tried to pretend it never happened. The holidays and her pregnancy had done well to distract her. To a point. She blamed the hormones for her more emotional moments when thoughts of Alex slipped through her defenses.
Now Alex looked a touch uncomfortable, shifting his weight and burying his hands in the pockets of his khakis. It was about as close to repentant as she’d ever seen him. “I wish I’d known about all this,” he said. “I mean, Will had no reason to think I would care, but I never would’ve touched you like that. Or brought you wine, obviously.”
Gwen smiled. After eight months without a man, his brief touch had been the highlight of her week. Month, maybe. It was right up there with feeling the baby flutter inside her for the first time. “That’s okay. Pregnancy isn’t contagious.”
Alex laughed, breaking the last of the nervous tension in her bedroom and reminding her of the lover she knew. During those two weeks, they’d spent as much time laughing and talking as they had making love. They’d walked around the city, dined in new restaurants and just enjoyed being in one another’s company. It was easy to be with Alex.
Looking at him now with his bright, charming smile made her long to touch him again. For Alex to hold her and whisper into her ear the way he had before. But that was a pointless fantasy. Alex was just the latest in a long line of men destined not to stick around. As relationships went, Gwen had a miserable track record. She was always drawn to the men that would leave. A guy that was steady, loyal and committed to a woman didn’t even show up on her radar. Probably because she didn’t want one hanging around that long.
“That’s not what I meant,” he said. “I meant I shouldn’t have presumed you were free for us to, uh … I mean, I hope if the father finds out about this that you let him know I didn’t realize you were taken. Will said you came up alone.”
Gwen frowned. “‘Taken’?” Truth be told, she was anything but. Occupied, perhaps, but not taken.
Alex’s glance darted to her left hand as it rested on the swell of her stomach. “I guess I assumed since you were having some guy’s baby that he might mind me groping you. I know I’d probably be crazy with jealousy if someone put the moves on the mother of my child.”
That was one thing Gwen certainly didn’t have to worry about. “I assure you that Robert isn’t really concerned with what I do or with whom.”
In an instant, a touch of Alex’s previous anger returned, and a dark pink colored the outer shell of his ears. His hazel gaze pinned her on the spot. “Robert who? Tell me the bastard’s name.”
Gwen’s eyes widened in shock. She wasn’t quite sure if it was because Alex looked as though he was ready to punch the baby’s father in the face, or because he cared enough to go to the trouble. She thought she was just another notch in the proverbial bedpost. Certainly it wouldn’t warrant such a protective response from him. “What does it matter? What are you going to do about it?”
“I’m going to sit him down and make sure he does right by you and his child.”
“Good lord.” Gwen laughed. “You sound like my Paw-Paw. Are you going to take your shotgun, too?”
“If I had one. I might go buy a gun just for the occasion.”
Gwen’s lower back was beginning to throb from standing in one place for too long. It was just one of the joys the second trimester had brought, along with insatiable hunger and an aching, expanding belly. A fair trade for the end of morning sickness, she supposed. She moved over to the bed to sit at the edge. “I appreciate the offer, but that won’t be necessary. The situation is complicated and will take more than a few minutes to explain. But trust me when I tell you Robert is a perfectly wonderful husband and will be just as good a father.”
“He’s married? Jesus, Gwen. Maybe you need a talking-to as well.”
Gwen sighed and patted the mattress beside her. “Sit down, Alex.”
He hesitated for a moment, then settled down beside her. He maintained what he probably thought was the proper distance from a mother-to-be, but she could still feel the warmth of him, and the scent of his cologne hovered in the air she breathed. It took everything she had not to close her eyes and imagine being in his arms again. Not that she ever would be. Even if he had been interested initially, there was nothing quite like a surprise pregnancy to kill the mood.
“Listen, you’ve got the wrong idea about all of this. The father hasn’t done anything wrong. In fact, his wife knows about everything and approves. Robert and Susan are good people who suffered a horrible tragedy that no one should ever have to face. I had the power to help them, so I did.”
Alex watched her speak, visibly struggling to see where she was going with this. She understood the confusion. Her own mother hadn’t approved, even when she had all the details. Especially when she had all the details. Only Adrienne, who knew Gwen was a marshmallow underneath her hard candy shell, could see why she had to do this for people who were practically strangers.
She took a deep breath. “I told you this wasn’t your baby, but I didn’t tell you the whole story. The truth is this isn’t my baby, either.”
Two
“I’m a surrogate.”
Alex fully understood the meaning of the term, but somehow he couldn’t connect it in his brain where Gwen was concerned. “This isn’t your baby?”
“No. Someone else’s bun is baking
