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Nicole leaned back in the tufted leather seat, mulling it over. Out of all the things she’d anticipated her stepfather asking her to do in exchange for the hundred thousand dollars she needed to get her life back on track, acting as a surrogate hadn’t been one of them.
Especially when the child inside of her would be his and her mother’s baby.
“I’m just… surprised,” she said, peering up at him through her thick lashes. “It’s not what I expected to hear.”
Her stepfather laughed, his pearly white teeth flashing in the light from the chandelier above them. “I bet!” he said. “But you offered, remember?”
Nicole nodded slowly. “I guess. But how will this affect school? And, I mean, my body…”
She looked down at her taut little tummy. She’d always been in good shape, even without trying, the kind of girl who could scarf down an entire pizza without gaining a single pound. She was the envy of all the girls on campus. Would carrying a baby change that?
She looked into her stepfather’s eyes. He smiled warmly at her, leaning across his desk, his muscles straining through his prim, button-down shirt.
“I’ll take care of everything,” he assured her. “Your mother has wanted a baby for some time now, but given our age differences, conceiving has been… difficult. We’ve talked about surrogacy before, but finding someone we trust has also proved a challenge.” His eyes roamed over her body in a way that made her face flush. “You’d be the perfect fit, Nicole. You’re young. You’re fertile. I’m sure the fertilized eggs would take without any problems. All you’d have to do is put up with a few months of swollen feet and a beach ball for a belly, after which time, all your troubles go away.
“Plus,” he added, standing up and rounding his desk toward her, “you can stay here in the meantime, take some online classes. I’ll handle all the dirty business with Jude.” His expression darkened for a moment, and Nicole instinctively glanced down at his hands. His knuckles bore the scars of ancient wounds, the remnants of a time when her stepfather had been quite the kickboxer. Even though he’d given it up years ago, he still had the body to prove it, all hard planes and rippling sinew…
She forced herself to look back up at his face, but that was really no better. Every part of him was handsome, desirable, and Nicole could only imagine what an incredibly beautiful baby he would make with her.
With your mom, she reminded herself. Jesus, Nicole. Get a grip.
But it was, in some way, true. She’d be the one carrying it and the one who delivered it. All her mother would do was offer up some crusty old eggs. It was her stepfather’s hot, vital sperm that would make this all possible, and her young, aching womb.
She put a hand over her stomach. It was strange, how looking into his eyes made her feel. It made her think that carrying Thomas’s baby sounded like a great idea.
“And Mom will be okay with this?” she asked him.
“Are you kidding? She’ll be thrilled! You’d be making her dreams come true. And you’ve been wanting to reconcile with her, haven’t you?”
Nicole nodded vigorously. “Of course. I just…” She laughed. “I didn’t think it’d happen quite like this, you know?”
Thomas nodded, standing in front of her and leaning back on his desk. His slacks were so well-tailored. They hung perfectly off his frame, his narrow hips, and even accentuated the slight bulge in his crotch. She tried not to look too long, but there it was, partially swollen but not yet fully hard. She wondered briefly if it was always like that, or if he was just excited about finally finding a surrogate for his baby.
She met his eyes again. He was so different from Jude. Thomas knew what he wanted and had the ambition and drive to go out and get it. He’d never take “no” for an answer, yet he’d still respect her boundaries as an individual. He’d always been a great father-figure to her, and Nicole appreciated his presence in her life more than she could ever properly express.
“Mom’s so lucky,” she mused, not realizing at first that she’d said it out loud. When it dawned on her, she quickly added, “Er, I mean, not many guys would go to these lengths to make sure their wife was happy. You know?”
“Thinking about Jude?” he asked her, crossing his arms over his hard, broad chest. His muscles welled beneath his forearms, and she shuddered. “You deserve better than that, Nicole. We all knew it. But I’m still sorry things turned out the way they did.”
“I know,” she assured him. “I guess I just lost sight of what being around a good man was like.” She smiled feebly. “I’ll remember from now on. I promise.”
Thomas reached down, gently brushing his fingers over the curve of Nicole’s cheek. She gasped softly, her eyelashes fluttering. It had been a long time since anyone had touched her like that. Jude certainly never had. He’d only ever been interested in one thing, and even that had fallen to the wayside by the end. Nicole realized suddenly how desperate she’d been for this kind of attention, and for how long, too.
But it was coming from her stepfather. Shouldn’t she see that as Platonic and parental?
The way Thomas was looking at her, though, was anything but. “You’ve grown up so much,” he whispered, a small smile turning up the corners of his full, soft mouth. “You’re such a beautiful young woman now.”
“Daddy,” she whispered back, her breath stolen from her lungs. “I’m… I’m happy to be home…”
“You should have never left,” he said, “and I should never have let your mother try to put so much distance between us. You were missed, Nicole. Do you know that?”
She nodded slowly, her face still cupped in his palm. “I do now.”
Thomas looked at her for a time, his hazel eyes searching her face. She wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but a few agonizingly long moments later, he seemed to have found it. He stood up, relieving Nicole of his touch, and closed his office door.
“I think we can do better than just a hundred thousand dollars,” he told her, “don’t you?”
Nicole frowned. She hadn’t been expecting anything more than that. “What do you mean?” she asked him.
