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His mouth lifted at one corner and his eyes crinkled just enough to let me know he was amused. “We’re offering you the contract. We want you to be our surrogate.”
Shocked, I barely stopped myself from asking why. Instead, I forced my shoulders back and nodded. “Okay.”
“It’s different from what we’d originally thought we wanted.” He sat forward and rested his elbows on his knees. The position put him fully in my personal space and the scent of citrus heightened my senses. “We thought that we’d each choose someone to be our surrogate. The problem, however, is that we all want you.”
I blinked a few times. “I’m sorry?”
“We each came into this with an idea in mind of who we wanted to hire as our surrogate. It seems that us Hawke men don’t vary much from brother to brother. You are the first choice for each of us.” He gripped his hands between his legs, leaving them resting barely an inch from my bare leg. “We’ve changed the offer to reflect the time commitment you’d be making to us. I called in Fletcher Morgan to help you go through the contract we’ll offer you. He’s on your side completely and won’t accept less than you deserve. He’ll probably even add an extra million just to make me pay for not bringing him over to my team yet.”
Everything in my body came to a screeching halt. My breath lodged somewhere in my chest and stayed there until Remington gently touched my leg and asked if I was okay. My eyes filled with tears as I swallowed down the urge to choke. Nodding too quickly, I cleared my throat and pushed my hair behind my ears. “Did you say an extra million? The original contract was for two hundred thousand.”
“That contract would have been for one pregnancy. What we’re asking for is a lot more.” He stood up and offered me his hand. “Why don’t you come into the conference room and we’ll go over everything?”
I took his hand and fought the need to blurt out every question I could think of. Before I could appreciate the sheer size difference in our hands, he dropped my hand and rested his hand on the middle of my back, gently guiding me back into the room where his brothers waited with my new lawyer.
“Don’t worry, Memphis.” Remington stopped just outside the door and looked down at me with a surprisingly gentle expression on his face. “We’ll take care of you if you decide to do this.”
5.
***Memphis***
Theoriginalcontracthadbeen for two hundred thousand dollars. The surrogate would be housed and provided full care by the client. It was a year long contract, with an additional stipend provided if the surrogate didn’t get pregnant right away and the year didn’t allow enough time for the pregnancy to be carried to full term. A percentage of the money went to Mrs. Hathe’s company, but most of it went straight to the surrogate. When I’d read the sample contract on the website and signed the paperwork agreeing to be available if I was chosen, I’d hoped I would be picked. No part of me truly believed it would happen, though. If I had a chance to be lucky five times, I’d be unlucky five times. That was how my life went. So, to say I was a little shocked to be looking up at Remington Hawke while he promised he and his brothers would take care of me would be like saying the sun is a little warm up close. Understatement of the century.
I rolled my lower lip between my teeth and bit down on it. I was close enough to Remington to see that his eyes were solid blue, without a touch of another color. They looked like a clear morning sky and his thick eyelashes curled naturally to highlight them even more. It wasn’t fair. He was stunning and so tall that I knew I would fit against his chest so comfortably. I hadn’t been that close to another man—who wasn’t family—since Charlie, and I was painfully aware of the way my body was responding.
Remington opened the door and eased me into the room. “Hear us out, Memphis.”
I wanted to laugh. He thought I was silent because I wanted to run away? If he only knew I was silent because my brain was slowly catching up with the fantasy my body had started without it.
Boone and Wells stood next to the conference table, their eyes on me. It was a lot of attention for me to take on at once. I bit my lip harder and then let out a gasp of surprise when Remington gripped my chin and tugged my lip free.
“You’re going to make yourself bleed.” His touch was gone as quick as it’d appeared, but the burn of his skin on mine lingered. He met my gaze with a stern expression on his face and shook his head. “You left marks.”
I resisted the urge to reach up and touch my mouth, but just barely. “This is all a little more nerve-wracking than I expected it to be, I guess.”
Boone walked over and gripped his brother’s shoulder. “You can probably tell that some of us are a little stressed, too. Remy wouldn’t just manhandle you like that, otherwise.”
I designated Fletcher as a safe space in the room and hurried to sit next to him at the table. He didn’t make me feel nervous or fidgety. I crossed my legs under the table and bounced my foot. “Thank you for being available on such short notice. I don’t think I said that outside.”
He patted my hand. “I’d just sprung some big news on you. If you hadn’t been off your game a little, I would hire you for my office immediately. I need someone with nerves of steel to run my life for me.”
“Are you looking for an employee or a wife?” I smiled when he laughed. “Not that it’s any of my business.”
“It could be, Ms. King, if you’re volunteering.” He winked, his expression light and happy. “It would bring me eternal joy to steal you away from these three.”
Remington’s voice was bored as he sat across from us. “Are you going to tell yourclientwhat our offer is?”
“Don’t get frustrated with me yet, Remington. I still haven’t raked you over the coals.” Fletcher leaned in close to me and lowered his voice. “I wrote the number they’re offering you down in the folder in front of you. I just wanted to annoy Remy more by whispering. Look at him and tell me if his eyes are shooting fire yet.”
I covered my smile with my hand as I glanced up and found all three Hawke brothers glaring at my new lawyer. “Yep, yep, and yep.”
He pulled back and cleared his throat. “Okay, back to business.”
“Fletcher.” Remington scowled darkly. “Stop fucking around.”
With a smile still etched into his face, Fletcher opened the folder and slid it closer to me. He tapped a number with so many zeros behind it that my heart felt like it skipped a few beats.
“The offer is five million. One million per year that you’d be under contract with us. We will give you lodging and every amenity you could request during that time period. There are no limits. You will also have access to a credit card, so you will complete the contract with the full five million.” Remington stopped and folded his hands together on top of the table. “You will give us each a child in that five year period.”
