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“I didn’t think of it quite that way, but in a sense you might be right,” he mused, chuckling at her evaluation. She had no idea that as far as he was concerned she was assessing herself.
He’d always admired Haley’s quick wit and he was more confident now than ever that he’d made the right choice. She was definitely the woman he was looking for.
“And you think you’ve found this paragon?” she prodded.
“Yes.” Before she could react, he walked over, took her hands in his and asked, “Haley Rollins, will you have my baby?”
Two (#ulink_6d25c561-6ada-5159-bd27-9ba2089dddb7)
Time stood still and Haley wasn’t entirely certain that her heart hadn’t come to a complete halt as well. Luke was asking her to be his surrogate? He actually wanted her to have his child?
She opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again as she desperately tried to find her nonexistent voice. The fact that he saw her as the perfect means to produce his heir rendered her utterly speechless.
“I can tell by your reaction that you weren’t expecting this,” he laughed.
Never in a million years.
“And I don’t need your answer right now,” he added.
Good. Because that would require words and right now I couldn’t put two words together to save my own soul.
He gave her hands a gentle squeeze, then reached for his suit jacket. “I want you to sleep on it tonight and, since you’re taking tomorrow off, spend the day thinking about it. I’ll pick you up around seven tomorrow evening for dinner. You can give me your answer then.”
In a total state of shock, all Haley could do was stare at him. When he pulled her to her feet and led her to the door, she couldn’t have protested no matter how hard she tried.
Opening the door, he turned and, reaching out, lightly touched her unruly curls. “By the way, you should wear your hair like this more often. It looks very nice.” Then, without another word, he stepped out onto the sidewalk and pulled the door shut.
Haley felt as if she’d fallen down the rabbit hole and landed squarely in the middle of Wonderland. When she’d gotten up yesterday morning, she’d had no idea that in a little over twenty-four hours, her life would take such an unexpected turn. Nor would she have ever thought the man she’d dreamed about for the past five years would get some wild notion that he needed an heir and that she was the only woman to make that happen.
Slowly returning to the couch, she plopped down and let her gaze wander aimlessly around the room. How could everything look the same when the whole world had been turned completely upside down?
As the gravity of Luke’s request began to sink in, she shook her head. There was no way on God’s green earth that she could help him with his cockamamy plan. She couldn’t—wouldn’t—do that to a child. To her child.
Her child.
She was pretty sure that, as her father’s housekeeper used to say whenever someone expressed a desire to procreate, she had “baby fever.” Not because she didn’t have plenty of time to have a child. She did.
At twenty-eight years old, she certainly hadn’t heard the ominous ticking of her biological clock. Nor did she anticipate that happening for quite some time.
She had, however, watched several of her friends find love, get married and have babies. In fact, just last week Haley had received an announcement from her college roommate about the birth of her second child. And that seemed to intensify the void, her desire that she wanted more than anything else in life—a family of her own.
Just the idea of holding her own baby, of watching him or her take the first steps, of hearing the first words and seeing a sweet toothless grin brought tears to her eyes. She wanted a baby to love and be loved by in return.
But that wasn’t what Luke had in mind. He wanted an heir to carry on at Garnier Construction, not a close family who loved, laughed and together weathered whatever storms life sent their way. And she was old-fashioned enough to believe that the choice to conceive should be based on the desire to love and nurture, not a good business decision. If she went along with his ludicrous plan, he’d raise their child alone and she’d be completely out of the picture. She’d lived that type of existence and she couldn’t do that to a child, couldn’t bring an innocent baby into a childhood like hers. Although the circumstances weren’t exactly the same, she knew all too well how it felt to have a workaholic father who always put business first, who relied on nannies and his housekeeper to raise his motherless daughter.
Nor could she do that to herself. Unlike her own mother who abandoned her shortly after birth, nothing would ever keep Haley from being part of her child’s life. She had every intention of being there each day to love and guide him or her as they made the journey to a happy, productive adulthood.
Unfortunately, Luke Garnier was a formidable negotiator. She knew as sure as she knew her own name that he would not stop until she agreed to his crazy scheme.
Luckily for her, she knew him well enough to know exactly how to deter him from his mission. But in doing so, it meant effectively ending any romantic fantasies of being more than his glorified secretary. Her chest tightened with intense emotion. It saddened her deeply, but she couldn’t see any other option.
Taking a fortifying breath, she rose to her feet and walked into the spare bedroom she’d turned into her home office. As she seated herself at the desk, she took a tablet and pen from the drawer and began compiling her list of conditions. Demands that she was certain Luke would find to be deal-breakers and send him running away from her as fast and far as he could possibly get.
The feel of Luke’s hand at the small of her back as the hostess led them to their table sent an interesting little shiver straight up Haley’s spine and she focused all her attention on walking it to the table in her three-inch high heels without breaking her neck. Instead of dressing for style, she should have worn a more sensible—and a lot more comfortable—pair of shoes.
But her decision to wear the ridiculous shoes had been a psychological crutch of sorts. Luke was well over six feet tall and she’d wanted to feel as if she were more on his level. The only problem was, he still towered over her by at least eight inches. So much for trying to psych herself up for their dinner meeting, she thought as they reached the table. All she’d succeeded in doing was to increase the chance of a broken ankle.
When Luke held her chair for her, she noticed that the table was strategically located in a dimly lit corner of the upscale restaurant and gave them a maximum amount of privacy. Knowing Luke, he’d specifically requested it when he made the reservation so they could talk freely without anyone eavesdropping.
“Hello, my name is Martin and I’ll be your server for the evening,” a young man said as Luke took his seat across from her. “Would you like to see our wine list, Mr. Garnier?”
“That won’t be necessary, Martin,” Luke answered. He gave her a smile that curled her toes inside her ridiculous shoes as he requested an extremely expensive label and vintage of wine, then added, “We’ll both be having the house salad with house dressing. And for the main course we’ll have prime rib, baby carrots and asparagus.”
Martin nodded. “Good choice, sir. I’ll be back in a few moments with your wine.”
Haley wasn’t at all surprised that Luke had ordered their dinner without consulting her or the menu. That was the type of man he was—a take charge kind of guy, who expected everyone to go along with whatever choices he saw fit to make.
“Did you enjoy your day off?” he asked conversationally, once the young waiter had placed their wine glasses in front of them, then silently moved away. “Were you able to give a significant amount of thought to my request?”
Leave it to him to bypass her need to respond to the small talk and get right to the sole reason they were having dinner together.
“I haven’t been able to think of anything else since you left my apartment yesterday afternoon,” she said truthfully. “You really gave me a lot to think about.”
“Have you reached a decision?”
She stared at his handsome face as she mentally readied herself to recite the list of demands she’d spent the day memorizing and knew would have him rescinding his proposition in less than a heartbeat. But being prepared for what she had to say didn’t make saying it any easier.
“Yesterday, when you asked me to consider doing this for you, I don’t recall you mentioning anything that would give me an incentive to help you,” she clarified, choosing her words carefully. “What would I get out of this besides gaining a significant amount of weight and a few stretch marks?”
“After I left your place, I gave that some thought,” he agreed, nodding. “And there’s no question that I would take care of all medical expenses, as well as give you as much time off from work as you’d like. With pay, of course.”
He made it sound so simple. Had he even considered the permanent changes her body would undergo or the possible risks if the pregnancy was problematic? And what about the emotional devastation she would endure when it came time to give him custody of her child?
“That isn’t nearly enough,” she declared, flatly. “I want more.” She shook her head. “No. That’s not correct. I want a lot more.”
His eyes narrowed and she could tell that he hadn’t anticipated her rejection. “What exactly is it you want, Haley?” he finally asked.
“I’m sure it’s a lot more than you’re willing to give,” she stated, taking a sip of wine.
“Name your price and we’ll see.” There was a challenge in his voice, indicating that he was about to go into serious negotiation mode.
“I never said I wanted money,” she offered, staring at him over the rim of her glass.
He cocked one dark eyebrow. “Then what do you want?”
Haley slowly placed her wine goblet on the table and took a deep breath. She was about to reveal the hopes and dreams she’d had since childhood to the man she quite possibly loved, then listen to him reject each and every one of them.
“I don’t expect you to understand how I feel about this, but I’m a traditionalist. When I have a baby, I have every intention of being a mother to my child. I’m going to be there to get her up each morning and tuck her into bed each night. I’ll be there to see her first steps and hear her first words.” She had to pause a moment to keep the emotion out of her voice as she finished. “And every minute of every single day, my child will have the comfort and security of knowing that she’s loved and cherished by her mother.”
A frown creased his forehead. “Is that it?”
“No.”
“There’s more?” The lines on his brow deepened and the tone of his voice indicated that he thought she was being extremely unreasonable.
Nodding, she stated the final demand, certain he’d find it completely unacceptable, giving up on her as his surrogate once and for all. “When I have a child, Luke, I intend for her to have a mother and father who are equally responsible for raising her, as well as living under the same roof and sharing the same last name.”
His intense stare was intended to intimidate, but as far as she was concerned, this was one issue that was nonnegotiable. He might as well get used to that fact.
“In other words, you want to get married,” he said after several uncomfortable moments of silence.
Their waiter chose that moment to bring their salads and she waited for him to leave before she answered. “When I have a baby, yes, I have every intention of being married and making a stable, loving home for my child to grow up in.”
“Anything else?”
Shaking her head, she reached for her fork with a trembling hand. “No, I think that just about covers the subject.”
Silence reigned over the table as they ate and she knew Luke was contemplating ways to change her mind. But that wasn’t going to happen and the sooner he realized it, the better off they’d both be. Then they could forget that he’d even brought up the subject and resume being an executive assistant and her workaholic boss.
“Did you find everything to your satisfaction?” the waiter asked while he removed their plates.
“As always, the meal was excellent,” Luke answered. Turning to her, he inquired, “Would you like something for dessert, Haley?”
“No, thank you. I’m positively stuffed.” Smiling, she looked up at the server and crossed her fingers beneath the table for the lie she was about to tell. “Everything was delicious.”
In truth, she couldn’t have said whether they’d had prime rib or a piece of shoe leather. She’d been far too preoccupied wondering when Luke would tell her that he found her requirements completely unacceptable and that he was officially deleting her from his short list of surrogacy candidates.
Nodding, Luke handed the waiter a credit card. “I think that will be it for this evening. Have the valet bring my car around to the front.”
Once Luke had taken care of the check and they walked out of the restaurant, they had very little to say to each other. The drive home was little better and Haley was more than relieved when he parked the car, walked her to her door and bid her a very quick, very platonic good-night.
Confident that he’d given up on the idea of her becoming the surrogate for his child, Haley felt her mood dip into sadness. When she’d told Luke what she wanted, she’d been revealing the dreams she’d carried for the past five years. And knowing there wasn’t a snowball’s chance on a hot July day that any of them would come true now, was almost enough to send her running to the freezer for the carton of triple fudge nut ice cream she kept on hand for just such depressing occasions. Instead, she opted to change into her nightshirt, pour herself a small glass of white wine and watch the nightly news on television before turning in for the evening.
But half an hour later, as she crawled beneath the sheets on her bed and reached to turn off her bedside lamp, the phone rang. The caller ID revealed Luke’s cell number and her heart skittered to a stop.
This is it, she thought, taking a deep fortifying breath. He was calling to tell her that he found her requirements totally unacceptable and he would be searching elsewhere for his surrogate.
“Hello, Luke.”
“Have you already gone to bed?” His deep baritone sounded so darned smooth and sexy it sent tiny little shivers straight up her spine.
“Uh…yes, but I hadn’t gone to sleep.”
“Good. Get out of bed and get to the front door.”
Her scalp tingled and a wave of goose bumps shimmered over her arms. “Why?”
“Because I’ll be there in about thirty seconds and I want to get this thing settled tonight.”
“Can’t we discuss this over the phone?” she asked, throwing back the covers and scrambling out of bed. Holding the phone between her shoulder and ear, she frantically searched for her robe. Where on earth had she put the thing? She rarely wore it because she never had overnight visitors.
“No, I’d rather talk in person,” he said as the doorbell rang. “Now, open the door and let me in, Haley.”
At the sound of him ending the call, she tossed the phone on her bed and, giving up on finding her robe, pulled her raincoat out of the closet. “All right, I’m coming,” she muttered when the bell rang again. Shrugging into the coat, she hurried down the hall to the entryway. “Somebody needs to remind Mr. Luke Garnier that patience is a virtue.”
When she opened the door, Luke walked right in as he’d done the day before. “Are you going out?” he inquired, turning to eye her coat.
Pushing the door closed, she pulled the coat’s belt tight around her waist. “I couldn’t find my bathrobe and you wouldn’t stop ringing the doorbell.”
“You don’t keep your robe handy?” he asked as he walked into the living room.
“I live alone and if I want to walk around without a robe, there’s no one here to care,” she replied, wondering why she bothered to explain herself. It was her business, not his. “Now, what do we need to discuss that can’t wait until tomorrow morning, Luke? I thought I made my position quite clear at dinner.”
“You did,” he said, nodding. “And I’ve given it a fair amount of thought.”
She couldn’t tell what he was thinking from his expression, but knowing him, he was there to get her to come around to his way of thinking. “I’m not changing my mind, Luke.”
“I didn’t think you would.” Staring at her, he took a deep breath.
Here it comes, she thought, anticipating his rejection of her requirements.
“I’ve decided that the terms you laid down tonight are within reason and I’m willing to accept them,” he stated as if closing a business deal.
Her heart felt as if it lodged in her throat at the same time her knees gave way. Sinking down on the couch, she could have sworn that the walls started to move in on her.
“W-what did you say?”
“We’ll get married this weekend right after you sign a prenuptial agreement covering the protection of my assets, shared custody of my heir and a fair settlement for you if and when the marriage ends.”
“But…we…I mean, you—”
“I assume that since you haven’t indicated otherwise, you’ll be in the office tomorrow morning?” he interrupted.
Unable to find her voice for the second time in as many days, all she could manage was a short nod.
“We can discuss the details and refine our agreement then,” he continued. “Now, get some sleep. We have a big day ahead of us.”
Haley watched him walk to the door, then close it with a click that seemed to echo throughout the room. She couldn’t move, couldn’t speak and rational thought was completely out of the question.
What on earth just happened? Had her commitment-phobic boss really just informed her that they would be getting married for the sole purpose of having a baby? And this weekend, no less?
Knowing that sleep would be out of the question, she took off her raincoat and tossed it on the back of the couch. As she prowled the room like a caged tiger, she tried to arrange her tangled thoughts into some semblance of order.
The man of her dreams, the very man who clearly stated he had no time for love and marriage, was willing to become her husband. And his only purpose for making her his wife wasn’t because he loved her and wanted to raise a family with her. He was willing to marry her in order to have her bear him an heir.
She stopped in the middle of the room and barely suppressed a scream. Every one of her dreams was well on the way to becoming reality and for all the wrong reasons.
She wanted love and all the bonding that went with it. She wanted a lifetime emotional commitment, not a prenuptial agreement. But to Luke, their union would be just another business arrangement.
