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Alex followed Adrienne and her flip-flops into the house and up the grand, circular staircase that wrapped around the living room. They traveled down a long, white hallway with alternating doorways and artwork on each side.
“Here it is,” she said, opening the door and waving him inside.
Alex went in and tossed his bag down on the queen-size sleigh bed that dominated the room. The bed was covered in an intricately designed quilt and large, fluffy pillows. The light oak wood of the bed matched the tall dresser and bedside stand. There was a flat-screen television, an overstuffed chair and ottoman, and a ceiling fan turning gently to keep air circulating. Honestly, it was far nicer than the hotel room he’d been living in the last few months in New Orleans, and he’d paid quite a bit for the privilege.
“You have your own bathroom,” Adrienne said, gesturing toward a door on the far wall.
“Great. Where is everyone else staying?” Alex wanted to know exactly how far he might have to go in his underwear to get back from Gwen’s room before everyone woke up. If he was lucky, it was her door he could see across the way.
“Emma, Peter and Helena are staying down the hall. Sabine, Jack and Wade are in those rooms across from you. Will and I have the suite downstairs, and Gwen’s room is just off the kitchen.”
Damn. She was about as far from his room as logistically possible. Just great. That would make sneaking around quite a bit more difficult. Alex tried not to frown. He didn’t need Adrienne asking questions.
“Looks like I have everything I need, then.”
“Great. I’ll let you get settled, and we’ll see you downstairs.”
Adrienne slipped out of the room, leaving him alone. He heard the dull slap of her footsteps down the wooden staircase, then pulled back the curtains and watched for her to step out onto the patio. He could see Will out there, hovering over the stainless steel grill that was built into the L-shaped outdoor kitchen they’d added since his last visit. Adrienne kissed him on the cheek and assisted him in investigating the mysteries of the new cooktop.
With the coast clear, he unzipped his bag and pulled out a bottle of wine and a bundle of crimson roses he’d picked up for Gwen on his way out of town. His father had always taught him that a gift was never a bad way to start off on the right foot, especially with women. Alex would’ve gotten her some jewelry, but the last time he’d tried, she’d pretty much laughed in his face. To avoid a repeat, he’d opted for something a little more low-key. With Gwen, he’d learned he had to strike a balance between thoughtful, nice and too expensive.
Hiding them behind his back, he headed downstairs in search of Gwen’s room. He’d stayed in that bedroom a few years back at another summertime Taylor gathering, so now he easily found it near the laundry room and kitchen, tucked away in a remote corner. At one time, it had been the maid’s quarters.
The door was halfway open. From his vantage point, he could see an open suitcase lying on the bed. Alex approached the entry and poked his head around the corner. Gwen was putting clothes away in her dresser.
Her back was to him, so he took a moment to admire her. A strapless cotton sundress flowed in bright colors to her ankles and bare feet. Her curly, ash-blond hair was pulled up in a clip that left soft tendrils at her bare neck. He was suddenly filled with the undeniable urge to kiss her there.
Alex slipped silently into the room, creeping across the plush rug to come up behind her.
“Hello again, gorgeous,” he said, wrapping his arms around her to display the wine and roses and planting a warm kiss at the apex of her neck and shoulder. “These are for you.” He felt her tremble slightly at his touch, then stiffen beneath his hands.
She didn’t turn to him or take the gifts. Instead, a soft, hesitant voice politely replied, “Hello, Alex.”
A feeling of unease nagged at Alex’s brain and threatened to override the longing building in his gut. This wasn’t the welcome he’d expected from her at all. He’d anticipated a smile, a hug, maybe an enthusiastic “Hello, sugar” … or at the very least, a thank-you for the flowers. Perhaps he had miscalculated. Her less than enthusiastic greeting made him wonder if she was upset with him. Had she expected him to call even though they’d agreed not to? At the time, she’d seemed to understand what they had together, but she wouldn’t be the first woman to be disappointed or upset when the relationship ended as planned.
She finally took the roses and the wine, setting them on top of the dresser without really looking at them, her back still facing him. Note to self—Gwen wasn’t a fan of expensive jewelry, roses or red wine. What did she like?
“How have you been?” she asked. Her voice sounded more normal now, less timid. Perhaps he’d just startled her.
“Busy,” he said, his free hands now planting at her waist. She didn’t pull away, but she didn’t lean back against him, either. The flowers hadn’t done their magic, but he knew just how to thaw out a woman’s cold reception. The feel of his arousal pressed against her back would certainly soothe her pride and let her know how badly she’d been missed. “You?” he asked, letting his palms glide around to her stomach to pull her reluctant body into him.
At least, that was the idea. As his hands ran over a soft, rounded belly instead of the flat, firm one he remembered, Alex paused.
The realization washed over him like a tidal wave. The breath was knocked from his lungs and his muscles seized, allowing him to neither pull away nor spin her around to see the truth with his own two eyes.
“Busy,” she whispered, repeating his words. “And as you may have noticed, pregnant.”
The hands on Gwen’s rounded stomach had turned from a gentle caress to a grip of immovable stone in an instant. The pressing of his fingertips into her belly were almost painful in their intensity. She put her hands over his and pried them away so she could turn around and finally face him.
Gwen hadn’t been sure how she would feel seeing Alex again. The boyishly handsome face was just as she remembered it, sending her heart racing unexpectedly in her chest. Her fingers itched to run through his messy, blond hair. Her lips ached to leave a trail of kisses along the faint stubble of his jaw. In an instant, it was as if the last few months apart had never happened.
But at the same time, Gwen wondered if coming here had been a mistake.
The golden-hazel eyes that had once sparkled with mischievous passion were now wide with unexpressed emotions and burrowing into her stomach. Granted, it was hard to ignore. To say she’d blossomed in the last month was an understatement. She’d gone from a small pooch of a belly to full-blown second trimester almost overnight.
But it wasn’t the surprise on Alex’s face that concerned her. She expected that. It was the red blotches spreading across his skin and the hard, angry line of his jaw. He was always so laid-back and carefree. She’d never seen him upset, but she supposed when you had enough money, you could fix any problem. Now his personality had taken a one-eighty swing, and Gwen wasn’t even certain he’d taken a breath for the last two minutes.
“Breathe, honey, before you pass right out.”
His gaze darted to meet hers, the intensity of it making her chest tight. She wanted to squirm and move away from him, but she stood her ground. She hadn’t done anything wrong. Why should she run?
“Breathe?” he said at last. “You show up here pregnant without saying a word to me about it and tell me to breathe? Were you saving the news for my birthday or something?”
“It’s none of your business what I do. We aren’t an item. Why would I …?” Gwen started to argue, then stopped, realizing her mistake. She’d never thought for a minute that Alex would think this child was his. She was only five months along, but the furious set of his jaw indicated he wasn’t familiar enough with a female gestational cycle to make that distinction.
They’d slept together and now she was pregnant. He’d obviously jumped to the wrong conclusion.
“This isn’t your baby,” Gwen quickly clarified.
Alex opened his mouth to start arguing with her, 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 in my oven. I’m just a rental. This is Robert and Susan’s baby biologically, and as soon as the adoption paperwork is filed, it will be theirs legally as well.”
This was certainly unexpected. The pendulum of his emotions had swung wildly from one side to the other and back over the last few minutes. First, he was a father. Then he wasn’t. Now she wasn’t even a mother. He’d never anticipated that procreation could be this complicated. “Why would you agree to do something like that?”
Gwen shrugged. “Why wouldn’t I? It wasn’t like I was in a serious relationship or had other plans that would interfere. I spend a lot of my time at the hospital, and that’s where I met them. Susan was a patient on my floor for several weeks after being in a severe car wreck in the Lincoln Tunnel. She was seven months pregnant at the time. Not only did she lose the baby, but she isn’t able to carry another child. They were such a sweet couple, going through so much pain. How could I turn down the opportunity to help them?”
“You’re being compensated, right?”
Gwen frowned, her nose wrinkling delicately. “Of course not. You sound like my mother. They’re paying my medical expenses, but that’s it. I didn’t do this for the money, and frankly, they aren’t in a position to pay even if it wasn’t illegal. This isn’t some fancy workaround for a rich, thin society woman who doesn’t want to ruin her figure with pregnancy.”
Alex wasn’t quite sure what to say. She was a damn saint and probably the only woman on his roster who could come close to qualifying. He wasn’t used to being around women like that. “Are you getting anything out of this other than a warm, fuzzy feeling?”
“Some distance,” she said. “When I volunteered to do this, I decided I would use the time to take a break from relationships.”
“So, what, you’ve sworn off men?”
Gwen smiled. “Yes, for now.”
He wasn’t quite sure what to say to that. He lived in a world where people of means indulged in whatever, whenever they wanted. Alex let his gaze drop to Gwen’s hand as it rested on the soft swell of her stomach. Around her wrist was a silver charm bracelet with a heart-shaped lock charm. The one he’d bought her at Tiffany during their previous time together. “You’re wearing your bracelet,” he said.
Gwen smiled and held out her wrist to look at it. “I’ve worn it every day since you bought it for me.”
Alex shook his head. He’d practically had to force the gift on Gwen. She’d finally chosen the bracelet under the threat of not leaving the store until she picked something. She’d refused diamond earrings. The roses and wine had been a complete failure. But at least she liked the bracelet.
“It’s my chastity bracelet.”
“What?” Alex nearly choked. “Like a chastity belt?”
“Slightly less medieval, but the same basic idea. I wear it as a reminder.”
“You’re using my gift as a reminder to avoid men? The irony is rich.”
Gwen shrugged. “It was perfect timing. You insisted I buy something. I saw the lock charm in the case, and I knew it was the perfect symbol of the new journey I was starting on. A subtle reminder to stay on track, as if being pregnant wouldn’t do that for me already. I mean, who’d want me like this? It was the perfect time to quit dating.”
Alex was about to tell her that he, for one, would still want her, when Adrienne’s voice in the kitchen caught their attention. “Gwen?” she called.
“You’d better go,” Gwen said, standing quickly. She picked up the roses and wine from the dresser and thrust them back at him. “Take these with you. I don’t want to explain where they came from.”
Alex wasn’t quite ready to leave, but he wasn’t ready to explain to Adrienne why he was alone with Gwen, either. Jumping up, he stuck his head out the doorway toward the kitchen, then dashed off in the other direction. He rounded the corner into the living room unseen and opted to head back to his room to finish unpacking. Or at least, to decompress. He’d had too big a shock in the last few minutes to go out onto the patio and be the life of the party just yet.
Talk about a game changer! For the most part, Alex thought he had women figured out. Between his mother and the list of ladies who had drifted in and out over his lifetime, he had a pretty solid understanding of the female of the species.
The exception was Gwen.
Somehow she took all his expectations and tossed them out the window. She was a genuinely good person. The first moment he’d laid eyes on her, she had been running herself ragged to make Will and Adrienne’s wedding special. Later, he’d discovered she spent her working hours taking care of the sick, and from the looks of things now, she sacrificed her precious personal time for others, too. He couldn’t imagine even one of the women he’d dated over the last ten years agreeing to anything like that. The majority of them were looking for some hedonistic pleasure or a sugar daddy. Either way, it was all about them. Selfish and spoiled, every last one of them. It was no wonder he never wanted to keep them around for long.
But Gwen … having a stranger’s baby and asking for nothing in return? To subject her body to the ravages of childbearing without the benefit of having her own child when she was done? That wasn’t exactly like loaning your neighbor a cup of sugar or donating an old coat to the homeless shelter. She was taking charity to a whole new level.
Alex slipped into his bedroom and shut the door behind him to block out the rest of the world. It wasn’t until his weight sank down into the soft mattress that the rush of adrenaline coursing through his veins finally seemed to subside.
Gwen was a remarkable woman. Smart, funny, caring, but saint or no, Alex had to admit he was still relieved to find that wasn’t his child. There were worse women in Manhattan to be bound to through the bonds of shared custody, but that had been close. Too close.
Since he’d started his heated pursuit of women, Alex had been nearly religious about using protection. It was the only way to shield himself. Not only from disease but from the women out there who would like nothing better than to have his child and a permanent connection to his bank accounts. The Stanton Steel company had made a fortune during the race to build railroads across the United States. The generations since then had done well investing it. And Alex was the sole heir to it all.
By necessity, his record with women was flawless. To the dismay of women everywhere, no one had conceived Alex Stanton’s child. And for that, he was eternally grateful. He wasn’t interested in the emotional, physical and financial entanglements. If his parents had taught him nothing else, they had shown him that marriage for the sake of a child made everyone miserable in the end. He had no intention of becoming a workaholic who bought his son’s affections, like his father, or an emotionally abusive recluse like his mother, who blamed her son for her own wretched existence.
If he died single and childless, Alex would consider that a victory. He’d rather donate his fortune to charity just to hear the collective sound of the hearts of every ambitious socialite in Manhattan breaking.
And yet … for half a heartbeat when he’d thought Gwen was having his baby … there’d been this feeling he hadn’t anticipated. Sure, he was angry with her for keeping it from him and sort of freaked out in general, but he’d also had a touch of excitement. He’d told himself after their weeks together that his thoughts of Gwen would fade. Continuing in any kind of real relationship with her would just lead to expectations he couldn’t fulfill.
But in that moment, fate had very nearly made the decision for him. If that child was his, then perhaps Gwen could be, too. Not just a holiday fling, but something beyond that. Maybe they wouldn’t have the kind of family pictured on Christmas cards, but there could be more than what they’d had. And he’d wanted it. The thought had flashed through his mind almost as quickly as his heart had raced in his chest.
And then it was gone.
Alex would never tell another living soul about his moment of weakness. Nor would he admit that, when she’d said the baby wasn’t his, he’d felt a pang of regret and jealousy mingled in with the rush of relief.
