Authors: Mia Caldwell
“We’ll go to a doctor, I promise.” He pulled me closer to him and I parted my legs, anticipating him entering me again.
However, I didn’t think a trip to the doctor would be necessary. As Andrew bent down to kiss my breasts again, they still felt tender and sensitive, like changes in them were already occurring.
This might be it, I might be pregnant
, I crowed to myself.
But I didn’t want to say anything to Andrew until I took a pregnancy test and knew for sure. In the meantime, I was happy to have him cover my body with his and slide his cock inside me. I arched my hips up to meet his dick, wanting as much of him in me as deep as possible.
Andrew apparently wanted the same thing because he thrust into me with as much enthusiasm as I pushed up to meet him. The incredible friction created by our simultaneous movements only increased the sticky wetness already present between my legs. It didn’t take long before we rocked together in a frantic harmony that made it seem like we’d been apart for nine months instead of nine days.
I could hardly catch my breath as I clawed my fingers into his muscular back. His balls bumped up against my pussy as he pounded into me deeper than he ever had before. Perhaps my tight hole had finally gotten used to his massive cock, or maybe I’d just begun to relax more, secure in the knowledge I might actually be pregnant this time.
Andrew’s thrusts came faster and harder as I buried my face in his shoulder. He nailed my bud once, twice, before I experienced my release. Sparks blazed through me as my heart pounded out of my chest. I hung on to Andrew as he came again, tightening my legs around his waist as his seed poured into me.
Even after the pulsations from his cock subsided, Andrew remained inside of me. He stroked the side of my face with his fingers and said, “I missed you so much. I’m really glad to be back home and here with you.”
I leaned into his touch. “I’m glad you’re back too. I like it better when you’re here.”
“More business trips are going to come up,” he warned. “I’ll try to limit them, or when I can’t, keep them as brief as possible. If they turn out to be as long as this one was, I’ll arrange to have you accompany me.”
I nodded and snuggled closer to him, relishing the warmth of his hard body. Perhaps by the next time he had to go away on business, I’d already be pregnant with our child. The baby wouldn’t be any substitute for Andrew, but maybe it would keep me from missing him so much while he was away.
Three days passed before I drove my new Prius into town to buy a pregnancy test. Andrew hadn’t returned to work before then, and I didn’t want to arouse any suspicions and get his hopes up before I knew anything for sure. Besides, we were too busy still celebrating his return home for me to even think about leaving him to go shopping.
Yet, anticipation began to build in me as I got closer and closer to the store. I was pretty sure I was pregnant but still wanted the confirmation. My breasts were not only tender, but they were growing fuller too. Even Andrew had remarked on it this morning in bed, squeezing them and saying, “I can tell Henri’s cooking agrees with you. There’s more of you to love in one of my favorite parts of your body.”
I playfully slapped his hand away. “You don’t get to fondle my chest and call me fat at the same time.”
“I didn’t say you were fat.” Andrew resumed his caresses. “You’re just becoming more than a handful. Of course, I’ve known you were more than a handful for a while now.”
“Okay, that’s it. If you’re going to label me a high maintenance fatty, then you can go to work without getting any.” I pretended to climb out of the bed, like I’d really let him go to work unfulfilled. However, he pulled me back before my foot even touched the ground.
“You know you’re my perfect angel,” he mumbled as he covered me with kisses. “Just give me the chance to show you how much you’ve come to mean to me.”
I pulled into the drugstore parking lot, a smile crossing my lips as I remembered how the rest of the morning went. Afterwards, he’d lingered in bed so long I thought he’d be late for work. “If I didn’t have to meet with senior execs, I’d spend the rest of the morning holding you,” he’d said.
While I would have enjoyed nothing better, I was glad he went to the office so I could have a little time on my own. Although I’d come to rely on Andrew more and more, my independence still meant a great deal to me. I’d started to fear my growing reliance on Andrew would compromise it. That’s why I bought the Prius with my own money even though he’d offered my choice of rides from his fleet of cars.
“No, thanks, I don’t think I’d be comfortable in a Benz or a Beemer,” I’d told him. “My last car was a Honda Accord, that’s more my style.”
“At least let me buy you the car, that’s the least I can do.”
“You’ve paid me more than enough so far that I can buy my own car.”
Andrew raised a skeptical eyebrow, as if he saw the small measure of distance I tried to put between us, but didn’t argue any further. “Get something safe,” he’d added in a huffy tone.
I entered the drugstore and got two more pregnancy test three-packs. I threw some other items into the basket so the pregnancy tests wouldn’t stand out like a sore thumb. However, the cashier at the checkout gave me a knowing look anyway.
“Good luck!” she said as she handed me my bag.
I gave her a brief smile and hurried back to my care, eager to get home and take one of the tests. But just as I unlocked the driver’s side door, I heard a man’s voice yell, “Ryanna!”
I looked up and a blinding bright flash appeared before my eyes. I had to blink several times to get my vision to return to normal, and even then, I still saw purple spots dancing about.
“What the hell?” I muttered, not even noticing the man approaching me until he was about a couple of feet away.
“Are you Ryanna Owens?” he asked in a raspy voice.
“Yes, who wants to know.” Still unable to do hardly more than squint, I looked at the man, who I’d never seen before in my life. Wearing an ill-fitting dark suit, wide striped tie, and horn-rimmed glasses, he held a huge camera, the kind paparazzi used to take pictures of movie stars. He pointed it at me, and I held my hand up to my eyes to protect them.
But instead of taking my picture again, the man pulled a tape recorder out of his pocket. “Ryanna Owens?” he repeated.
“Yes, who are ─”
“Is it true you’re Andrew Rutledge’s surrogate? That he’s paying you three million dollars to have his baby?”
“What? No! Who told you that?” I tried to escape into the car, but I fumbled with the keys and dropped them to the ground. Meanwhile, the man kept questioning me.
“Is it true you’ll be paid the three million dollars in installments and you’ve received a one million dollar payment already? How did you meet Andrew Rutledge? Why would you agree to this? Aren’t you scared of being labeled a gold-digging whore? C’mon Ryanna, answer the questions!”
Through a concentrated effort, I managed to avoid looking at him or his camera again while I found my keys. Though my fingers shook like crazy, I managed to get in the car, and start the ignition. The man continued to shout at me, even as I drove away. I couldn’t hear what he said, but
gold-digging whore
continued to reverberate in my mind.
Without totally realizing it until I was almost there, I drove to the Rutledge Electronics headquarters. I pulled into the visitor’s lot, the same place where I’d parked when I came to meet Andrew the first time. After maneuvering into a space, I pulled out my phone and called Andrew on his direct line.
I’d never called him at work before. His voice expressed as much surprise to be hearing from me as I was to be getting in touch with him. “Ryanna, sweetheart! Is something wrong?”
“I need to talk to you right away,” I said, hearing the panic in my voice.
“Um. . .okay.” I heard him say something indistinguishable before the unmistakable sound of a door being closed followed. “Okay, I have some privacy now. What is it?”
“I think something really bad has happened. Can you come outside? I’m in the visitor’s parking lot.”
“If you’re that close, it would be better if you went ahead and came in here to see me. I have a meeting with my CFO in fifteen minutes.”
“Fine.” I got out of the car and made the long trek to the main building. Andrew must have told his personal assistant, Colleen, to expect me because she was there waiting at the security guard’s desk.
Unlike last time when I had to take the time to receive a visitor’s badge, Colleen escorted me straight to Andrew’s office. Within minutes, I stood before him. Although he had an impatient expression on his face when I first walked in, it quickly faded and worried concern took its place.
“What’s happened?” he asked in an urgent tone.
“Just now, I was coming out of the drugstore when a man took my picture and started asking me questions. Andrew, he knew my full name and that you’re paying me three million dollars to have your baby. He even knew I’d already received one million.”
Andrew’s eyes widened and he staggered backwards away from me, like I’d delivered a physical blow to him. “Ryanna, no! Did he tell you his name or say what paper or tabloid he was with?”
I shook my head. “As soon as he asked those questions, and called me a gold-digging whore, I got away from him as fast as I could. I came here straight to you. I knew you’d want to know this as soon as possible.”
“You did the right thing, Ryanna.” He turned away from me and stared out of the floor-to-ceiling window that overlooked his company’s expansive campus. “Damn it, why did this have to happen now?”
I wanted to go to Andrew and comfort him, but he seemed lost in his own world. “I only needed another couple of months, and then the acquisition of Bullen Microsystems would be complete. It wouldn’t matter if the board knew about Ryanna and the baby because by then I’d have new board members who could outvote the ones who’ve been giving me the most trouble. A couple more months, all I needed was a couple more months!”
“Andrew,” I said in a soft voice, but he continued to rant, oblivious to my presence.
“This acquisition has been months in the making, and it’s all about to fall apart because of someone’s big mouth. Bohane and Stolliccio are going to live it when this makes the headlines. They’ll get other board members to vote me out as CEO, citing my lack of judgment. That will give them the perfect excuse to scuttle the Bullen acquisition, which they never wanted anyway despite its potential to make Rutledge Electronics the number one tech company in the world!”
By now, he was practically shouting and I’d begun to feel afraid. This was a side to Andrew I hadn’t seen before and I didn’t like it one bit.
I watched him continue to rant and rave when a brief knock sounded on the door. Colleen entered and said, “Andrew, your meeting with ─”
She stopped short when she saw he wasn’t paying attention to anything except his own meltdown. “He’s been like this for the last ten minutes,” I told her.
Colleen nodded like she’d seen it all before. “It’s his process. He thinks out loud sometimes, especially in stressful situations.”
Thinking out loud?
That’s what she wanted to call this outburst? “What are we supposed to do? Let him continue on like this?”
“Pretty much.” She shrugged and added, “I’ll tell the CFO his meeting with Mr. Rutledge will have to be delayed because of a sudden emergency overseas call. If you’re still here when Mr. Rutledge calms down, would you please have him buzz me.”
Colleen turned and left, closing the door behind her, as if it was normal to leave a grown man, not to mention a billionaire CEO, acting this way. I walked over to where Andrew stood, getting close enough so he had no choice but to acknowledge me. “Andrew, stop it. You’re scaring me.”
His jaw tightened as I saw the effort he exerted in trying to regain control of himself. “I’m sorry, Ryanna, but I’m upset that details of our arrangement have apparently leaked. It isn’t news I care to have revealed at this particular time.”
“And you think I do? I’m just as upset as you are, but you don’t see me going pieces over it.”
“I highly doubt you’re as upset as I am.” Andrew’s eyes turned cold. “You aren’t the CEO of a billion dollar company with billions more at stake. You have no idea what hangs in the balance, so, no, Ryanna, I don’t think you can even begin to comprehend how upset I am.”
The condescension in his voice put me on edge. I straightened my shoulders and said, “That man called me a gold-digging whore, something I’ve never, even been called before. While I may not be the head of a billion dollar company and make billion dollar deals, I do have my reputation and my dignity, which, frankly, are worth a lot more. So, yes, Andrew, I can comprehend how upset you are. Mere money is at stake for you, while my character and good name are at risk for me.”
I was on the verge of tears and thought he would take me in his arms and comfort me. However, Andrew seemed more remote than ever, not appearing the least bit moved by what I said. He looked at me as if staring through glass.
“No one knows or cares who you are, Ryanna. Your reputation, character, blah, blah, blah, will be fine.”
“Blah, blah, blah?” I repeated in a tone of utter disbelief, but he continued.
“Just go home,” he said in a dismissive voice, like I was one of his office flunkies. “We’ll talk some more when I get there later tonight. I don’t have time for this now.”
I folded my arms and glared at him. “Oh, I don’t intend to waste another minute of your precious time. And there’s no need for us to talk later at home because I won’t be there. I’m not pregnant yet, so there’s no reason for you to worry about what your board will think of our arrangement. I’ll give you back the money you’ve already paid me and we can just call off the whole thing.”
I turned on my heel and walked out of his office, ignoring his calls for me to come back. But for me, there was no going back. The whole have-my-baby deal had been a dumb idea in the first place and I’d been a fool to accept his money and go along with it.
Somehow, I managed to keep it together while leaving the Rutledge Electronics building. I even managed not to break down in the car and drove home in one piece. Only when I got back to the mansion and went up to my suite of rooms to pack my things did I allow the tears to fall. The realization that I’d just broken up with Andrew and would no longer be living here finally hit me.
My phone rang about every five minutes, with the number from Andrew’s private line showing up on the screen each time. I ignored it, still too angry to speak to him. I couldn’t get over how little he thought of my feelings or how dismissive he’d been of my concerns. Besides, if he really wanted to talk to me, he could have easily caught up with me before I left the building. Instead, he stayed with his real true love, Rutledge Electronics, which was fine with me. They deserved each other.
It didn’t take me long to pack my clothes and other items I’d brought to the mansion with me. My phone continued to ring as I put my suitcases in the trunk of the car. But when I got into the driver’s seat and prepared to leave, I noticed the bag from the drugstore. The pregnancy test! I’d forgotten all about it after all the drama with Andrew.
I knew I wouldn’t be able to wait until I drove back into the city and crashed at Natalie’s place to take the test. I needed to know the results
now
. I let myself back into the mansion, grateful I hadn’t attracted any of the servants’ attention with my comings and goings. Instead of going back upstairs to one of the bedrooms, I used the guest bathroom right near the front entrance.
I’d taken the test so many times already, I didn’t need to read the instructions. I peed on the stick and waited the three minutes for the plus or minus sign to appear. But this time, instead of hoping to see the plus sign, I desperately wished for the minus one.