Page 1 of Royal Surrogate 2

CHAPTER 1

Renae

My eyes flick to the timer on my phone. Two minutes and seven seconds left, only about ten seconds less than the last time I looked.

On the other end of the bathroom counter sits the pregnancy test I just took. I’m not going to let myself glance at it until the suggested three minutes are up. It’s easier this way.

Or so I keep telling myself.

I drum my fingers on the silver-veined marble countertop, trying to think about anything else. The motion makes the white gold band on my ring finger glint in the light, and the knot in my stomach tangles even further.

It’s been a month since Caspar and I were married. It feels like it was only yesterday…and yet somehow also a lifetime ago. My life has changed so drastically in such a small space of time, and every morning when I wake up in our big, fancy bed it takes me a few minutes to remember where I am and how complicated things have become.

I’m in a contractual marriage with Lord Caspar of Montovia, the heir to the province and title of Wintervale. And I might be having his child.

My gaze shifts to my phone again. One minute and twenty-two seconds remaining.

It hasn’t quite been two weeks since we visited the clinic, and I was inseminated. Even during that process, the reality of what I was doing never quite settled in. But now, during the last couple of minutes, it’s hit me like a ton of bricks. I could be pregnant this very moment.

Once Caspar’s heir is safe and snug inside me, I’ll have fulfilled the next part of our contract. I’ll get another payment that I can send back home to continue funding my dad’s treatments.

My dad seems to be doing well at the facility in Boston where he’s been staying—the best he’s been since the accident, honestly—and that’s enough for me to know I’ve made the right decision. It means the emotional rollercoaster of these last couple of months will have been worth it.

One minute and nine seconds.

I chew on the corner of my thumbnail, feeling guilty. I still haven’t told Dad that I got married. I wasn’t sure how to explain the situation—I definitely wasn’t going to tell him that I entered a contract agreeing to be a fake wife and surrogate in exchange for the money needed to fund his experimental treatments—and I don’t want to cause him any emotional distress while he’s in the process of healing. I don’t want to lie to him either, and telling him about the marriage but leaving out the contract part would be a sort of lie-by-omission that I couldn’t bear. I also don’t want him to think I fell madly in love, got married in a heartbeat, and then “forgot” to invite him to the wedding. He’d take that the wrong way, and I wouldn’t blame him.

When did this all get so complicated?

It’s a stupid question, of course. This situation has been complicated since the very beginning, since I accidentally ran into Caspar in that diner back in Seattle. I was never naive enough to believe this would be easy, no—but I hoped it would be easier.

Fifty-two seconds.

I wrap my arms around myself. For what it’s worth, Caspar has turned out to be so much more than I expected. He’s been more supportive than I could have hoped, and I enjoy his company more with each passing day.

Because you’ve got the hots for him, you idiot. There’s no point in denying it to myself—my body reacts to his every time he’s near. Thankfully, nothing has happened between us since our ill-advised make-out session the week before the wedding, and he’s kept his word and never touched me in the bed we share, but that has done nothing to ease my physical reaction to him. I still spend most of my nights far-too-aware of the nearness of his body, and I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in weeks.

Thirty-five seconds.

I can’t let myself get tangled up in Caspar, no matter what. It’s the only way I’ll make it out of this situation with my sanity and my heart intact. It’s also part of why I’m here, doing this right now. Caspar and I had planned to do this test together, on the day my period was due. But that’s still two days away, and I woke up this morning desperate to feel some control in all of this, longing to feel like I have some choice left, however small. So I chose to take a test a couple of days early, to steal a moment just for myself to process all of this.

Nineteen seconds.

Everything is going to be okay. I just keep telling myself that over and over again. After all, what do I have to complain about? I’m married to a lord, living in a huge, gorgeous manor house, and being paid enough for that privilege to fund my dad’s insanely expensive treatments back home. Not to mention that my dad seems to be getting better by the day, and my husband-by-contract is kind, and charming, and sexy, and…

Well, there’s more going right than going wrong in my life right now, so I have that. And after I’ve successfully delivered an heir, Caspar and I will get divorced, and I can go back to my old life. Knowing that there’s an escape plan makes this entire thing a little more bearable.

Seven seconds.

Unable to wait a moment longer, I lean over and grab the pregnancy test. I don’t even let myself think, just take a deep breath and look down at it.

Two pink lines.

I’m going to have Caspar’s baby.

CHAPTER 2

Caspar

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