Page 3 of Royal Surrogate 2

Her eyes search mine, almost as though she’s begging me again. But I swore to her I wouldn’t do anything unless she asked. I swore it. And I’m a man of my word.

It feels like hours. Days. Eons. My body aches for release, but I promised her.

I’ll remind myself until the end of time that I will honor my word, no matter how painful it is. No matter how beautiful her eyes are. No matter how much she seems to be begging me to make the first move.

She lets out a shallow breath, still staring up into my eyes. And perhaps it is truly only a second before she pulls my head to hers and our lips meet again.

CHAPTER 3

Renae

It feels so natural, so right kissing Caspar.

Our marriage might be just for show, but nothing about this kiss feels fake. It warms me from the inside out, making my heart swell and my skin tingle. His arms tighten around me, holding me against his chest, and though I want to sink into him, to continue exploring these feelings and sensations, I can’t forget what made me leap into his arms in the first place.

I pull back. “This is so…weird, isn’t it?”

Caspar frowns. “The kissing?”

“No. The baby.” It feels strange to even say it—there’s a baby inside me now. Our child is no longer simply a thought, a hypothetical. He or she is real, this very moment.

I disentangle myself from Caspar, my hands dropping to my belly. “I don’t feel any different. Shouldn’t I feel different?”

“I have no idea.” Caspar still looks a little dazed. “What do the books say?”

He bought me a whole stack of pregnancy books, but I’ve been too overwhelmed to do anything but glance at them. I hurry over to the nightstand and scoop up the top one, flipping it open. My fingers fumble frantically through the pages, but the words blur together in front of my eyes.

Suddenly Caspar’s hand is on mine, stilling my fingers. “Are you all right?”

“Of course I’m all right,” I tell him. “I’m pregnant! This is what we wanted.” I grin up at him, but there’s concern in his sapphire eyes.

“You seem a little…” He pauses, searching for the right word. “Frazzled.”

“I’m not frazzled,” I insist. “I’m just trying to figure out if everything is okay. Shouldn’t I be, like…throwing up or something? Isn’t that usually a woman’s first sign that she’s pregnant? I don’t feel sick at all. I feel perfectly normal. What if that means something is wrong?” The thrill I felt when I saw those two pink lines has been displaced by something else, and I pull my hand from Caspar’s grip, flipping through the book again.

“You’re fine,” Caspar says. “And I’m sure our baby is, too.”

“You can’t know that.” How did I go from reassuring him that I’m all right to arguing the opposite? For that matter, why are my hands trembling as I try to flip the page?

Suddenly my chest constricts, and I have trouble breathing. The book falls out of my hands, and I don’t even attempt to catch it.

“Renae,” Caspar says, taking me gently by the shoulders and turning me to face him. “Look at me.”

I have no control over my body now. Every part of me has gone cold, and the trembling in my hands has spread up my arms. My knees are shaking, too, threatening to collapse beneath me.

“Look at me, little owl.” Caspar squeezes my arms.

I finally find the ability to raise my gaze to his, and the steadiness in his blue eyes is comforting.

“Breathe,” he says gently. “Take a couple deep breaths for me.”

I do as he asks, forcing my lungs to take one deep breath, then another. Slowly, my head clears and the tightness in my chest subsides. My hands are still trembling somewhat, but at least my knees don’t feel like they’re going to collapse any more.

“I might be a little freaked out,” I admit. “This is just so, so…quick. I mean, I knew it was always going to be fast, but this is fast fast.” I’m not sure I’m even making sense, but Caspar nods.

“I know,” he says. “But we’re in this together, you and me. Don’t forget that.” He smiles. “And I’m sure everything is fine with the baby. But if you like, I’ll have the physician out here today.”

“I…I think I’ll be fine.” I take another deep breath. “It’s just a lot to take in, you know?” I peer up at him. “Why aren’t you freaking out? Aren’t you the guy who usually flies off the rails?”

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