are.”
“Are you happy about that? That your baby is going to be half human?”
“I am grateful that my offspring will have your genes and have you as a mother.”
Oh gods, I didn’t expect him to say that. I feel myself softening, but first I pull out another talking point I’ve been steaming over for the last month. “You didn’t ask me if I wanted to have your baby and if I wanted to be a mom. You didn’t ask me to be your bound. You just went ahead, taking, without getting my permission.”
“I assumed…”
“Never assume. It makes an ass out of you and me.”
His eyes narrow.
I shrug. “It’s a human saying. But very true. Why did you do all of that? Why did you make sure you won the auction? You could’ve just let another couple win.”
“I was on an undercover mission and when I returned, you were already starting the auction. There was no time to talk you out of it or make alternate plans. I had no choice but to act quick.”
I grimace. “Oh. Oops.” That was true.
“I wanted you swollen with my seed, giving birth to our offspring. It was my plan all along to make you the mother of Touchstones. We were just upping the timeline.”
I shift in my seat. Damn, he’s so sexy when he talks like that. “I had no idea you felt that way about me.”
“How could you not have known? We used to talk all the time.”
My brow furrows. “We talked about our hobbies. I thought we were friends. You never acted like we were anything more.”
“Chloe, I don’t have friends.”
“Hannibal is your friend, as well as the members of your team.”
He shrugs. “They’re coworkers.”
“I didn’t know you wanted to be more than friends and I wanted on Tarvos, so I took the job as a surrogate because to me it was the only way. It didn’t seem so bad. I felt that I was gifting other beings with parenthood, and in return I’d have the currency I needed to help my sister.”
“Help your sister?”
I snuggle into his arms and explain everything to him about Lucy’s wedding and the dowry and how his surrogacy payments to me meant I could keep up my financial obligations to Lucy’s new family.
“You should’ve told me. I could have helped you with this.”
“No…I didn’t want to be a bother or a burden to either you or Riley. I can take care of myself. If it makes you feel better, I didn’t tell Riley either.” And then I scoot closer and wrap my arms around his waist. Gods, I love his scent. “Is it okay for us to touch now?”
“Yes,” he says. “The laws are set to change in one month.”
“Oh good.”
We’re both quiet for a few minutes as I continue to process the whole idea that I won’t have to leave in a year and instead of giving this baby up after its birth, I get to stay and care for it. I’m still on the verge of tears because it’s all I’ve wanted these last seven months and I can’t believe it’s actually happening. I get the house, the man, his family and the baby? All of it? How did I get so lucky?
And then he quietly asks, “Are you upset to find that you’re carrying our baby?”
I grab his claw. “Oh Berg. No, of course not. This was always my secret wish,” I admit. “The wish I was too ashamed to admit to anyone. I kept it hidden from Riley and from the surrogate support group. I wanted you and I wanted this baby to be mine. But I knew neither of those things were going to happen, so I was doing my best to power through and keep my head on straight about this. And then I find out that all along, this baby was mine. That this baby is biologically mine. It’s just been really hard for me.”
“I understand,” he’s holding my hand and he meets my gaze. “I am sorry for the anguish I caused you. I was able to there, in your bed at night with my claw on your stomach, feeling his movements, knowing he was my son forever. But I denied you this. I had significant, life or death reasons for keeping that information from you, but in the end, I can see now that I should’ve told you much earlier. I’m sorry you were robbed of that same bonding time with your growing child that I was