Royal Surrogate 2, page 1
ROYAL SURROGATE 2
RENNA PEAK
EMBER CASEY
CASEY PEAK PUBLISHING
Copyright © 2024 by Renna Peak and Ember Casey
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
CONTENTS
Royal Heartbreakers Reader Team
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
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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
I rub the heel of my palm on my eyebrow. Nothing seems to relieve the knot that has taken residence there since the day Renae and I took our vows. It doesn’t help that I haven’t slept much in the past month—between the constant guilt gnawing at my gut and the ache at knowing I’ll never hold her in my arms…
What was I thinking?
I wanted a son. A piece of me to pass on to future generations, to take my place in the long line of Lords of Wintervale. And for some reason that still bewilders me, I agreed to the changes my father made in the contract that I arranged. I agreed to marry Renae and keep her as my wife for the next twenty years.
If only she had any idea.
Sadly, she’s still under the misguided notion that she only needs to bear me a child, after which she can move on with her life. If she’d read the contract she so hastily signed, she’d understand that we’re both tied together for all eternity. Or at least the next twenty years, which is going to seem an eternity if she continues to insist on sleeping next to me every night.
I set my pen down on the desk and rub at my brow again. Perhaps I’ll tell her today. I should have told her before we went to the fertility clinic a few weeks ago, but it hadn’t seemed like the right time.
Every day since has been agonizing. But I had been certain if I had told her the truth of the changes in the contract, she would have declined to sign at all—she would have left me for good. And she’s perfect. Not only to be the mother of my child—the child I felt so sure I needed to have, but perfect in every other way.
I’m not certain what will happen now when she finds out, so I must tell her today. I should have told her before the first fertility treatment. My stomach knots with guilt at the thought of allowing myself to go forward with it having not told her already.
Today. Today will be best, I think.
The physicians said it will likely take several months of treatment to be successful. Almost no one becomes pregnant the first month, they said.
I nod to myself. Yes, today will be a good day to tell her. Before she takes the pregnancy test, at any rate. That will at least give her the option to back out of this charade, though I think it might break me if she should decide to leave. I don’t know if she has any reason to stay other than for the money I have to offer her.
And I have so much more I want to offer her than money. I’m willing to offer her everything I have, if only she’d allow me. I would at least like the
There’s a loud shriek in the bathroom, and I knock over my chair when I stand as I rush to the door.
The door flies open, and Renae almost falls out.
She squeals, thrusting something into my hand. “Two lines!”
My breath catches in my chest as I look at the object in my palm. Two lines. I’m no expert in female things, but even I know what this means.
“I’m pregnant.” Her grin widens. “I’m pregnant!”
She throws her arms around my shoulders as she wraps herself around my body. “Can you believe it?”
I hold her against me, my heart pounding in my chest. I can’t believe it—not really. I glance over her shoulder at the test in my hand again—can this little stick with the two pink lines really mean that my child is growing inside her? It seems unimaginable.
My son. My son. My child is inside the woman I’m holding in my arms.
There’s something about this knowledge I can’t quite explain, but every other thought leaves my brain. A tingling sense of joy fills me from my toes to the top of my head, releasing the knot in my forehead and filling every bit of me with so much happiness and gratitude, I can’t think of anything else.
What was that knot about, anyway?
It doesn’t matter now. All that matters is this. My child. My wife. My child inside my wife. And I can’t hold back any longer. I know I promised not to touch her, but she is the one who jumped into my arms, after all.
My hand slides up her back, and she doesn’t hesitate. In fact, she’s the one who tilts her head back to look into my eyes.
I don’t know what it is about this woman that makes me lose all sense of sanity. And part of me knows it’s wrong—that there’s something I need to tell her first—but I can’t think of what it is. I can’t think of anything but her.
I tip my head toward hers. Slowly. If she pulls away, I won’t force her. If she climbs out of my arms, I’ll ache for days, but I won’t chase her.
But she only stares up at me, her lips parting ever so slightly, begging me to move closer.
And I do. It feels painfully slow, but I don’t want to scare her. I want her to want me.
I need her. I don’t know that I’ve ever needed anything more in my life.
Her fingers thread through my hair, and I suck in a breath.
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?”
Caspar shrugs. “I’ve always had marvelous self-control.” His grin goes a little crooked. “Or maybe it just hasn’t sunk in yet.”
“Yeah, it’ll probably hit you when you least expect it.” My hands drop to my belly again, my fingers splaying against my body even though there’s nothing to feel yet. If you can hear me in there, I promise I’m not this crazy all the time.
“Maybe.” He gives another shrug, as if he’s perfectly confident in his ability to handle this life-changing news.
“Should we…tell your parents?” I ask, wondering what the next step will be. I haven’t really let myself think this far ahead in our arrangement.
Caspar hesitates, then shakes his head. “In good time. There’s no reason we must tell them immediately. We can enjoy this for ourselves for a little while.”
