The Billionaire's Surrogate: A BWWM Pregnancy Love Story (9 page)

“
Why?”
she asked leaning closer to him. Mostly because the massaging of her
shoulders was making her melt into a puddle of content and she didn’t
feel like holding herself up but also so she didn’t miss a
single expression on his face.

“
I
want to take care of you,” he said completely spoiling the
mood. Christine sighed irritably and straightened up.

“
I
don’t need you to-“ she began.

“
I
know you don’t need me. I know that,” he cut in. “That’s
why I’m asking if you wouldn’t mind too terribly if I did
it anyway.”

“
And
if I do mind?” she challenged, staring at him with unblinking
eyes.

Max shrugged. “If
its too much of a hardship for you, then there is very little I can
do about it. I can’t force you after all.”

“
That
is true,” she replied.

“
But
will you consider it?”

Christine turned her
head to look at him properly. “I guess…well I guess you
have every right to experience every moment of this pregnancy as much
as I do. But just to be clear, staying in the same house doesn’t
mean that we…you know.”

We…what?”
Max asked in what
looked
like genuine puzzlement.

“
We
don’t…you know…do it,” Christine said her
face hot.

Max stared at her in
puzzlement for almost five minutes before his face cleared. “Oh
you mean sex,” he grinned.

“
Yes,
I mean sex. Don’t think I don’t know how you French men
are.”

“
Hey!
I’m only half French. And it's my American parent who's a
slut.”

“
Well
good on her. So now that we’ve cleared all that up,”
Christine said making a circle with her hand to encompass their
conversation. “We can agree that yes, I’ll be moving in
but to my own room.”

“
Your
own suite of rooms in case your grandmother can be enticed to join
you.”

“
I
wouldn’t count on it but hey…I’m not saying no to
that suite.”

Max clapped his hands
once. “Great, I’ll get someone in to redecorate to your
exact specifications.”

Christine opened her
mouth to protest the lack of necessity for that but Max was already
shaking his head in rejection of her sentiments.

“
That’s
what we’re doing. I want you to be comfortable and feel at
home. You won’t do that surrounded by
my
things. You’re not a guest – this is to be your home.”

Christine
lifted a hand to stop his diatribe.“I get it,” she said
with a wry twist of her mouth. Max’ eyes dropped to her lips –
she was wearing dark lipstick again today and when her lips were
twisted like that it was like she was just inviting him to kiss…he
dropped his eyes to get away from temptation but they landed in the v
made by her jacket. Her shirt was also low slung so he could see the
twins peeking out. If he wasn’t mistaken, they were slightly
bigger than before. Trust Christine to reap all the advantages of
being pregnant; glowing skin, bigger breasts…without all the
swollen ankles, bad breath and awkwardness. Or maybe that was still
to come. This was his first time being so close to a pregnant lady;
he didn’t know.

“
Are
there classes we can take on what to expect?” he asked suddenly
very anxious at his complete lack of knowledge.

“
I
think so. Probably. I can make inquiries,” Christine offered.

“
Don’t
tire yourself, I’ll tell Andrea to do it.”

“
I
thought you didn’t want to tell anyone yet.”

“
Yes,
but we need someone to assist us; at least we can trust Andrea not to
go blabbing to the press.”

Christine nodded. “Hey,
you’re the boss,” she said with another twist of her
mouth that evoked an answering twist at the level of Max’
pelvis. For a moment, it was all he could do to keep breathing
steadily.

“
Yes,”
he said faintly. “I’m the boss.”

Christine called a
family meeting the following Sunday; unlike Max she was close with
her family and she needed them to know what was happening in her
life. She didn’t want to. The stain of what Rudy had done to
her had not yet faded; her cousins still tended to look
sympathetically at her when they were discussing their relationships.
She had three that she was particularly close with; Sadie, Angela and
Aisha. Their mother was her mother’s cousin and she’d
spent just as much time at their house as she had at her
grandmother’s growing up. Martha and her sister Misha were
close since they were orphaned early in life and had no-one but each
other for a long time. That closeness translated into their families
growing up extremely intertwined. This closeness was exacerbated when
they both lost their husbands to the war in Vietnam. They helped each
other raise their kids; Martha had one girl; Cordelia and Misha had
two boys; Andrew and Carl. Cordelia got pregnant in high school by a
basketball player (she said) who disowned her and her baby before
Christine was even born. Cordelia still named her after him. Andrew
was the oldest of them all and pretty fertile by all accounts. He had
three girls by three different women almost simultaneously, around
the same time as Cordelia’s pregnancy. He was doing relatively
okay in his career and didn’t want to pay child support so he
applied for and obtained sole custody for all three babies. He then
proceeded to leave them to his uncomplaining mother to raise. Still,
he and his brother Carl chipped in and were very present in the lives
of all four girls. It was an open secret that Carl was gay so nobody
was expecting offspring from him anytime soon.

Martha provided food
for the gathering but everyone chipped in with the making of it.
Andrew and Carl were manning the grill outside making sure that the
barbecue was coming along just fine. Cordelia and her man Kevin were
mixing drinks while Martha took care of the hash browns and gravy.
Christine was on corn on the cob duty while Sadie and Aisha took care
of the pie. Angela was known to burn water so she was laying the
table as she updated everyone on the neighborhood gossip.

“
You
know those new people who moved into number 22?” she asked as
she gathered a pile of plates together. “The ones with the huge
ass box of recording equipment? I heard they're independent porn
producers.”

Christine laughed, “You
thinkin of applyin Ange?”

Angela threw a towel at
her.

“
Hey!
No throwing my clean stuff around the kitchen,” Martha growled.

“
Sorry
gra,” Angela said sticking her tongue out at Christine behind
Martha’s back.

“
Who
told you that?” Sadie asked ignoring their playful fighting.

“
Crazy
Sandra. She heard it from Leroy over at the corner store.”

“
Oh
yeah, very reliable,” Christine said.

“
So
how would you explain it then?”Angie challenged, her hands
crossed.

Christine shrugged. “I
haven’t thought about it. However, if I really feel like I’ll
die if I don’t know I’ll just cross over and ask them,”
she said causing Angela to kick her in the shins. Yes, the girls were
close, and like all close siblings, they had their fights and
arguments. Fights could flare up and flare out in the blink of an
eye.

“
Ouch.
Careful now before you hurt someone,” Christine said.

“
Well
if
someone
doesn’t
wanna get hurt they better can it with the crazy talk,” Angie
shot back.

Christine put up her
hands. “Hands up, don’t shoot.”

Angie flipped her the
bird but went back to her table arranging.

Once the food was done,
they all sat down and Misha said Grace as they all linked hands.
After the ‘amens’ were said they all dug in and the table
was relatively quiet for a bit. Midway through the meal, Christine
began to feel a little queasy but hoped it would pass. The barbecue
had been made extra spicy in classic Uncle Andrew style and the
combined smell of vinegar and garlic was assaulting her nostrils
pretty bad. She tried taking shallow breaths to escape from the
nausea but abruptly stood and ran as she lost the battle to keep her
food down. She only just made it to the kitchen sink before she was
projectile vomiting everything she’d eaten since the beginning
of time. It was mortifying and Christine was glad that the only
people who were there to see it were family…and Kevin. She
didn’t care about him so she wasn’t worried what he did
or did not see. In fact, she would really have been happy if her
mother had just not come with him but she couldn’t control that
so she just shrugged inwardly and told herself that her mother would
have told him anyway even if he hadn’t been here.

“
Hey
are you okay?” Uncle Andrew was already rubbing soothingly
against her back while Aisha handed her a towel to wipe her mouth and
Angela washed out the sink. Christine took as long as she could
wiping her face and nodding that she was fine before she looked up
into her uncle’s concerned eyes and smiled.

“
I
have something to tell you guys,” she said as she leaned
against the kitchen counter. Everyone who wasn’t already
watching her looked up from their plates now.

“
Lemme
guess; you’re pregnant,” Uncle Carl said totally stealing
Christine’s thunder.

“
Uh...”
Christine replied at lost for words for a moment. Uncle Andrew leaned
forward so he could see her face properly. “You’re
pregnant?” he said sounding unflatteringly incredulous. “I
didn’t even know you were seeing anyone.”

“
Yeah
neither did I,” Angela said looking very aggrieved.

“
Hey,
you wanna sit down?” Sadie asked linking arms with her and
leading her back to her seat. Christine was grateful for the
temporary distraction. Sadie was really good at that shit; knowing
exactly what people needed when they needed it.

Aisha placed a tall
glass of water next to Christine and she drank carefully. Her mother
was staring at her with wide eyes, as if she knew something and was
just waiting for Christine to confirm it. Grandma Misha was watching
her sister who was quietly eating her corn on the cob. Christine took
a deep breath.

“
I
am
pregnant,” she confirmed leading to an eruption of
conversation, everyone trying to talk over everyone else; asking
questions, exclaiming and generally making it very difficult for
Christine to explain anything.

“
Everybody
keep quiet,” Martha snapped cutting the noise level off as if
there was a mute switch she’d pressed somewhere. She gestured
to Christine. “Continue,” she said.

Christine took a deep
breath and then breathed out, trying to calm her frantically beating
heart. “It's gra’s boss. Mr. Lestrange. He and I decided
together that we wanted to have a child. Together. Since…well,”
Christine shrugged looking down at her plate. “You all know I
ain’t been seein anyone and Max thought he might have something
that would render him unable pretty soon. So we thought, hey, why not
save everyone a lot of grief and just do this thing together?”

“
I
don’t understand,” Uncle Carl was frowning as if he’d
been presented with Einstein’s equation and asked to break it
down. “You and this Max guy decided to have a baby because he
can’t get it up?”

Christine breathed for
five minutes, eyes closed and tried again. “Max was sick,
right?” she said.

Various 'Uh huhs', were
heard around the table.

“
And
the doctors told him that one of the side effects to his disease and
its treatment might be that he can’t have children,” she
continued looking around to see if this was sinking in. Some people
were nodding, some were just staring at her.

“
So
anyway, Max has always wanted kids and so have I. Seeing as I’m
not in a relationship and the ol’ biological clock is ticking,
when he came to me and…suggested that we have a baby, I
agreed.”

There was silence
around the table.

“
You
done los’ your damn mind,” Angela was the first to break
it.

“
How
pregnant are you?” Aisha asked. Always the practical one.

Christine shrugged,
“About six weeks.”

Misha turned to Martha,
“You knew about this?”

Martha nodded her head
but said nothing. Everyone stared at her in shock.

“
And
you let her do it?” Andrew asked what they were all thinking.

“
It
wasn’t a matter of letting. They’re both adults. It was
their choice,” she said.

Uncle Carl was glaring
at Cordelia. “You awfully quiet sis,” he said with a bit
of a growl.

Cordelia looked up at
him and shrugged. “Like mama said, she a big girl. If she want
to have a baby with a billionaire I ain’t hating on that child
support,” she said making Christine shrink in her seat. She was
beginning to think this might have been a mistake. She wasn’t
here for her mother’s grasping ways. Martha looked at her
daughter with narrowed eyes.

“
You
really think your daughter would stoop to that level of thinking?”
she snarled at her.

Cordelia shrank back in
her seat, hands held open in supplication. “Hey, sorry. I was
just telling it like I see it.”

Martha stared
thoughtfully at her. “Where did I go wrong with you?” she
asked her.