Dazzle: The Billionaire's Secret Surrogate (Contemporary BWWM Romance) (3 page)

Morning came far too soon as far as Kady was concerned. She took the overnight bag that she’d brought with her to the motel back to her storage unit via the bus, and then took the train out to the White Plains area, where Archer Devonshire’s house was located.

She got out of the train and walked for about a mile before she reached the main road of the house she was looking for. It took her another fifteen minutes of walking to get halfway close to the street number listed, and she was already becoming exhausted by the effort. The houses along this road were more ornate, with huge yards and fancy drives leading up into them. Some of them took up entire city blocks just to themselves.

“I didn’t even know there was a place like this in the Bronx,” she complained tiredly.

A black town car stopped beside her on the road and the tinted window slowly rolled down, revealing a kind-looking man in his late sixties, wearing a navy blue suit and matching navy hat pressed to crisp perfection. The chauffeur leaned out the window and asked, “Do you require a ride somewhere, miss?”

“Oh yes, thanks,” she said with a smile, relieved she wouldn’t have to keep walking through the warren of mansion-like houses on her towering high-heeled shoes. “Wait, you don’t have anybody back there, do you?”

Kady tried to peek into the back seat, but couldn’t penetrate the dark, almost black, tinted glass of the window.

“No, miss, not right now,” he smiled, and the way the corners of his eyes crinkled reminded her of her old neighbor Ben, whom she probably wouldn’t see again. “However, you may prefer to sit in front.”

“Oh, sure,” she agreed. “I wouldn’t want to look too fancy for the place I’m heading anyway.”

“Get in, then,” he said. “I’m Daryl, by the way.”

“Hi, Daryl,” Kady replied. Once she was inside the car, she showed the address to him, and he raised one brow delicately.

              “You are acquainted with Mr. Archer, then?” he asked, glancing at her figure and nodding.

              “Uh, no, we’ve never met,” she explained. “I’m hoping he will hire me for—well, for a job he recently placed an ad for.”

              “Pray tell, what sort of job does a playboy billionaire advertise for?” he asked, finding it difficult to hide his curiosity now.

              “Oh, so this guy’s a playboy?” asked Kady nervously,
and a billionaire
, she said to herself. It was no big surprise though, when she thought of the high-handedness of the wording in the ad, and the fact that he didn’t seem to play by society’s normal rules. “I didn’t know that. You don’t think he’d—um—put up a false ad, just to trick a woman into coming out here, do you?”

              “I doubt it,” he replied. “He can get women anytime he wants.  He wouldn’t need to trick them.”

              “But why would a playboy be interested in starting a family anyway?” Kady muttered under her breath.

              “What’s that?” he asked.

              “Oh, nothing,” she said. “I’m just wondering whether or not I should turn around right now and forget the whole thing.”

              “I’ll tell you what:  is this just an interview?” Daryl asked.

              “Uh, yeah, I think so,” she replied.

              “Then I’ll wait around for a while and see if you come back out,” he offered. “I’ve got to eat my lunch somewhere anyway, right?”

              “Yeah, sure,” she agreed, touched by his kind offer, suddenly feeling a little less alone in the world. “Thanks.”

              “It’s not a problem,” he said, grinning. Daryl’s expression turned serious, the merry twinkle in his eye fading to be replaced by concern and a warning “And also, you should be careful in there, miss. Archer’s really good at manipulating women, and you don’t seem like you’re the party-girl type. I’d take anything he has to say as questionable until you have a chance to check up on it.”

              “So you don’t think he’s overly honest either?”

              “The guy made his money selling penny stocks,” he said pointedly. “You must have heard how jaded that lot can be. In fact, I even heard that one of his employees was skimming off of investments not too long ago. Archer got hauled into court over it, in fact, but I guess his mother must have fixed things since he didn’t get any jail time over it.”

              “Well, did Archer know his broker was skimming?”

              “No, that’s just the thing,” he said. “He normally would have fired anyone he even thought might be doing it on the spot, but this guy was really good. They threw him into jail for five years, but they didn’t do much more than slap Archer on the wrist and tell him to hire better lackeys in the future. But that’s the way big business works, I guess.”

              “I see,” said Kady slowly, all her nerves rushing back in a big ball that settled squarely in the pit of her stomach.

              “Well, here we are, miss,” said Daryl with another small smile, this time conspiratorial. “Head on in there and get that job. Hold your head up high, smile, and act like it’s already yours.”

              “Yeah, sure. Thanks. I will,” she responded weakly, even though she was seriously thinking she didn’t even want to walk in the door.

              Kady’s knees began to buckle as she stepped up and found a sign on the front door, written in perfect cursive script, saying that the surrogate mother candidates should go around back and walk in the open door. She felt weird creeping around in the back yard of what amounted to a mansion, and besides that, who knew how many back doors she was likely to find in the back of such a huge place?

If she thought her legs were trembling before, she was seriously mistaken. She barely made it past the gate before she felt a full-blown panic attack coming on.
Breathe, just breathe,
she whispered it to herself like a mantra as she crept past hedges of impeccably manicured hydrangea and brightly colored zinnias that seemed to mock her, their cheery petals fluttering in the soft breeze like they were shaking with laughter. At her.

              Really? She hadn’t panicked like that in years. She completely owned her body. She
was
in control. She was like magic out on the stage. So now here, in the middle of some stranger’s back yard and inches from finding the solution to all of her mounting problems, she was going to panic?

              “Get ahold of yourself!” she hissed, making sure her subconscious brain heeded her command. “That’s enough out of you. I need food on the table and a roof over my head, and that’s all there is to it. I deserve a lot better than this, but this is all there is. Now get in there.”

              Finally, steeling herself against whatever unknown situation would greet her inside, she stepped up to the door and raised her hand to knock.

When Kady went to knock on the door, a butler swiftly opened it before she had the chance, as if he was waiting for her. He looked her over with an assessing, slightly condescending, air before he inquired, “Are you here for the surrogate mother position, miss?”

“Um, yes,” she answered, unable to continue looking the man in the eye.

“Oh, that’ll never do, miss,” he replied, his eyes softening with a hint of kindness at her obvious discomfort. “If you can’t even look me in the eye, you’re not going to last five minutes with Mr. Archer. He’ll eat you alive, make no mistake.”

“I really need to do this, though,” she pleaded, not sure who she was trying to convince more, the butler or herself.

“I won’t ask you why, but I will say this. Mr. Archer will definitely find you attractive, and that’s half the battle right there. If you still have the courage, go ahead and join him and the other women in the salon. It’s through that door right there. And good luck, my dear. I think you’re the nicest one who has come through that door today as well as the prettiest. If he does pick you, it will be my pleasure to serve you during your stay.”

“Stay?” she repeated. “Then he means for the mother to stay here? Not in an apartment or something?”

“Yes, of course,” he commented. “He’ll want to make certain you are properly cared for, after all.”

Kady nodded, for a brief moment, letting herself indulge in the fantasy of living in this gorgeous mansion rather than the park bench that she had been envisioning for days. She stared at the door, taking a deep, calming breath, the panic that had erupted in her chest just outside still fluttered like a hundred butterflies trapped beneath her ribcage, instead of the million that she had experienced earlier.

“Are you going to go in there, my dear?” the butler asked then. “I know that this is a huge decision for you to make, and I have to wonder why a girl like you would even be here. Surely you could easily find a better way to make money. But like I said, I’m not going to pry.”

“Th-thanks for asking, really,” she said shyly. “It’s just that I’ve got no place to go, and I just can’t seem to make enough money to get a decent place to live. I was saving my money, but my rotten roommate stole all of it and spent it on drugs, and I’m just—I’m just so tired of nothing I deserve coming my way. Maybe this—well, maybe I could get on my feet this way, right? I mean, I’m certainly not in a position to lose much right now, since all I even have is one small storage rental unit to my name. Everything I’ve ever owned is in there, though, so I really don’t want to let it go.”

“I hear you,” he agreed with a nod. “So, if you’re sure, there’s the door.”

Kady stared for only a few more moments before she resolutely walked up and grabbed the knob, giving it a twist. She could hear voices on the other side of the door, mostly female, and when she walked in she found three other women sitting on sofas there.

The sofas themselves were probably the most expensive-looking furniture she’d ever seen. When she sat primly down on one of them, she thought she was being cushioned by a cloud. She couldn’t help but get comfortable on it.

The other three women were all beautiful. Two were white and one was an Asian, and they all stared at her for a moment as if waiting for her to speak, causing her to sit up straighter and offer a nervous introduction.

“Um, hello? I’m Kady. Are you all here about the surrogate job too?”

The Asian girl giggled and patted Kady on the head. Actually on the head. Like a dog that had done something amusing for its owner. It made Kady’s hackles rise in instant dislike, and that feeling only grew as the condescending stranger continued in a high pitched voice. “Oh, you are so adorable! We are here because we know Archer must hope to settle down at last, or why else would he wish to become a father?”

She turned to the two other women, both nodding vapidly in agreement. “And those ridiculous flyers!” They all gave the same forced laugh, “I mean really, anyone at all could waltz in here, looking for a way to climb the social ladder,” she cast a sideways glance towards Kady, “or a hand out.”

“So, you guys know each other then?” Kady clarified, trying to ignore the last part of that statement. “Have you met Archer himself?”

“No, we have not met him,” said the Asian. “We only know him by reputation. One thing is for sure, a girl could really get her foot in the door by giving him his first son, don’t you think?”

“I
think
I’d like to know a few things, first,” queried Kady. “Like why he wants to have someone birth him a child, but it isn’t because he has a wife who can’t get pregnant or anything. I mean, I heard from the guy who drove me here that this guy is some kind of a playboy. What would a billionaire playboy need with a child and not somebody to help him raise it anyway?”

“That is a very good question,” a mellow baritone voice commented from somewhere across the room. “I’m really glad you asked that.”

They all gasped, and turned around to see a tall, handsome man with long dark hair drawn back into a ponytail step into the room through an inner door. He walked with the confidence of a man who was used to getting anything he wanted through his own efforts—he had a charisma that held them all spellbound and speechless, but his eyes were now locked only on Kady’s, and they did not waver as he came in and threw himself into his easy chair, casting her his most dazzling smile.

“Mr.—Mr. Devonshire?” she stammered, feeling the heat of a blush spread slowly across her high cheekbones. Still, Kady steeled herself. “I’m so sorry, but you must admit it is a legitimate question.”

“As I believe I just did admit,” he mentioned, his tone slightly condescending. Kady blushed even hotter under his scrutiny, but remembering the butler’s words, she did not allow herself to look away. “And the answer to your question is simple. I am tired of my former reputation and want to begin a better, more responsible life. However, thanks to my previous exploits, it’s difficult to find a woman who isn’t after me just for my money or the prestige of having had me at some point. I guess I’m too popular for my own good, you might say.”

“But isn’t advertising for a woman to bear your child just going to attract people who are only after you for the money?” she pointed out. “I fail to see how that’s a long-term solution.”

“Then you’re saying the money is your reason for being here as well?” he asked, one brow raised in a lazy manner that set her on edge.

“Mr. Devonshire, surely since I have never met you before and you are offering room and board, it isn’t a large stretch of the imagination to assume that to be the case, is it?” Kady replied.

“I suppose not,” he had to agree. He continued in a brisk, business-like tone. “Now, on to the job at hand. I know that some people like to have their child implanted into the mother in some stuffy lab, but I don’t really think that would be necessary in this case. I’m sure that there’s nothing wrong with getting a little job satisfaction if you’re going to have to carry a child in your womb for nine whole months, right?”

“You mean, you want to have sex?” Kady clarified uneasily.

“That is the usual way it’s done,” he answered with a smirk.

“I see,” she said, and that was when she finally looked down.

“I will want to interview each of you ladies briefly in private before I select the candidate of my choice, of course,” said Archer then. “Firstly, I’d like to know all of your names so I don’t have to call you ‘hey, you’ all day. That might be a good place to start.”

Kady looked up again, watching as the others introduced themselves, but she didn’t say another word until he looked at her again. Her heart was racing as their eyes met, the nerves in her gut so jangled she didn’t even know if she could speak, let alone tell him anything he might want to know.

“And what’s your name, sweetheart?”

“I—” she began, then cleared her throat. “I’m Kady Ross.”