The Illegitimate Heirs: Luke, Zach and Jake

“And that would be?” he prompted.

“State law allows only married couples to hire surrogates.”

She could tell when he rubbed the back of his neck with his hand that he wasn’t at all happy with the news. “Are there any exceptions?”

“If there are, I couldn’t find them.” Shrugging, she added, “There are a few states where the law is more liberal on surrogacy, but this isn’t one of them. How-ever, it doesn’t appear to be illegal to enter into a verbal agreement with a woman as long as there’s no compensation other than medical expenses and she willingly signs over her rights to the child.”

“Did you consult with my attorney?” he asked, a deep frown creasing his forehead.

She shook her head. “Mr. Clayton is out of town for the next week and I hesitated calling anyone else due to the discretion needed for a matter this sensitive. Besides, from everything I could find on the issue, the state law is quite consistent—married couples only.”

Luke nodded slowly but remained silent, mentally reviewing what new course of action to take. “In other words, I need to find a woman with the traits I want and one who would also sign over her custodial rights immediately after giving birth.” He looked thoughtful for several long moments. “That would be taking a huge risk without the protection of a binding contract.”

Haley should have known he’d immediately start thinking of other options to obtain his goal. That was the way Luke worked. When he ran into a roadblock, he found the best way around it.

But the thought of another woman bearing his child caused a tight knot to form in the pit of her stomach and she suddenly felt the need to escape his presence. “I’ve decided to take the rest of the day off,” she announced, quickly rising to her feet. “And if I were you, I wouldn’t count on me being here tomorrow.”

“Why? What’s wrong?”

She wasn’t surprised by his puzzled expression. In the five years she’d worked for him, she had never taken time off other than her annual two-week vacation. But she wasn’t about to explain what she didn’t fully understand herself. He wouldn’t want to hear her explanation anyway.

And really what could she say to him? Oh, by the way, I love you and it breaks my heart to think of you having a child with another woman.

No, she needed space to regain her perspective and come to grips with the fact that no matter what it took, Luke would find a way for his outrageous plan to work. She wasn’t part of it.

Walking to the door, she turned. “To borrow one of your favorite phrases when you don’t wish to share details…let’s just say I feel like taking the time off and leave it at that.”

“All right, that’s it.” As he hung up the phone, Luke sent his desk chair sailing backward and quickly rose to his feet. “I’m going to put an end to this ridiculousness once and for all.”

Grabbing his suit jacket from the coat tree, he stuffed his arms into the sleeves and headed for the door. Nothing had gone right since Haley walked out of his office yesterday and she had just called in “sick” for tomorrow. Facing another day with Ruth Ann, the temporary secretary, was completely intolerable and he wanted to know what the hell was going on. He didn’t for one damned minute buy Haley’s weak excuse that she just didn’t feel well.

“I’ll be out of the office for the rest of the afternoon, Ruth Ann,” Luke growled as he passed the woman seated at Haley’s desk. “If you can figure out how, forward all my calls to my cell phone, otherwise just take messages.”

“A-all right, Mr. Garnier,” she answered in a whiny tone that further irritated him. “W-will there be anything else?”

“No.”

Ruth Ann’s voice not only resembled the sound of fingernails scraping the surface of a blackboard, she looked and acted as if she was scared to death of him. And that was only scratching the surface of the many problems he had with Haley’s temporary replacement.

To say the woman was absolutely incompetent would be the understatement of the year. Ruth Ann couldn’t make a decent cup of coffee, couldn’t find anything in a simple alphabetic filing system and found the phone to be an utter and complete mystery to her. She somehow reached the public relations coordinator for the Tennessee Titans football team while attempting a conference call with his satellite office in Atlanta.

He needed Haley back on the job immediately. She kept his office running like a well-oiled machine. Not to mention the fact that she made a damned fine cup of coffee.

As Luke navigated the late-afternoon crosstown traffic, he dismissed his current woes with Ruth Ann. He was on his way to find out what the problem was with Haley and believed she would be back on the job the first thing tomorrow morning.

But as he turned the SUV onto the street leading to Haley’s apartment complex, his thoughts strayed to his other dilemma. He still needed to find a surrogate. A woman he could trust, as well as have all the qualities he wanted for his heir. And that wasn’t going to be easy.

Oh, he knew several women who would be willing to volunteer for the job, and some of them even possessed a few of the traits he wanted for his son. But there wasn’t one he could trust to bear him an heir without the benefit of a signed legal agreement. He needed a trustworthy and loyal woman like Haley—one with intelligence and business instincts to match his own. A woman as trustworthy and loyal as Haley. And one who kept herself in good physical condition, was easy on the eyes and enjoyed good health like…Haley.

Parking the Escalade in front of Haley’s apartment, Luke took a deep breath before he switched off the engine, exited the SUV and briskly walked to her door. As he pressed the doorbell, he stepped back and waited impatiently for her to answer. When the door swung open, he didn’t bother waiting for her to invite him in and brushed right past her into the small living room.

“Luke, what are you doing here?” she asked, looking as surprised as he’d ever seen her.

Smiling, he reached around her and closed the still wide-open door. “I wanted to let you know that I’ve chosen the perfect surrogate.”

“No offense, Luke, but I really don’t want to hear anything about this. I don’t care who you choose, I just don’t want to hear about it,” she declared, folding her arms beneath her breasts in a defensive manner.

The action called attention to the size and shape of the pert mounds and the fact that she obviously wasn’t wearing a bra. Without a second thought, Luke let his gaze drift lower to her trim waist, shapely hips, then down the length of her long, slender legs.

Damn! If there was ever a woman built for making love, it was Haley Rollins. Odd that he had never noticed how enticing her figure was. Of course, he’d never seen her in a pair of Daisy Duke cutoffs and a hot pink tank top before, either.

As he raised his eyes to her face, he marveled at how feminine she looked. At the office, she always wore her long blond hair straight and most times tied back at the nape of her neck. But today she wore it loose and the soft curls caressed her heart-shaped face and drew attention to her delicate features.

“Luke.”

There was a warning in the tone of her soft voice. A warning that he’d never heard before and found completely intriguing. And one that he had every intention of ignoring.

When she impatiently tapped one bare foot, he grinned. “Who are you and what have you done with my business minded executive assistant?”

She glared at him. “I’m not working today, remember? I can wear whatever I like at home. And besides, I wear these when I’m cleaning. Now, would you please tell me why you’re here, Luke?”

He grinned. “I’ve already told you. I’ve chosen the woman to be my surrogate.”

“And you felt compelled to share the news with me?”

“Yes.”

“Couldn’t all this have waited until I returned to the office?”

“I don’t see any reason that it should.” Walking farther into the room, he shook his head. “I only made my choice a few minutes ago. On the way over here.”

“Good for you,” she said, sounding less than enthusiastic.

He pointed to her couch. “Have a seat and I’ll explain.”

“Fine.” Clearly running out of patience, she sat and looked up at him expectantly. “Let’s get this over with.”

“I had several requirements in mind when I made the decision to hire a surrogate. There is only one woman I know who meets all my expectations and who I can trust with something this important,” he summarized.

“I know I’m going to be sorry that I asked, but what are you looking for?”

“I want an intelligent woman with excellent business instincts.” When it looked as if Haley intended to speak again, he held up his hand to stop her. “I also want her to be reasonably nice looking and in excellent physical condition.”

“It sounds to me like you want a superhero,” she offered, rolling her eyes.

“I didn’t think of it quite that way, but in a sense you might be right,” he mused, chuckling at her evaluation. She had no idea that as far as he was concerned she was assessing herself.

He’d always admired Haley’s quick wit and he was more confident now than ever that he’d made the right choice. She was definitely the woman he was looking for.

“And you think you’ve found this paragon?” she prodded.

“Yes.” Before she could react, he walked over, took her hands in his and asked, “Haley Rollins, will you have my baby?”

Two

Time stood still and Haley wasn’t entirely certain that her heart hadn’t come to a complete halt as well. Luke was asking her to be his surrogate? He actually wanted her to have his child?

She opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again as she desperately tried to find her nonexistent voice. The fact that he saw her as the perfect means to produce his heir rendered her utterly speechless.

“I can tell by your reaction that you weren’t expecting this,” he laughed.

Never in a million years.

“And I don’t need your answer right now,” he added.

Good. Because that would require words and right now I couldn’t put two words together to save my own soul.

He gave her hands a gentle squeeze, then reached for his suit jacket. “I want you to sleep on it tonight and, since you’re taking tomorrow off, spend the day thinking about it. I’ll pick you up around seven tomorrow evening for dinner. You can give me your answer then.”

In a total state of shock, all Haley could do was stare at him. When he pulled her to her feet and led her to the door, she couldn’t have protested no matter how hard she tried.

Opening the door, he turned and, reaching out, lightly touched her unruly curls. “By the way, you should wear your hair like this more often. It looks very nice.” Then, without another word, he stepped out onto the sidewalk and pulled the door shut.

Haley felt as if she’d fallen down the rabbit hole and landed squarely in the middle of Wonderland. When she’d gotten up yesterday morning, she’d had no idea that in a little over twenty-four hours, her life would take such an unexpected turn. Nor would she have ever thought the man she’d dreamed about for the past five years would get some wild notion that he needed an heir and that she was the only woman to make that happen.

Slowly returning to the couch, she plopped down and let her gaze wander aimlessly around the room. How could everything look the same when the whole world had been turned completely upside down?

As the gravity of Luke’s request began to sink in, she shook her head. There was no way on God’s green earth that she could help him with his cockamamy plan. She couldn’t—wouldn’t—do that to a child. To her child.

Her child.

She was pretty sure that, as her father’s housekeeper used to say whenever someone expressed a desire to procreate, she had “baby fever.” Not because she didn’t have plenty of time to have a child. She did.

At twenty-eight years old, she certainly hadn’t heard the ominous ticking of her biological clock. Nor did she anticipate that happening for quite some time.

She had, however, watched several of her friends find love, get married and have babies. In fact, just last week Haley had received an announcement from her college roommate about the birth of her second child. And that seemed to intensify the void, her desire that she wanted more than anything else in life—a family of her own.

Just the idea of holding her own baby, of watching him or her take the first steps, of hearing the first words and seeing a sweet toothless grin brought tears to her eyes. She wanted a baby to love and be loved by in return.

But that wasn’t what Luke had in mind. He wanted an heir to carry on at Garnier Construction, not a close family who loved, laughed and together weathered whatever storms life sent their way. And she was old-fashioned enough to believe that the choice to conceive should be based on the desire to love and nurture, not a good business decision. If she went along with his ludicrous plan, he’d raise their child alone and she’d be completely out of the picture. She’d lived that type of existence and she couldn’t do that to a child, couldn’t bring an innocent baby into a childhood like hers. Although the circumstances weren’t exactly the same, she knew all too well how it felt to have a workaholic father who always put business first, who relied on nannies and his housekeeper to raise his motherless daughter.

Nor could she do that to herself. Unlike her own mother who abandoned her shortly after birth, nothing would ever keep Haley from being part of her child’s life. She had every intention of being there each day to love and guide him or her as they made the journey to a happy, productive adulthood.

Unfortunately, Luke Garnier was a formidable negotiator. She knew as sure as she knew her own name that he would not stop until she agreed to his crazy scheme.

Luckily for her, she knew him well enough to know exactly how to deter him from his mission. But in doing so, it meant effectively ending any romantic fantasies of being more than his glorified secretary. Her chest tightened with intense emotion. It saddened her deeply, but she couldn’t see any other option.

Taking a fortifying breath, she rose to her feet and walked into the spare bedroom she’d turned into her home office. As she seated herself at the desk, she took a tablet and pen from the drawer and began compiling her list of conditions. Demands that she was certain Luke would find to be deal-breakers and send him running away from her as fast and far as he could possibly get.

The feel of Luke’s hand at the small of her back as the hostess led them to their table sent an interesting little shiver straight up Haley’s spine and she focused all her attention on walking it to the table in her three-inch high heels without breaking her neck. Instead of dressing for style, she should have worn a more sensible—and a lot more comfortable—pair of shoes.

But her decision to wear the ridiculous shoes had been a psychological crutch of sorts. Luke was well over six feet tall and she’d wanted to feel as if she were more on his level. The only problem was, he still towered over her by at least eight inches. So much for trying to psych herself up for their dinner meeting, she thought as they reached the table. All she’d succeeded in doing was to increase the chance of a broken ankle.

When Luke held her chair for her, she noticed that the table was strategically located in a dimly lit corner of the upscale restaurant and gave them a maximum amount of privacy. Knowing Luke, he’d specifically requested it when he made the reservation so they could talk freely without anyone eavesdropping.

“Hello, my name is Martin and I’ll be your server for the evening,” a young man said as Luke took his seat across from her. “Would you like to see our wine list, Mr. Garnier?”

“That won’t be necessary, Martin,” Luke answered. He gave her a smile that curled her toes inside her ridiculous shoes as he requested an extremely expensive label and vintage of wine, then added, “We’ll both be having the house salad with house dressing. And for the main course we’ll have prime rib, baby carrots and asparagus.”

Martin nodded. “Good choice, sir. I’ll be back in a few moments with your wine.”

Haley wasn’t at all surprised that Luke had ordered their dinner without consulting her or the menu. That was the type of man he was—a take charge kind of guy, who expected everyone to go along with whatever choices he saw fit to make.

“Did you enjoy your day off?” he asked conversationally, once the young waiter had placed their wine glasses in front of them, then silently moved away. “Were you able to give a significant amount of thought to my request?”

Leave it to him to bypass her need to respond to the small talk and get right to the sole reason they were having dinner together.

“I haven’t been able to think of anything else since you left my apartment yesterday afternoon,” she said truthfully. “You really gave me a lot to think about.”

“Have you reached a decision?”

She stared at his handsome face as she mentally readied herself to recite the list of demands she’d spent the day memorizing and knew would have him rescinding his proposition in less than a heartbeat. But being prepared for what she had to say didn’t make saying it any easier.

“Yesterday, when you asked me to consider doing this for you, I don’t recall you mentioning anything that would give me an incentive to help you,” she clarified, choosing her words carefully. “What would I get out of this besides gaining a significant amount of weight and a few stretch marks?”

“After I left your place, I gave that some thought,” he agreed, nodding. “And there’s no question that I would take care of all medical expenses, as well as give you as much time off from work as you’d like. With pay, of course.”

He made it sound so simple. Had he even considered the permanent changes her body would undergo or the possible risks if the pregnancy was problematic? And what about the emotional devastation she would endure when it came time to give him custody of her child?

“That isn’t nearly enough,” she declared, flatly. “I want more.” She shook her head. “No. That’s not correct. I want a lot more.”

His eyes narrowed and she could tell that he hadn’t anticipated her rejection. “What exactly is it you want, Haley?” he finally asked.

“I’m sure it’s a lot more than you’re willing to give,” she stated, taking a sip of wine.

“Name your price and we’ll see.” There was a challenge in his voice, indicating that he was about to go into serious negotiation mode.

“I never said I wanted money,” she offered, staring at him over the rim of her glass.

He cocked one dark eyebrow. “Then what do you want?”

Haley slowly placed her wine goblet on the table and took a deep breath. She was about to reveal the hopes and dreams she’d had since childhood to the man she quite possibly loved, then listen to him reject each and every one of them.

“I don’t expect you to understand how I feel about this, but I’m a traditionalist. When I have a baby, I have every intention of being a mother to my child. I’m going to be there to get her up each morning and tuck her into bed each night. I’ll be there to see her first steps and hear her first words.” She had to pause a moment to keep the emotion out of her voice as she finished. “And every minute of every single day, my child will have the comfort and security of knowing that she’s loved and cherished by her mother.”

A frown creased his forehead. “Is that it?”

“No.”

“There’s more?” The lines on his brow deepened and the tone of his voice indicated that he thought she was being extremely unreasonable.

Nodding, she stated the final demand, certain he’d find it completely unacceptable, giving up on her as his surrogate once and for all. “When I have a child, Luke, I intend for her to have a mother and father who are equally responsible for raising her, as well as living under the same roof and sharing the same last name.”

His intense stare was intended to intimidate, but as far as she was concerned, this was one issue that was nonnegotiable. He might as well get used to that fact.

“In other words, you want to get married,” he said after several uncomfortable moments of silence.

Their waiter chose that moment to bring their salads and she waited for him to leave before she answered. “When I have a baby, yes, I have every intention of being married and making a stable, loving home for my child to grow up in.”

“Anything else?”

Shaking her head, she reached for her fork with a trembling hand. “No, I think that just about covers the subject.”

Silence reigned over the table as they ate and she knew Luke was contemplating ways to change her mind. But that wasn’t going to happen and the sooner he realized it, the better off they’d both be. Then they could forget that he’d even brought up the subject and resume being an executive assistant and her workaholic boss.

“Did you find everything to your satisfaction?” the waiter asked while he removed their plates.

“As always, the meal was excellent,” Luke answered. Turning to her, he inquired, “Would you like something for dessert, Haley?”

“No, thank you. I’m positively stuffed.” Smiling, she looked up at the server and crossed her fingers beneath the table for the lie she was about to tell. “Everything was delicious.”

In truth, she couldn’t have said whether they’d had prime rib or a piece of shoe leather. She’d been far too preoccupied wondering when Luke would tell her that he found her requirements completely unacceptable and that he was officially deleting her from his short list of surrogacy candidates.

Nodding, Luke handed the waiter a credit card. “I think that will be it for this evening. Have the valet bring my car around to the front.”

Once Luke had taken care of the check and they walked out of the restaurant, they had very little to say to each other. The drive home was little better and Haley was more than relieved when he parked the car, walked her to her door and bid her a very quick, very platonic good-night.

Confident that he’d given up on the idea of her becoming the surrogate for his child, Haley felt her mood dip into sadness. When she’d told Luke what she wanted, she’d been revealing the dreams she’d carried for the past five years. And knowing there wasn’t a snowball’s chance on a hot July day that any of them would come true now, was almost enough to send her running to the freezer for the carton of triple fudge nut ice cream she kept on hand for just such depressing occasions. Instead, she opted to change into her nightshirt, pour herself a small glass of white wine and watch the nightly news on television before turning in for the evening.

But half an hour later, as she crawled beneath the sheets on her bed and reached to turn off her bedside lamp, the phone rang. The caller ID revealed Luke’s cell number and her heart skittered to a stop.

This is it, she thought, taking a deep fortifying breath. He was calling to tell her that he found her requirements totally unacceptable and he would be searching elsewhere for his surrogate.

“Hello, Luke.”

“Have you already gone to bed?” His deep baritone sounded so darned smooth and sexy it sent tiny little shivers straight up her spine.

“Uh…yes, but I hadn’t gone to sleep.”

“Good. Get out of bed and get to the front door.”

Her scalp tingled and a wave of goose bumps shimmered over her arms. “Why?”

“Because I’ll be there in about thirty seconds and I want to get this thing settled tonight.”

“Can’t we discuss this over the phone?” she asked, throwing back the covers and scrambling out of bed. Holding the phone between her shoulder and ear, she frantically searched for her robe. Where on earth had she put the thing? She rarely wore it because she never had overnight visitors.