Marcus Conroy waved his hand. “Come inside and sit down, Mila. I want to talk to you about your next assignment.”

Mila Galantio sat down opposite his desk and opened her laptop. Her fingers poised over the keyboard, ready to type.

Marcus eyed the laptop. “You won't need that. Just listen to me for a second while I explain what I want you to do.”

Mila blinked. “Don't you want me to take notes?”

“No, I don't. I want you to close your laptop, put it away, and listen.”

Mila closed the laptop and set it on the next chair. She folded her hands and looked across the desk to the billionaire she worked for these last three years. He didn't want an assistant like every other corporate assistant on the block. That's why he hired Mila. He called her in every three weeks, gave her a raft of assignments, and sent her on her way to carry them out.

He gave her assignments running companies, buying cars, investigating property to acquire—anything he could think of. Every three-week contract carried its own independent pay package, and in three years, Mila learned to expect anything from Marcus—absolutely anything.

Mila prided herself on being able to tackle anything—the more challenging the project the better. At twenty-seven years old, she carried her weight in confident curves around her hips and bust. She knew how to throw the right green-eyed glance at an office boy to get exactly what she wanted. She never backed down from a job until she got it done, and Marcus knew it as well as everybody else.

Now that he had her undivided attention, though, he hesitated. He hesitated even to look her in the eye. He shifted in his chair. He fidgeted right and left. He adjusted his suit jacket around his shoulders and tugged the sleeves down over his cuff links. He did everything except plunge into the next assignment the way he usually did.

Marcus Conroy seethed with testosterone, not just in his business dealings, but in ever facet of his life. His pores oozed power and magnetic attraction. He spotted an opportunity and seized it with both hands. That's how he got so rich at the ripe old age of thirty-two.

He lifted heavy weights three times a week in the office building's basement gym, so his shoulders stood out hulking and massive under his jacket. He faced every day of work the same way he faced a huge lift. He balled his meaty hands into fists, his gleaming eyes swept the room for any sign of weakness, and his blood boiled in his veins.

Now he shrank down in his leather chair and hesitated. Mila's blood ran cold at the sight of him. Nothing intimidated this man—nothing—but whatever assignment he wanted to give her obviously worried him. She could only sit still and wait to hear what it was.

He picked up a folded newspaper from the desk and held it in front of his eyes. “There's an add in this paper for egg donors. Did you know that, Mila?”

“Sure. That add has been running for years. Infertile couples are always looking for egg donors.”

“Yeah.” He tossed the paper on the desk. “You see Mila. I don't have any family or any children. I don't have an heir. If I kick off next week, my whole company and everything I worked so hard to build will go up in smoke.”

Mila frowned. “I don't understand what you're asking me to do. Are you asking me to run a risk assessment on your company in the event of your death?”

“No, I don't need that. I have something a little more....sensitive in mind. I have decided I need an heir. I need someone to inherit everything I've earned and worked for.”

Mila brightened up. “Are you saying you want to adopt a child?” Her eyes flew open. “Oh, I get it. You want me to find you an egg donor, or maybe a surrogate. That makes sense. I can do that. No problem.” She started to stand up.

Marcus held out his hand. “Hold it, hold it, hold it. I don't want to adopt a child, and I don't want you to find me an egg donor—at least, not that way.”

She sat back down. “You don't? Then what do you want me to do?”

He went back to fidgeting and clearing his throat and shrugging his jacket left and right. Mila stared at him in confusion. What on earth could make a guy like Marcus so jittery? He made her nervous just watching him.

“Listen, Mila. You've been a great assistant. I couldn't ask for anything better. This independent contract work you do works well for both of us, but it doesn't pay you near enough. You're worth your weight in gold, for the value you bring to my company. I want to pay you a lot more for this next contract.”

“Well, why didn't you just come right out and say so? What's the big deal about that?”

“Don't say it's no big deal until you hear what the job is. I want to increase your contract pay rate to $50,000 for the first three months, and another $100,000 on delivery.”

Mila's jaw dropped. “Are you crazy? Why so much?”

He held out both hands. “Like I said, just wait until you hear what the job is before you decide it's too much. Once I tell you, you might decide it's not enough.”

“You know I'm game for whatever job you want to throw at me. You don't have to buy me out to get good value from me.”

“I know I'll get good value from you. That's exactly why I chose you for this job, and it's exactly because I do want to buy you out that I chose to set the pay rate so high.”

She shook her head in confusion. “What in the world are you talking about? I wish you'd just cut to the chase and get it over with.”

“You see Mila. I don't want you to find me an egg donor or a surrogate. I want you to be the egg donor.”

She waved her hands in the air and stood up, but she couldn't stop herself from laughing. “No, no, no, no, no. I could never do anything like that. If you want to pay that kind of money, I'm sure you won't have any trouble finding another donor.”

“I don't want you to just be the donor, Mila. I want you to undergo artificial insemination with my sperm and carry the baby to term. You'll get $50,000 at the twenty-week mark when we know the pregnancy is successfully advanced, and $100,000 after the baby is born. That's the contract. Take it or leave it.”

Mila stared across at him in wonder. Now that he got his cards out on the table, his old commanding air came back to him. He fixed her with those piercing eyes of his. He threw down the gauntlet. He challenged her to take on this project and prove herself worthy of that kind of money.

Her mind whirled. A thousand questions fought to be first out of her mouth. “But why me?”

He held up the paper. “This ad says the ideal candidate is between twenty-three and thirty years of age, is healthy and doesn't smoke, and has never had children. You fit all those criteria, and I've watched you in action for three years. You're smart, successful, astute, educated—you're everything I want my child to inherit from the other side. You're a perfect match for this.”

“But those ads don't offer more than $6,000 for egg donation.”

“You won't only be donating. I told you. I want you to carry the child to term. I'll put you up in a luxury condo apartment. I'll pay all your expenses and give you $10,000 spending money every month until the baby is born, on condition that you don't engage in any behavior that puts your health or the baby's health at risk. You'll have the use of my private car to go anywhere you want to go as long as you stay in the greater New York City area.”

Mila gasped out loud, and her hand flew to heart. “You can't be serious about this!”

He slid open a drawer in his desk and pulled out a stapled stack of paper. He tossed it on the desk in front of her. “It's all there in the contract. Take a look and tell me what you think.”

Mila straightened up. “I can tell you right now what I think. I'm not doing it. I'm not a baby factory, for you or anybody else. I have no plans to get pregnant any time soon, and $250,000 won't change that. Find yourself another assistant to carry out this contract.” She snorted with laughter. “Some contract!”

Her answer didn't phase him at all. He leaned back in his chair and swiveled it sideways. He swept his eyes left the way he did when he set to work on a difficult negotiation. “I had the whole thing checked out by a team of lawyers before I presented it to you. It's all legit and water-tight. I wouldn't offer you this contract to if it wasn't.”

She stared down at him. She saw him for the first time, with his big shoulders and his chest rising with his slow breath, his chocolate-brown hair tussled over his forehead, and his green eyes flashing. “You want to inseminate me with your sperm and keep me in the lap of luxury for the next nine months? What does the contract say will happen to me at the end of nine months? I suppose if you don't pay, I'll be stuck with a kid I don't want.” She dissolved into hysterical giggles.

“You'll have no rights whatever to the child after the term expires. You will have no right to alimony, nor will you bear any responsibility for paying child support. All rights and responsibilities will expire with the contract. I will retain sole custody, and you'll ride off into the sunset with the money.”

Mila became suddenly serious. “You're crazy. You know that, don't you?”

He waved his hand. “Why don't you take the contract and read it over? You can let me know if there's anything you want to change.”

“I won't read it over. I already gave you my answer, and the answer is no. I'm your assistant—at least, I was up until today. I don't sell myself to anyone, and if this is the way you treat me, I won't work for you again.”

She started again to turn away, but his voice caught her and held her. “It's because I respect you so much that I offered you this contract, Mila. I respect you more than anyone I've ever worked for. I know you'll take care of yourself in the nine months until the baby is born. I know you won't run around the town, blowing my money on nonsense. You're the perfect choice for this. So you don't sell yourself for anyone? What do you think you've been doing all these years? I bought your time and your energy and your intelligence. That's what I'm doing now.”

She glanced back over her shoulder, and his penetrating eyes mesmerized her with their unstoppable power.

“You'll come with me to the fertility clinic on Monday morning. You'll get a routine medical exam. I'll go in another room and deposit the sperm. You'll never see me in any compromising position. After that, the clinic will track your cycle with blood tests. When they determine you're ovulating, they'll inseminate you. Besides monthly exams, you'll have nothing else to do for the next nine months. I'm sure you can handle that.”

“So what am I supposed to do with myself during that time?”

“I don't know. Work on your Master's Thesis, for all I care.”

She gave him one last incredulous stare before she shook her head. “I'm sorry, Marcus. I really enjoyed working for you, but this is taking the whole independent contractor meme a little too far. I won't take this contract. Good luck finding someone else.”

Mila sat on a park bench outside Conroy Limited. Her rolling suitcase sat on the grass nearby with her laptop case on top. She crossed her legs and folded her arms over her chest. She gazed out at the ducks gliding over the lake.

This was just flippin' great. This was the absolute capper to three years of lucrative contract work with one of New York's most powerful billionaires, and it had to go and end like this.

What was he thinking? How could he propose she have his baby, just like that, just like any other contact? What did he think she was—some high-priced hooker he could snap his fingers and get on her knees at his feet?

Sure, he was drop dead gorgeous. Sure, his wealth and power and magnetic personality made him mind-blowingly attractive. He knew better than anybody how many women would cave at his beck and call. They would do anything for him. They would jump at the offer of $250,000 to have his baby. They would probably do it for free.

So why did he have to go picking on her? Why did he have to pick the one woman in his life who wouldn't cave at his feet whenever he snapped his fingers? She didn't have to ask. He picked her because she wouldn't cave. He couldn't respect those women. He could respect her. She did her work. She never let his attractiveness or his power or his magnetic personality distract her from getting the job done. She conducted her affairs as a professional. He didn't want some high-priced hooker, and she wasn't one.

Still, he didn't have to go and blow her whole employment situation out of the water with this lunatic scheme of his. He could have given her some other decent contract and sent her on her way. Now what was she going to do? She would have to spend God knows how long finding another stupid frickin' job.

Just then, her phone twinkled. She flipped it on. “Hello, Mom. How are ya?”

The familiar voice rose to a metallic screech on the other end of the line. “I'm so sorry, honey. I know you must be very busy right now. I know you're always busy at this time of the day.”

“Don't worry, Mom. Actually, I'm not busy at all right now.”

“You have to come home, darling. You have to come home right away.”

“What's going on, Mom? What's wrong?”

“It's your father. He's in the hospital.”

Mila froze. “What happened?”

“He had a massive heart attack. He was out mowing the lawn yesterday and he collapsed. I was at the Ladies' Service meeting in Hayworth. I didn't get home and find him until this morning. He's in ICU, and he's hooked up to every machine you can imagine. They don't expect him to last long. You have to come home right away. I don't even know if he'll last until you get here.”

Mila already moved the phone away from her mouth. “I'm on my way, Mom. I'll be there as soon as I can.”

Mila hung up. She snatched her suitcase handle and slung her laptop case over her shoulder. She set off at a fast clip through the park with her mind whirring in a dozen directions. With one quick glance, she scanned the surrounding neighborhood. She flagged a taxi. “Take me to the nearest car rental shop.”

A few minutes later, she slapped her credit card down on the counter. “Give me a car fast. I don't care what it is. I have to get on the road pronto.”

The young man behind the counter raised his eyebrows. “Okay. You can have that Lexus out there, but it will cost you.”

“I don't care what it costs. My father is dying. I have to get on the road now. Ring it up and give me the keys.”

The guy flew into action. In five minutes, he handed the keys across the counter. “Just bring it back with the gas tank full.”

Mila waved over her shoulder. “No problem. See you soon. Thanks a million.”

She skidded out of the parking lot and hit the highway. She cruised at ten points above the speed limit all the way down the Jersey turnpike until she came to the hospital. She threw the car into park and jogged up the stairs to her tearful mother.

Once she got into the hospital, all the rushing stopped on a dime. She held her mother, then her sister, and finally her aunt. They sat around the waiting room, waiting, waiting, and waiting some more. Nothing happened. Her father's health didn't improve and he didn't die. He just lingered.

After ten hours of waiting, Mila took a walk. She strolled down to the parking lot to buy another parking ticket. She took as long as she could before she went back to the room. She couldn't look at her father lying in the bed with tubes coming out of every orifice. He wouldn't come out of this, and everybody knew it. He might as well be dead.

She got back to find her mother sitting alone outside the room. The old lady stared down at the phone in her hand. She didn't notice Mila sit down next to her. Mila laid a hand on her mother's shoulder. “Are you okay, Mom? Why don't you let me take you home? You need some sleep and a hot meal.”

Her mother didn't look up. “That was your brother Charlie.”

“Yeah? When is he getting in?”

“He's not getting in. He's already here. He's been here all along. He's down at the house.”

“What's he doing there? He should be here with us.”

“He was here this morning before you came. He went to the house to find your father's will. Your father kept his will and mine in a special file folder in his filing cabinet.”

“Did Charlie find it?”

“He found it. He also found a lot of other papers. That's what he just called about.”

“Did he say something that bothered you? Did he find something in Dad's papers that shouldn't be there?”

Mila's mother turned her damp old eyes up to Mila's face. “That's what he just called to tell me. Your father prospected in real estate, but he never told me about it. We owned that house you grew up in for forty years. We worked our tails off to pay it off so we would never have to worry about losing it in our old age.”

“That's good, then. You've got that security if Dad dies.”

“Don't you see, Mila? Your father mortgaged the house to stake an investment in a real estate development. The development went bust. He used his pension to make the mortgage payments so I would never find out. We don't own more than $10,000 dollars equity on the house. I thought I would grow old and die in that house, but if your father dies now, I've got nothing. I'll be out on the streets.”

Mila jumped out of her chair. She paced back and forth in front of her father's hospital room. “How much do you owe on it?”

“$200,000. There's no way on God's green earth I can come up with that kind of money, and my retirement doesn't cover the mortgage payments. Charlie just found out everything going through your father's filing cabinet. He just told me. I'm finished, Mila. I'm penniless.”

Mila spotted her aunt and sister coming down the hall. She had to think fast. She dropped into the chair next to her mother. “There must be a way to make those payments.”

“I couldn't make the payments. I couldn't even afford to pay rent on a tiny apartment if I had to move out of the house. My retirement pays me $700 a month. That's not enough to survive on.”

Mila's aunt and sister stopped in front of the waiting area chairs. “What's going on?”

A piercing siren interrupted them. Mila leaped out of her chair. Everyone crowded around the room where doctors and nurses and orderlies rushed hither and thither. Even as Mila and her family watched, they all noticed the hospital staff moving slower and slower until everyone kept still. They stared down at the lifeless form in the bed. The EKG line flattened to nothing until a nurse turned it off. They turned away to the window with a shake of their heads. Mila's father was dead.

Mila grasped her mother's hand. “Don't worry, Mom. Everything's gonna be all right. Stay in the house. I'm gonna find a way to work this out for you.”

Her mother's head shot up. “What do you mean? What are you going to do?”

Mila shook her head. “I have to go now. Just stay in the house. Keep going on with all the arrangements as if you didn't owe that money. I'll work it out for you. Don't worry.”

“How? How could you get that money? Don't tell me you're going to do something illegal.”

“I'm not going to do anything illegal. You can trust me. Just make the arrangements and call me when you schedule the funeral. I have to go work out this debt thing. Just trust me. I've got it under control.”

“Are you sure? You're scaring me, Mila.”

She smiled down into her mother's face. She couldn't let this beloved person down. “I'm sure. Everything's going to be okay. You'll have your house. You have nothing to worry about.”

Mila rushed out of the hospital. Even before she finished speaking to her mother, she knew exactly what she had to do. She phoned Marcus, and he invited her to meet him in his office. She found him in exactly the same spot. He eyed her up and down like she never left. “I've been thinking about your contract, and I've decided to accept it.”

His eyebrows shot up. “What made you change your mind?”

“That's my business. I only have one favor to ask you. I'm asking this as a courtesy to me based on three years of service to your company. I wouldn't ask you to do this if I wasn't facing extreme circumstances, but I need this.”

“Name it.”

“I want you to reverse the payment structure. I want you to pay me the $100,000 after successful establishment of the pregnancy and the $50,000 on delivery. I'm really sorry about this. I understand if you don't want to do it, but you know you can trust me to go all the way through on this contract. I won't violate your trust. I just need the money for something personal, and I need it now.”

“All right. No problem. You can have the money right now if it helps.” He plucked the contract out of his drawer and scribbled on it with his pen. “There. It's all set. I just need your signature.”

She moved toward the desk and held out her hand for the pen, but he yanked it back. “I don't like you accepting this under duress, Mila. I never thought I'd ask anyone to have my baby in answer to extreme financial hardship. I don't like it. I don't really want to go through with it under those circumstances.”

Mila hung her head. She couldn't meet his gaze. She stared down at the carpet. “Please, Marcus, don't back out on this now. I need this money. If I have to have your baby to get it, I'll do it. I can think of a lot worse ways to get money, and a lot of other people are relying on me. Please don't change your mind, now that I finally agreed to it.”

He sized her up with his glinting eyes. “All right, Mila. I know I can trust you, and your years of service to me and my company have earned you this at least. Sign here, and I'll see you back here bright and early tomorrow morning for our first visit to the clinic.”

Mila rode in Marcus's stretch black limo. She gazed through the tinted windows at the city passing by, but she could think of nothing but last night in her mother's house. Tension and worry hung over the whole family. They went over and over her father's papers. They couldn't believe Mila would find a way to pay off the debt so her mother could stay in the house.

Marcus sat in the seat next to her, but he didn't try to talk to her. He sat as far away from her as he could, against the opposite door, and he gazed out the other window. What was he thinking right now? He would never know she did all this to save her mother. To him, she would never be anything but a baby factory. He would take his baby, and she would disappear out of his life. So much the better.

When this was all over and done with, when she collected her money and paid her mother's debt, she never wanted to see his face again. She couldn't look him in the eye. She was nothing to him but a means to an end. Come to think of it, he was nothing to her but a means to an end, too.

He would never be her baby's father. She wouldn't have a baby. She would go on with her life. She would work and live and meet people. She wouldn't be a mother. She would be a test tube someone used to get what they wanted. He paid her for it. End of story.

The limo moved through the city streets, but it couldn't move fast. Traffic slowed it down, but that didn't bother Mila. Everything about this situation moved in slow motion. She watched herself meet Marcus in the office. She watched him sign the bank transfer order for the first installment of her payment. She watched him escort her down the elevator. She watched herself get into the limo. None of this was really happening.

Marcus broke in on her thoughts by clearing his throat. “Thank you for doing this for me, Mila. This means a lot to me. I wouldn't want anyone but you.”

She shrugged. “Sure, Marcus. I should be thanking you, too. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. It means a lot to me, too.”

He looked over at her, but she kept her eyes trained out the window. “Whatever's bothering you, I want to say you can tell me if you want to. You can trust me. Whatever made you change your mind, whatever it is you need this money for, if you ever need someone to confide in, I'm here for you. We've known each other long enough. If you need help, maybe I can help you.”

She couldn't stop herself facing him then. “I know I can trust you, but I don't need help. I just need this money.” She smacked her lips and chopped the air with her hand. “Aw, what the heck. I might as well tell you. It's nothing shameful or stupid like paying for drugs or gambling debts, if that's what you're thinking.”

“I wasn't thinking anything of the kind. I know you wouldn't get into anything like that. I just can't figure out what grand emergency would crop up that would make you change your mind so fast. You gave me a very definite no, and then a few hours later, you came back practically begging for this contract. If you're in some trouble, I want to help you. I can't stand by and let you flounder on your own.”

“You're not letting me flounder. You're helping me. You're helping me more than I deserve. My father died, okay? That's what happened. My father dropped dead of a massive heart attack and left my mother saddled with a huge mortgage on their house. She can't afford to pay the loan payments. She doesn't have enough income to survive. I need this money to pay off her debt so she can stay in the house. That's the big mystery. That's all there is to it.”

He turned to the window. “I see.”

Mila went back to looking the other way. “Please don't thank me for this or appreciate what I'm doing. I'm just as much a mercenary as you are. I'm worse than a mercenary.”

He didn't say anything. Mila wallowed in her misery all the way to the clinic, but when the limo pulled into the underground parking garage and stopped, Mila's hand shot out to stop Marcus getting out. “Listen. Maybe this isn't such a great idea after all. You don't want your baby growing in someone who doesn't really want to do this. Maybe you should find someone else.”

“Like who would I find?”

“I don't know. Maybe you could take out an ad somewhere.”

Marcus sat back in the seat. “Look, Mila. You came clean about your motives, so let me come clean, too. I don't want anybody else. I looked long and hard for someone else, and I always came back to you. You're doing this for your mother. That in itself tells me you're the right woman for the job.”

“What do you mean?”

“The only way I could get someone growing this baby who really wanted to do this is if I got married and knocked up my wife the old fashioned way. That's not going to happen. I'm too busy even to go on a date. I have to use a surrogate, and that means you. You've got all the qualities I want my child to inherit from the mother, and you have that extra je ne sais quoi I could never have hoped to find from anyone answering an ad. You're compassionate. You're family oriented. You're selfless. This situation with your mother proves that.”

Mila shifted in her seat. “Are you sure you want to do this? Are you sure I'm really the one you want?”

“I'm sure.” He took her hand from the seat. “Come on. Let's get in there. If you don't like what you see, you can still change your mind.”

His words lifted her spirits, and she let him hand her out of the limo. He led her to an elevator, and they whizzed up into the building. Somewhere on the upper floor, the doors opened on a normal-looking office tastefully decorated with couches and a table full of ordinary magazines. Mila sat down across from a couple. The man read a hunting/fishing magazine while the woman did the crossword puzzle.

Mila picked up a Woman's Weekly, but she only pretended to read while she studied the couple over the top. Were they married, trying everything under the sun in the desperate hope of bringing a child into their shattered marriage? Were they already parents of one child having trouble with the second?

The woman glanced up and caught Mila looking. The woman cast a sidelong glance at Marcus. He tapped the glass of an aquarium in the corner and smiled at Mila. That woman would never know Marcus and Mila weren't another random couple like her and her husband. She would never guess Marcus was Mila's boss—or ex-boss—paying her a pile of cash to have his baby.

At that moment, a well-dressed older woman stuck her head in. “Mila?”

Mila followed her into the nicest doctor's office she ever saw. Plush carpet lined the halls, and cushy chairs sat in front of desks. The woman opened another door and motioned Mila into the seat. The woman sat down behind the desk and pulled the keyboard toward her. “So, you're here for your initial exam. You're doing standard artificial insemination with ovulation tracking. Is that correct?”

Mila turned bright red. “Yes, that's correct.”

The woman smiled. “Don't worry. It's normal to have some jitters and anxiety going into fertility treatment. We offer counseling before and after the procedure to help you process any issues you face during your treatment. Here's the counselor's card. Feel free to call her whenever you need support.”

“Thank you.” Mila stuffed the card in her pocket without looking at it. She sure wouldn't be talking to any counselor about this situation. She must be the only woman on the planet getting paid to have her boss's baby.

“Now,” the doctor went on, “I'll just check a few pieces of background information and we can go ahead and get started. What is your date of birth?”

“August 25, 1990.”

The doctor tapped on her keyboard. “Twenty-seven years old. That's perfect. Do you smoke?”

“No.”

“Have you ever smoked?”

“No.”

“Have you ever had children?”

“No.”

“What was the date of your last menstrual cycle?”

Mila's cheeks burned. “A week ago on Wednesday.”

“Great. Now if you'll just jump up on the table, I'll give you a routine pelvic exam. We'll do a quick pap smear, just like all the others you've had, and we'll take a blood sample. Then you'll be all done.”

Mila didn't see any table until the woman walked around behind her. That's when Mila saw a regular doctor's exam table tucked behind the office door. No one would know it was there. The doctor pulled the curtain. “Take off your clothes below the waist, and put this sheet over your hips. I'll wait out here. You call me when you're ready.”

Mila couldn't get over all this. Her head spun. This couldn't be happening. She couldn't be taking off her clothes in an office downtown, getting ready to get knocked up by some guy she worked for. Somehow, she got through the exam. Heaven knew she'd been through enough of them, but she couldn't escape the distinct feeling she was doing something wrong.

The next thing she knew, the doctor chirped, “You can get dressed now. I'll wait for you out here.”

Mila put her clothes back on, but they couldn't hide the sticky feeling all over her skin. When she shot the curtain back, she found the doctor typing at her desk. She smiled up at Mila and pushed a ribbon-wrapped present across the desk. “Here's your treatment package for the next two weeks. You'll find some testing strips and detailed instructions of everything you have to do.”

Mila stared at the beautiful box wrapped in shiny paper. “What?”

To her relief, the woman didn't laugh in her face the way she expected. “We'll track your cycle over the next two weeks to determine the best day to inseminate you. You'll test your own urine, just the way you do when you get a UTI.”

“I've never had a UTI.”

“Well, you'll find detailed instructions inside. When you see the testing window on the strip turn purple, you'll call the clinic and we'll bring you in.”

“Bring me in?”

The woman grinned. “That's just our way of saying you'll come in for your first insemination. You'll have five inseminations, two per day for every ovulation. Once you finish one round of inseminations, we'll set up a schedule of blood tests to see if you're pregnant.”

Mila mumbled down at her shoes. “Oh, right.”

The woman stood up. “You're all done for the day. You can wait out in the reception area for your partner.”

Mila blinked. Partner? She could only mean Marcus.

Mila collected her present and went out to the reception area. Marcus wasn't there, so she picked up the half-finished crossword left by the other.....what could she call that other woman waiting for treatment? Was she a patient? Was she a client?

Before she could figure out a five letter word for 'faint', Marcus came through the same door. He looked all around him and nodded to Mila. “Let's go, if you're ready.”

Marcus didn't give the present a second glance. He escorted Mila back to the parking garage through the same elevator. In a second, she found herself gliding through the city on her way back to the office.

Marcus glanced over at her. “Did everything go all right?”

She nodded. “Fine. Very routine.”

“Me, too.”

“So what did they do to you? Did you get a regular exam?”

“No exam. I went into the donation room and banked some sperm. I have to go in every day until you get...you know, pregnant.”

“What do you mean by 'banked some sperm'? How do you do that?”

He shot her a quick glance and turned away to hide his burning cheeks. “Oh, you know, it's just what you'd expect. I have to go into a room and yank off into a container. That's all it means.”

Mila opened her mouth and closed it again. Her pulse pounded in her ears. “Oh.”

He looked out the window to avoid her eyes. “It's a nice room and everything, not at all trashy. There's a big red couch on one side and a bunch of small cubicles with mirrors and chairs, and there's a bunch of nudie magazines all over the place to help you get into the mood.” He gave a nervous chuckle.

Mila stared at the side of his head. Nudie magazines? Yank off into a container? She couldn't reconcile all that with the immaculate, sterile experience she just had. “So what did you...I mean...Forget it. I shouldn't be asking you about it.”

“What do you want to know? Do you want to know if I looked at the magazines when I did it?”

“Forget I said anything. I don't want to know.”

He rode in silence for a while. Mila looked out the window, but her heart wouldn't slow down. So he looked at a nudie magazine and yanked off into a container to bank his sperm. In a few days or weeks, they would inseminate her with that sperm and she would get pregnant. What was the big deal?

She couldn't stop thinking about it, though. The whole thing struck her as...well, as kind of seedy and dirty. Why did they have to go through all that trouble, just to get her pregnant? He wanted a child. This procedure must be the most complicated, expensive, and embarrassing way to go about it.

His voice drifted across the limo out of a dream. “I did look at the magazines. They turned me on, you know. The women in them are all perfect, but after a while, I stopped thinking about doing it with one of them. After a while, you start thinking about doing it with a real woman. I real woman, a woman with some substance, is so much more exciting and erotic than anything you see in a magazine.”

Mila couldn't turn around. What could she say to that? How could he talk about yanking himself off while looking at a magazine in a sperm bank room? Was he turned on right now? Was he still sort of hard from his session in that room?

What turned him on in there? What did he see that made him hard? She clamped her eyes shut against all those images. She couldn't think about that. She couldn't start thinking about him that way. She had to keep this arrangement strictly business or she would lose her mind.

He kept talking. Maybe talking made him feel better. “I started thinking about getting a woman pregnant by fucking her. I start thinking what it would be like if I got you pregnant that way. That really got me going. That's what got me hot enough to cum.”

Mila's head whipped around to see him still gazing the window. “You...you thought about...about getting me pregnant that way?”

“Sure. You're a fine-looking woman. You know that. You're exactly the sort of woman I would choose if I wanted to get with somebody. I can't think of anybody I'd rather do it with.”

Mila's jaw dropped. “What are you saying? Are you saying you want to do it with me?”

“Of course not. I wouldn't presume to suggest anything like that. You're doing this contract for me. That's all. I don't expect you to have anything to do with me.”

She turned away. “Oh. I understand.”

“Don't misunderstand, Mila. I would love to do it with you. I've admired you for years. That's exactly why I wouldn't approach you for anything unprofessional like that.”

She nodded, but she didn't turn around.

After a while, he broke the silence. “Did I say something to offend you? I shouldn't have told you I was thinking about you in that room.”

“That doesn't offend me. I'm flattered, and I understand there can never be anything between us. I guess I'm just surprised. I never realized you thought that way about me.”

“Of course I did. You're any man's dream come true.”

Her head whipped around, and she found him looking right at her. “Shut up.”

“Don't you know it's true? Your brains, your body, your business savvy—you're the total package. Any man in his right mind would love to eat your for lunch.”

She blushed to the roots of her hair, but she couldn't look away. “If that's true, why can't I get a boyfriend?”

“I don't know. Why can't you get a boyfriend? You should have guys breaking down your front door.”

“I don't have a front door. I guess that's why I don't have a boyfriend. I'm too busy working and moving around from contract to contract. I never stay in one place long enough to get a boyfriend.”

“It's the same for me. I'm too busy controlling the world to get a girlfriend. I suppose that's why I have to hire someone to have a baby for me.”

“What are you talking about? You're more the total package than I am. I mean, look at you. You're master of the universe. You're built like a brick shithouse, and you're drop-dead gorgeous. I'm sure you can have any woman you want.”

“But not you, right?”

Mila waved her hands on confusion. “I never said anything about that me. We're talking hypothetically here.”

Marcus gazed out the window. “You don't want a meathead like me for a boyfriend, Mila. I understand that. You want a nice country boy in a plaid flannel shirt and scuffed blue jeans.”

“Who said anything about me getting a boyfriend? The last I checked, I'm getting pregnant in a few days. I'll have even less time for a boyfriend than ever.”

“Then we're two peas in a pod. We'll both live our lives alone.”

“Except you'll have a child to raise. Maybe you won't have a girlfriend, but you won't be alone. Or maybe the baby will make you a sex magnet for every woman in search of the perfect mate.”

He snorted. “I should be so lucky.”

Mila went back to her own window. They both buried themselves in their respective dream worlds until Marcus murmured under his breath again. “It does seem like a crazy way to have a baby. It seems like there ought to be a much simpler way to do it.”

“There is,” Mila replied. “There's the old fashioned way, but that's not going to happen between us.”

The silence got longer and longer. Mila kept her eyes fixed on the scenery flowing by her window. She didn't dare turn around to face him. So many confused thoughts and emotions and images flashed before her, she couldn't make sense of them all. Could it be? Impossible! How could she even consider it?

Maybe, just maybe. Naw, it was too far-fetched. But what if? What's the worst that could happen? Curiosity overcame her reserve. Ever so slowly, she turned around to find him turning toward her at exactly the same time.

Their eyes found each other. Mila searched his face for some answer. What was he thinking about right now? Could he really be thinking the same thing as her?

He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He glanced down at her mouth and back up to her eyes. That penetrating question nagged his eyes. What if? Maybe, just maybe.

She glanced down at his mouth, his firm mouth lined with angular jaws. What would it be like...just once? Somehow, that mouth moved just a fraction of an inch closer to her. She caught his smell, rich and earthy and inviting. That smell burst into her brain, and a jet of saliva shot into her mouth. She swallowed hard.

His lips pursed. His eyes moved in a triangle from one eye to the other, down to her mouth, and back to her eyes. Out of the distant reaches of space, something broke the spell holding her in place. “Mila....”

She jolted out of her reverie. “Anyway, that's not going to happen. We're...” She broke off.

“What if we did? I mean, you're gonna get pregnant one way or the other anyway. What if we...I mean, why not? What difference would it make in the end?”

She glanced back down to his mouth. His tongue moved back and forth behind his teeth when he talked. His mouth hypnotized her. What would those lips taste like? What would his tongue taste like? What would his skin taste like and his....?

She shook herself. She couldn't start thinking about that, but the images kept invading her mind. He touched himself thinking about her. He jerked off thinking about....nailing her. What did he think about? Did he think about bending her over and driving his...Did he think about spreading her legs and ...with his tongue...that tongue in his mouth right now?

A squirt of sticky pussy juice gushed between her legs. She couldn't stop it. Burning excitement scorched her cunt. She squirmed in her seat to stifle it, but she wound up stimulating it to hotter heat instead. He spread her legs. He touched her aching self with that tongue. He bent her over. He shot his load inside her. He knocked her up against the limo seat with his pounding meat.

Christ! What was happening to her? She shouldn't. She couldn't. She had to keep her mind on business. He was her boss. He paid her to do a job, and here she was, thinking about that.

Another part of her fought back against every objection. So what if she did? He paid her to get pregnant, didn't he? What faster, simpler way could there be? She wouldn't have to undress in front of a lot of strangers. She wouldn't have to piss on a testing strip every day for God knows how long. Wham, bam, and it would be over.

She could think of worse ways to get pregnant. Even now, his very presence intoxicated her with all kinds of wicked ideas. He attracted her like no one else. He always did. Only their iron-clad professionalism stopped her from throwing herself at him before.

She wanted to do it with him just as much as he wanted to do it with her, but they couldn't. They wouldn't. She would get out of this limo, and they would go on with this contract. She would pay off her mom's house, and he would get his baby. They would shake hands and never see each other again.

So what was the harm in doing it, just once? If she wanted it and he wanted it, why not? She took another look at him. How did he manage to inch toward her without her noticing it? How did that mouth and those shoulders and that all-consuming presence get so big it blocked out everything else?

She looked back up at his eyes. They hovered not an inch from her face. They occupied her every thought. She couldn't fight them. They moved in on her with that determined force with which he approached everything in life. He saw something, and he went after it.

He spent three years looking at her, and he never went after her before. Now, all the years of waiting came to a head and he wouldn't hold back anymore. He read in her eyes the plain fact. She wanted it as much as he did. He crossed the last frontier separating them, and his mouth closed over her lips.

Once their lips met, the dam burst. They flew at each other in a passion. Holy crap, she wanted him! She never let herself feel how hot he made her until now. She never let herself acknowledge, not in her most private moments, how she wanted to devour him limb from limb. She wanted to lick the sweat off his skin and swallow him whole.

His hands explored all over her in a furious fever to touch every inch of her at once. He petted her hair back from her face. He tugged her toward him with his arms around her waist. He pawed down her arms and placed her hands on his shoulders.

He panted through her gobbling lips. “Mila...I wanted this so bad...You're so beautiful and delicious...Come to me...Oh, Jesus, yes!”

She couldn't speak for his mouth all over hers. He mashed her lips apart, and his tongue darted into her mouth. Oh, it tasted just as heavenly as she imagined. Rockets exploded in her brain. She lashed his mouth all over in a desperate hurry to taste everything. She licked his saliva off his tongue. His kiss sent fresh injections of moisture into her panties.

She rocked and mewed against the limo seat, but that only tortured her delicious genitals all the more. She smeared the wicked sauce all over her lips. Devilish dreams of slamming and sticky wetness lunged her hips toward him.

She hugged his head close where she could kiss him to her heart's delight. The first fermented explosion passed away, and Marcus found those parts of her he wanted to touch. He squeezed her ribs until she heaved her heavy breasts up into his grasp. He crushed them under her jacket and kneaded the whining cries from her lips. How did she ever want anything this bad and never even realize it? How could she work for him for three years without buckling to her knees at his feet?

She scooted her hips as far toward him on the seat as she could, but it wasn't enough. She had to find a way to get closer to him. While her sex-starved brain worked on that problem, he found his way inside her jacket, but her blouse still held her away from him. Her skin screamed for his touch, for his skin, but he wouldn't do anything more than graze his thumbs over her tits in agonizing slow brushes.

She pressed her breasts into his hands until they smashed against his chest. She scraped her chest back and forth against his palms. Marcus purred under his breath in delight, but he wouldn't relieve her tortured desires. How could he kiss her like that? How could he touch her raging breasts without knowing how much he turned her on?

She squeezed him tighter. She had to have him. She had to draw him into herself. If this chance encounter never happened again, she better enjoy it while it lasted. She would probably never get her hands on a man as rich and handsome and attractive as Marcus. She had to destroy herself against the granite bulk of his muscled frame. Then she could walk away.

One hand left her breasts. Ah, now he would touch her. Now he would give her some relief from this burning need eating away at her guts, but he didn't touch her. He went back to stroking her arms until one hand caressed over her shoulder to her neck. He didn't even try to take her jacket off. Was this all just a romantic kiss for him? Maybe he didn't want to do it at all. Maybe he didn't need her the way she needed him.

His hand cradled her head behind her neck. For a moment, he guided her head back and forth against his kiss. She swam in the delicious bliss of that kiss when, all of a sudden, his great meathook clamped down hard in her hair. He jerked her head back away from his mouth.

Mila cried out in surprise, but he already dove in under her chin and sank his teeth into her throat. He peppered her neck down to her collar with searing love bites. Mila fought that mighty hand, but he wouldn't let her go. He tugged her in hard and devoured her neck all the way down to her sternum.

Before she knew what he was doing, he pushed her lapels apart with his chin. He mouthed his way down into her cleavage. His other hand popped the buttons open to make way for him, and the shirt collapsed out of his way in humble submission.

All the rest of Mila's being melted with it. He buried his face in her busty cleavage, and she gasped and panted her breasts into his face. His breath warmed her all the way down to her crotch. She ached and throbbed for him down there, but he wouldn't do anything he didn't want to do.

His hands found her exposed bra. He mangled the lacy cups and lifted her breasts into his adoring face. He kissed them, first with gentle pecks, getting harder and more demanding until his teeth sank into her tightening nipples.

Mila quaked and sobbed. Oh, Jesus! Oh, fuck! How could anything be so good? How could she stand to get so hot? She would explode in a second. She rode the limo seat faster and harder. She had to...she had to...

Marcus slid one hand behind her back. He followed her natural movements while his mouth discovered all the intricacies of her bra. He came back up to her cleavage and nuzzled his way, down, down into her cups. His tongue shot out, and he licked the taut nipple once.

Mila screamed in aching desire. She couldn't stand this anymore. She grabbed his head and shoved him down into her breast. She had to cram her tits into his mouth before she died of heartache.

He obliged in his own good time. Just when she couldn't stand it any longer, he eased down her lacy cup and let the glorious little nub pop into his mouth. He sucked it in and nagged it to screaming pain with his teeth. He lifted it up with his mouth and let it sink.

She hated this. Her desires consumed her beyond tolerance. Her swollen tissues oozed against her panties. She hurt them rubbing them on the seat, but she couldn't stop herself, she needed it so bad.

With languid care, he brought that hand around from behind her back to stroke up and down her thigh. She did her best to catch him and bring him in higher against her crotch, but he wouldn't come. What was wrong with him? Didn't he realize how he tormented her with this horrible slowness? Why didn't he bend her over and smash her to pieces the way she wanted him to?

He took an eternity of sucking her nipple and rubbing his smooth cheeks against her cleavage before he worked all the way up her thigh to her box. She humped her hips along the seat in furious anticipation, but she couldn't get him to work any faster. When he finally got there, he gave her sweet nexus one quick touch and immediately backed off to stroke her thighs some more.

All of a sudden, his lips appeared on her mouth. Her tits hung out in the breeze with her shirt pushed back on either side. One nipple pricked in the open air where he left it wet with saliva. Every inch of her skin tingled with desire for him.

He whispered into her brain. “You are so beautiful. You don't know how beautiful you are. Do you want me to touch you like this? Is this what you want?”

She had to get him. She had to tell him what she wanted. “Yes, please. Please touch me. I want it so bad.”

He kissed her once, twice, little brother kisses, tender uncle kisses. Where was his passion? Where was his torrential desire? She would burst out crying in a minute if he didn't want her the way she wanted him.

If anything, he pulled away from her. He kissed her less and less. He let a longer and longer pause linger between kisses. She looked up into his eyes and pleaded for...for something. He leaned back and regarded her with cool detachment. “You want this, don't you? You want me touching you like this.”

“God, yes! I want it.” She broke off. She wanted it, but she would never get it. She spoiled her chances with him when she let him see how much she wanted it.

He kissed her one last time and hummed under his breath. He was finished. One more pass of his fingers up her inner pants seam and he would leave her alone. She would go home and cry into her pillow, and he would never know how much it hurt.

He moved back another inch, and her heart broke. He stared into her eyes. She swallowed the lump in her throat. She didn't want him touching her leg anymore if he wasn't going all the way. His fingers trailed all the way down to her knee. He pressed his lips together. Now he would quit.

All of a sudden, faster than she could think, his hand dove in all the way and closed around her box in a masterful, crushing grip. He dug his fingers under her ass and massaged her clit with his thumb. His face swept right up close to her eyes, and he hissed into her mouth. “I want to see you cum, baby. I want to see you bow before me. Come on. Show me how much you want it. Do you want that. Huh, baby? Is that what you want?”

She couldn't react fast enough. He beat his hand against her crotch. He rocked her back and forth the way she just finished rocking herself. He saw, and he knew. He must know how wet and hot she was down there, inside her pants. He closed his powerful hand around her and blew her apart into a thousand pieces.

The harder he pressed, the harder he rubbed, the faster he bucked his hand against her snatch, the more fierce his growls into her face. “Cum for me, baby. Show me how you like to cum. Is your pussy wet down there? Is that what you want? Does that turn you on? Huh? Do I turn you on?”

“Oh, God, yes,” she panted.

“Did you like hearing how I stroked my cock thinking about you? Did you like hearing how I want to fuck you? You hot little monster. You want me to fuck your sweet little pussy, don't you?”

She could barely choke out the words. “Oh, God, yes.”

“Say it, baby. I want to hear you say it.”

“I want you to fuck me. I want you to fuck my sweet little pussy.” The last words came out as a pitiful sob.

He didn't kiss her now. He shoved his hand under her and squeezed the sugar syrup from her saturated cunt. His thumb made little circles over her swelling clit, and fiery rockets exploded through her brain. She peaked once, sagged against the seat, and launched into another monstrous climax. She heaved and tossed against the seat. She mashed her spasming snatch against his hand. “Oh! Oh! Oh!”

Marcus clenched his jaws and snarled down at her. “Fuck, yeah. That's it. Come on, baby. That's the way.”

She didn't hear him. She could only tumble over and under the breaking waves of ecstasy blasting through her. She never came like that in her life. He grabbed one breast and twisted the nipple hard, but the pain only sent her spinning higher into the stratosphere. Her soaking panties cut her slit open with their tough fibers.

She didn't get a chance to come down from that rolling wave when he tugged his hand free. In seconds, he yanked her zipper open and pulled her pants down over her hips. She hitched her hips into the air, and he slid her pants down to her feet.

Mila kicked them off in a frenzy. She had to get him. She had to have him. She had to break herself on his iron bulk. He pitched the wad of pants, underwear, and shoes into a corner and attacked her bare body with raging fury.

He scooped up her voluptuous ass in both hands and lifted her pelvis to his mouth. He drank her nectar like champagne from a glass. Mila caved back on the seat. She glared up at him in open-mouthed horror. Her orgasmic surges hadn't subsided from his hand, and here he was, mouthing her to greater peaks of carnal bliss.

He couldn't hold her up like that forever, though. He let her sink onto the seat, and her curvaceous form opened before his attentions. Her thighs fell apart, and her luscious pink petals dripped around his cheeks. He sank his face into her slit and nibbled up and down the opening.

He drilled her clit with his all-powerful tongue. He dabbled in her delicious pools until the saturated tissues squirted their elixir onto his tongue. He squeezed her thighs in tender encouragement until she rotated her hips against his mouth in desperate torment.

How could she stand this? How could she survive this constant treatment? Where would it end? Would she wind up in pieces on the floor when this was all over?

She never had time to worry. He plowed two thick fingers around her clit and down to screw into her pulsating cunt. Her cavernous channel yawned wide to receive him, but when his tongue set to work on her clit again, the muscles clamped down around those meaty digits. He flexed all the muscle power in his arms to penetrate her engorged umbra.

Mila gyrated her ass on the seat in time to those deep insertions. She bumped her cervix against his fingers while his mouth banged her clit to distraction. Dear God, that was so damn good! His fingers touched the most sensitive spots along her pussy to titillate her to sweet release.

His shoulders plowed under her thighs and lifted her legs around his neck. He settled into a long, delirious feast on her aching anatomy. He devoured her clit and slid his tongue alongside his fingers to explore her dripping depths.

He grunted and growled at his work. He enjoyed every droplet seeping down his throat and coating his cheeks with glistening goodness. Mila humped her hips against his face and rode him to screaming orgasm all over again.

How long could he go on? How long could he stay submerged in that crimson world of hot blood and foaming desire? He showed no signs of slowing down, not even when she dissolved in fresh bursts of glorious ecstasy. He only moved lower to cover her pussy with his mouth so the honeyed juices ran onto his tongue instead of down her crack to her bumping ass.

Mila could only sigh and sob and watch in blistering astonishment when he rose towering and deadly before her eyes. His face smoldered with molten passion. Her cum shimmered on his face. His mighty hands swooped down to catch and hold her.

Oh, Blessed Mary Mother of Jesus, please God, what was happening? God and Mary and Jesus couldn't help her now. He grabbed her by the waist and hauled her up off the seat. He sat her on the very edge and heaved her legs around his waist. Every move wrung a scream from her panting lips.

Oh, Jesus! Oh, God! Oh, please! She could pray all she liked. He was in charge here. He was God, her God, and he had her where he wanted her. He had her bare legs spread. He made her wet pussy cum again and again, and he hadn't even taken his clothes off yet. His eyes said it all. He would own her and dominate her. He would bow her before him until she worshiped him, just like the rest of the world already did.

He fixed her with his penetrating eyes and ripped his pants open. “You want it, don't you? Is this what you want? Is this what you've been waiting for?”

She could only stare at him in shock. Of course, she wanted it. He already knew that, but instead of bringing it out and unleashing it on her, he paused with his pants lying open. He nodded at her. “You want it? Huh? You want that thing?”

She couldn't reply. She could only put out her hands and take it. She touched her fingertips to the path of black hair leading under the waistband of his briefs. The angled ridges of muscle disappeared around his hip bones. Something evil and monstrous and wicked and huge waited for her under there. Did she dare touch it? Did she dare wake the dragon from its slumber?

She raked her fingers down to that waistband, and her wrist grazed the warm mound hidden underneath his briefs. He set his hands on his hips and waited. He could wait all day for her to be ready. He wouldn't do this for her. She had to take that step of her own free will.

She shrank from touching it. Why? Didn't she want it? Of course she did. She wanted it more than anything. She took a firm hold of herself and slipped her hand under the elastic. Soft curly hair surrounded her on all sides, but the comfortable warmth drew her down into a bed of crinkled skin and pulsing desire.

Marcus's jaw clenched tighter, but he didn't take his eyes off her. He watched her explore inside his pants until she found that whip snake buried between his legs. Her fingers choked its neck, and he contracted his abs against her wrist.

Mila watched the effect of her hand on his impassive visage. The more strain she saw, the more confident she became. She stroked his length down to his bushy patch of hair and dragged the loose skin folds up to the head.

His breath caught in his throat. “Fuck, yeah, baby. Fuck, yeah. Oh, fuck.”

The faster she stroked, the more turned on she got. This cock was all hers to do what she wanted with. She could suck it dry. She could sit on it and ride off into the sunset. She could bend over and let it drill her to kingdom come. As long as she had this, she had him. She owned him.

She tightened her grip and yanked. She could make him blow into his pants right now if she kept this up. Just thinking about that cock hidden under his briefs made her weak in the knees. She panted as fast as he did. Her pussy hungered for it.

He sucked in his breath, and when he let it out in a short, agonized gasp, his hand closed around her wrist. He clamped down so hard it hurt, and she whimpered low. “You horny little devil. You want that thing? You want me to give you that thing?”

He didn't wait for her answer. He dropped his pants around his hips to free the dragon from its cave. It came up in her hand, raw, pulsing, angry, brutal. She bent down to kiss its angry head, but he already moved between her legs. He cradled her ass in his two big paws, and the dragon reared its head to hunt its prey.

Mila watched it close in on her. She lost all awareness of her hand still surrounding its throbbing shaft. Without meaning to, she guided it into the delicate folds between her legs. Without meaning to, she rubbed its head up and down over her slit and circled it around her clit. She moaned and rocked her cunt toward it.

Marcus pumped his hips between her thighs. His prick slithered up between her petals, and her dribbling juices slathered down his shaft. He plowed it hard against her clit to make her squeak. When he pulled it back, he wedged it tight against her opening, and he wouldn't withdraw again. He held it there with powerful certainty. He knew where he was going. He wasn't going anywhere else.

Mila whined and cried, but he wouldn't back down. He nodded down at her. “Oh, yeah, baby. Oh, yeah.”

She heard her own voice, but she couldn't understand how it could be making those words with no help from her. “Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah.”

She wanted it in there. She needed it in there. Maybe he didn't guide it there at all. Maybe her hand did that all by itself.

The next thing she knew, her world split in half. His hot thick meat cracked her flesh apart, and he leaned it into her with all his might. She convulsed all over. Her hand flew back to support her against the seat, and that left him free to plunge his massive cock into its depths.

He didn't jackhammer her into submission, though. He went about this with the same insistent mastery he brought to every project in his life. He screwed it in, one millimeter at a time. If he encountered any resistance, he paused until it dissipated before his lordship.

He nodded with the slow passage of his snake into her quivering hole. “That's it, baby. That's so right. You know it's so good. Come on. Come on. That's right. Oh, fuck, yeah. Fuck, baby, that pussy is so damn sweet.”

Her mouth fell open. He bent over to plant a kiss on her lips, but she couldn't respond. She could only stare up into his eyes searching her soul. Holy Mother of God, that was so tight and hot and good. That cock was so thick and hard, she couldn't stand it.

He arrived at his cock's natural limit. The head nudged her cervix. All at once, he arched his back. His cock made one quick plunge out and into its depths again. Mila shrieked, but he already started pumping. He beat that wicked dragon against her tight fissure harder and faster than she could ever imagine. His black pubis knocked her clit to smithereens. She exploded into sensational orgasms before she could stop herself.

He wrapped his muscled arms around her waist and held her sitting straight up against him. He worked his piston with mechanical expertise. His shaft glided to her very center on a slick film of sweet desire. When he withdrew to her quivering curtains, he brought a spurt of steaming nectar with him.

Mila hung suspended in his arms. She couldn't move forward or back or right or left. She didn't have to. He did all the work. He gritted his teeth and snarled in her face, but his quick thrusts came too fast and hard for him to talk dirty now.

What was he doing? Mila couldn’t tell. She knew only the overpowering intensity of his spike hammering her and her blessed tissues greeting his every stroke. She could sing and laugh and cry and pray all at once for that intoxicating invasion into her being.

He bent further forward, and his pounding beat got louder. It matched the pulse thundering in her veins. His lips caught hold of her mouth, but nothing could stop him. He fell forward with his hands on the seat behind her ass, and still, their sticky flesh slapped together, stuck, and ripped apart for another shrieking union.

Mila couldn't take anymore. She couldn't cum anymore if she wanted to. She collapsed back on the seat, and he rode her down flat. His bulk crushed her onto the black leather. She couldn't breathe. His mouth ground against her ear, and his scorching breath stabbed into her brain. He bellowed out loud, and a lightning bolt of hot jiz stabbed into her guts. The foaming cream oiled out around his shaft.

Mila got ready to sink into a dizzy pleasure coma, but Marcus caught her up one more time and flipped her over on her chest. He pushed her face down into the seat. Mila closed her eyes. She didn't need to understand how he got his cock back inside her so fast, but he woke her up with a wicked slap on the ass.

She heaved off the seat, but another slap followed. Inch by inch, she started to understand. Those slaps came from his hips against her ass. His prick plowed her furrow deep and hard. She collapsed back on the seat in a moaning heap.

He plunged to his depths. Her contracting muscles milked the heady jiz from his spike. He pinned her to the seat with one hand and supported his shoulders with the other while his piston pounded against her upturned backside. Mila drifted through heavenly clouds of rapturous pleasure. His cock excited every inch of her pleasure palace, and seething oceans of orgasm cascaded over her and carried her away.

Marcus passed his hand across his forehead. “Phew! That was amazing.”

He coughed and straightened his jacket. Mila hitched up her pants and tucked her breasts back into her bra. She arranged herself as best she could in the same place on the seat, but she couldn't think well enough to speak.

She kept looking out the window, but her head still spun from all those mind-blowing orgasms. What in the world just happened to her? No man ever fucked her like that. He pumped her full of his hot sauce and blew her out of the water. What was she thinking? She was supposed to keep this professional, have his baby, and see ya later, alligator.

She wasn't thinking. That was the problem. She let her body get the better of her. She let every rule sail out the window while she swizzled on his smoking hot cock. Damn, he was so hot! He must be the greatest guy in the world in the sack, and she would never have him again. He ruined her on every other guy she would ever meet as long as she lived.

She cradled her swimming head in one hand, but she couldn't clear her thoughts. How could she think about doing it with him again? Where was her self-respect? She had to get out of this limo. She had to get away from him where she could think.

His voice broke in on her confusion. “I suppose you'll want to get to your new condo. You probably want to see where you'll be staying for the next nine months and get settled in.”

Mila spun around. “What?”

“The condo,” he repeated. “You probably want to go there and unwind after...Anyway, it's right around the corner. Where's your luggage?”

She looked around. “What luggage?”

“You're moving into the condo, aren't you? Don't you have a suitcase or something?”

“I didn't know I was moving into the condo today. I thought I would start living there when the clinic confirmed I was pregnant.”

He shook his head. “You start living there now—if you want to. You can stay somewhere else as long as you want. I just want to make sure you're all taken care of. As long as you're doing all this insemination stuff, you might as well start reaping the benefits.”

She blinked the stars out of her eyes. “All right. I didn't bring any luggage, but I suppose I can go there now. I can drop off this box, at least.”

The limo pulled up in front of what looked like an office building. He led her into the lobby, and they rode the elevator all the way to the top floor, the twenty-third floor. The elevator opened into the biggest apartment Mila ever saw. The ceiling towered high overhead. Vast windows let brilliant daylight streaming in through the roof and three walls.

The living area undulated up and down on many levels. An open-plan kitchen married into an elevated platform with couches and easy chairs overlooking the city. A luxurious bedroom sat on the mezzanine floor above the kitchen.

Mila stared at the place. “You can't mean for me to stay here for nine months.”

“Sure.” Marcus handed her a set of keys. “This one here opens the lobby door during off hours. This key locks the elevator to take you down to the parking garage. You'll find the car in space number 10. These are the car keys. You can take it anywhere you want, and here is a gas card for fueling up.”

She stared at him with her mouth open. “You can't be serious. This is way too much.”

“It's not enough for what you're doing. Here's a bank card loaded with your spending money. I understand you want to transfer some of the spending money to your mother's mortgage, so here's the phone number for the banker handling the account. Just explain what you want to do, and he'll handle it.”

She took the card and the number. “Thanks.”

“Just do me a favor, will you? Don't transfer any money from your spending account until the following month. I wouldn't want you to be left high and dry without spending money.”

“You don't have to worry about that. There's no way I could spend $10,000 in a month.”

“You'd be surprised. Just do it this way to set my mind at ease, all right?”

“All right.”

“Good. The grocery down the street will bring you a delivery every three days. I set the order for lots of lean meats and fruits and veggies, but feel free to change the order to anything you want. Just hold off on the pickles and ice cream.”

Mila laughed. “Okay.”

He turned to go. “If you tell me where your luggage is, I can have it sent up.”

She darted forward. “Hey, Marcus.”

He turned back.

“Thanks. Thanks, for...all this.”

He whirled around. In a flash, he was on her. He grabbed her around the waist and lifted her feet off the ground. He sat her down hard on the kitchen counter and fought his way between her knees. He mauled her mouth with passionate kisses.

She couldn't do anything but kiss him back. She wasn't expecting this. What did he mean?

At last, he tore himself away. “I had an amazing time with you today. Almost too amazing. I don't know. I don't know what to think, but I better go now before we do it all over again. I can't thank you enough for what you're doing, and I don't mean what we just did in the limo. I should be thanking you for that, too. I never had sex like that before in my life. You're amazing. You really are.”

Before he could say anything else, he hurried out of the condo. A moment later, the elevator dinged and hummed away.

Mila slid off the counter. His lips still burned on her mouth. His tongue still tickled her taste buds. Holy fucking crap, that guy was hot! He thanked her for what they just did? She should fall on her knees and kiss his feet for what he just did.

Her knees wobbled when she tried to walk. She sat down on the couch, too inebriated to move. She could only stare straight in front of her, but her whole body quivered with excitement and arousal. Even now, after he left, she ached for him inside her. She ached for his prick in her hand and his jiz draining out of her cunt to wet her ass against the seat.

His jiz and her cum dampened her pants and turned her on beyond belief. What did he do to her? He turned her from a professional to a blithering sex maniac. He made her his slave. If he walked through that door right now and grabbed her, she would fall into his arms and orgasm her way to screaming ecstasy all over again.

She wanted him. She wanted all of him, all the time. She wanted to lie down here on the couch and wait for him to come back and take her. Her mind invented countless combinations and positions in which he would take her. She would cum and cum and cum, never ending. He would have to tie her to the bed to stop her attacking him the moment he walked in the door.

She panted and sobbed, but he didn't come back. He wouldn't come back. He wanted her to have his baby. That's the best way she could serve him now. She lay there for hours until darkness enveloped the city. The lights came on.

She slid her hands up her body to her breasts. She squeezed her breasts and thought about him massaging them and pinching her nipples. One hand burrowed down her pants to her saturated crotch. She beat her clitoris until she wrung one last orgasm from her exhausted body, but it wasn't the same. It wasn't as good as the countless orgasms he gave her with that wicked dragon of his.

She spent three years working in the same office with him. She spent three years on the phone with him and learning the most intimate secrets of his business. Only now did she understand what he was really like, and now she would never get him back.

Three weeks later, Mila went to the Roman bathroom in her upstairs suite in the luxury condo where she now lived. She sat on the toilet and pissed on the testing strip. She set it on the sink, but when she came back half an hour later to check it, she didn't see a speck of purple in sight.

She carried the strip downstairs and called the clinic. “I'm supposed to be undergoing artificial insemination and I've been testing my urine for ovulation. I just used my last strip, and I haven't ovulated yet.”

“You better come in.” The receptionist made an appointment for that morning.

Mila found herself in the same doctor's office. The doctor smiled the same reassuring smile. “This happens sometimes. We might need to test your ovaries. You might have some hidden fertility problem we don't know about.”

Mila froze. “How can I have a fertility problem? I'm twenty-seven years old.”

The doctor shrugged. “We see it all the time. You're never too young to have problems, but first we'll do some routine blood work. Sit right there. I'll do the draw now, and we'll have the results in fifteen minutes.”

She tightened a strap around Mila's arm and took a vial of blood. Mila pretended to read magazines in the waiting area, but her heart raced. What if she had some fertility problem? What if she couldn't get pregnant at all? Her whole deal with Marcus would be off. She would have to find some way to return the $100,000 he already advanced her. That would mean she couldn't pay off her mother's mortgage after all.

Nightmare scenarios haunted her. That was the longest fifteen minutes of her life. At last, the receptionist called out, “Mila? You can go inside now.”

She resisted the urge to run back to the doctor's office. She sat there alone for another five minutes before the doctor came in. The doctor set a file folder on the desk and smiled at Mila. “The good news is you don't have a fertility problem.”

“Really? That is good news. So why am I not ovulating?”

The doctor leaned forward. “You're not ovulating because you're pregnant.”

Mila blinked. “What?”

The doctor opened her folder. “I guess it just happened naturally. Your partner Marcus's sperm samples are all strong, full sperm samples, so he doesn't have any fertility problems, either. You're pregnant. Congratulations.”

Mila couldn't answer. How she got out of that office, she had no idea. She found herself walking down the street. People bumped into her, bounced off, and disappeared into the crowd.

She was pregnant. Should she be happy or sad? Isn't this what she wanted? Isn't this what Marcus paid her for? She already sent the first $100,000 to her mother's bank, as well as half the first $10,000 of her spending money.

Now what? Marcus would be pleased. She would go on living in that condo. She would go on working on her Masters' Thesis, just like he said she would. She would take her daily walks and work out in the gym. Nothing would change—nothing but her.

She was pregnant, but not the way she thought she would be. She didn't get pregnant from lying on some doctor's table getting inseminated with a vial of sperm. She got pregnant from fucking Marcus in the back of his limo. That shouldn't make any difference, but it did.

This baby was half her and half Marcus. This baby wasn't some test tube experiment. It was the product of their insatiable passion for each other. What difference did that make? Did the fact that they did it invalidate their legal contract?

She shook her head to clear her thoughts. She couldn't go back on the contract. She didn't really want this baby. Did she? Of course not. She had a career, a life. She had her youth. She didn't want to squander that—and for what? To raise someone else's kid?

Marcus could rally all the legal eagles in the country to enforce his rights. He could drag her name through the mud so she never worked in the corporate world again. Why would she throw his generosity back in his face by nullifying the contract? She didn't even want to nullify the contract. She wanted the money, not this kid.

She found her way back to the condo, but she couldn't do anything more than sit on the couch and stare out at the view. I'm pregnant. The words kept repeating in her mind. I'm pregnant. I'm pregnant.

The world looked different to her now. All the things she used to value no longer meant anything. She would never be able to break the news to her mother. Once she started to show, she wouldn't even be able to visit her family until after the baby was born. She would have to go underground so her mother never found out she was pregnant.

Those simple logistical facts robbed her of all the joy she should have felt at being pregnant. Getting pregnant, looking forward to becoming a mother, should have filled her heart and soul with the greatest joy of her life. Instead, they left her hollow. She would never hold this child in her arms. She would never kiss it. She would never even know its name. In all likelihood, Marcus would never let her see it.

For the first time, she hated her job. She hated her career. She hated her life. She wanted nothing more than to have a child of her own—and not just any child. She wanted this child. She wanted to nurture it, to care about what she ate and how she exercised for the sake of this child. She wanted to start mothering it now, and she never wanted that mothering to end, not even when the child grew up.

She didn't want to let it go. She didn't want Marcus to take it away. She didn't want the money. Her mother could rot in hell before Mila would let this child go. To hell with the contract and everything else.

She paced around the condo in a ferment of tempestuous emotions. Nothing made sense. Here she was, eating his food and living in his condo and taking his money. She should be throwing them back in his face.

In the end, she got herself calmed down enough to think the situation through. She already agreed she would have no rights to this child. Even if she wanted to change something now and at least visit the child while it grew up, she had to talk to Marcus first.

She positioned herself on the couch and sent him a text. I'm pregnant. That said it all, didn't it?

She waited in the living room. He burst out of the elevator the way she knew he would, and she went to meet him in the entry. He exploded into her life like he never left. She hadn't seen him since that fateful day they did it in the limo coming back from the clinic, but he looked and smelled the same.

He swept the condo with his eyes, and when he saw her, he rushed at her. He swept her up in his arms and spun her around before setting her down. His rolling laugh echoed off the high ceiling. “Yay! You did it! This is great, isn't it! Yeah! What a lucky break, huh? You did it! I knew you would. I knew you'd be perfect for this.”

She tried to push him away, but she couldn't stop smiling at his joy. “Take it easy. It's great for you. It's not great for me.”

He stopped and frowned at her. “It's not? Why isn't it?”

“Don't you see? I got pregnant from us doing it in the limo. I got pregnant the old fashioned way. You didn't have to bank all that sperm after all.”

He stared at her. Then he burst out laughing. “I'm glad it worked out that way. It just got the job done sooner.” He hugged her again. “Banking all that sperm doesn't matter. I would have been jerking off thinking about nailing you anyway. I always do.”

Mila froze. “You do?”

“Sure. Don't you know you make me raging horny? Come on and sit down right here. I want to celebrate. I brought a bottle of sparkling cider. I was going to bring champagne, but then I remembered.”

She pushed him off. “What is there to celebrate? This is terrible.”

“What do you mean? This is exactly what we wanted.” He wrenched the cork out of the bottle and a bubble of carbonation erupted all over his hand. He barely got it over the counter in time to catch the run-off. “You're pregnant. I'm getting my baby. You're getting the money to pay off your mother's house. What could be better?”

“Don't you understand? We had sex. This baby was conceived by two people having sex. This pregnancy nullifies the contract. The contract states that the baby would be conceived through artificial insemination. This is a whole different kettle of fish. Legally, I have as much right to this baby as you do. We would have to go through the whole custody thing to determine who gets what and who has what rights.”

Marcus stared at her. “You want to nullify the contract?”

Mila started talking faster. “I don't want to let this baby go. We conceived this baby in one afternoon of unbridled passion. That makes this baby half mine and half yours. I never thought I would feel this way about getting pregnant, but now that I am, I feel differently. I want to keep this baby. I want to mother it and make it my own.”

Marcus slammed the bottle down on the counter. The fizzy juice ejaculated over his hand and ran off onto the carpet. He bellowed through gritted teeth. “You are NOT nullifying the contract. I don't care how differently you feel. You're sticking to the contract. If you try to take this baby away from me, I'll drag you through all the courts. I'll ruin you. You see if I don't.”

“I know you have a lot more money and power than I can shake a stick at, Marcus, but you'll never rob me of my rights as this baby's mother. We both wanted to have sex, and I got pregnant. Your contract doesn't mean spit now. This is my baby just as much as it is yours, and I'll fight you tooth and nail to keep it. You think you'll beat me with money and power? You'll see I'm not so easily beaten.”

Marcus spun around fast. He snatched the sparkling cider bottle off the counter and sent it flying across the room. It smashed into the wall and shattered into a million pieces. Broken glass and fizzing cider cascaded onto the floor.

He spun around the other way and pointed toward the elevator. “Get out of here! Pack up and get out right now. I never want to see your face again. Make sure you have the whole $100,000 transferred back into my bank account by the end of the day or I'll destroy you with everything I've got. If you take so much as a paper napkin from this apartment, I'll have you arrested and charged with fraud and conspiracy. Do you hear me?”

Mila held up her hands. “Cool it, Marcus. Can't we talk about this in a civil manner like two intelligent adults? Let's not start this off on the wrong foot.”

He thundered into her face. “Get out of here! Get out before I smash your fucking face in! You bitch! You fucking bitch! You played me like a cheap saxophone. You saw your chance to cheat me out of my money, and you diddled me to your heart's content. You fucking bitch! Get the fuck out of my condo now before I...I swear to God if I ever see you again, I'll rip your fucking head off.”

Mila backed away in terror, but he didn't come after her. He grabbed up a bar stool from the kitchen counter and hurled it with all his strength at the big windows overlooking the city. Mila ducked and covered her head with both arms, but the stool bounced off the glass without doing any damage.

When she looked again, she saw Marcus's back disappearing around the corner toward the elevator.

Mila slumped down on the bed in the mezzanine bedroom. She buried her face in her hands, but she couldn't get Marcus's words out of her head. This was just frickin' great. This was absolutely brilliant. Why did she have to go make a mess of this?

She couldn't sit here moping about it, though. What was done, was done. She couldn't go back on it. She didn't want to, anyway. She had a child to think about now. She had to get her act together in a hurry.

She took her suitcase out of the closet and started packing it with all the things she just took out when she moved into this condo. She zipped it up and sat down again with her phone in her lap. She curled up on the pillows one last time and dialed the number.

“Hi, Mom. It's just me checking in. Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just a little tired, that's all. How are you? How's the clean-out going? Yeah, I know Dad had a lot of old stuff packed around the place. You'll manage all right. Have you heard from Charlie? That's good.”

Mila let a long pause pass by. She listened to her mother's sing-song voice. She waited for a discrete opening.

“Listen, Mom, I've got something to tell you. I'm coming home for a while, but I won't be staying. I've decided to stop working in New York for a while, but I don't think I'll work in Jersey, either. I was thinking about moving out to the West Coast. I need a change of scene.”

“Why would you want to do that?” her mother asked.

Mila took a deep breath. “I'm pregnant, Mom. I just found out. I want to spend some time with you and the rest of the family, and then I think I want to make a big change. I haven't really decided what I want to do yet. I need some time to think.”

Mila sat in silence and listened to the explosion of exclamations and tears and congratulations she knew would come when she broke the news. She smiled at her mother's promises and plans. She knew her mother would rejoice at a grandchild on the way.

How could she think of robbing her mother and the rest of her family this precious experience? She must have been out of her mind. None of them would trade this for all the money in the mint.

She got off the phone as soon as she could and finished packing. She took one last look around the condo. It sure was nice, but she never belonged in a place like this anyway. She would go home to her mother's quaint little house. She had nine months to rebuild her life and get ready for the next phase of her evolution.

She wheeled her suitcase downstairs and stood in the entry waiting for the elevator. The bell pinged, but when the door slid open, Marcus rushed out. He grabbed both her hands and started talking so fast she could barely keep up with what he said. “Oh, thank goodness you're still here. Listen, Mila. I'm a troll. I'm really sorry for saying all those things. You're absolutely right. This baby is as much yours as it is mine. I have no right to take that away from you, not after the time we spent in the limo. I don't know what I was thinking.”

“I know what you were thinking. You were thinking we had a contract, and you expected me to stick to it. I understand that. You have every right to be angry.”

He waved her comments away. “Just listen to me. I've got it all worked out. I figured out a way we can both get what we want. It's the perfect solution.”

“I'm listening.”

He took a deep breath and puffed out his cheeks. All of a sudden, he dropped on one knee in front of her. “Marry me, Mila. I'm crazy about you and I always have been. I was a damn fool to think I could go through this baby thing with you and not get attached to you somehow. Now we're both in up to our necks. This is the only way we can both get what we want. We'll both get to keep the baby. We'll raise it together instead of tearing each other apart fighting over it. You can keep the money for your mother's house. Everything will be perfect.”

Mila's jaw dropped. “Marry you? You must be out of your mind.”

He broke into hysterical giggles. “I know I am. I'm head over heels in love with you, Mila. That's why I lost it just now. I couldn't face losing you. Marry me, and let's raise this baby together.”

“I can't marry you, Marcus. You're not thinking clearly. You're in shock because I said I wanted to keep this baby. When you have a chance to think about it, you'll realize you don't really want to marry me.”

He didn't seem to hear. “We're a match made in heaven, you and me. We obviously have strong sexual chemistry. We work together well. We respect each other. It's the perfect solution in a thousand ways. I want to cherish you, Mila. I want to take care of you and support you through this pregnancy. Stay here. We can stay here together until we get all the arrangements finalized. Come on. What do you say?”

She couldn't stop shaking her head, but her eyes shone. “I'm glad you're not mad at me anymore, but you're only saying this because you don't want to lose this baby. You don't really want to marry me, or we would have connected a long time ago. We had one afternoon of wild sex and I got pregnant, but that doesn't mean we should get married.”

A shadow crossed his face. “Do you feel the same way about me that I feel about you?”

She squeezed his hands. “You're a wonderful, smart, handsome, sexy man. You're a dynamite businessman and a great boss. I never had sex with anyone like I had with you. I don't know if I'll ever be the same, but this is all too sudden. I never thought about marrying you. I was thinking about moving out West and rebuilding my life mothering a child.”

He frowned. “You can't move out West. You can't take the child away from me.”

She raised him from the ground. “Please, let's not argue about that now. We both want what's best for this child. Let's work together to give it the best life possible, but getting married? That's putting the cart before the horse, don't you think?”

Marcus nodded, but he couldn't stop frowning. “You're right. It's too sudden. I just blew up at you, and now I'm asking you to marry me. This is all too much at once. Why don't you stay here for a few more days? We can talk about this and decide what to do.”

“I can't stay here. I'm going home to my mother's for a while. I just spoke to her on the phone and she's over the moon about this baby.”

He kept nodding. His expression softened. “You're right. You need your family around you right now. Just let me know if there's anything I can do to help you. I want to be part of this. I want to help you and the baby.”

What else was there to say? She walked him out of the condo. When the elevator opened in the lobby, they parted with a simple nod. Mila wheeled her suitcase out to the sidewalk to catch a cab when an overwhelming wave of exhaustion swept over her. She reeled on her heels and had to support herself against a pole before she collapsed on a bench by the bus stop.

She cradled her head in both hands. Nausea ate at her guts, and she gasped for a breath of fresh air. A cold sweat broke out all over her body. Did she have nine months of this to look forward to? How could she ever get through it? How could she work like this, when she couldn't even stand up? All her energy drained out of her. All her motivation to rebuild her life crumbled between her fingers.

She didn't want to deal with her mother right now. She didn't want to go anywhere. She wanted to lie down on the couch and fall asleep. She should have taken Marcus up on his offer to stay in the condo a few more days.

What if he was right? She couldn't do this alone. Even if she could, she didn't want to. She didn't want to call on her family for help. She always prided herself on running her own life. She couldn't call on anyone for help. She was alone in the world.

Only one person on the planet cared about her and this baby. Only one person cared as much as she did about giving this baby the best: Marcus. He already said he wanted to help her. He cared about her enough to want to marry her. Why didn't she jump at the chance when he offered? Why did she have to kick him in the teeth?

Did she really want to marry him? Would she want to marry him if she wasn't pregnant with his baby? No one could ask for a nicer, smarter, sexier, more successful man. He lit her fire like no one else. That she knew for a fact. Why not? Why couldn't she marry him and let him support her through this pregnancy?

Heaven knew she didn't want to fight him in court. She didn't want to scratch his eyes out over who would have the kid's birthday parties when. No kid deserved parents like that. She would do anything to spare the kid a life of constant stress and hostility. Would she really do anything? Did she care for her child enough to marry Marcus?

When she looked the unvarnished truth in the face, she couldn't deny it. She wanted him. She wanted to love him. She wished more than anything she could fall on her knees and love him the way he said he loved her. She would give anything to be able to do that. So why couldn't she?

Was it just her stupid pride that held her at a distance? She couldn't stop thinking about him as her boss. Well, he wasn't her boss anymore. He was....what was he?

Her heart searched the world for one solid anchor point to stop her drifting away into uncertainty. She found nothing to hold onto—nothing but him. He offered her everything. He offered her a lifeline.

She could cut her moorings and drift. She could kick ass and rebuild if she wanted to. She could move somewhere no one knew her, but why should she? Why shouldn't she seize the happiness staring her straight in the face?

Darkness crowded the windows around the Conroy Limited building. Desks stood empty and computer screens slumbered. The elevator hissed open, and Mila stepped out into the reception area she knew so well. She tiptoed between the desks.

A single bright gleam of light shone under the doors at the far end. She paused to raise her hand, but she didn't knock. She rallied her courage and turned the knob. She pushed the doors open and walked into Marcus's office.

He sat in his chair behind his desk. The computer screen glowed, and the overhead lights lit up the room, but his face didn't light up when he looked up. He stared at her in blank indifference. She stopped in the middle of the office. They regarded each other across the desk.

Would he rant and rave and threaten her out of the building, or would he just sit and stare at her like that, like a stranger? That's what she was, a stranger. She turned against him. She took his generosity and spat in his face. No wonder he hated her.

She took a few more steps, but he still didn't respond. She had to take drastic measures. She walked around his desk, and he swiveled his chair around to face her. She went down on her knees in front of him and laid her arms on his thighs.

She nibbled up the inside of his leg from his knee toward the taut bulge inside his pants. She gazed up at him, but he only stared down at her with that hollow expression on his face. He didn't respond at all.

She took hold of his belt. She nuzzled her nose and mouth into his crotch while she slipped the tongue through the buckle. She started on his fly when his hands landed on her arms. He held her still and stopped her. “Don't do this to me, Mila. Don't torture me like this. I can't stand you touching me when you don't feel the same way I do.”

She lifted her head to meet his gaze. “I do feel the same way about you. I worship you.”

She set to work on his fly again. She unzipped him and laid the two sides aside to reveal the blue cotton triangle of his briefs. His cock lay curled in its nest underneath. She bent down and kissed it awake. A ragged groan escaped Marcus's mouth. “For Christ's sake, Mila. Don't do this. Just leave me alone. It's hard enough without this.”

“I can't leave you alone. I want you too much. I want to love you and worship you and suck you. I want us to be together and raise this child together. You're the only one I care about. You're the only one I want to share this child with. I love you. I don't want to be anywhere except with you.”

He frowned. “Are you sure? You said you couldn't, that it was too sudden.”

“It was too sudden, but only for me. That's why I said no. You surprised me, but now I know it really is what I want. I want you. I want you with me, and I want to share the future with you.”

She put her hand into his briefs and pulled out that thick rubbery sausage. It flopped in her hand, but the blood pulsed in her hand when she sucked its little head. The shaft swelled in her hand. Marcus glared down at her. She kept her eyes on his face while she sucked his cock hard.

His ferocious frown deepened and his breath grated between his teeth. His chest and stomach convulsed with her sucks until he gasped out loud on tormented agony. All of a sudden, his hand shot out. He grasped her by the hair and jerked her head back hard.

He choked off his cock around the base and ran the head across her lips, but he held her back so she couldn't suck it. Her mouth hung open to catch it, but he wouldn't let her have it. “Do you want that cock? You want to suck my cock, you wicked little fiend?”

She gasped out loud. “I want it. I want your cock. I want to suck you and fuck you. I want to give you your baby.”

He bent over and snarled in her face. “Are you mine? Do you want to be mine forever? You're gonna be mine forever, or you're gonna walk out that door right now. You'll never touch my cock again, you little devil.”

“I'm yours forever. Do whatever you want to me. Stick your cock down my throat. I want you to.”

He hurled himself back in the chair and threw her away. He grasped both arm rests in a white-knuckle grip. “Show me. Show me how much you worship me. Show me how you want to belong to me forever.”

She fell on him with all her energy. She took hold of that hard cock in both hands and shoved it in her mouth. She rolled the umbrella over her lip until the thing pumped and throbbed in her hand. She gloried in sucking it, in seeing him ferocious and untamed up there in the chair above her.

She bent her head over his cock and set to work. She swallowed him deep into her throat and sucked him until the first pearls of jiz stung her sinuses. He curled his lips back from his teeth and fought to breath through the intense waves of desire shooting up his body.

She took hold of his nuts and clamped them in a vice. She tugged them down to stretch his skin tight. His head fell back on the chair, and his eyes drifted closed in a drunken revelry of pleasure. Mila drew his cock out and locked her suction around its head. She sucked until the serpent popped through her lips. She engulfed him to his limit in her throat until she couldn't breathe.

Her hair hung around her face so she couldn't see him anymore. He surprised her by gathering her hair and holding it out of the way. He lifted her head off his cock to face him. “I love you, Mila. I don't want to live without you.”

She devoured his precious face with her eyes. “I love you. I love you more than anything. I'll never leave you. I need you too much.”

He kissed her, but his breath caught in his throat. He pulled back to look into her eyes.

“I need you. I'm yours.”

The next thing she knew, Mila found herself locked with him in an eternal kiss. That kiss went on and on without end. She couldn't get enough of him. She gobbled his lips and swooped his tongue with hers. She hugged him against her and tackled his clothes with both hands. He tore at her with equal ferocity.

Somehow, she got her hands around his cock again. She stroked it with all the loving care in her heart. She wanted to suck it, to worship him and it, but he wouldn't let her mouth loose from his ravaging kisses.

He stripped off her jacket, and her shirt disappeared to reveal her bra lying frilly and perfect against her skin. He grappled with her breasts and gnawed them in ravenous desire. His prick pumped into her hands. The skin stretched tight against the bulging veins. He scraped his rigid spike across her stomach in a desperate race to get her clothes off in time.

He only paused long enough to rip off his jacket and shirt. His massive chest rose up high over Mila's head. He hoisted himself off his chair and knelt down in front of her. Their kisses welded them together in eternal union, never to be torn apart.

His chest met her breasts, and her nipples itched to touch him beyond her bra. He got her pants unsnapped and slid them down, but he couldn't get them past her thighs. He left them there and slid his own pants down, but his knees on the floor held them there at half mast.

Mila never let go of that cock. That cock anchored her through any hardship. As long as she had that, nothing else mattered. Marcus didn't tug it out of her hand but left it lying there. She held him by that leash until he stood up tall and immovable before her. They knelt on the floor facing each other with their lips still tangled in kisses.

Marcus gave her bra one rip, and her voluptuous breasts flopped into his hands. He gave both nipples a pinch and his hands flew around to grab her ass. He hauled her toward him, and she guided his unerring spike between her legs.

Oh, sweet Jesus! The second time was better than the first. She never took her eyes off him or tore her lips away from his mouth. His prick dug its point into her tender tissues, but her pants held her legs together so she couldn't spread them.

He didn't care. He plowed in and overcame any resistance with his masterful hands around her ass. He prodded her lips apart until he found the molten center where her juices flowed. He rocked his tool against her opening. Her mouth sagged open in a delighted moan, and he was in.

Her thighs held her pussy close around his beating cock. Her lips crinkled around the shaft until her elixir coated them and lubricated his smooth passage to her fiery insides. She quaked before the sheer intensity of that penetration, but she couldn't close her eyes. She couldn't escape his dominating gaze demanding her attention. He held her enthralled before his world-shattering power.

He bored to her very soul with that gaze. He owned her and commanded her to respond to him. He bent her to his will, and she had no choice but to bow. He penetrated to her core with his driving spike and touched her soul to quickening ecstasy.

His pubic bone excited her clit with every slithering insertion of his manhood into her smoking hole, but she still didn't rocket into orgasm the way she did in the limo. Her whole being waited for his command. She was nothing without him. She knew that now.

Her body rounded with pregnancy to the curvy form of a fertility goddess. He completed her with his mighty phallus probing her depths. He awoke ancient dreams and visions in her soul. The energy moving through her erupted out of the lost reaches of human existence until she embodied pure unchained sexual reality.

She needed this. She was this. This was her life and her future and her highest calling. She rode down hard on that devil demon invading her body. The blistering erotic power swelled inside her until she couldn't contain the volcanic pressure any longer. She shivered. Her joints turned to liquid.

He moved her where he wanted her. He guided her hips back and forth along his length to strike deep into her fissure. Oh, how could he do this to her? How could he destroy her like this, only to complete her and make her over into something utterly new? She didn't recognize herself. She embodied insatiable lust and craven hunger for his raw throbbing flesh. Her pussy ate him up. It chewed him up and spat him out to swallow him again.

She howled into his mouth in raving demonic madness. She shuddered to her bones, but that pounding spike gave her no peace. It nagged her secrets and discovered her most delicious hiding places. It set fire to every inch of her inner territory until each stroke of his piston brought her to another tremulous climax.

Oh, yes! Oh, yes! Oh, yes! She wanted it. She loved it. She could never get enough of it, and she loved him more than ever for giving it to her. He wrote his signature on her soul. His seed planted its roots inside her and sprouted into a living, breathing person all its own. It grew into a flowering tree that gave nourishing fruit to both of them for the rest of their lives.

Just when she thought nothing could give her more pleasure, he seized her hips and spun her around to face away from her. He backed her against his spike, but he didn't bend her over or try to spread her legs. He left her pants where they were, with her thighs tied together above the knees.

He positioned her in front of him, and his prick screwed its way between her butt cheeks. He found the same saturated opening he just left behind, and her juicy cum-spattered cunt spread to welcome him in. He guided her back and started his pounding rhythm all over again.

Mila sagged against his granite frame. He pumped against her ass for a while. Then he slipped one hand in front of her and groped down between her legs to find her engorged slit. He swirled his fingers in her nectar and circled her clit in time to his cock drilling her from behind.

Her head lolled back on his shoulder, and she drifted in semi-consciousness. He took her with his hips slamming her rounded ass. His shaft buried between her thighs to pump her full of that golden light of heavenly pleasure while his fingers teased her clit to ever-increasing peaks of ecstasy.

She couldn't get any higher if she wanted to. She rippled on endless rolling tremors of climax, vision, and rapture. Her body rocked back and forth between one orgasm and the other. When one body part subsided into blissful rest, another exploded into cosmic fulfillment once again.

She rested in his arms. Nothing bad could ever happen to her there. She found the place she belonged. When he plunged his dripping spike to its hilt in her shimmering flesh, his seed scattered on fertile ground to grow new life.

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