I punch a series of eight digits into the keypad next to the large steel door and hit the enter button. The lock clicks and the door slides open slowly. I look over my shoulder at Emma and grin.

“High tech,” she comments, looking impressed.

“We had some issues with security a few years back,” I say. “We installed all these on our testing warehouses to deter any leakers.”

“You’re taking me to a warehouse for dinner?” she asks me, cocking her head.

I nod, still grinning. “Come on. You’ll see.”

We step into the cavernous space. The testing facility was a late addition to this building, constructed just a few years ago when we were ramping up the Envoy tests. Now it hosts all of our most experimental tech, the sort of stuff that the public will probably never know about, unless it passes our rigorous standards.

The whole space is white and brightly lit. The door slides shut behind us once we head into the room and Emma glances over her shoulder at it. “Keep up,” I say. “Don’t wander off.”

“I’m right here,” she grumbles, hurrying to fall in step with me. “What is all this stuff, anyway?”

Scattered all over the place in little groups are different objects we’re testing. “That’s a new camera array,” I say, pointing at a spider-like thing perched on top of a trash can. “And that’s a new glass configuration that looks promising.” I point at a sheet of it surrounded by hammers, knives, and a gun mounted on a tripod.

Emma blinks at the gun but we keep moving. There are other things scattered all over, and some of it even I don’t recognize. “This is the bleeding edge of Envoy,” I say to her. “Everything starts out here before it gets anywhere near consumers.”

“This is crazy,” she admits. “I mean, look at this stuff. I thought you guys were just a car company.”

I laugh a little bit. “Oh, we’re much more than that.” We step through a bunch of tables laden with different pipes bent at all kinds of angles. Up ahead is another table, but this one is covered in a white tablecloth with two place settings and a candle burning in the middle. There’s a side table a few feet away with a jug of water and glasses.

Emma laughs softly. “So this is dinner, huh? Do you use this trick often?”

I shake my head. “Only for the most important clients.” I walk over to the table and pull out a chair for her. “If you wouldn’t mind?”

She gives me a look and sits down. “I didn’t know I was a client.”

“You’re not,” I say lightly. “Just someone I want to impress, and maybe go into business with.”

She cocks her head as I pour two glasses of water, watching me carefully. “Business?”

I put the water down in front of her and take a seat at the other end. Almost instantly, a waiter appears out of nowhere. I can tell he startles Emma as he walks into the space from behind a prototype Mark 2 Envoy.

“Sir, madam,” he says, “tonight will be a tasting menu. Drinks?”

I grin at him. “You’re an awful waiter, Dirk.”

He nods slightly. “Yes, sir, I am. You thirsty or what?”

“Champagne for both of us,” I say, and Dirk just shrugs before he wanders off.

“Who’s that?” Emma asks me. “I assume he’s not normally a waiter.”

“No, Dirk’s an engineer,” I say. “He lost a bet and now he’s here.”

She laughs a little bit, shaking her head. “Why are we here, David?”

“Let’s not get to business before we get our drinks, okay?”

She sighs. “I didn’t know we had business.”

“Oh, we do.” I swivel in my chair. “Dirk! Hurry your ass up.”

There’s a pop of a cork from behind the car. “Coming, your highness.”

Emma stifles a laugh and I roll my eyes. Dirk comes over with two full glasses and places them down. “Don’t choke on it,” he says to me before giving Emma a sweet wink.

“Don’t be a sore loser!” I call after him as he walks away and flips me the bird. I grin and turn back to Emma. “Well now, how about a toast?”

I lift my glass and she meets the gesture. “To Envoy,” she says.

“To me and you,” I say softly, eyes meeting hers. She blushes slightly, but she drinks to it.

“Okay, we have drinks,” she says. “And I have a baby at home. So come on, cut to the chase.”

“Okay then.” I stand up. “What I have to offer is a little… unusual, to say the least.”

I walk over to the side table and lift up the cloth. I reach underneath it and grab a file from the bottom shelf. I sit back down and open it casually, paging through the contract with a practiced eye while Emma sips her drink, watching me closely.

“How much do you know about my personal life, Emma?”

She blinks at the question. “Not much,” she says finally. “I mean, no more than anyone else.”

“Give me a summary, then.”

“You’re a bachelor,” she says. “You sleep around a little bit, get caught on camera with actresses and singers, but you seem like a good person. At least you give a lot of money to charity.”

I can’t help but laugh at that. “Does donating money makes a person good?”

“No, not necessarily. I guess that’s just my interpretation.”

I smile again, impressed by her. I knew she was smart and beautiful, but I didn’t know exactly what to expect. So far, she’s exceeding even my best-case scenario.

“You’re aware then that I’m in my mid-thirties, single, and filthy rich. Does that about sum it up?”

“Sure,” she says, sipping her drink again. “I think that just about does it.”

“Okay, good.” I take a breath and let it out. “You see, Emma, I want a family.”

I stop there, looking at her expression. Her eyebrow is raised and she looks unsure.

“Are you surprised by that?” I ask.

She shrugs. “I don’t know, honestly. You’re still young, you’re still filthy rich, and you’re still desirable. Why would you want a family?”

I sigh a little bit. “That’s what most people ask. Truth is, the single life isn’t exactly the greatest thing in the world. I miss certain things that only a real family could provide.”

She watches me silently for a moment, and I wonder what she’s thinking. I’m sure her thoughts are on Julie, and I think I see a hint of fear in her eyes.

“What does this have to do with me?”

“Everything,” I say softly, and I take the contract out of the file. “Please, take a look at this.”

I hand it over and she looks confused at first. She skims the first page, reading under her breath, before looking up with a shocked expression.

I can’t help but grin huge at her. My whole body is tingling with excitement. I love this sort of thing, trying to make deal and all that, but I love this in particular. I want this woman and I want my daughter, but I don’t know if I can fully trust her, and I’m not entirely sure that Julie is in fact mine.

I decided to play a little game. Well, not exactly a game, but something like that. I want to test Emma, see how far I can push her… and see if I can have her in the end.

Truth is, I really do want a family. That part isn’t a lie, not at all. I just haven’t met the right woman to make that family with yet. I’ve been lonely these last few years. The more successful I get, the lonelier I feel as I’m more and more disconnected from normal people. I want that sense of normalcy, and I think I can get it from Emma and Julie. I think I could make a family with them and be happy.

It helps that Emma is beautiful and smart and I’m insanely attracted to her. Of course, I have to prove compatibility, and that’s part of this little test. One thing at a time, though.

“This looks like a contract,” she says slowly.

“It is,” I confirm, nodding.

“For a surrogate.”

“That’s right.”

She stares at me and slowly lowers the contract onto the table. “You want to pay me two million dollars to have a baby for you?”

I start to say something, but Dirk interrupts. He walks over with two plates and drops them onto the table. “Eat up,” he grunts, and walks back off.

“Be polite!” I yell, which just makes him flip me off again.

The first course is a simple salad, and I take a bite as I wait for Emma to process. She blinks at the plate and fishes the contract out from under it before paging through it some more.

She gets to the third page and stops. “Okay, this is fucking insane,” she says. “Are you serious with this?”

“Very serious,” I say. “Which part are you talking about exactly?”

“You want to do it the ‘old-fashioned’ way?” She gapes at me. “What the hell does that mean?”

I lean forward. “I think you know.”

“You want to have sex?”

Her voice is loud enough to resonate in the warehouse. I grin at her and she blushes a little bit.

“You want to actually have sex with me?” she asks at a more reasonable level.

“Yes,” I say. “Over and over again until I get you pregnant.”

Her blush deepens and I savor this moment. I love making her blush, and I love the moments leading up to sex, the chase and the flirtation. It’s all so exciting.

She shakes her head, completely bewildered. I sip my champagne and wave over at Dirk. He comes out with the bottle and refills my glass along with Emma’s before stomping off again.

“Okay, let me get this straight,” she finally says. “You want to have, uh, normal sex with me, until I get pregnant. And then you want to keep that baby, and you’ll pay me two million dollars for it?”

“Pretty much,” I say.

“Why me?”

I laugh softly. “Well, we’ve had sex before, so that won’t be too difficult.” If she could blush more, I’m sure she would, but instead she just says nothing. “You’re young and I think you’re healthy, so you’re capable of carrying a baby. You’re attractive and smart, which means your genes are good. And you’re a single mother, so you could use the money.”

She blinks at that last part. “How do you know I need the money?”

“It’s two million dollars,” I say softly. “Everyone needs that kind of money, especially a single mom.”

She looks like she wants to argue for a second, but she deflates. I grin and then finish my salad. She eats her own salad and when we’re finished, Dirk comes out with the soup course.

We eat that in silence too and I can tell she’s processing. She flips through the contract again, reading it more closely as we finish up. Dirk brings out the main course, a delicious braised duck roast with mashed potatoes, which she barely touches. She spends the whole time lost in thought, staring at the contract, which I don’t mind. I want her to feel comfortable.

Eventually, though, I finish my meal. “What do you think?” I ask her.

She looks up at me like she forgot I was there. “I honestly don’t know what to think.”

“I know it’s unusual,” I admit. “Maybe even crazy. But seriously, Emma, how else are you going to make that kind of money?”

“I don’t know,” she admits. “But it’s not like you’re asking me some small thing. You’re asking me for a baby.”

“I know,” I say. “It’s not a small thing. It’s a big deal, so if you want to do this, you have to be sure.”

She chews her lip, and I know it’s time to walk away. I’ve been in enough negotiations to know when it’s time to leave them wondering.

I push back and stand. “Listen, I have to get going. Take that home with you, look it over. You don’t have to give me a decision anytime soon.”

She nods a little. “When do you want to hear back by?”

“Take a week,” I say. “But don’t leave me waiting too long. I’m not very patient, but I think you’ll find that out soon enough.”

I wink at her and she sighs as I turn and walk away. I nod at Dirk and he gives me a thumbs up as I leave the room. Emma’s still sitting at the table as I go back out through the security doors. Dirk will show her the way out and make sure she gets to her car just fine.

In the meantime, I have some planning to do. Not only do I have to finish the Envoy Mark 2, but I need to think about how I’m going to go forward with Emma. I know she’s going to say yes, and when she does, I have to be ready.

Because I’m going to sweep her off her feet and make her feel something she never, ever expected.