When Charlotte woke up, she could still feel the lingering tenderness between her legs, the ache in her hips. She tried to remember how long it had been since she’d last had sex with anyone, but it was too difficult for her to recall.
She wasn’t sure whether she was more appalled at the fact that her body actually felt amazingly good after her tryst with Sebastian, or the fact that it had happened at all. She’d done it willingly—but giving into the man who’d had her kidnapped, even if it was on her own terms, felt like it should be humiliating.
She should—she thought—be feeling absolutely shamed, horrified, especially at the fact that she’d come harder than she had with any other man she’d been with, and not just once but at least two times and maybe even three—it was difficult for her to determine where one climax had ended and another one had begun.
Sebastian had left her bed some time before; when Charlotte turned over and felt around amongst the blankets, she couldn’t even feel the heat where he had been. She was almost disappointed to realize it. Do not go letting yourself get feelings for this guy just because you’re having sex with him. Even if it’s good sex. Even if it’s the best sex you’ve ever had. Charlotte shivered; surely it wouldn’t be that good every single time Sebastian had his way with her, would it?
He would get tired of the pretense of needing her to be aroused and just do what he needed and go—wouldn’t he? Charlotte secretly hoped that he wouldn’t, and on the heels of that hope, almost against her will, wished that it would take at least a month for her to get pregnant and know that she was pregnant. God! What’s wrong with me? I am not going to fall prey to Stockholm Syndrome.
She sat up in bed, and as if it were a cue, the door to her bedroom opened. Sebastian came in, and Charlotte’s whole face burned with a blush as she remembered how hot, how satisfying the night before had been. “You should stay lying down for a bit,” Sebastian suggested. “ I brought you some breakfast in bed.” Charlotte raised an eyebrow at that, but she couldn’t deny the warm feeling it gave her, even if she knew that he was doing it merely to have the best chance of getting her pregnant.
“Okay,” Charlotte said, settling herself against the pillows as Sebastian approached with the tray. “You’re going to eat too, right?” He’d somehow managed to pile an obscene amount of food onto the tray and was carrying it as if it were nothing at all.
“Of course,” Sebastian said, nodding. “But I also didn’t have any real idea of what you’d want for breakfast, so I tried to cover all my bases.” Charlotte shook her head in wonderment as Sebastian set down the tray and carefully settled it, seating himself on the bed near her legs. “We should come up with a schedule, a routine.”
“Oh?” Charlotte looked over the plates on the tray, decided that the first thing she wanted was coffee. She poured herself a cup and sipped it, letting the heat and caffeine spread through her.
“We need to maximize the time leading into when you’re fertile,” Sebastian pointed out. “And it’s not like your entire life is going to be confined to this room.”
“You did say you’d let me work,” Charlotte pointed out. Sebastian nodded.
“Tomorrow you’ll need to send in your notification. I’ll cover your rent while you’re here so you don’t lose the apartment.”
“That wasn’t in the contract,” Charlotte pointed out. She looked over what Sebastian had provided again: eggs, bacon, steak, bread, vegetables, fruit. It was almost impossible for her to decide.
“I figured it made the most sense,” Sebastian said with a shrug. “I have money that I’ll never need to use, so I might as well put it to use on that.” He met her gaze and plucked a slice of bacon off the tray, biting into it with a crunch. “So, you’ll work at least part of the day under my supervision, and we’ll have sex at least every night until we know you’re not fertile or that you’ve become pregnant, is that a deal?”
“That sounds fair,” Charlotte admitted. “But shouldn’t we increase the odds? I mean if it’s just a once-nightly thing…”
Sebastian laughed. “I knew you had fun last night,” he said playfully. “You’re right, though. We should have sex more often when you’re more fertile. Morning, noon, and night during your most fertile phase, and morning and night otherwise, until you’re pregnant?” Charlotte swallowed; it scared her, how excited that prospect of sex three times per day with Sebastian made her feel.
“I think that’s doable,” she said as casually as she could. She picked up a fork and helped herself to a mouthful of eggs. “And obviously, a high protein diet is a good idea.” Sebastian snorted.
“I will cook you whatever you want to eat, or I’ll get you what you need to make it, and you can cook it for yourself. I don’t want you to entirely feel like you’re being subjugated.”
“I can’t leave your house until you tell people who I am,” Charlotte pointed out. “I can’t work without you making sure I’m not abusing your good will as my captor to try and get a message to someone to free me.”
“But you can wear what you want, eat what you want, and spend your hours doing whatever you want,” Sebastian countered. “As long as that’s not ‘running away from the territory.’”
“I made an agreement,” Charlotte said. “I’ll stick to it as long as you stick to your end of the deal.”
“Okay,” Sebastian said. “Then we finally, fully have a deal.” He held out his hand and Charlotte accepted it; she felt the little tingle at the contact didn’t shock her anymore, but it still made her wonder. How could she be so attracted to someone she barely knew—especially since what little she knew of him was that he was capable of kidnapping a stranger for the purpose of getting her pregnant?
“So,” Charlotte said, feeling awkward, “it’s Sunday, so I don’t really have work to do. I can’t leave the house, and huge as this breakfast is, it can’t last forever.”
“I have some books,” Sebastian said. “There’s TV—I have satellite.”
“But no internet and no phone, right?”
Sebastian shook his head. “Not until you have to contact your office,” he said. He grinned slowly. “We could always spend the day getting to know each other’s bodies better.”
“I’ve known you for a day,” Charlotte pointed out. “This isn’t a relationship, remember? This is—this is just you getting me pregnant and me carrying your child to term and giving birth to it. That’s all.”
“Of course,” Sebastian said. “But we’ve got time on our hands. And we might as well enjoy ourselves if we can—right?” He helped himself to some of the grilled vegetables.
“We agreed three times a day during my most fertile period, and I’m not there yet,” Charlotte told him. She frowned. “Speaking of which, you said that you can tell by how I smell—what the hell kind of superpower is that?”
“It’s something I have a knack for,” Sebastian said. “One of a few things.”
“Should we spend some time getting to know each other? Since apparently, you have a few different, weird abilities.”
“That sounds like it is actually a pretty good plan,” Sebastian said. “I have a few things you need to know.”
“Is that so?” Charlotte felt her heart beating faster. Oh god, what else could there be? He’s a guy who felt the need to abduct someone to have his baby. Maybe this is a terrible idea.
“Let’s start off slow,” Sebastian suggested. “What do you do for a living?”
“I’m a project supervisor,” Charlotte explained. “Basically, I have a management team that I work directly under, to make projects happen for clients—artwork, copywriting, the whole deal.”
“So you work for some kind of agency?”
“I do,” Charlotte said. “I was actually trying to work my way up onto the management team, but that’s probably going to go away.”
“One year shouldn’t make that much of a problem,” Sebastian said. “Especially if you keep managing your workload. Right?”
Charlotte shrugged. “I can come up with some kind of family emergency,” she said, “but working remotely isn’t going to help my case that much.”
“Why not? If you’re still able to keep things going while you’re a time zone away, that should make things look even better for you—you’re that dedicated.”
“But it will still make me look like a risk, and I don’t even know that they’ll let me do it,” Charlotte said. She sighed. “Let’s—let’s not talk about that. I don’t want to think about how much of my hard work to make my reputation strong is going down the drain with this.”
“You’ll be a hundred thousand dollars richer, though,” Sebastian pointed out.
They continued eating, and Charlotte tried to think about what she really wanted to know about the man whose child she was going to have. “If I’m free as soon as I deliver the baby,” she said, “who are you going to get to help you raise the baby?”
Sebastian half-shrugged; they’d all but finished the food on the tray between the two of them, and Charlotte couldn’t recall any meal—except for the dinner the night before, and the dinner at the tapas restaurant—that had been as good. He set the tray aside and leaned against the wall.
“I’ll probably get help from the community.” Sebastian grinned slightly. “Mel is going to really want to help.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Charlotte said, remembering her conversation with Melissa the day before. “You’ve got lots of barren women here, I’m sure there will be lots of help for raising the girl or boy.” She took a sip of her coffee and looked at Sebastian speculatively. “Do you want a boy or a girl?”
“A girl, if at all possible,” Sebastian said, without a moment’s hesitation. “With you, a girl would come out to not be barren—she could have more children, help keep our numbers up.”
“So are you guys like... well, obviously, you’re not like the Amish, since you have electricity and everything. But what exactly is this community? And why is it some weird deal where you had to kidnap me?” Sebastian looked away, and Charlotte could see the range of emotions flickering across his face for a few seconds.
“It’s complicated,” he said finally. “I would have to explain a lot of things to you.”
“We do have all day,” Charlotte pointed out.
“Tell me something about you, first,” Sebastian suggested. “I don’t want to take things over too much.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Did you ever want to have kids before?”
“Before I agreed to carry a baby for someone I don’t even know?” Charlotte shrugged. “I don’t know. I hadn’t really thought about it—I was so wrapped up in my job and getting ahead.”
“But do you think you’d want kids eventually?”
Charlotte considered the question; she had tabled the thought after she’d graduated college, and had been careful not to let herself think about it. “Maybe eventually,” Charlotte said finally. “One or two.”
“Did you ever think you’d want to get together with someone long-term?”
“I think so,” Charlotte said, more quickly than she expected. “I hadn’t really put any effort into it, but I think I always sort of thought I’d end up with someone eventually.”
“I’ve always known that I’d end up with someone,” Sebastian said. “It’s sort of... not technically required for the community, but it’s pretty much a requirement for the leader of the community to be with someone.”
“Okay, now that I’ve told you some things about me, you need to tell me about this community.”