Dazzle: The Billionaire's Secret Surrogate (Contemporary BWWM Romance) by Destiny Davis Page B

my mind?” she questioned, trying to process everything he had just told her, the honest sincerity shining in his dark eyes, helping to make her believe that he really had spoken the truth.
    “Yeah, it is,” he answered, sounding suddenly drained. “I’ve come completely clean, and I’m hoping that you have, too.”
    “I’ve got no secrets,” she admitted easily. “I grew up in the slums and pulled myself out of them. And if I say yes to this crazy idea, it’s not because you could elevate me any further, just so you know.”
    “I know that,” he reassured her. “I’ll tell you what:  we’ll give this thing a try, and if I do go down, you can keep living in my house even if we don’t manage to get you pregnant. You could get yourself on your feet and move on if you wanted to, or you could decide that you want to wait for me. That’s assuming that I don’t completely avoid jail at all. The judge must know that I’m just a guy trying to make an honest living. My business record should have been enough on its own to prove that.”
    “So what, then, we’re just trying each other out or something?’ Kady scoffed. “You don’t want to define it, you just want to do it, is that it?”
    “Sure, why not?” he said, kissing the top of her head. “But one thing, Kady. If you get scared again, promise me that you won’t run away. We can talk to each other and work through it, okay?”
    “What about if I panic when—well, you know,” she asked, blushing harder than ever.
    “When we’re about to make love?” he asked, his voice tickling at her ear as he whispered the words.
    “Y-yeah, that,” she said, looking at their joined hands nervously.
    “Mm, I think I could probably make sure you don’t want to run away by the time we got that far,” he smirked.
    “Just getting me hot and bothered is no guarantee I won’t freak out,” Kady replied. “I get panic attacks. I can’t help that.”
    “Well, do you panic when you are out on the stage?” he asked.
    “Never, only the entire time beforehand,” she said. “Once I’m on, I’m solid as a rock.”
    “Making love is just like being center stage.” He winked. “Once you’re actually out there, it’s all about the show. Just remember that and you’ll be fine.”
    Kady laughed when he kissed the side of her neck, glancing over at his grinning face as he did so. Relief, and something more, something like affection but deeper, shone from the depths of his gaze. It made her breath catch in her throat as she stared back at him. “You’re crazy, Archer,” she told him. “You really, really are.”

Chapter 12
     
    They got out of the car and Daryl drove on, parking it in the garage and thus proving Kady’s theory about his employment status once and for all. She heard, rather than saw, him driving out again, probably in his own car so he could return home to the wife he’d told her he had. Kady briefly glanced back just as they reached the front door and saw him exit the gate.
    “Are you as worn out from all this as I am?’ Archer asked, as he unlocked the door and the two of them stepped inside.
    “You have no idea,” she replied. The panicked midnight run, combined with the uncomfortable park bench that had served as her bed for the night, had all left her exhausted. Not to mention everything that had happened during the day itself. It was a wonder she was still standing at all.
    She was starting to feel nervous now that they were here, wondering what Archer would have in mind. He reached for her shoulders and drew her backwards so her back was pressed to his chest, kissing the top of her head again. The sweet, innocent gesture had those stupid butterflies erupting again, but this time in flutters of pure desire, despite her aching tiredness.
    He was so much taller than her, she thought, comparing the softness of her body to the hard male body pressed close behind her. Kady was on the short end as far as models went at only five feet