PROLOGUE

Anne

I hate Bran Erickson. I hate Bran Erickson. I repeated the mantra over and over in my head as I stared at my room…well the room that was mine while I carried Bran’s baby.

The most beautiful, colorful flower arrangements decorated the room and filled the air with a sweet scent. The walk-in closet door was open and from the entryway to my room I could see it was filled with clothes that I didn’t bring with me when I agreed to the ludicrous idea of being his surrogate.

I made my way to the closet and gasped at the beautiful designer clothes.

Gowns and dresses. Lovely silk shirts and slacks.

I prepared to lambast him for buying a pregnant woman clothes she couldn’t wear until I checked closer and saw that all of them were maternity clothes.

Damn him.

I hate Bran Erickson. I hate Bran Erickson.

I stepped out of the closet, shutting the door.

An item on my dresser caught the sunlight and refracted all over the room.

I didn’t know much about jewelry. Only a few items I inherited from my mother. I was lucky to have them, considering my father hated my guts. They were the only thing of value I had since my father disowned and disinherited me.

He’d have done it when I was a child, except it would have made him look bad. Once I turned twenty-one and graduated college, he cut off the

money.

On the dresser, in a violet felt box, sat a diamond necklace. It had a large teardrop diamond along with smaller cut diamonds. Matching teardrop earrings were included. They were exquisite.

If I sold them, I could probably live pretty well for a year. Two years if I continued my life of frugality.

I sighed as I scanned the room again. What was Bran doing?

My eye caught an envelope on the bed. Ah ha. All this was probably a bribe. The envelope had some new legal arrangement he wanted to implement. Probably a tracker implanted in me or one of those electronic ankle cuffs criminals wear.

I picked up the envelope, opening it and pulling out a check. Twenty-five million dollars to Anne Francis.

For a moment, I was sure I was dreaming.

Since my family cut me off, all I’d wanted was to have the security and safety that came from having money. Some people, including Bran, thought I was a gold digger.

Maybe I was.

But I was a woman born of wealth who wanted to live in the same world she grew up in. I’d thought I’d achieve it with Dane MacLeod, whose mother liked me despite my father’s attitude toward me.

But he fell for his much-younger employee and now they were married with twins.

I had an idea for a business, but no one would give me money because I was broke and/or my father blacklisted me. That’s how I ended up in this situation of agreeing to have a child for a man I hated…or at least I had.

Overwhelmed, I sank down onto the bed. This check was my door to freedom.

I could get a home in a nicer, safer location. I could start my business. I could stop feeling like trash my father tossed out. I had everything I wanted. So why did I feel like shit?

“What do you think?”

I startled at Bran’s voice. He stood in the doorway, leaning against the doorjamb with his hands in his pockets. Like always, he looked like he was the master of his domain in his tailored suit that didn’t hide his broad shoulders and chest.

His tie brought out the soft pale blue of his eyes, making him seem

benign when I knew he could be lethal. How could someone so infuriating be so sinfully sexy?

I hate Bran Erickson. I hate Bran Erickson.

When I first agreed to this arrangement, I didn’t need to remind myself that I hated him. It had been easy to remember.

He was an arrogant, controlling jerk. He’d alienated his sister with his overprotective ways. He might understand how she or I felt, but he didn’t give a shit. Everything had to be his way. Period.

So what happened that I had to remind myself that Bran was a jerk and not a man who cared deeply about family? Who could be generous and kind? Who was sexier than hell?

It was a low point in my life when I agreed to carry his child. Sometimes I still couldn’t understand why I told him I would.

He was a thorn in my side. My nemesis.

But while my mind hated him, my hormones had other ideas. So many nights after having a run in with him, I’d have a dream where he was fucking me senseless… and I liked it!

It had to be the same for him, because even with all our bickering, somehow we’d ended up naked and fucking like rabbits. Instead of getting pregnant from a medical procedure, he’d knocked me up the old-fashioned way. And he’d fucked me again since.

Why was I doing this? It was messing with me emotionally and psychologically.

It had been difficult enough to agree to have his child and walk away. But now, the idea of it made my heart ache.

“Anne?” He quirked a brow and stepped into my room. “Are you alright?” It was odd to hear the concern in his voice.

Almost like he was worried he’d done something wrong. Bran was overly confident and never admitted to being wrong.

“What is all this?” I managed to ask, feeling emotionally overwrought. It could be the pregnancy, but I didn’t think so.

“You don’t like it?”

“I agreed to this deal for a year, at which time I’d get paid. We’re only a few months in.”

He nodded toward the bed as if he was asking permission to sit. Weird.

Bran never asked for permission to do anything.

I nodded back, and he sat down. His large body radiated with heat. The

scent of his soap and cologne teased my senses.

“I felt you deserved all this. You’ve more than lived up to your side of the deal.”

The deal.

My heart cracked at those words.

It gave me the answer to all my confusion. I didn’t want a deal. I wanted what he wanted, a family.

But in Bran’s mind, his family would be this child and only this child until, of course, he and Harper reconciled, which would happen because Harper would want to be his child’s aunt.

But I would be out.

I’d have my money and freedom, but it didn’t have the same appeal as it had before. It wasn’t enough.

“And the check?”

“I wanted you to know that I trusted you.”

I turned to him, hating that my eyes were starting to water. Stupid hormones.

“You’ve been a perfect surrogate.”

And just like the words “the deal,” the reminder that I wasn’t anything more than a business arrangement made my heart cry.

How could it be possible that I’d fallen for this difficult, bossy man?

I turned away, not wanting him to see the truth of my feelings. He’d probably laugh at me. He’d tell me I was a sappy woman to believe in fairy tales. For all I knew, this was some sort of sick joke.

Any minute he’d laugh and say, “You didn’t really think I was going to give you all this, did you?”

“Thank you for doing this for me.” He tentatively reached out and pressed his hand over my belly where our child…or technically, his child, grew.

“Do you really think this child is all you’re going to want in life?” I chastised myself for asking.

He looked into my eyes like he was searching for something. Finally, he said, “No. But right now, it’s all I’ve got. All any of us have is right here, right now.”

I had no clue what he meant, but that didn’t stop my heart from hoping he was including me in his right here and right now. Maybe he was softening to me like I had to him.

After all, he’d done all these nice things. Granted, the money was part of

the deal, but the flowers, jewelry and clothes weren’t.

His hand moved to my back, gently caressing. “Right here and right now it’s just us, Anne.”

My heart did a loopy-loo, even as my brain was telling me to put the brakes on my emotions.

Just a minute, I told my brain.

For just a minute, I wanted to pretend that all this was real.

It was stupid. How many times had I pretended my father and brother loved me only to get my heart broken? The same would happen with Bran. But maybe just for a brief moment in time, I could have what I was clearly never going to achieve in the real world.

I’d leaned in and kissed him before I’d even realized it. For a second, I’d panicked that I’d gone too far in my fantasy, but Bran’s hand tugged me close as his mouth slanted to take the kiss deeper. I moaned. He moaned.

When we talked, we frequently were on each other's nerves. But when we said nothing and let our bodies communicate, it was like magic.

He must have known it too, as he didn’t say anything as he lay me back on the bed and undressed me. My hands roamed over his body, helping him undress and then touching as much of him as I could reach. His skin was hot and firm under my hands.

“There’s a lot I have to give,” he murmured against my throat as his lips trailed down.

I didn’t know what he meant. Did he mean financially or sexually? Since we were naked, I decided he meant sex.

“I want it.”

He let out a growl. His hands gripped my breasts, kneading and pinching them as his lips sucked one, then the other nipple, until I was writhing and begging him for me.

He slid down my body, his lips kissing my belly as he pushed my legs open and settled his shoulders between them.

“I’m going to make you come so hard, Anne.”

I let out a frustrated groan. “Promises, promises.” I swore I heard him chuckle.

But I couldn’t respond because his mouth was on my pussy, doing the most amazing things. My hips rocked, seeking more of him. More of his lips and tongue licking and sucking.

“Oh God, Bran.” I gripped his head, holding him to me so he couldn’t

stop. I didn’t ever want him to stop.

“Come Anne. Come and let me drink your sweet juices.” His finger slid inside me as his lips wrapped around my clit and sucked.

“Bran!” I screamed out his name as pleasure blew through me like a tornado. My body went taut and then shook and convulsed as the sweetest sensations echoed out from my pussy to every nerve ending in my body.

My mind was a whirl, so when he whispered something, I couldn’t be sure what it was. But I thought he’d said, “Mine.”

If only that could be true.