My Stepbrother's Secret Baby: A Billionaire Stepbrother Romance Read Free Page B

know. This is just so weird for me.”
     
    “I’ll admit, it’s slightly unconventional,” I said. “But it’s certainly not weird. If you only knew what goes on amongst the Manhattan elite.”
     
    “So you want to use my body?” she asked, smoothing her hand down her flat stomach. “Where would you get the egg?”
     
    “You,” I said with a smirk.
     
    “So you want me to give you my biological child and just walk away from it?” she said, growing defensive. “Absolutely not. I could never do that. Never. Not in a million years. Family is family.”
     
    “No! Here’s where the rest of the deal comes in,” I said as I crossed my hands and stared her straight on. “You will not just be my surrogate. You will be the mother of my child. You will be in my child’s life. It will be our child.”
     
    “Why don’t you just find a nice girl and settle down and have babies with her?” Brenna objected. “This is ludicrous.”
     
    “I’m not the settling down type,” I said. “I have no intentions of falling in love or getting married or any of that. I just want a kid of my own.”
     
    “Why?”
     
    “It’s complicated,” I said, not wanting to go into detail about my dear mother’s teary-eyed pleas.
     
    “I’m not saying I agree to your insane little project here,” she said. “But what exactly do you have in mind? How would this work?”
     
    I sat back in my chair and looked her dead on. “You sign a contract, basically giving yourself to me for one year. For one year, on paper, you’ll be mine. You’ll escort me to events and we’ll appear to be dating at first so that when you start showing, it won’t raise a red flag. For all intents and purposes, we’ll be dating. But not really. Don’t expect candy and flowers and I love yous and all of that. This is, after all, a business transaction. “
     
    “And what’s in it for me?” she asked, intrigued still.
     
    “Two million dollars and a neighboring apartment in one of my buildings,” I said. “If you’re raising my child, I want you to be right next door.”
     
    She was quiet. Almost too quiet. I hoped that was a good sign.
     
    “So, what do you think?” I asked her after a few long minutes.
     
    “I never dreamed of having a child with a man I didn’t love,” she said.
     
    “But the child would be loved,” I said. “That’s all that matters. You’ll love it because it’s yours, and I’ll love it because it’s mine. At the end of the day, the child will be wanted and loved. What more is there?”
     
    “Mr. Ellsworth, we just come from two different backgrounds,” she said, holding her head high. “Family must mean something different to you than it does to me.”
     
    “Family is what you make it,” I shot back. “I’m a fan of bucking tradition.”
     
    “I’m a traditional kind of girl,” she said. “Maybe I’m not the one you need.”
     
    “Oh, but you are,” I said. “My mind is made up. I know what I want.”
     
    She stood up to leave. “You’re crazy.”
     
    “Brenna,” I called after her as she walked to the door. “What if you spent a little time with me? Got to know me a little better? Would you at least consider it?”
     
    She stopped but stayed facing away from me. “Maybe.”
     
    “I have a fully furnished apartment next to mine,” I said. “Ellsworth Plaza. Penthouse. No one knows about it. It’s sort of off the grid. You could live there.”
     
    She turned around, her face softening and her brown eyes intensely staring into mine.
     
    “No pressure,” I said placing my hands in the air. “You can spend some time with me. Get to know my lifestyle. And if none of it appeals to you and you hate my fucking guts, you’re free to go on your merry way and we can pretend this conversation never happened.”
     
    “I don’t know,” she said, staring down at the ground.
     
    “Let me make this easy for you,” I said, walking up from behind her and slipping an