Page 83 of Faith

She stood, then helped Serenity up out of her lounge chair. “Pretty soon, getting out of the chair is going to be too hard on me. Oh, hey, what did Jeff want the other day?”

“Oh, God, I forgot to tell you. He and Ben are looking for a surrogate,” she said as she followed Serenity into the house. She ran into Serenity’s back when she suddenly stopped in her tracks.

“Oof,” Nicola said and almost fell backward. Serenity grabbed her, then dropped her hands to settle them on her hips.

“How dare you not tell me about that?”

“Sorry. I’ve been busy, and Jensen was with me last night. He was not happy when I told him.”

“What do you mean?”

“He told me he was worried they were trying to steal me away.”

“Hedoesknow they are just gay, right?”

“Yes. At first, he thought they were trying to hire me to handle the production company business.”

“You would be good at it,” Serenity said. Nicola shook her head. “You know you would be.”

“Yes, but Jeff and I would be at each other’s throats. He doesn’t take direction well.”

Serenity chuckled.

“What?” she asked.

“I just realized you’re the Domme during the day and Jensen’s the Dom at night.”

Nicola rolled her eyes. “Anyway, I’m calling them tomorrow to tell them no.”

“Why didn’t you tell them that right away?”

“First, because they would not take no for an answer unless I thought it over.”

“And second?”

“Okay, I don’t want to do it with them, but it wasn’t until that moment that I realized how much I wanted a baby.”

“That makes sense. Of course, you’ve always said you might want a child.”

“No, not in some abstract way. In a like right now, or in the very near future kind of way. But I didn’t want in vitro with a couple of my gay friends. I wanted to have a baby with a man.”

“With Jensen,” Serenity said quietly. “Talk to him, Nic. You two need to have a long discussion about the future. You know I’m right.”

“Fine, you are, but it doesn’t mean that I can do it today. I’ll get us through the whole stupid contract crap. Then I’ll deal with it.”

“Just make sure you do, or you might really regret it.”

* * *

Nicola was still thinkingabout what Serenity had said as she drove home that afternoon. She knew her friend was right. She needed to have a talk with Jensen, but Nicola knew it would have to wait. This deal was important to the family, especially Lillian. Bringing their personal issues out today would be bad.

Still, she kept remembering the night before, the way he had made love to her had left her feeling out of sorts. She could usually read a Dom, but last night had not been about Domination or even kinky sex. It had been more about showing her he cared about her. The soft touch of his hands and mouth, the way he had sounded when he said her name…

She blinked when she realized she was daydreaming driving on a twisty road near a cliff. Granted, she was on the inside lane, but there was a lot of traffic. Early afternoon brought out the tourists, who loved to stop at all the scenic viewing spots.

Thankfully, she made it to one of the parts of the drive that didn’t have a cliff on her left-hand side for a little while. The traffic light ahead at Kealahou Street turned yellow, and knowing she didn’t have time to speed through, she hit her brakes.

Nothing happened. She kept moving forward. Again and again she pressed down on the brake pedal, but still, nothing happened. She was barreling toward the intersection as the light turned red. The other cars started to move through, and she tried her best to swerve to miss them. One hit her back end, sending her spinning. Nicola tried her best to straighten the car out, but in the end, she slammed into the traffic light pole on the opposite side of the street. The barrier didn’t hold her, and she rolled down the short incline to the beach.

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