The Movie Star's Designer Baby: A BWWM Pregnancy Romance Read online

  “Later, as I grew into my teens, I think that horses saved me from choosing the wrong paths. While a lot of other underprivileged black girls like me were out getting into all kinds of trouble- drugs, sex, things like that- I was all about horses. I would go straight from school to the farm.” Gracie began to giggle.

  “What?”

  “It’s just funny,” she said, “a lot of girls ended up pregnant before they hit twenty. But not me - I knew that if I held out, my equipment would be worth something someday.” They both burst into laughter, mostly at the absurdity of the whole situation.

  Gracie decided to go with Calypso anyway; she was a friendly old girl and it had, admittedly, been awhile since Gracie had ridden. Derrick went with a spirited young mare named Angel Face, a name that belied her temperament. He said that she needed work and a long ride with the older mare would be good for her. Derrick also had been riding since he was a child, when the necessity to learn arose with a role in a sixteen hundreds-era movie. He found he enjoyed horses as much as Gracie did and had been riding ever since.

  They took off across the flat grassland as the sun began to reach its high perch in the sky. Starting at a slow pace as Gracie reacquainted herself with the art of horsemanship, they soon found themselves racing across the open country, laughing and seeing who could reach the tree line fastest. They followed the foot of the mountain through a sparse evergreen forest and were soon miles from the ranch, isolated from civilization, just two lone people in the middle of the great Montana wilderness. Gracie never thought twice about the fact that she was all alone with what amounted to be a complete stranger. Something felt right about being alone with Derrick.

  The rounded a bend and suddenly Angel Face reared up, prancing backward on her two hind legs. Derrick, who hadn’t been prepared for the animal’s sudden upset, lost his grip and tumbled onto the rocky ground. Before the mare could bolt, Gracie rode up beside her and grabbed the reins, making insistent soothing noises. There in the middle of the path lay a fat black snake, at least five feet in length. While Gracie’s seasoned horse wasn’t so easily startled by such things, it was clear that Angel Face still had some growing to do. The snake fixed them with its reptilian gaze, unfazed, and then casually lumbered away into the underbrush. After calming the horses and tying their leads to a nearby tree Gracie jumped down and rushed to Derrick’s side.

  He lay sprawled on his back and Gracie could see he had been knocked unconscious when his head hit the hard-packed earth. Great, she thought, I’ve killed one of the country’s most famous movie stars out in the middle of nowhere. This’ll look great in the tabloids. She had no idea where they were and didn’t know the way back to go for help, that is if she wanted to leave him there on his own. Which she didn’t. It was the middle of the day, and the weather was good, but she didn’t know what kinds of animals lived out here. Knowing her luck, a bear could come and drag Derrick away while she was off looking for help.

  Gracie leaned over Derrick and put her ear to his chest. She had learned CPR back in high school as a lifeguard at the community pool, but she didn’t know if this situation called for such a measure. His heart was still beating at a normal pace, and his breathing was normal. Carefully she lifted his head and checked for any signs of injury. There was no bleeding, and no open wounds to be found, though she could feel a small lump forming on the back of his skull. She checked his arms and collarbones for any sign of a break, then opened his coat to see if she could detect any damage to his torso or ribs. His body was tight, firm, and warm; she could feel the definition in each muscle as her hands moved over its surface. She wondered fleetingly if it was wrong to be enjoying the feel of his body while he was unconscious and possibly seriously injured. Her hands traveled lower on his abdomen when suddenly Derrick grabbed her wrist. She jumped, startled.

  “Tickles,” said Derrick, opening one eye. “But I like where you’re going.”

  “I thought you were knocked out!” said Gracie, ready to do clock him one herself.

  “I was,” Derrick groaned, attempting to sit up, “at first. But then I didn’t want to interrupt your examination so I kept quiet.”

  “I do happen to have life-saving training,” Gracie said haughtily, giving him a shove.

  “I wouldn’t be surprised. You seem to be full of hidden talents.” Derrick winced as he slowly turned his head from side to side.

  “Are you okay, though? Seriously, Derrick. You scared me.”

  “I think I’ll be okay, though the damage to my pride may be irreparable. Stupid horse. What happened anyway?”

  “There was a black snake in the path. I guess it spooked her. And stupid man, you mean. You should have been paying more attention,” Gracie chided. In nearly twenty years of riding she had never been bucked from a horse.

  “Touché,” he replied. “When the other horses hear about this I’ll be the laughing stock of the stable, I’m sure.”

  “Let me look at your eyes. I’d better check for a concussion.” Gracie leaned over Derrick, used her two fingers to hold open his lids and peered into his eye. No dilation, everything looked normal.

  “How’s it look, doc?” Derrick asked.

  “You’ll live,” she replied. “But we should…”

  Before she could finish her sentence Derrick placed a hand behind her head and pulled her face to his. He kissed her deeply and she parted her lips in automatic response without thinking what she was doing. His mouth was warm and when he touched her lips with his tongue she opened wider to accept him. The kiss took her breath away and suddenly she forgot everything else. She forgot Derrick’s near-death fall; she forgot that they were in the middle of nowhere. Most importantly, she forgot that they had just met less than twenty-four hours ago. The kiss seemed to go on forever. Somehow she was on top of Derrick, straddling him as he lay in the rocky dirt. First his hands were on her face, and then they were wrapped around her waist, pulling her tight against him. She could feel the bulge of his urgency through his jeans and impulsively it made her press her hips into him. For a moment Gracie caught herself and pulled back.

  “Wait,” she panted, “We shouldn’t do this. You’re hurt; you could have died.”

  “I know,” replied Derrick, as breathless as she was, “and I just realized that I don’t want to die without having done this.” He got up and pulled her to her feet. “Wait just a minute.” Going over to the horses he pulled a colorful woven blanket from one of the saddlebags. Finding a grassier spot under the trees he spread the blanket on the ground. Going over to Gracie her took her by the hands and led her to the spot. “Now where were we?”

  “I think we were about here,” Gracie said, tilting her chin up and wrapping her arms around Derrick’s neck. She planted her lips on his. As he kissed her, Derrick worked her out of her coat and unbuttoned her shirt. Her skin broke out in gooseflesh as the crisp air touched it, but she didn’t feel the cold. She felt like she was on fire. After shedding her coat and shirt, Derrick popped the clasp on her bra with expert quickness. Her breasts surged forward, nipples hard as diamonds against his exploring fingers.

  In return she removed his jacket and shirt, feeling the ripples of his perfectly toned body. It had been awhile since she’d done this, but Gracie knew it was like riding a bike: you never forgot how. Like an old pro she unbuckled his belt one-handed and felt inside his jeans to find his erect penis waiting to be set free. She took it in her hand and stroked it, squeezing gently on the shaft. Derrick groaned with pleasure as he lowered her onto the blanket. Leaving her mouth for the moment, he let his lips trace a path down her neck and chest, stopping to suckle some warmth into each nipple and he undid her jeans and pulled them down so that she could kick out of them. His mouth traveled further down to find the secret spot between her legs. It stayed there until Gracie thought she might explode with pleasure. Urgently she spread her legs wider and pulled him up to her.

  “Now,” she gasped.

  Without hesitation, Derrick plunged insid
e her, where she was already hot and moist with anticipation. They both gasped with the pleasure of it, and Gracie knew that it had been a long time for him too. But there was no pain, only insurmountable pleasure as Derrick moved against her. Gracie lifted her hips to meet each thrust. She cried out as she came, a primal, animal sound of bliss. Normally she would have been more reserved, but not out here. Out here there was no one to hear her but the horses.

  With the contractions of her orgasm, Derrick came in one final deep thrust. Gracie could feel the warm surge of his semen being released inside her. She sent up a quick prayer that it would find its mark. Though, honestly, she wouldn’t mind trying again if it didn’t. Derrick lowered his lips to hers and kissed her passionately as his seed made its way deep inside and the throbbing of his penis resided.

  Afterward, they lay on the blanket side by side, enjoying the feel of one another’s bodies. The afternoon sun was warm on Gracie’s naked skin and a gentle breeze carried the smell of wildflowers.

  “So do you think it worked?” Gracie asked finally.

  “They say that the better the sex, the higher the chances of conception.”

  “Oh really?”

  “So if that’s true, I’d be surprised if it’s anything less than quadruplets.”

  Gracie laughed and Derrick leaned over to kiss her again. His fingers lazily traced circles around her nipple and she could feel heat rising between her legs once again.

  “Of course,” she said coyly, “they also say that your chances are even greater if you try again immediately afterward.”

  “Oh they do, do they?”

  “That’s right. The all-knowing them.”

  “Well, I’ve never been one to go against all-knowing advice,” said Derrick as he climbed on top of her and sealed her lips with his.

  Chapter Five

  The next morning Gracie was on a plane back to Carolina feeling both elated and downhearted. If all had gone as planned, she would be getting a million dollars in nine months’ time; all she had to do was carry to term the baby that their day of passion had created. But at the same time Gracie felt she had lost something. Even though they had only just met, she felt like she and Derrick had bonded in some way that was more than sexual. She missed him already. She would just have to keep telling herself that it hadn’t been real. She was strong; eventually she would be able to forget him. Little did she know that at that moment Derrick Stone was on a plane headed in the opposite direction but thinking the exact same thoughts.

  After returning from their trail ride, Derrick had disappeared to take care of some business. He would also be leaving the following day for a shoot in Canada and had a lot to settle at the ranch before taking his leave. But that night he had come to Gracie’s room where they made love for the third time and she had spent the night sleeping in his arms. The next morning neither of them knew quite how to act. Had this been a love affair or a business meeting? It was almost as if they had spent the weekend in some kind of blissful drunkenness. Now it was the classic morning-after syndrome and they both felt like awkward teenagers. Derrick had hugged her heartily and she had promised to call (his lawyers, that was) as soon as she had news. And that was that.

  When the plane touched down on the east coast, Becca was waiting at the airport and beside herself with anticipation. She was the only person who knew about Gracie’s journey and she couldn’t wait to hear the details. She reminded Gracie of some excited little dog, a Chihuahua or a dachshund, whose owner had just come home from a long trip, begging for attention. Gracie wasn’t ready to divulge it all, though. The weekend had felt like some special dream and she didn’t just want to dish like it was common locker-room gossip. But in all their long years together she had never kept anything, big or small, from Becca- and vice versa- so she shared the general details about the ranch and the things she and Derrick had done together. She gave Becca the G-rated version, though, leaving out the sex parts.

  “So he’s just, like, a regular guy?” said Becca, sounding disappointed.

  “Yep,” said Gracie, thinking he’s anything but regular, he’s kind and funny, and sexy, and when I’m around him I feel like I’m whole. “What did you expect?”

  “I don’t know, I guess I expected movie stars to be all arrogant, and condescending around plain old nobodies like us. I mean all that stuff they say in In Touch…”

  “The stuff they say in In Touch is crap,” said Gracie, a little too quickly. She was thinking about how Derrick had joked unflappably about what the rags had said about his scandalous divorce.

  “Geez, tell me how you really feel.”

  “All I’m saying is, despite all the fame and the money Derrick is just a regular, down to earth guy who likes the same old things we do. He was really a lot of fun to be around and he never made me feel like I was beneath him. But anyway, it’s all done with now.”

  “You sound a little disappointed,” observed Becca, raising one eyebrow.

  “I guess I am. I mean, it’s not like I get to spend every weekend living like a movie star, staying in a fancy house and being waited on and all. I’m going to miss that.” Screw living like a movie star, I’m going to miss him.

  They rode on in silence for a while before Becca spoke again. “Okay, so I know you’re avoiding it, but come on! Was the whole trip a success or not? You know, Main Operative, Mission: Make a Baby?”

  “I guess we’ll see in a few weeks,” said Gracie simply. Becca may have been like a dog with a bone, but she knew her best friend well enough to see that on this front Gracie wouldn’t be moved.

  Roughly two weeks later Gracie found herself waiting in an exam room at Genesis Women’s Care, the gynecology/obstetrics practice that Maxwell, Maxwell and Goldstein had set her up with all those months ago. Back at the beginning of the application process they had studied her family history with a fine-toothed comb to search out any red flags, performed any number of tests on her body, blood, and urine, poked and prodded her in the most private places, and calculated her menstrual cycles down to a science. Now she knew how the stinkbugs she had studied in Virginia must have felt. The powers that be must have found her up to par because it had all culminated in her trip to Derrick’s ranch. Now she was here for a pregnancy test. They had taken a urine sample and a blood sample for backup. The results would be sent to Derrick’s lawyers; now Gracie was impatiently waiting to hear for herself.

  She felt like she had been sitting on this cold plastic exam bed forever, the paper sheet crinkling annoyingly with her every move. Funny how doctors’ offices always stressed that you arrive right on time just so that they could make you wait to be seen. Gracie had never been a big fan of doctors, and the string of impersonal, strictly clinical doctors she had seen at Genesis hadn’t helped sway her opinion. Along with that same hospital nervousness, she felt the butterflies in her stomach that had been with her on the plane to Montana. Her head was in turmoil. It had been fifteen days since she and Derrick had copulated (to put it in scientific terms) and she hadn’t had her period yet. So things were looking good. If she was, indeed, pregnant that would mean that the Main Operative, as Becca had put it, had been accomplished and she had proven to be the good little breeder animal that was expected. All she had to do was carry the baby to term, happy and healthy, and the million dollars would be hers. It wouldn’t even take a year of her life. But on the other hand if she wasn’t pregnant, that would mean she would see Derrick again…

  Her thoughts were interrupted by a soft tap-tap on the door followed by Dr. Harris’s entrance- today’s doctor on the docket. Gracie’s heart was in her throat at the doctor shut the door behind her and took a seat in the chair to Gracie’s left.

  Without glancing up from her clipboard, as if it held all the answers to the universe’s toughest questions, she said, “Well, Gracie according to the urine test it looks like you are not pregnant. It will be a few days until we get the blood test back but I can tell you right now that these results are pretty conclusive.
” She glanced up from her notes and must have seen the crestfallen look on Gracie’s face. “I’m sorry, have you and your husband been trying long?”

  Husband. That was a joke. Gracie felt a sudden disdain for this woman and all the other doctors here who had treated her like a lab rat for the past so many months, scrutinizing her reproductive health and her sexual history, but never even bothering to notice if she wore a wedding band. She simply said, “No.”

  “Well, the good news is you’re still fairly young and you have lots of time to keep trying. You know what they say, back to the drawing board.” Dr. Harris gave a tight-lipped attempt at a smile. Gracie didn’t know who they were, but they were right. How had she let herself hope that it would all work out perfectly after one try (or three)?

  “I’m guessing that your missed period is just a result of stress. You should start any time in the next few days. However, if you’d like I can prescribe you something to prompt your menstruation.”

  “No, thank you,” said Gracie. Her periods had always been like clockwork; she didn’t want any pills messing with the plumbing now. The doctor was right, she had had a lot on her mind the past few weeks, it was probably just the stress getting to her.

  Gracie thanked the doctor and left the hospital feeling both empty and strangely optimistic. If at first you don’t succeed, was probably Dr. Harris’ other stock motivational phrase. And try, try again was what she would have to do. She couldn’t say that the prospect upset her.

  That night Gracie dreamed that she was in a stark white laboratory. The rows of fluorescent lights sent blinding reflections off the chrome counter tops and an array of stainless steel tools that she couldn’t recognize. Gracie had spent lots of time in labs, only she was usually the one wearing the white coat. In this dream she was in a big metal cage and she was completely naked. She tried the door and shook the cage walls but there was no way out. Three giant doctors entered and crowded around her, speaking to one another in some language she couldn’t comprehend and taking down notes on their massive clipboards. They pointed at her and made gestures, but no matter what she did they didn’t respond to her pleas for help.