A Wrong Surrogate for the CEO-Chapter 72: I suffocate you?

"Curtis..."

"Forget it, Lara," he quipped, cutting her off before she could say whatever it was that she had to say.

"Please, Curtis. Just listen to me," Lara insisted, and her voice trembled on the last word.

Curtis turned to face her. His expression was cold, his hands curled into fists. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

"If this is you trying to apologise, Lara, I have told you several times. I don’t want your apology. I don’t need it, so don’t bother," he snapped.

She shook her head at his harsh words, and tears filled her eyes.

"You don’t understand. I..."

Curtis cut her off again.

"What is there to understand, Lara? I told you. I fucking begged you to leave me alone. You kissed me, you made the first move. You know how I feel about you and yet you went ahead to do all of those things. I walked away, Lara. I turned and left because I didn’t want to do it. And you followed me. You saw me in a vulnerable moment and you took advantage. I begged you, Lara. I told you to fucking leave me alone!"

His voice rose in tempo with every word he said, and Lara’s expression became more anguished at his words.

Lara’s shoulders started to shake with tears, but Curtis wasn’t done.

"Do you know how worried I was? I could not breathe, Lara. I had no idea where you were, I had not even a fucking clue if you were okay or not. Even if you regret sleeping with me, we could have talked about it! We are grown adults! If you had woken me up there and then and told me that you realised that we should not have done what we did, I would have understood. You knew it! You knew this and you still ran away. From me!"

He was yelling now, and the air between them shimmered with tension.

Lara swallowed past the lump in her throat.

"I’m sorry. I just...when I woke up... I...it was too much for me. I felt overwhelmed and I...I needed to breathe. I panicked," Lara whispered.

Curtis flinched.

"I suffocate you?" he asked, and his voice came out surprisingly small.

Lara shook her head frantically.

"No, no. That’s not what I meant. You do not suffocate me, Curtis. I ... I am sorry."

Curtis ran a hand through his hair.

"You know what? Forget this. It’s fine. You ran, and that’s okay. Now I know where I stand and what the boundaries in our relationship are. Have a nice day, Lara," he said curtly and walked out of the house.

The door closed behind him with an air of finality, and Lara’s legs gave out on her.

She slumped to the floor, and the tears she had been trying so hard to keep at bay started to stream down her face.

She broke down completely.

There was a large weight on Lara’s chest, and her lungs felt as though a boulder was sitting on them.

She couldn’t breath. There was no air in the room. Everything was pain. Pain pain pain. Unending, endless regret.

Lara wanted to run after Curtis, she wanted to apologise and tell him that she had no idea why she left. That her heart was starting to act weird. That she didn’t mean to hurt him.

But she could not. Her legs had given up on her, and all she could do was break down on the floor and give herself to the pain.

"I am sorry," she whispered over and over, but the house was empty, and no one was around to hear her apology.

~~

Curtis’s heart was hurting so bad.

He didn’t want to walk away from her, but he also didn’t want to look back and see the look on her face.

Lara was confused. That was the only reasonable explaination for her actions. She wasn’t sure about her feelings for him, and while Curtis understood, he was not going to let her use him as an experiment.

So he had walked away. Like he should have done when she came into his room last night.

There was no point in thinking about the past now. So he pushed the thoughts away from his mind and made his way down to his car.

Lazarus was waiting for him.

"Drive me to the airport," he ordered. There was a business trip that he wasn’t planning to attend, but now that he needed space away from Lara, Curtis decided to go.

As his bodyguard drove him down to his personal airport, Curtis gave him instructions.

"Take care of Lara. Watch her every move and report back to me. If you see signs of her trying to run away or hurt herself, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Make sure she eats well. Drive her to work. She must not partake in any strenuous activity. If she wants to have fun, let her. Just make sure that she’s careful. If she asks after me..." he paused at this point.

Would she ask after him once she realises that he wasn’t around?

Would she call? Send a text? Pretend that his absence didn’t mean anything to her?

"What should I tell her if she asks after you, sir?" Lazarus prompted, shaking Curtis out of his thoughts.

Curtis cleared his throat slightly.

"Let her know that I am on a business trip. But make sure to tell her that I do not want to be disturbed. Whatever she wants, do it for her."

Lazarus nodded curtly and Curtis strengthened his resolve.

Last night — the amazing, mind-blowing sex — didn’t happen.

Lara was just his contract wife who also happened to be a surrogate for his kids.

Nothing would ever happen between them. Not again.

And once her surrogacy ends, she would leave his life.

And Curtis’s life would go back to being perfect and free from her constant presence.

It would be just him and his kids. Like he had always wanted.