Chapter Nine

#Chapter Nine

Her chest heaved, and she tried to catch her breath. "Frank, please!"

"Leave the room now," Frank ordered, but she stood her ground.

"What will it take? Tell me!"

"You know what it takes," he said. "That stunt you pulled the other day with Lachlan shows that you know what it takes."

"Was he not your type? Why didn't the stunt work then?"

"It doesn't work like that, don't you get that?"

"Then tell me what does!" Serene shouted, her breath out of her lungs.

"Why do you want me to have sex with you so badly?"

"You," Serene said, her nerves tightening. "You need to put a child in me!"

"I am a congressman, not royalty. I don't need an heir."

"Congressmen need heirs too," she said.

"I'm not giving you a baby."

"Frank!"

"Leave, Serene!"

"Shall I invite a man into our bed? He could lay on the bed for you, and you can - "

"Christ, no. Stop trying to make it happen!"

"There must be some way, some method, somehow."

"There is no way."

"Why, Frank?! You're obviously not impotent."

"You don't get it. It's not because there isn't a man in front of me to get me hard, it's because those men are not him."

"Him? Who's this other man?"

"I'm not going to tell you. Forget it," he said, slumping down to his seat.

A tear slid down her cheek, and more tears followed. "Please, Frank, you have to give me a baby."

"Why? For God's sake, why?"

"To keep appearances up."

"You know, Serene," Frank said. "You've always been too concerned about what others think of you. Why does it matter so much?"

"When I was a kid, never, never ever, did my father ever tell me that I was good enough. I was always failing somehow as a Thatcher, and he reminded me constantly of that. I never had his approval, except for this marriage. When you proposed, he finally praised me! I need this marriage to work. I need people to understand that I'm worthy!"

"Look," Frank said with a deep sigh. "For what it's worth, I allow you to sleep with other men, alright? Find another man to impregnate yourself and I'll raise that child as our own. I'm okay with that, as long as you do it on one condition."

She breathed through the panic. "What is it?"

"This man has to be a stranger."