Page 33 of Daddy's Unexpected Gift

17

STERLING

I rolled over and let my arm fall across Cecelia’s shoulders. Only she wasn’t there. The pillow was still warm. I hugged it to myself before opening my eyes and sitting up.

“Did the baby wake you?” I asked. I reached for my watch, discarded at some point during the night’s activities. Georgie would be waking up soon. She woke up early. I’d change her and give her a bottle and she’d fall right back to sleep. But if she wasn’t fussing… “Why are you out of bed?”

“I have to go home and take a shower before I go to work.” She jumped a little as she pulled the front of her shorts together and fastened them. I enjoyed how everything wiggled on her.

“You’re only going to be coming back here. Why not stay?”

“I have to check in at the office.”

“Check in online.”

She snorted. “I wish. The system is still down. You know, I expected this kind of discount and duct-taped together operation from public services, but this is a private agency working for lawyers and people like you. They had some kind of disgruntled employee-assisted natural disaster, and with no backup systems or redundancies in place, I still have to file my reports in triplicate.”

She sat on the edge of the bed and pulled her shoes on.

“I have to make a report about yesterday.”

I raised my brows and rolled so that I could be next to her. “Are you including this in your report?” I teased.

She went pale and closed her eyes. “If they find out I slept with you, I will be fired so fast. This does not get included in the report. This gets mentioned to no one. I don’t even want Wayne knowing about this.”

“Trust me, the man is paid very well to be discreet. He will not divulge my secrets, and by extension, yours.”

She leaned over and looked into my eyes. I could get lost in her when she did that. I pushed up and claimed her mouth. She tasted of the sweetness that followed a rousing night of sexual acrobatics. And she had been rousing and talented. I wanted her back in my bed.

“I’ll see you later after I submit my reports. You have your to-do list for the morning. Get Georgie a doctor’s appointment, and I’ll see what medical records we have on her back at the office. And maybe see if you can find some father-baby classes.”

You didn’t call them ‘Daddy and me’,” I teased.

“I thought only I was allowed to call you ‘Daddy’?” She kissed me again.

I grabbed her softness into my arms and rolled her back onto the bed, pressing my hips against her.

“Say that again,” I demanded.

“And get into more trouble? I don’t think so. We don’t have time?—”

With cosmic bad timing, Georgie’s wake up cry sounded through the monitor.

I groaned and rolled off Cecelia.

“Get the baby. I have to go.”

Cecelia escaped while I went to take care of the distraught baby.

This morning, Georgie was clingy. She wouldn’t let me put her down without much fussing and tears. She felt warm to the touch. I rummaged through the pile of everything Cecelia purchased that had yet to be put away. I found the thermometer. It was the kind that beeped after being put in the ear.

Her temperature was normal, but she was miserable. I gave her a bottle and held her until she fell asleep.

I didn’t want to put her back in her crib. I wanted her with me. She was precious, and she was all that was left of Argene. I crawled back in bed and made a barricade of pillows so she couldn’t roll off. I researched on my tablet as she slept next to me.

I made a short list of pediatricians in the area to call once office hours began. After checking my email and not finding any updates from the investigator, I sent one to him. Hadn’t Argene left any information about the man?

At some point, I fell back asleep alongside Georgie. I woke up with her fingers up my nose and her open mouth biting my cheek in her version of kisses.

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