Page 13 of Bedding the Baby Daddy

“Oh,” Gio stared at him, perplexed. “Everything alright?”

“Yeah, we uh, don’t have to do the whole feelings thing, man.”

“Alright.” Gio shrugged. “You going to be ready for the meeting next week? If not, it’s better if I just do it by myself.”

“No, no.” Dante rose from his chair. That’s the last thing he wanted. To have someone carry him professionally because he’d gotten his fucking feelings hurt by a woman. “I’ll be fine. It’s just been a fucked up Spring. But it’s over now.”

“Alright,” Gio said again. He opened up his office door and they walked out. “Did Alice give you the specs for the project yet?”

“No, not unless she emailed them while we were in the meeting.” Dante took out his phone and checked his email.

“No worries. Aurora has them,” Gio said, striding over to her closed office door and swinging it open.

Dante blinked his eyes in surprise. There she was. Standing beside her desk, shuffling papers. Wearing a blue dress and a long silver necklace. A ponytail. Her gorgeous, blonde hair tumbled over her shoulder in a fucking ponytail. God damn it. He had such a weak spot for ponytails.

She blinked right back at him, obviously shocked to see him.

“Dante! I didn’t know you were going be in the office today.”

If I had, I wouldn’t be here. It was the unspoken other half of her statement.

Dante stepped up beside Gio in her doorway.

“Unexpected conference call with Doug Wexler,” Gio replied.

“Oh!” Aurora looked surprised and excited. “Tell me we got the account.”

“Not yet. Wexler’s dragging his feet. We’re going to meet again next week.”

Dante was grateful for Gio not mentioning the fact that Doug Wexler was dragging his feet because Dante was so far off his game.

“Do you have the project specs?” Gio continued, apparently blind to the fact that Aurora was looking absolutely anywhere but at Dante. “Dante needs them.”

“Oh, sure.” She hurried around her desk to the filing cabinet in the corner. Dante couldn’t help but watch the way her beautiful body moved with such grace. Like a panther stalking the length of a branch. She dug through a file for a minute before pulling some papers out.

“Mr. Esposito,” Alice called from the other room. “I’ve got a client on the phone for you.”

Gio nodded his head to Dante and ducked out of the room, closing the door behind him. And just like that, Dante and Aurora were alone in her office.

She was holding the papers out to him, her eyes wide and shocked. Dante opened his mouth to say something flirty and snarky, but as he crossed the room he saw the papers shake in her hand. And come to think of it, her normally golden skin was looking awfully pale.

“Aurora, are you alright?” he asked, crossing to her.

“Yes. I just… I’m feeling a little faint…”

Her knees buckled and Dante was at her side in less than a second. He gripped her at the waist and then under her knees. Lifted her right off the floor.

“Dante, that’s not necessary,” she insisted, but she didn’t push away from him or stiffen. In fact, she closed and dropped her head to his shoulder for a second. Dante set her gently in her office chair and immediately knelt beside her.

“What’s going on? Are you sick?”

“No.”

“Have you eaten today?” His heart was beating a mile a minute.

She gestured to an unopened salad on her desk. “I just picked that up a few minutes ago.”

Dante grabbed the salad and ripped the top off. “There’s no food in this food!”

---