Page 29 of The Duke's Surprise Heir

Edward’s features shifted to a scowl. “That’s not good.”

“You don’t want someone who can get things done?”

“I always prefer employees that can accomplish the tasks assigned to them,” he assured her. “I don’t like division managers who manage by intimidating their employees. It means that they don’t hear what’s going on within their division because employees are too scared to come to them when there’s a problem.”

“No one goes to Ralph,” she agreed with a laugh. “When I speak with the German division employees, they will do just about anything to avoid taking an issue to Ralph.”

“Hmmm,” was Edward’s reply. “I’ll look into that as a separate problem, even though it could be connected in some way.”

Macie had always admired Edward for his business prowess. But his comment that he’d look into a tyrannical manager, even while trying to save his relatively new company that could be badly damaged if there were legal problems with bad actors using his resources for illegal activities was wildly unexpected.

But before she could say something about that, he did the strangest thing. He stood up, leaned over and…kissed her! He actually kissed her as if they were an old married couple that had recently finished a meal and was now moving on to the next activity in their day.

She was too stunned to react initially. But then he walked away before she could even kiss him back!

Her lips, however, tingled as she watched him walk away.

And then he whistled! The dratted man actually whistled! He kissed her, walked away, leaving her lips tingling for another kiss…no, leaving her whole body aching for more than just a mere kiss…and then he whistled!

How dare he do that to her! He knew exactly what a kiss would do to her!

She glanced at the remaining stack of pancakes on the counter, considering grabbing another. But in the end, she wasn’t in the mood for more empty carbs. She was in the mood for a big, muscular man!

Instead of following him to wherever he was going, probably to pick up Kyle and hold him while he slept, she would just head into his office and work. Yes, that’s what she would do. That’s the sensible thing. She hadn’t made much progress on finding more questionable shipments recently. So today, she was working backwards, hoping to find a pattern. That’s what she should have been doing anyway.

No, actually, she should have a whole team of people digging through the data. But that would alert the perpetrators to their investigation. She’d set up the system so that there were a limited number of people who could access information about shipments. It was one of the mandates of several clients so that they knew that their shipments could not be tracked by competitors. It wouldn’t hide the shipments from government agencies. Linx Airlines was required to file all appropriate data to the various government people who tracked the products coming into or going out of their individual countries.

However…!

Macie stomped into Edward’s office and nearly slammed the door. She didn’t, but closing it gently took a great deal of effort.

She sighed as she sat down behind Edward’s massive desk. The desk was too big for her taste. She’d prefer something smaller and more delicate. And with a lot of table space. She enjoyed being able to spread her printouts across her desk and look at the data from various angles. Sometimes, she’d print out her code and rearrange the various coding modules so that she could see how each section would react to the others.

But today, she couldn’t concentrate. She couldn’t seem to figure out what was off. The weights were right, if slightly unbalanced. The fuel consumption was…close enough that it didn’t raise any red flags.

Finally, she gave up and stood up.

Storming out of the office, she hurried down the annoyingly long hallway until she found Edward giving Kyle another bottle. Immediately, her hands flew to her breasts. They weren’t swollen and painful from lack of nursing. Was it possible that only three days of a messed up schedule could throw off her body’s milk production?

In one way, that made her sad. But then she saw the look of abject adoration on Edward’s face as he gazed down at Kyle. For his part, Kyle’s tiny fingers were wrapped around Edward’s longer fingers, as if needing that connection. And there was trust. Kyle had known his father for only two days, but already, the little guy had absolute trust in the man feeding him.

Her heart ached at the sight. And it was even more joyous when Kyle’s eyes slowly drifted closed. He still slurped on his bottle, but slowly, very slowly, his jaw went slack.

The eight ounce bottle was nearly empty. That meant that he’d eaten about six ounces of formula. That was more than he’d been eating since coming here. She’d been lucky to get four or five ounces into him.

He was thriving. There was something about Edward that called to Kyle. They were meant to be together.

Edward looked up, staring into Macie’s green gaze. She seemed almost stunned as she watched them. He wasn’t sure why, but he carefully stood up and placed Kyle into the bassinet. He had to resist the urge to cover him up. He’d read that babies shouldn’t have blankets in their bassinet because they could be a choking hazard.

Then, he turned, looking directly at Macie. “Are you…?”

He didn’t have a chance to finish his question because she rushed across the room, throwing herself into his arms and kissed him. It took everything inside of him not to buckle under the unexpected onslaught. Macie had always thrown him off balance. And every damn time she touched him, it was like an electric bolt right to his groin. He went from fine to rock hard in a moment.

After a shocked moment, during which time she took control of him, gripping his head and deepening the kiss, he rallied and grabbed her, lifting her higher. She wrapped her legs around his waist, angling her head so that his tongue could swoop in and taste her, pulling away to nip at her neck, bite her earlobe, and shift her body so that her nub was pressing against his shaft in a way that he knew would drive her wild.

He didn’t bother carrying her upstairs. Primarily, because they wouldn’t make it that far. But also because…hell, he had to be inside her. Now!

He sat down on the sofa and lifted her sweater out of the way. He didn’t have time to take off her bra. It wasn’t necessary anyway. He simply pulled the strap down, revealing her breast to his eager gaze. “Now!” she hissed, pushing her breast closer. Edward didn’t need a second invitation. And he heard her gasp when his mouth closed around her nipple.

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