Page 17 of Boss's Baby Surprise

I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and pulled her gently back into bed. She didn’t resist. “Sounds to me like the universe is telling you that you need to stay in bed.” I chuckled.

I smiled as she lay back. I noticed she looked a little green around the edges. “You really don’t feel well, do you?”

She whimpered and shook her head slowly. “I think maybe staying in bed and going back to sleep might not be a bad idea.” She curled on her side and closed her eyes.

“Do you need me to get you anything?”

She just kept her eyes closed and said no with a low moan.

Concern coursed through my veins like a shot of caffeine. I was suddenly wide awake. Clarissa’s face looked pinched and unhappy as she tried to lie still and rest. I tucked the blanket around her and watched over her until I was certain she was asleep. I didn’t have any plans other than to be with her and had nothing else to do, so I sat back and turned on the TV to watch a game. I continued to gently stroke her shoulder.

It was several hours before Clarissa woke up. By then, I had gotten dressed and relocated my game watching to the living room. She was dressed and ready to leave when she found me.

“Are you feeling better?” I jumped to my feet and followed her to the front door.

“I still feel a little bit wobbly. There must have been something bad in what I ate last night.”

“Are you sure you don’t wanna stay here for the rest of the weekend?” I asked.

“I would love nothing more than to spend the rest of the weekend with you. But I haven’t seen my roommate in ages, and I promised her we would go to the movies this weekend. It’s already Sunday, so I’m running out of time if I’m going to go to a movie with her today.”

“As long as you’re sure you’re feeling okay,” I said.

She nodded and gave me a quick kiss and left.

It was the first time in weeks that I had alone time on the weekend. Ever since we got together, we had spent every weekend together. Now, I hardly knew what to do with myself. After another few hours of watching mindless television, I suddenly had a brilliant idea for my client in Hong Kong. I knew not to ignore the Muse when she struck.

I picked up my tablet and began sketching. It was well into the wee hours of the next morning before I realized I hadn’t moved. I got up and stretched my stiff muscles and realized that some of my project notes were back at the office.

I decided to change clothes and get dressed for the business day and head into the office. It’s not like I hadn’t gotten to work early before or pulled all-nighters, so it shouldn’t surprise anybody that I came in early to work. Once in the office and with my notes in hand, I returned to sketching.

I lost all track of time until Alayna walked in that morning.

“You got here early,” she said, catching my attention.

I looked up to see her standing in my office door. She still had her commute bag slung over her shoulders, and she hadn’t yet changed out of her walking shoes.

“Yeah, inspiration struck so I thought I would take advantage of it.”

“Strike while the iron is hot,” she said. “Are you gonna want some coffee?” she asked.

“That would be a very good idea.” I yawned and rubbed my hand over my face. I wasn’t a young man anymore, and working around the clock was catching up to me.

“What time did you get in?”

“I can’t remember.” I yawned again. “But it was dark out, so late.”

“Or very early,” Alayna pointed out.

She returned a while later with a hot cup of coffee. She set it down on my desk. All of my attention was still on my frantic sketching. She was well aware that sometimes, I got hyper focused on a project until I found the solution.

“Should I handle the kids today?” she asked.

We called the interns ‘kids’ when it was just the two of us discussing plans. It was probably a little condescending, and it was definitely not politically correct. But they were kids, at least from my age perspective. And I knew Alayna was about the same age as I was. I never asked. It wasn’t any of my business, legally. But the interns were young, and they were in the infancy of theirarchitectural careers. It also helped me keep the proper frame of mind when I had to interact with Clarissa whenever she was in the office with me.

“That might not be a bad idea. I’m really on a roll with this. I think the group in Hong Kong is going to be really pleased with the results,” I said.

“Are you still thinking about transferring the office there?” Alayna asked.

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