Page 48 of Billionaire Boss's One Night Stand

“After I…” I brushed her hair over her shoulder, letting it drape back and cascade like a golden flow of soft waves. “After I made you come on that table, Loren. How can you think I don’tcare?”

“That was just lust. A conquest. Nothing more.”

God, I hated when she said that phrase. Nothing more? She was dead wrong about that. I wanted itallwith her.

“It wasn’t. I care about you, Loren.”

“As your employee?” Her voice quieted then. It almost sounded shaky, like she was warring with some intense emotions to get the words out.

“Yes. I care about you keeping your job and moving up however you want to.”

“That’s it? You don’t want to lose me on the team?”

“No. Yes.” I sighed, aggravated as I shook my head. “Yes, I care about you as my brilliant employee. And I also care about you as a…” Another deep breath soughed out of me.Fuck.This was it. This was the big moment where I’d need to lay it all on the line. Where I’d need to define us or what I wanted. I wasn’t having second thoughts about wanting it all with her, but I had to do so in such a way that it wouldn’t compromise her wanting to stay as my employee too.

“As a lot more. But right now, today, before this damn meeting, I need to know that you’re okay. I need you focused on the job.”

She didn’t reply, and I worried that I was screwing this up by not defining what I wanted with her. It wouldn’t be a simple, quick chat. I wanted to do this right, to be honest and earnest and really let her know that a fling wouldn’t cut it where she was concerned. And we would have that conversation as soon as this meeting was done.

“Are you okay?” I repeated.

She swallowed hard, but then stopped the gesture halfway and nodded weakly. Then she shifted into a shrug.

“Loren?”

“I am okay. But also not.”

“What?”

She licked her lips, looking down for a tense moment. When she glanced up again, I worried about the uneasy expression she showed me.

“I am pregnant,” she whispered in a rushed, anxious blurt, making time stand still.

19

LOREN

Those three words slipped past my lips too quickly. I wanted to share them with Matt in a different context. Maybe somewhere we could actually be alone. And not now, minutes before we’d need to get ready for the next important meeting with the Gammon people. This was crunch time. We had to have our minds on the big presentation.

Instead, I just ensured our concentration was shot. Mine was. It had been all week when I was trying to avoid talking to Matt. I was a wreck, putting up a wall to guard myself from him approaching me and acting like I wanted nothing to do with him.

It wasn’t only because I wanted to wait until after this meeting to talk with him about the fact that we would have a baby. It was also a safekeeping tactic in case Tom caused trouble. I knew he wouldn’t accept this “defeat” well. He’d given me dirty looks since the weekend, proving his malice toward me for choosing to be intimate with someone else.

I’d rehearsed, debated, and practiced how I could share this news with Matt. I would be neutral but clear. It would be best to keep emotions out of it.

Impossible.I felt like I was on the verge of throwing up after telling him. That was how anxious and nervous I was.

The moment was over.

My secret was out.

And now, I had to stomach through the agony ofstillwondering how he felt about this news.

He stared, stunned and unmoving. His confused gaze was locked on my lips, not because he wanted to kiss me, but perhaps because he wasn’t sure where to look or what to focus on.

Evidently, I snapped something in him. A fuse was broken and the circuit that ran his sharp mind wasn’t going. He was numb, quiet, and so immobile that I couldn’t help but worry if I’d frozen him, jarred him too far.

“You…” He cleared his throat. His brow furrowed and he blinked once, then twice. “You what?”

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