Page 53 of In Her Shadow

“And miss you blush and look all panicked every time I open my office door? Nah.” I shake my head and kiss her one more time before I release her.

“It won’t be for long, I’m gonna tell Human Resources that I’m pregnant today.” Her words shock me. She’s been so hell bent on keeping all this a secret, it completely throws me off.

“That's awesome.” I drag her back to me again so I can kiss her some more.

“Well, I figure they’re gonna need to find a replacement for me, and this little one clearly doesn’t want to stay hidden anymore.”

I love the way she looks down at her stomach and smiles. It makes all my deception worth it.

“No, she doesn’t.” I smile as I reach over and stroke it tenderly.

“She?” Eloise looks surprised.

“We’re definitely having a girl,” I assure her, taking the sonogram picture out of my wallet and proving it to her. “Look how pretty she is, far too pretty to be a boy. She’s even got your cute little nose.”

“You spend far too much time looking at that, and the only way to know for sure is from my blood results. We could ask the doctor at our next appointment, if you want.” She looks tempted, despite the fact we both decided we wanted a surprise.

“I don’t need to ask the doctor, I already know.” I kiss her one last time, and she rolls her eyes before she gets out the car.

I keep the image in my hand as I give her time to make her way up to the office floor. Just looking at it makes me want to bea better man. I don’t regret the bad things I’ve done, especially not the ones I did to protect Eloise. I’m just hoping that all that shit is in the past now; that me, her, and our little baby girl can have a quiet, peaceful life together.

I wait another ten minutes before I head on up, and when I see Eloise at her desk looking mad at me I gotta wonder what the fuck it is I’ve done now. Luckily, up till now she hasn’t suffered with much more than horniness and nausea, but her mood swings are starting to get out of control. Yesterday, she threw a shoe at me because I told her she should quit wearing heels.

I smile at her curtly, keeping up the pretense that she’s no more to me than an employee as I head into my office. I pull out my phone to message and see if she’s okay, and I see that I already have a message from her.

I got a notification from that app you downloaded on my phone!!!

Same. She’s not a peach anymore. She’s an apple.

I smile to myself as I send her a message back, wondering what she was looking so mad about.

Yeah, and now Mary-Ann and Fiona know that too. It came up on my phone screen while it was on my desk!

I don’t respond, just look up through the glass and see her scowling back at me. Fiona and Mary-Ann are deep in conversation around her, and when I do nothing to hide the grin on my face, if looks could kill, I’d be six feet under.

I really get her mad when, at 11:05, a huge bouquet of flowers arrives at her desk, with a simple message that reads

From Your Baby Daddy!

It makes those nosey women she shares desk space with cluck even more, and builds my girl up into a frenzy that I'm sure she will need to relieve when we get home.

“I can’t believe you did that.” She eventually starts speaking to me when I’m driving the narrow lanes that lead through the woods.

“I don’t know what you're talking about.” I shrug

“I’m talking about you making a bad situation worse. There's already whispers about us going round the office, and now that those two know about the baby, they’re gonna assume it’s yours.”

“Baby, sheismine,” I remind her, unable to resist reaching out and placing my hand over the tiny swell that's under her blouse.

“You know what I mean. I just hate the idea of people talking about me.” She throws her hands in the air and rolls her eyes.

“I’m sorry if it made them worse. You're just so irresistible when you’re mad.” I pull through the gates, and when I stop the car, she doesn’t give me a chance to get out and open her door for her, she gets out herself and strops inside.

I follow after her, and when I see my uncle resting his shoulder against his office door, looking smug, I shake my head at him.

“Someone’s looking angry,” he points out, and we both flinch when the door upstairs slams. “In my experience, you're better off leaving her to simmer down.”

“What experience do you have? I’ve never known you even use a whore more than once.”

---