Page 25 of Christmas Baby with Her Ultra-Rich Boss

Lena had only just stepped out of the shower when her phone rang, a frantic Katya informing her that Niels, the night duty manager at The Igloo, had taken sick.

‘Okay,’ Lena said, ‘let me make some calls. I’ll have a replacement with you shortly. Any other problems I should know about?’

‘No, but the way the snow’s falling, it looks like the blizzard is coming our way after all.’

Looking out her window, she saw what Katya meant. Lena’s hope as the day had gone on that heavy snow was the worst they would get looked to have been premature.

Five minutes later and she called Katya back to tell her she was on her way. Rachel, a currently off-shift duty manager, was going to take Niels’s shift but, as Rachel had not yet had her dinner, Lena had offered to cover the first hour so Rachel could get some food in her. It also gave her an excellent excuse to message Konstantinos and get out of the meal with him she’d been unable to think of a spontaneous excuse to refuse.

Duty manager at Igloo sick. Need to cover so won’t be able to make dinner.

She’d grab something to eat at the staff canteen on her way back, she thought as she quickly donned her layers and put her snowsuit on. Before setting out, she took the precaution of changing the batteries of both her head torch and her walkie-talkie. Out here, you could never be too careful.

Lena set off, her thoughts automatically taking her to Konstantinos.

She’d had no respite from him until she’d turned her computer off at six. The whole working day, he’d been there, tormenting her with his presence, filling her office and the corridors of the lodge with his citrusy cologne. Even his stubble had taunted her, steadily thickening as the day had gone on, reminding her of the pleasurable pain of it scratching against her skin.

The emotional distance she’d tried to impose had made no difference, she thought miserably as she carefully navigated her way through worsening visibility to the complex’s main road. Konstantinos only had to walk into a room for flames to flicker inside her and her resolutions to flounder. Oh, she waspathetic.

Four more days and then she’d be out of here. He would install her in his London penthouse, a thirty-minute train ride from her family, and then off he’d pop to wherever was next on his itinerary and she’d get a couple of weeks respite from him. She’d have to suffer his presence over Christmas but it was only for a few days. After that, there was no reason to imagine she’d have to deal with him at all in person until the baby came. That would be more than enough time to get her stupid wayward feelings for him in order.

The falling snow was impenetrable but Konstantinos grimly held his steady course until The Igloo’s reception appeared, not as a structure but as a hazy block of light. Abandoning the snowmobile he’d had to fight the impulse not to ride at full speed, he bowed his head against the whiteout and crashed his way through the reception door.

The shock on Lena’s face at his appearance would have been amusing if her reckless actions hadn’t snuffed any humour out of him. He’d half expected to arrive here and find that she hadn’t turned up, that she was lost in the blizzard.

‘What are you doing here?’ she asked.

He stamped more snow off his boots, uncaring of the pile of slush he was creating around him, and ripped his gloves off. ‘The very question I wish to ask of you.’

Her message cancelling their dinner date had pinged into his phone while he was taking a bath. As he’d been taking a screen break, it had gone unread for forty minutes.

She looked around the horseshoe reception desk she was currently standing behind with a bemused expression. ‘I’m covering for Niels until Rachel gets here. She’s on her way.’

‘So that’s two reckless members of staff I pay wages to.’

That took her aback. ‘What do you mean by that?’

‘Going out in this abysmal weather is the height of recklessness.’

‘Not as reckless as leaving The Igloo short staffed,’ she countered calmly. ‘Niels is ill. Besides, as we discussed just this morning, we’re trained to cope with the weather.’

He jabbed a finger in the direction of the door. ‘That is notweather. That is hell.’

‘We’re near the Arctic Circle. We get snow. We deal with it. That’s what you pay us good money for.’

‘That is more than snow.’

‘Yes, it’s a blizzard. It’s unfortunate but, as I said, we deal with it.’

Her serenity was as infuriating as her irresponsible actions. After stomping over to the reception desk, he slammed his hands on it. ‘Deal with it? Lena, you are five months pregnant.’

‘And?’

‘Don’t be obtuse,’ he snarled. ‘I cannot believe you would endanger yourself and our child like this.’

The calm vanished. Angry colour staining her face, she slammed her hands down on the other side of the desk in imitation of him and leaned forward, bringing her face close to his. ‘Excuse me,buster, but that is insulting poppycock. The snow wasn’t as heavy as this when I set off, and even if it was, I’ve lived here for four years and can ski-walk the route with my eyes closed. I have neverhad the slightest weather-related accident here because I treat the weather conditions with respect and understand my own limits. I was well wrapped up and had taken every precaution—wealltake every precaution. I’m not an invalid and my bump isn’t big enough yet to cause me balance problems, and for you to even suggest I would endanger our child is so insulting it makes me want to be sick, so go and take your judgement and stick it where the sun doesn’t shine!’

If the reception door hadn’t opened and a person, so thickly covered in snow they could be mistaken for a yeti, thrown themselves inside, Konstantinos thought he might have exploded with rage.

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