Page 7 of Christmas Baby with Her Ultra-Rich Boss

It was the narrowed scrutiny of his green eyes that made her cheeks burn, but she kept her frame and tone steady. ‘Not at all. How’s the inspection going?’ If she was about to lose her job then get it over with. The wait for feedback had become more than she could endure.

‘I’m done.’

‘Already?’

He leaned back on the seat.Herseat. Those deep-set green eyes bore into her. ‘I congratulate you. You delegate well. The place is spotless. The guests are happy. The staff are happy. You run a tight ship.’

Her relief was such that she blew out the air she’d been holding and laughed. ‘Phew.’

‘You sound surprised.’

She pulled at the ends of her hair, which she’d left loose. ‘I was under no illusion that my perspective of how I run things might differ from your perspective.’

‘If your perspective is that you run things to a high standard then we are in agreement.’ He looked at his watch and rose to his feet. ‘Time for me to leave.’

Instead of jubilation that he was leaving so soon, there was another, stronger lurch in her stomach, more like a plummet, and a definite tremor in her voice as she politely asked, ‘Where are you heading to next?’

‘Australia.’

‘The climate more to your liking?’

His lips twitched before he grunted his agreement and thrust his hand across the desk to her.

The beats of her heart increasing in weight and tempo, she stretched her arm out. The instant his long, warm fingers wrapped around hers, all the organs in her body contracted then released with a burst.

‘Until the summer,’ he said briskly.

The compulsion to throw herself into his arms and confess that they were having a baby and beg him to stay and share her joy and be a father to it was so strong and so sudden she almost staggered under the weight of it.

His eyes crinkled with concern. ‘Is something the matter?’

Releasing her hand from his, she swallowed and shook her head. ‘Just a bit warm in here,’ she whispered. It wasn’t a lie. The room was sweltering.

And what wasn’t a lie, either, was that she didn’t want him to go. As terrifying as the whole situation was, as terrifying as Konstantinos’s being here was, and the inherent danger that came with his discovering the pregnancy when he had so much power over her fate...in that moment the thought of him leaving was close to unbearable.

He stared at her a beat longer then gave one of his sharp nods and stepped around her desk.

Another beat later and he was gone from her office. All that remained were the remnants of his citrusy cologne.

Konstantinos’s car hadn’t left the complex when he realised he’d left his phone by the computer in Lena’s office.

Telling his driver to give him two minutes, self-recrimination roiled in his guts. If he hadn’t been so keen to get away from her he wouldn’t have forgotten the damned thing and now he had to go back in there and see her one more time. With any luck, she’d have left the office to run an errand somewhere and he wouldn’t have to look into those large brown eyes and be transported back to the night he’d lost himself in her.

All these months he’d done his best to forget. Time should have put enough distance to make it nothing but a vague memory, but seeing her again had made it all slam back into his consciousness and it was no longer just the weight of her breasts against the palms of his hands he could still feel, but the silkiness of Lena’s skin compressed against his and the exquisite bliss of being buried so deeply inside her. When she’d walked into the office, his tongue had suddenly tingled to remember the taste of her, a deep jolt of heat in his loins to recall the scent that had lingered in the air after they had collapsed in each other’s arms.

He could still see, vividly, the way her eyes had widened when he’d first entered her, hear the intake of breath that had turned into a moan that had fed his desire for her in a way that had blown away every sexual experience he’d ever had before her.

Was it any wonder he’d felt it so necessary to leave her office?

He would not linger. He would grab his phone and get the hell out and stay the hell out.

Nodding at Anya, one of the women working the reception desk, and at the bundled-up couple checking in, he strode to the office.

Lena was opening the window, her back to him. She’d removed her sweater to reveal a fitted plain white long-sleeved top that enhanced the silhouette of her trim figure over her tight-fit black trousers. She’d put a little weight on since their night together, he observed dimly.

She turned her head and visibly jumped with shock to see him.

‘I left my phone behind,’ he explained tersely, grabbing his phone and shoving it into his back pocket.

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