Page 116 of Assistant to the Billionaire CEO

He sat down next to me and slapped my shoulder. “You’re going to be a good dad. I trust you. I do, man.”

“Oh, you do?”

“All right, got me there. Well. If Harris couldn’t find more than this on you, then there isn’t anything else to find. Besides, I trust Stella’s judgment, and she trusts you.”

“Didshetell you that?”

“No, but like I said, I know her. I think she just needs you to reassure her that you love herandthe baby.”

“I will.” I nodded, coming to grips with the news Damon had shared. “Actually, I’m excited. You know I always wanted to have my own family. I’m a family man, you know that. Can you imagine a tiny Ace-Stella hybrid running around?”

“I’m trying my best not to.” Damon shook his head. “You should mention it to Stella though. Women eat that shit up. It’ll mean a lot to her to hear that you’re excited she’s expecting. Like I said, sheneedsto hear it.”

“I’ll go to her right away.” I started scrambling up, but he grabbed my arm.

“Don’t fuck it up,” he said kindly. “Maybe give her tonight to gather her thoughts. You can go see her in the morning. Everything’s always clearer in the morning.”

“I can’t. I need to see her now.”

“In that case, don’t let me stop you.” He inclined his head toward the burned envelope. “Also, we can’t send this to Mr. Humphries and the board like this. You have to send me a clean set of prints. And pronto. In case you need a helping hand, I know somebody, who a few days ago, resigned from her assistant’s job.”

I chuckled, getting to my feet.

Tilly stuck her head out of her half-open bedroom door just as I reached for my helmet. “Is everything okay out here?” she quietly asked. I could barely hear her voice from across the apartment. She slipped over the threshold, closed the door behind her, and sauntered toward Damon and me. “Teddy’s finally sleeping.”

“Everything’s all right.” Damon winked at me and added, “But your brother here has some pretty big news.”

“Spill the beans then,” she demanded cheerfully. “Now I’m curious.” She smiled past Damon at me.

I took a deep breath and said, “Teddy’s getting a cousin.”

Her mouth dropped. “Whaaaat? Holy cannoli!”

49

STELLA

There was a fresh batch of éclairs in the oven. It was in the middle of the night, but I couldn’t sleep. This time around, I was certain I’d absolutely shine making them. Why? Because I was staring at them through my oven’s tiny window. The most important rule—so I’d Googled—was to never leave your éclairs unsupervised. Okay, maybe that wasn’t the most important rule for everyone…but for me it was.

My hand fell onto my stomach. Of course I wasn’t showing yet, but I knew I would be soon. My mom always said she’d looked pregnant the moment she’d conceived, and if genetics were anything to go by, I’d have a huge belly by tomorrow morning. Perfect time to tell Ace all about it.

Éclairs were a fantastic distraction. Not taking my eyes off them, they slowly turned golden brown, and the kitchen began to fill with the most delicious scent there was. I kept staring at them and found myself completely distracted from my current predicament. On top of that, I was consumed by a state of “momentary baker’s bliss.”(I’m sure that’s the official term.)

The doorbell rang, and I jumped. Who was that? I accidentally caught a glimpse of my reflection in the oven’s window: My hair was messy, and I had a streak of flour across my forehead. But I didn’t consider running to my room to fix my appearance, because it was just Damon to check up on me, and consequently, such “drastic steps” weren’t necessary.

Knock. Knock.

“I’m coming!” I gave my éclairs a last mournful glance and whispered, “Please don’t burn.”

As I wrapped my fingers around the doorknob, I hoped Damon wasn’t planning on staying too long, and not just because of the éclairs. The reason was, I still had to come up with a reasonably good strategy for tomorrow on how to tell Ace I was pregnant, while dealing with my anxiety, excitement, and fear. It was a pretty weird time for me, but I was certain I would get through it if I was left alone to process all of it.

I flung the door open. “He—” I stopped short.

It wasn’t Damon.

I blinked.

Beautiful, deep, soul-piercing bright-blue eyes. Intense. Powerful. Larger than life.

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