Page 71 of Broken Daddy

Again, if anyone at the office heard this loud growl, they’d be hightailing it as far away from me as possible. But Chris only moves farther into the kitchen, looking surreptitiously at the stack of pancakes on the counter.

“You said you were going to be working from home all week. One of the aides in the office volunteers at a shelter and she was telling me all about Brutus. He’s a bullmastiff—very docile around family, but protective when provoked. Anyone trying to get into the house would have second thoughts.”

I shoot Eva a worried glance; she doesn’t know the full extent of what’s been going on. But she’s preoccupied with asking Brutus to sit, which he does with a thud. She rewards him with laughter and a bite of toast as Gen shakes her head.

The thing Chris so conveniently left out is that I’m working from home because I finally reached out to Jenson. His PR team is going to be collaborating with mine this week, and I just don’t want to be there. Last night was a wealth of troubling dreams about this whole thing imploding. Nash has already spoken to a few papers, claiming Ironside is the one embezzling money, and trying to pin him as a scapegoat.

“Look,” Chris comments cheerily, “he’s settling right in.”

Brutus circles on the rug near the French doors and lies down with a huff. Eva settles in happily next to him, laying her head on his massive flank.

My head is pounding.

“I need a minute.”

Chris’s face goes blank. He knows better than to try and keep talking as I walk away, down the hall toward my office.

The lights are all off and it’s cloudy enough I can only see shapes in the room. That’s why, when someone slips through the door behind me, I’m about to burst out in anger, thinking it’s Chris.

But then I catch Gen’s distinct scent, and suddenly everything in me calms.

She steps tentatively toward me.

“Are you okay?”

Propping my butt against my desk, I sigh. “I’m just a little overwhelmed. There’s a lot going on lately.”

Gen mirrors my half sitting stance, her arm brushing mine. To my surprise, she chuckles. “What, you can’t handle an unplanned pregnancy, your company being under attack, my stalker possibly casing the house, and now this massive dog?”

A smile curls my lips. Suddenly everything seems a little less daunting. “A bullmastiff. This is a bad idea.”

“I don’t know…Eva seems completely enamored right now. And it’s not as if you don’t have the space in this big house.” She gestures expansively, pointing out something I’ve always been self-conscious of—with just Eva and I in the house, it feels pretty empty.

I’m not sold on the dog. But if Eva is, and if he helps her feel less alone…

Besides, after my conversation with Gen the other day, it doesn’t sound like she’s planning on staying. Whether she gets the job in Germany or not.

It takes everything in me to smooth down feelings of frustration. Now isnotthe time to get into another argument about that.

Plus…Gen is too much like me.

And I know myself well enough to know the more someone tries to bully me, the more I’ll push back. You attract the most flies with honey, as they say.

“Thank you,” I rumble.

Gen looks up at me in surprise. “For what?”

“For being the voice of reason right now.”

I can’t help it. My eyes drop to her lips. Ever since finding out about the pregnancy, we haven’t touched each other. My body is thrumming, craving her.

Leaning in, I press my mouth to hers. Warmth flows through my entire body. Gen sighs and gives in, boneless against my chest as I wrap an arm around her back to steady her.

“Ahem.”

We both jerk back at the sound of Chris clearing his throat. He has one hand on the office door, half inside, his brows raised, eyes on the ceiling.

“Sorry to interrupt, but we should probably talk, Nate.”

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