Page 47 of Triplet Babies for My Billionaire Boss

“Danielle?” I asked, knocking on the door.

“I’m fine,” Danielle said in a strained voice. She was anything but fine. I heard the water run, the toilet flush, and a moment later, Danielle stepped out. She still looked pale. I wanted to hug her or do something that would make her feel better. I hated that she wasn’t feeling well, and there was nothing I could do to make it better, not if I wanted to maintain our professional appearance in front of the other employees.

“I think you need to go home,” I offered. It was the best I could do.

Monica returned with a glass of water and handed it to Danielle.

“I think so, too,” Danielle said, taking the water from Monica and taking a couple of sips. “I don’t know what’s going on. I’ve been feeling sick the last couple of days. I don’t know if it might be food poisoning or something.”

“Are you sure?” Monica asked. “You don’t think it might be morning sickness?”

Danielle look at Monica, and a strange expression crossed her face. “No,” she said. “It’s not.”

Monica shrugged. “It looks like morning sickness to me. But if you’re sure, honey, maybe you need to have it checked out.”

“Maybe I will,” Danielle said tightly. She was clearly uncomfortable. I watched Monica nod and excuse herself, walking away to get back to work. I looked at Danielle again. Her reaction had been very strange.

“You should get your things,” I said.

Danielle nodded and turned toward the office. She collected her phone and her bag, and I walked her to the elevator. I wanted to step into the elevator with her when it arrived, but she turned to me, blocking my way.

“I’ll be fine, Rodney. Thank you.”

I had wanted to walk her all the way to her car to be sure she was all right, but Danielle didn’t want me to look after her. Maybe that was my fault for pushing her away. I didn’t like it.

“Let me know how you are doing later today,” I said. “And we’ll talk about you coming in tomorrow.”

Danielle nodded. “I’ll let you know,” she said.

She stepped into the elevator and pushed the button for the lobby. She stood alone in the elevator as the doors slid closed, and she was gone. I stared at the closed doors for a moment before turning and walking back to my office.

Everything was a mess right now. Things between Danielle and me were off, she wasn’t feeling well, and I didn’t have the liberty or the right to take care of her, not after I had pushed her away.

She was distant from me now, switched off. I should have been happy about it—I had wanted her to stop trying to seduce me after all—but I hadn’t wanted her to be so distant from me. I had wanted things to go back to the way they used to be between us before we had slept together.

That would be impossible. I knew that now. I should have known this would happen. There was no going back to the way things were. If I hadn’t been drunk that night when I had come home to her looking so damn sexy on my couch, I might have handled it differently. I had fantasized about her many times before we had done the deed, but I had never acted on it because I had known Danielle was off limits.

She should have stayed off limits. I should have practiced better self-control. I should have stopped after the first time and tried to do damage control. We ended up sleeping together not once, but three times.

If anyone was the idiot in this equation, it was me.

But there was nothing I could do to change the way things were. I had made my choices–albeit stupid ones–and I couldn’t undo the past.

Maybe I could have ignored what had happened and moved on if I hadn’t developed feelings for Danielle. That was the damn problem. My emotions had influenced the choices I made when I’d asked her to stop being the way she was and when I had threatened her with HR. I cared for her now, and seeing her this distant hurt me on a different level than just a sexual rejection would have.

I sighed, swiveling my chair toward the windows that looked out over Manhattan and wondered how the hell I had gotten here. I knew the answer to that. I had followed my dick, and my heart had gotten involved. That was what had happened with Chrissy as well, although it hadn’t been as complicated with her. But I had lost her, even when I had done everything right.

Now, I was going through the same thing again, even when the circumstances were completely different.

Love was always a fucker, wasn’t it?

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