Page 10 of The Baby His Secretary Carries

“I’ll double it if you agree to stay another three weeks, double it again if you stay for twelve.”

“That won’t happen,” she cried. “I’m not playing hardball, Gio. This is the reality of my situation.”

“We see it differently.” He shrugged. “You’ll need more than one assistant because I am now your sole priority.” Why did he like that thought so much? “We’ll stay here and work out of the Genoa office. I understand you may have physical limitations, but outside of that, you’re mine in whatever role I need.”

Her eyes widened. A soft blush came into her cheeks.

He usually did his best to ignore that, too. A lot of women betrayed an awareness of him. He was rich, well-dressed, intelligent and kept himself fit. He never let female attention go to his head, though. With Molly, however, he always felt when she was watching him and he damn well liked it.

Being her employer, he’d always been careful to keep his low-key arousal to himself. There were enough mermaids in the sea that he didn’t have to fish where he worked. In fact, his latent interest in her had been his only reservation in bringing her on as his executive assistant. He’d been confident he could keep his hands to himself, and still was, but everything about their relationship was changing, becoming far more personal than he had expected.

Which didn’t matter. He could handle that, too.

He believed, until she bit the edge of her lip in a way that tightened his gut.

“If I agree to those terms, will I have your solemn promise that you will never, ever tell anyone about...?” She dropped her gaze to her thickening waistline.

“I can promise that.” He didn’t like it, but he could and would. He held out his hand.

She swallowed and searched his expression.

Was she waiting for him to clarify that he wouldn’t cross any lines? Because he was about to wipe his feet on those lines and blur them into oblivion.

“Do we have an agreement?” he prodded. “Are you thinking about extorting more for the signing bonus first?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Predictably, she hurried forward to shake his hand, horrified by the implication she might be greedy. “You’re already being very generous. Thank you.”

He snorted. “I’m not generous, Molly. I’m merely willing to pay the price required to get what I want.”

“What do you mean?” She tried to withdraw her hand, but he held on to it.

“I mean we’re going to tell my grandfather that you’re my fiancée.”

CHAPTER THREE

MOLLYWASSTUNNEDSPEECHLESS.

Gio’s eyebrows went up, daring her to protest when her handshake of agreement was still withering in his hand.

The profound silence made the growl of her stomach all the louder and more cringeworthy.

“Let’s have lunch.” Gio dropped her hand and went to the door. “Then we’ll give Nonno our happy news.”

“Mr. Casella—”

“Oh, no, Molly.” He did his thing where he used one glance to impale her like a barbed hook. “No take-backs. I accepted your terms. You accepted mine.”

He opened the door, letting all the pent-up energy in this room flow out into the hall.

“You tricked me. You know you did.” She walked through the door to escape the intimacy of his bedroom.

“Consider it a lesson in reading the fine print. Lunch on the terrace, please,” he said in Italian to the first maid he saw.

Numbly, Molly accompanied him, too hungry to stage a mutinous walkout. All she could think wasI need to tell Sasha that he knows about the baby.

“Where did my bag go?” she asked the young woman who poured them a cool glass of something that smelled of orange peel and nutmeg.

“We have a lot to cover, don’t we? Let’s get Valentina’s announcement out of the way. What other business can’t wait?”

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