Page 15 of The Baby His Secretary Carries

Now he was picturing her naked, skin shiny and coated with trailing bubbles. She wasn’t even in the tub yet and he knew the image would persist for weeks.

“Fine. But don’t you dare call in that dinner order yourself.”

To her credit, she didn’t roll her eyes, though he had a feeling she wanted to.

She didn’t apologize when she reached Nelo, either. She politely said that she had thought they were done for the night, but explained, “This is a very demanding role and things will continue to surface unexpectedly. I hope you’re prepared for that?... Oh?...I’m pleased to hear it. Dedication is rewarded over time, so do keep that attitude. We need a meal delivered. Something light for me with lots of vegetables, please. You might as well organize breakfast while you’re at it and plan to be here bright and early to put some things away for me.”

“Better,” Gio said when she hung up.

Her eyebrows went up in a small commentary at his arrogant remark, but she only asked, “Which room does Valentina use?”

“She doesn’t. We usually stay at the villa. I only keep this as convenience for late evenings or if I have a—” Date.

In those cases, if a woman stayed over, she didn’t use the spare room. Gio didn’t even know if his guest room had a bed in it, let alone whether it was made up.

Molly chewed the corner of her mouth, not meeting his gaze.

He led her down the hall. This was in a heritage building on the waterfront, but the interior had been completely redesigned and modernized into a his-and-hers pair of bedrooms joined by a shared bath.

Molly barely glanced at the rose-and-ivory decor in the second bedroom, seeming both uncertain and done in.

It was hitting him that she had been more than his professional support today. She’d been an emotional one and had even gone the extra mile, allowing him to hug her for comfort and kiss her for his grandfather’s sake.

A fresh burst of carnal hunger struck his belly and rang behind his fly. In the same way that he had walked in here craving a strong drink, he longed to lose himself in sex.

Judging by the way they reacted to each other, sex with Molly would be all-consuming and deeply gratifying, but it couldn’t happen. She was his employee, blurry as that distinction had become, and she was pregnant with another man’s child.

A hard fist clenched inside him, a resistance. No. There were too many complicating factors to consider an affair with her, but he couldn’t help envying the father of her baby, for knowing how it felt to make love to her.

Why wasn’t that man in her life, though? Gio was grateful he was out of the way, but he had no respect for him. As someone who’d suffered parental neglect, he instinctually loathed a man who would leave a woman and their child to fend for themselves.

His thoughts were so frustrating and contradictory, he escaped them by moving into the bathroom to start the tub. He closed the door into his own bedroom, then decisively locked it, as though the action would lock her out of his mind.

He hesitated, though. What if something happened?

Nonsense. She was a grown adult. She wasn’t going to drown in a thirty-minute bath.

And she was only his assistant. Why the hell was he in so many knots over her?

Concern. It was simple, human concern. Physically, she was in a vulnerable state and, much as he was not behaving like the best employer in the world, he valued the health of his employees.

“Listen,” he said as he came back into her bedroom. “You know that my personality is to push until my strength gives out. I expect you to recognize your own limitations and tell me when you’re reaching capacity.”

“You mean that?”

“I said it.”

“Okay.” She nodded. “Then let me be very clear. I can’t marry you. I won’t. That’s a hard limit.” She had brought a few bags into the bedroom and dumped one onto the bed, spilling a powder-blue nightgown onto the bedspread.

Ignore it, he demanded of his inner barbarian, but he instantly had a vivid fantasy of her nipples lifting that fine silk while the gathers cupped her full breasts and scalloped lace fell around her thighs.

“I want your grandfather to recover, and if he does... This can’t go any further, Gio. It shouldn’t have gone this far.” She shook moisturizer from another bag.

She might be right, but... “He’s in the hospital accepting treatment. I won’t apologize for my tactics in getting him there.”

Including the kiss? She shot him a mutinous look, making him certain that’s what she was wondering.

Despite his resolve to keep her from penetrating any deeper under his skin, he wound up holding her gaze, refusing to express regret over their moment of passion. It had been mutual. Her hand had been in his hair, urging him to kiss her harder.

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