CEO'S Secret Baby: A Standalone Surprise Pregnancy Romance Iona Rose (mobi reader txt) 📖

I broke her gaze, and couldn’t help the hostile one that I turned on the VP. “Why does she look like this?”

He looked unprepared by the question, but I didn’t care. Not until I saw her move.

She nodded slightly to the three of us and instantly went on her way.

My lips parted to call her back but I came to my senses, and remembered where we were. She stood at one of the two elevators, waiting for the cars to arrive and as soon as one of them did, she jumped into it.

I could see her move to the control pad to quickly shut the door, but Coghlan called out to her. “Hold it, Leah,” he said and the three of us embarked.

“I’ll take the next one,” she said.

Before she could walk out, I grabbed onto her arm. “No need,” I said, and leaned over her to press the close button. The elevator slid shut, and we were on our way down.

“The restaurant we’re taking you to sir, has the best sandwiches in the entire metropolitan area,” Miller said.

“I look forward to it,” I replied, just as the elevator arrived on her floor.

She immediately stepped out of it.

And so did I. “Miss Peters, wait a moment,” I called to her.

She was forced to come to a halt.

I didn’t miss the venomous glance however brief, that she sent my way. “I’ll be right down.” I told the other men. “I have to reschedule the meeting I planned to have with her after lunch today. It’ll only take a minute.”

The elevator doors dinged shut, and I was left standing with her.

We weren’t alone, however, the entire floor of cubicles and cabinets filled with employees, some of whom I was sure had noticed us, and had their eyes trained on our interaction.

I slipped my hands into my pocket to control the urge seemingly burning through my skin to reach out to touch her. I didn’t realize just how intimately my body reacted to hers. I had to constantly catch myself from sliding my arm around her waist to guide her, and from brushing my hand down her slender arms. I wanted to brush away the tendrils of hair from her face, and once again take her lips with mine.

I had absolutely not been mistaken. This woman held a power over me that little else could contend with. “What’s wrong?” I asked, trying my best to keep my voice down. “Why do you look so ill?”

She took a massive step away from me, her gaze quickly going towards our slowly growing audience across the floor.

“I’m doing fine, sir,” she said, with the saddest smile I had ever seen. It broke my heart. “Have a great lunch, sir.”

An arm’s length was not severe enough to attribute to the distance she was currently putting between us. Physically, emotionally and mentally. It felt like an insurmountable concrete wall had been permanently erected between us and it nearly sent me into a mode of panic. “Take care of yourself,” I told her, unable to keep the harshness out of my tone. I turned around and returned to the elevator.

I didn’t look back until it arrived, and I turned around inside of it. I watched as she headed down the hallway back towards her cubicle.

“Run,” I muttered under my breath. “Run all you want, but I will be seeing you again… soon.”

Leah

I headed straight to the bathroom in a daze.

I needed a minute to myself to process what had just happened, or even thirty seconds, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to get it.

Jeremy came after me, and although I tried to increase my pace as quickly as I could without flat out running, his long legs, and shrill voice called out to me. “Leah! Leah!”

I turned around to face him.

He withdrew with a hiss of breath through his teeth.

His reaction crushed me even more and brought tears to my eyes. Carter had seen me this way! For the first time in more than a month, we were seeing each other again, and I looked like a homeless stray cat. I wanted to bury myself into the ground.

“You met the new CEO?” He asked excitedly. “How was he? Does this mean no one else from our team gets to meet him?”

“I didn’t meet him,” I replied. “I just ran into him on the way down from the VP’s office. They’re going to have lunch.”

“Oh, alright then,” he said. “He’s super handsome right?”

My stomach lurched and my hand shot across my mouth to keep the vomit inside of me. I rushed to the bathroom, found the nearest stall, and spilled my guts into the toilet, multiple times.

“Leah, are you okay?” Jeremy’s voice called from beyond the bathroom.

I didn’t want to respond. I couldn’t even respond.

When the last bout of nausea had passed, I collapsed to the floor and stared ahead at nothing.

My life didn’t seem real anymore and for a moment, I started to suspect that perhaps I was in some sort of dream but I wasn’t aware of it. They usually felt this real when you were in the midst of them right?

Maybe after that night when he had stood me up at the restaurant, and I returned to the hotel room to fall asleep… perhaps that was when this entire nightmare had begun. Maybe I was still stuck back in that time.

I spewed into the toilet again, and it seemed as though the last of my energy was also discharged along with it.

Please let me return to that time, I pleaded, tears rolling down my eyes. What the fuck was he doing here? How and why was he the fucking CEO?

It was an acquisition, not a merger. Did that mean the company had handled the transaction and then sent him here to take control?

But how could it be exactly this same company that I was in? Was it a coincidence, or had he actually…

My mouth fell