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

and then ask about it, and of course I didn’t want to get fired, so I just kept talking.”

“Um… I think that’s just him being a good listener.”

“He is,” he said and emptied the plastic bottle. “He really is.”

I wanted to hear more. “So what did you tell him?”

“Basically? That the agency is shit.”

My eyes widened slightly.

“Well, not in those exact terms. When he asked about growth I just mentioned how it would be nice for us to be able to learn from the other teams, and perhaps be rotated a bit more for projects, rather than being in the same team and working with the same people for too long. For instance, McCarthy is one of the greatest illustrators I’ve personally ever known, but guess who still hasn’t had the chance to work with him in the two years I’ve been here? Basically, I advocated for a more lax management, and it's either going to get me fired, or have all the executives frustrate me enough to quit on my own for being too talkative.”

“Oh, come on,” I said. “What you said wasn’t that bad, plus a serious review of the entire system is exactly what we need. I basically do Aarif’s job and he gets paid more than I do, simply because of his damn title.” I patted him on the back, somewhat disappointed and not exactly sure why. “You’ll be fine.”

“I thought he’d call you,” he said.

“I thought so too.”

“And you look stunning today. What a contrast from yesterday.”

“Thank you,” I said, and joined him as we began to head back to our seats.

“I still think I may have a shot with him,” he said. “He was especially attentive to me.”

“Sweetie, that’s his job,” I said smartly.

He gave me a sour look.

More than a week passed by, and our new, highly esteemed CEO did not seek me out.

I barely even saw him, his occasional visits and meetings on our floor, brief and scrupulous, and then his return to his throne, immediate.

It was like I didn’t exist, and that was especially difficult to accept, given that his child was growing inside of me. I didn’t even have his phone number any longer, every trace of him deleted from my phone and computer in my desperate attempt to move on with my life after Alanya.

Now he was back here again, and everything seemed to be tilted on its axis. I didn’t know how much longer I would be able to remain patient.

Anne tried to drive some sense into me when she texted, ‘Are you going to wait until you’re already showing before you speak to him, or have you decided to get rid of the baby? You’re already five weeks in.’

‘She’s right Leah,’ Tracy texted into our group chat. ‘You both can’t keep ignoring each other any longer.’

I put my phone down and despite my trembling hands, I forced myself to get back to work.

Soon, I received the alert that Jeremy could never resist sending whenever Carter was on our floor. ‘He’s here.’

I never dared look, for the fear that somehow our gazes would meet. So I waited until he got into the meeting room with some of the executives, before summoning up the courage to take a look through the corner of my cubicle into the glassed meeting room. He was seated at the head of the long table, leaning backwards, with one elbow rested on the arm of the swivel chair.

I’d noticed so far that he dressed most often in a two piece set, the matching waistcoat and pants molded and fitted to his body like a spell. I tried not to think of the parts of him I had seen and tasted, but given that I'd never thought I would see him again in this lifetime, this was a treat I couldn’t deny myself.

Until today.

He suddenly turned, and caught my gaze.

I turned away, my jittery motion over turning my mug of lukewarm coffee. “Shit!” I rose to my feet, beyond embarrassed. I quickly moved my papers and documents out of the way, and hurried towards the bathroom to grab some paper towels. By the time I returned, I stole another glance at the conference room, and saw that he and his party had vacated it.

Once again, I felt hurt and couldn’t understand why I was letting this go on when I could just talk to him. Perhaps he had even come all the way here for me. But even if his being here was all a fat coincidence, none of it mattered because until I apologized for shunning him, I doubted that any peace would come to the both of us.

“There’s good news!” Juhyeon, the Creative Director for marketing team three suddenly announced, “Tsuki’s campaign, the limited edition eyewear we handled last month, launched three days ago and every single piece has been sold out.”

A round of applause erupted across the floor for those who cared, but when she went further on to announce that there would be a little celebration in the event room on the floor below, the applauses tripled in size.

“That’s more like it, you hungry bastards,” she said, and the floor erupted into laughter.

Suddenly, our manager Henry, came out of his office. “Marketing team two, you’re forbidden to attend this gathering. Your account is still a fucking, bloody mess.”

The groans were deafening, and it made me look around to see if we had suddenly gotten more members than I was aware of. I realized then, that other employees were also grumbling on our behalf.

“Just for tonight, boss,” Aarif called out.

Henry was already heading back to his office.

“Just for tonight, Henry,” Juhyeon pleaded. “There’s pizza, and tacos, and a barrel of red wine.”

The floor erupted into excitement again, but Henry slammed his door shut behind him to the amusement of many. Soon, the chatter died down, and we got back to work.

Later that evening, at just after 7:30, I headed down to the floor with Jeremy and found it nearly