CEO'S Secret Baby: A Standalone Surprise Pregnancy Romance by Iona Rose (books for 5 year olds to read themselves .TXT) 📕

clear on a concept in mind, and yet he doesn’t have any faith in those we’ve submitted to him thus far. Does the morale of the team mean nothing to you?”

“Sir…” he began.

I leaned back into the chair. “Go ahead,”

He shut his mouth, and had nothing to say except, “We’ll do better to move things along.”

“I’m going to give you two options,” I told him. “Fire Vita500, or put out a competition. Today. Ask every employee that is interested, to send in their proposal for the campaign. The entries will be made available to every member of the agency, and they will be the ones to select the best three. They’ll present their strategies to the client, and if he still isn't impressed with any of them, then that will be the end of our collaboration. The two runner ups will get a bonus for their participation, while the winner will be promoted.”

Complete confusion came across his face as he tried to process all that I just said. Then he met my gaze. “Yes, sir,” he said, and left my office.

Later that evening, I returned to Leah’s, as was my norm. With my arrival in Indiana a month earlier, the plan had been to move out of the hotel where I’d been staying, into a place of my own if things went as well as I had hoped. Thus far, they had, but instead, Leah’s home had unofficially become mine.

Tonight was one of those I reasoned would be a good move to be apart, but I didn’t want whatever was brewing between us to gather up more momentum than was needed.

I expected her to be broody, so as I slipped my key into the keyhole, I cautioned myself to be as patient as was possible. After the long, trying day I’d had however, it worried me that perhaps I would be too curt and dismissive.

I pushed the door open, and was greeted with the homey smell of brewing soup.

She was slicing some mushrooms on the island and met my gaze for a brief moment. “Hi,” she said, and without waiting for a response, turned to head back to the stove with the mushrooms.

I draped my suit jacket across the sofa, and after slipping off my shoes, I headed over to her. I stood just close enough to see she was preparing a creamy soup. It smelled absolutely delicious and reminded me that I had only had a quick tuna sandwich for lunch, which I had been too busy to even finish.

Normally, my arrival back home, which was usually later than hers, would prompt a long sweet kiss from her but today, she barely looked at me.

I held my peace and handed the complete reins over to her.

“It’s almost ready?” She said. “Do you like garlic bread?”

I nodded, my gaze on her beautiful face, hoping I would be able to survive the incoming storm.

After a bit, we were seated side by side with each other and for the first time, we didn’t say a word.

Halfway through the meal, I couldn’t take it anymore. “How did the rest of your day go?” I asked, choosing the route of transparency instead of provocation.

She was ready with her attack. “Well, my scope of responsibility is now to reply to the endless stream of comments from the Oasis’s trip advisor site. So I can’t say it went very well.”

I continued eating, “Hmm. Coghlan was indeed out of line today.”

She stopped, and raised her eyes to me.

I met her gaze head on.

“Carter, what happened?” She asked. “I told you not to get involved.”

“Not to get involved with what exactly?”

Her lips quivered, a multitude of responses probably coming to mind all at once. In the end, she voiced none, her sigh heavy. “Carter, I felt horrible today, and it’s not going to go away tomorrow. From now on, because of my association with you, it will always seem like I do not deserve any progress that I make. That’s why I didn’t want to draw any attention whatsoever to us.”

“I understand that,” I replied. “And that’s why I said that Coghlan was out of line today.”

She looked even more perplexed. “Carter, for God’s sake! You went to Henry, and got him to present my proposal to Daniel, and that was why everything blew up.”

“I would have done that for any other employee,” I said, and she went quiet.

“Leah, I didn’t make Henry pay attention to your proposal because you’re my girlfriend, but because it was a good proposal that most likely will get your team out of its current rut, if only the executives in charge would give an ear to it. This showed me more than anything, how sour the state of management is in the company. Who knows how many other employees have had great ideas, but have been stifled by bosses with their fucking heads in the clouds. We’re together but I need you to understand that I own that company. Its success or failure will be on my head, so I am not going to make decisions that are solely based on emotions or personal relations.”

Her gaze faltered then, and then her head fell in her hands. “I know, I'm sorry, it’s just—how the fuck did he even figure out that we’re dating? He’s just fucking complicated everything.”

“Why do we have to hide the fact that we’re dating?” I asked.

Her head lifted then, her gaze narrowing in surprise. “Carter, it’s a work environment.”

“Is there a policy in place that states that employees cannot be romantically involved with each other, or their superiors?”

She seemed even more taken aback by my response, so I rose to my feet to give her the space she needed to process what I was saying. I took her plate, and mine, then headed over to the sink. I rinsed out the plates and proceeded to load them into the dishwasher. “What if we get married?” I asked. “Are you still going to hide the fact that we’re together?”

“Carter, that’s