My hands tighten around her hips, and I can tell by her face that I’m grinding against her clit with each thrust.
Fuck, she wants it so badly. It makes me want her even more.
I cry out like a schoolboy as I spurt furiously into her for what seems like an eternity.
Pulling away, I attempt to catch my breath.
“Now, will you let me finish this critical work that the success of the company hangs off?” I ask, tilting my head back to kiss her.
There’s a mischievous gleam in her eye. “Only if you wear the kilt like a true Scotsman.”
“Not a chance,” I say firmly. “My grandma, your own mother, and your younger sister are downstairs. Pants stay ON.”
“Three flights I travelled to get here for you, Danny.” She pouts. “That’s what you are worth to me. What am I worth to you?”
This woman will be my undoing. “Fine.” I exhale. “No pants.” I’m suffocated in a massive hug.
“This is the best Christmas ever, Danny.”
Charlie
One year later.
My phone flashes angrily as Laura chats over the video call.
I jab at the phone, sending the automated notification, sorry, I can’t talk right now.
He’s going to be furious.
I’m not trying to antagonise him despite what he thinks… although part of me is turned on by that clenched jaw, nostril twitching, and eyes blazing Walker stance.
I am genuinely busy, we have a launch in 5 days of the nextgen products, and I’ve worked too hard all year on this to scupper it now.
It’s his company, you would think he’d understand.
I know it’s him approaching before I look up. The shift in the atmosphere is a giveaway. The entire floor seems to sit up straight in their seats and pretend to be model employees.
“What’s he doing on the 6th floor?” Someone mutters beyond me.
He stops beside my desk and clears his throat. I look up, eyebrows raised, and he glares at me. He’s wearing one of his trademark dark blue seats and brilliant white shirts, but I don’t have time to swoon right now.
“I’m on a work call,” I mouth, stating the bleeding obvious. I know he’s the CEO but doesn’t he realise the rest of us have work to do also?
He exhales loudly, dangling his arms over my desk. “Laura?” He asks, irritation evident in his voice.
I nod.
“Tell her you’ll call her back. I’m summoning you.”
“You’re summoning me?” I repeat loudly, looking at him in disbelief.
This nerve of this guy.
I bit my tongue to refrain from unleashing all fury on him in the open-plan office.
“He’s beside the desk, isn’t he?” Laura laughs over the video link.
“I’m so sorry, Laura, Yes” I grimace at her. “Can I -?”
“Yes, go, it’s fine.” She waves her hand dismissively. “Let’s pick it up in an hour.” I stand up, ignoring the floor full of eyeballs sharing at me from all angles.
“Start walking,” I mutter, striding down the aisle, and he follows behind me.
“What the hell are you playing at?” I grind out, fixing my fake smile on my face for the benefit of everyone else. “Springing up at my desk making demands? It’s irrational.”
Our relationship is still on the down-low, mainly because I want to keep it that way. Besides disclosing it to the Board of Directors and, of course, Stevie and the team, to everyone else in the company, I’m just the scrappy sneaker swearing Solution Designer who may run a brush through their hair on a good day.
Not the girlfriend of the CEO.
We stop at the lifts, and I stand keeping a reasonable distance.
He stares at me, arms crossed.
“I wouldn’t need to act irrationally if you let me see you.”
“I’m sorry.” I sigh. “It’s just this launch. I want to make sure everything is perfect.” His dark and stormy eyes hold mine.
“I haven’t seen you in 3 days, and I leave for New York tomorrow.” He replies, his tone laced with irritation.
“I’m sorry, Danny, it’s just a busy period. Are you overreacting just a little?” His jaw twitches like it always does when I insinuate he’s being a drama queen.
“No, I’m fucking not.”
“If you moved in, we wouldn’t have this problem.” He barks. “We would see each other every night.”
“I have enough to buy my own flat now.” I tease. The payout from Dreamworks had been a nice healthy deposit.
“Quit fucking teasing me, Charlie,” he growls. “You can buy a flat and rent it out. I need you with me.”
He had been asking me to move in with him for the last six months, the previous month more persistently.
He was overreacting a tad; I usually made sure I saw him at least three times a week.
I did want to move in with him soon. What girl wouldn’t want to live with Danny Walker?
Right now, I had one foot in the doorway of that beautiful Richmond mansion on the hill and one foot still in my mice infected flatshare, the flatshare I spent the best years of my twenties in and wasn’t ready to grow up.
He was right. I needed to let go of my days of flat sharing with friends. Because this wasn’t just about me now.
My stomach lurches.
“There is something I need to talk to you about, and I really didn’t want to do it here, but I can’t miss Stevie and Cat’s engagement party later,” I whisper up at him.
“What?” His voice is steely. “Let’s go to the office.”
The lift pings open, and two developers walk out, cutting through the strange atmosphere.
He puts his hand out to usher me into the lift first, and our eyes lock in the mirror before we turn to face the door.
It stops at nearly every floor between the 6th and the 15th floors as people come and go, with everyone addressing Danny.
In the lifts, he shoots me a sideways glance. He knows when I’m nervous.
Panic rises up inside me.
He’s no fucking clue what’s coming.
We walk in silence down the aisle to his office, then he bundles me in and closes the door.
He stands frozen, his dark eyes searching mine. He doesn’t like surprises. It’s a control freak thing.
“What’s going on, Charlie?”
Biting my lip, I stare hesitantly into his eyes.
I’d been over this scene in my head a hundred times.
I intended to wait until he was back from New York so I could tell him in the house with an entire speech rehearsed. Now I’m going to have to improvise.
Here I go. I decided to do it efficiently, bluntly.
“Danny, I’m pregnant.” I blurt out.
I wait with bated breath as his jaw hits the floor.
“No joke?” He whispers.
“You think I would joke about this?”
“Are you mad?” I chew on my lip. “I must have missed a pill. Or when I was sick or something.
I’m so sorry.”
His expression immediately softens, then his face widens into a bright smile, and my nerves collapse.
“How on earth could you think I’m mad?”
“Thank god.” I cry out. “I know we didn’t plan it, but-”
He moves intently towards me, locking me in an embrace and tilting my head up, so our eyes meet.
“Shush, sweetheart,” he murmurs. “This is the best news of my life.” Happy tears fall from my face, and I gaze into his ridiculous grin.
“I love you so much, Charlotte Finnegan,” he whispers, taking my wet face in his hands. “Thank you for making me the happiest man alive.”
His lips take mine like he forgets he’s in the office, or maybe he no longer cares.
Excitement surges through me as his hand drops protectively to my stomach. “How long?” “Just a few weeks. It’s still early days.” He nods.
“You know this means that I insist you and bump move in immediately.” “I know.” I giggle, pressing my head against his chest.
“Shit.” He takes a deep breath. “Mrs. Finnegan is going to murder me. Getting you knocked up before marriage.”
When I look up, he seems genuinely fearful…as he should be.
I let out a laugh, “Don’t forget Tristan. And you can tell HR you’ve got your employee pregnant.” He pulls me closer. “I think it’s time to retire to the Shetlands.”