Page 24 of After-Hours Heir

Who could ever know?

“But I am grateful that we have come to satisfactory terms.”

She didn’t think he meant that. He didn’t care. If he’d had to come in and physically sword-fight everybody, he would’ve done that. Bloodshed would have worked for him to. And he probably would have appeared just as calm in the aftermath.

He stood, and so did she.

And the breath left her body as he crossed the room and moved toward her. He extended his hand, and because shethought he was certain she wouldn’t, she extended hers and shook his.

The contact of his skin against hers was like an electric shock. She had only experienced something like it one other time. God, she despised him. How could he make her feel this way? At this moment, when everything was a disaster?

“I hope we can keep you on, Miss Jones,” he said.

Then he dropped his hand and swept past her.

She grabbed her bag and walked past him. She had to go down and meet the father of her baby now, and she didn’t have time to ruminate over Christos. She didn’t have time to ruminate on anything. She said nothing to him as she bustled past him and pointed toward the elevator.

It opened, and she got inside. But he followed.

She should’ve closed the door, but that would have been an action tantamount to pettiness, and it wasn’t that she was above pettiness, she just didn’t want to look quite as ruffled as she felt. That was the problem. He cared about nothing, so he was continually in a state of being unbothered.

He said nothing to her in the elevator; he reached into his pocket and took out his phone, looking at the screen.

She did the same.

She didn’t have any messages.

He didn’t appear to have messages either, since he didn’t pause to read anything or respond.

It was almost impossible to believe she was about to be face-to-face with the man she’d had sex for the first time with. And it wasn’t something she wanted to process while standing beside Christos.

She did her best not to think about it. She was on another planet.

Today could honestly go straight to hell.

It was absurd.

She walked quickly out of the elevator and out of the building. She didn’t say goodbye to him. She wouldn’t.

And she moved as quickly as she could down the street, toward Rosie’s.

It was her favorite coffee shop, and normally she would be looking forward to a latte and a croissant. But really not at the moment. Because she felt like she was going to throw up again, and she felt like maybe it would be easier to lie down in the middle of the sidewalk and take a nap. Because truly, everything was awful.

If she could sleep through the next few hours that would be great. The next few days. Hell, maybe the next few months.

She was going to need to actually go to a doctor. Maybe she had contacted him prematurely.

No. He didn’t get to be excluded from this. From the turmoil that it was causing her. From everything. If she was pregnant, then he needed to know, and now. Not so he got to make his choice, but so he had to live with the discomfort of it all alongside her. Because she deserved that.

She did.

She heard heavy footsteps near her, and she turned slightly, to see Christos moving toward the door of Rosie’s at the same time she was. They both reached for the door. “Why are you following me?”

He scowled. “I’m not.”

“It seems like it to me.”

Really, she did not want the man that had just acquired her company to be present at this meeting. She’d already dealt with one awful meeting that he was central to. She didn’t want him at this one.