by May Sage
He was driving her crazy.
All right, so maybe she'd thought about Cade once or twice, but she always caught herself and stopped the train of thought.
"That's unacceptable."
Helene's mouth thinned. Carrie was glaring down at her, trying to conceal her glee like she always did the few times she'd had an excuse to tell her off.
"Mr. Wood was fine rescheduling, Carrie. It was the admin office who made the error last week. We caught it in plenty of time."
"That's not an excuse. You should have double-checked your schedule the moment you were back at work after your lunch break."
She attempted to calm down, speaking in a clear, reasonable voice, as though she were addressing a child. "That's exactly what I did, and why we're rescheduling it."
"Do you know how much Wood Industries brings to our company every year?"
She did, given the fact that they were her clients.
Her phone rang, saving her from saying something she couldn't take back. "Yes. Excuse me, I'd better take this." Her hand moved to the receiver.
"Oh, answering the phone is more important than a conversation with me? Who do you think you are, Helene?"
Calm down. Breathe…
Except there was another voice in her head. A deep, suave voice saying "So, quit."
"Don't think this behavior won't be brought up at your end-of-year review next week."
That was it. "You know what? No, it won't." Letting her hand, still hovering over the phone, drop, she got to her feet. "I quit. I'm off starting Monday, for two weeks. That'll work for my notice. You'll get the email by the end of the day."
She'd write it on her phone on her way home.
Enough was enough. This job was a dead end. She could find another one. Something with a future.
"What? Wait, what do you think you're—"
"Bye, Carrie. Have a nice life."
She didn't need to hear any of her crap. Not ever again.
Crap.
What the hell had she done?
An hour later, sitting down on Cassie's sofa, hands trembling over her cell phone, the full weight of her actions fell on her shoulder. She didn't have a house or a job right now.
Fuck. She should have thought things through. Applied for jobs, gotten a few interviews before doing anything drastic.
But it was too late. She'd sent the email in the heat of temper, as promised.
A noise alerted her from the entryway. Cassie hadn't been in by the time she'd made it back.
Carter walked in, carrying Cassie in his arms like a bride. Both of them were grinning like delighted idiots. The moment they saw her, both of them sobered up, losing their glee.
"What happened?" Cassie asked, getting to her feet and rushing to her side.
Helene shook her head, forcing herself to grin. "Nothing." Nothing she was going to bother them with right now, when they were clearly ecstatic. "I just had another email about an apartment. A no-go."
"You know you can stay as long as you'd like, Helene. In fact…" He exchanged a glance with Cassie. "We'd be delighted if you could remain with us for the foreseeable future. We could probably use the help."
Helene lifted a brow. "Help?"
Cassie's grin widened. She jumped up and down. "I’m pregnant!"
Pregnant.
They were pregnant.
"We'd like you to be the godmother. I've never done this. If you stayed, you could help me decorate, and I don't know, support me when I can't see my feet anymore. Please, Helene, tell me you'll consider it? I'll feel better knowing you're here."
Pregnant.
Helene was entirely frozen, incapable of hearing anything, her mind already back one week ago, to right after her mind-blowing orgasms.
The condom had broken, and she'd been supposed to get a morning after pill the next day, or maybe even the day after that. She'd been rushing off her feet for most of the week, and it had entirely escaped her mind. Because she was just that dumb.
Numb, still in shock, she embraced Cassie in her arms wordlessly. Carter joined in the hug.
She managed to appear more or less normal, despite her shock and horror.
She needed to take a pregnancy test.
Right fucking now.
Cade
The board meeting went as planned: Cade presented his findings, and concluded with a proposal.
"I want to raise our employees’ spending power by a hundred, to twenty-five dollars per week—we're talking about a raise of two to ten thousand per year per employee. The only employees affected will be those with a salary south of fifty thousand. That's fewer than fifty people. Overall, it's three hundred thousand per annum. Of course, that's money we won't need to pay taxes on. It'll lower our individual dividend by maybe a thousand bucks per quarter. For them, it could mean being able to dress properly, afford the occasional take-out meal, or more essential items. And for us, it'll mean happier employees, likely to work much harder and less likely to jump ship at the first temptation. As it's not a major issue, I propose we accept on majority. Votes?"
"Yes." James was the first to answer, as per usual.
He was live on video conference, feeding from Australia.
"Aye," Richelle said.
One vote to go. To Cade's surprise, Kendall, Penelope's PA, who generally voted against James, spoke up. "Yes. Penelope's all for that."
"The motion is approved. Next, we can discuss the Australian expansion. The purchase is going as planned. So far, there's only one major competitor…"
The rest of the meeting was more of a headache, but they managed to finish by seven.
"Drinks?" Archer proposed at the end.
Richelle declined, as she usually did. She and Archer had a history rather like James and Penelope's, though they didn't let it affect their professional relationships.
Cade glanced down at his phone out of habit and smiled, seeing a new email from the only VIP in his personal contact list.
Can we talk?
Just those three words.
That was all it took. Cade was already on his feet.
Where are you?
Damning himself for not asking for her phone number, he stared at the phone, frustration rising. Thankfully, she replied as quickly.
The park in ten?
Perfect, he rushed to shoot back. The bridge?
He meant their bridge.
“Can we talk” never, ever preceded good news. Maybe she was sick. Maybe she was just sick of him. Either way, it was serious, and he needed to know now.
He got there in less than five minutes, panting. Cade had the time to catch his breath before she appeared on the other side, a vision in the darkening sky. She wore a long red trench coat, her hair in disarray around her face. She must have rushed too, her cheeks, always quick to heat, were red and her eyes, bright.
She was so gorgeous, his Helene. Worth burning all of Greece for, just like the woman from the legends.
And she was just as sad, too.
"What's going on? Are you okay?"
She just shook her head as she reached him.
Cade couldn't help himself, he just had to touch her. His hands went either side of her shoulders first, then he crushed her against him, holding her close. He felt her erratic heartbeat slowly settle as the seconds passed.
"Do you want to go for a drink?" he offered.
Impatient as he was to know what was going on, she clearly wasn't in a state to talk here and now. And it was getting cold.
But she shook her head against his chest. "I can't drink."
"All right. But we need to get you out of the cold. It's likely to rain soon."
She let him lead her out of the park and up Fifth Avenue, until they reached his place. It started to rain just as he opened the door. Getting her out of the cold as fast as he could, he ushered her in.
Cade's place couldn't be more different from the Harris's. Modern, clean, with a few abstract paintings on the wall, it wasn't much of a sho
wy statement meant to entertain. Cade didn't see clients here.
"It looks nice. Less of a bachelor's pad than what I imagined."
"You imagined my place?" he asked, amused, helping her out of the trench coat.
Underneath, she was dressed in business casual. A pair of checkered wool trousers and a soft silk shirt, under a blazer. She must not have changed after work.
"Was there an issue at work?"
Her snort caught in her throat, changing to half a cry. "You could say that. I quit."
He couldn't help but smile. "Good. They didn't deserve you."
"It was the stupidest thing I've ever done," she corrected.
Ah. No wonder she was upset. She was stressed about her decision to quit.
"So, you're rethinking your decision?" he led her to a sitting area.
She bit her lip, taking a seat. "I'm not sure. But what's done is done. I have two weeks of pay to think things over. Apply for other jobs, you know."
He sat next to her. "Carter may employ you, if you need it." Reluctantly, he added, "So would I. Not directly under me, of course."
"You don't like me under you?" she teased. But her grin soon faded. "I'm joking. I wouldn't ask Carter—and certainly not you. I can find a job by myself."
If that wasn't worrying her, then why did she still seem stressed?
"I'm so sorry, Cade. I don't know how to say it. It’s all my fault."
He shifted closer, rubbing her back. "What's going on, Helene? Tell me."
He wanted her to feel safe here, with him.
"I was going to go to the pharmacy last week, and I got busy on Sunday with my apartment search, and the family, and everything. Then, there was everything else at work. I just forgot."
Oh.
Oh.
"You mean, you were going to take the morning after pill."
She nodded against her chest.
"And you didn't?" It was his heart beating at a crazy rhythm now.
No reply came, but at this point, he didn't need one.
"You took a test," he guessed. "And you're pregnant."
Again, he was only met with silence and stillness.
Pregnant.
She was pregnant. With his child.
His head lowered, so that he could kiss her forehead. "We were two that night. It's my condom that broke, sweetheart. You have nothing to apologize for."
"I do! I wasn't on the pill. I didn't…I messed up. I'm sorry."
"I'm not." He wasn't. Not even a little bit.
He couldn't explain it, but he hadn't felt one iota of fear since the moment he'd seen that broken condom. Cade wasn't sure of much, but he'd been certain of one thing since the moment they'd first crossed paths.
Him and her? They were right together. They felt right.
He lifted her chin so that she met his gaze, and could read his eyes. "Not even a little bit," he whispered.
And he took her lips again.
So very soft, and full, and perfect.
And his.
There was only one thing left to say. "Marry me, Helene. Let me worry about everything else."
“You’re insane.”
He shrugged. “Maybe.”
“You can’t want to marry me. You don’t know me.”
“I know enough.”
“I…we…”
“We’re making a child. A child I want. With a woman I want in my life. Let’s all be crazy together.”
Her head shook against his shoulder. Dammit.
“Ask me later.”
Epilogue
The child against his chest wiggled without waking, thankfully.
He’d lost tons of sleep since the birth, but that was nothing compared to Helene’s insomnia. She was napping on the sofa now, an angel with wild curls running down the beige leather, another child against her chest.
Twins. They were everything, but God if they hadn’t taken up energy. Especially since Helene and Cade had been in Australia for six months before that, working together on the handover. Although she refused to officially work for him, Helene had assisted him all the way, charming the pants off every contractor and client they’d met. On weekends, they’d traveled around that part of the world, seeing Japan and various Chinese provinces.
They’d arrived just in time to see Nicolas’s birth. Cassie and Carter’s son was a delight.
Helene had exhausted herself, helping his sister until she was ready to pop with the twins.
Reed stretched against his mother’s breast, and Helene’s eyes immediately fluttered open. Dammit.
“Good morning,” she whispered, breaking into her familiar monkey grin.
He’d woken up to it most days for the last year.
“It’s four. Hardly morning. Go back to sleep, sweetheart.”
She stretched, yawning. “No point. They’ll be up in a moment. I’d kill for a shower, though. Can you manage?”
“Of course, I can.” He sat down and kissed her head. “So long as you’ll marry me.”
She’d said yes five months ago. They were getting married in the summer. He still liked asking.
As usual, she gave the same answer. “Ask me later.”
And then, she kissed him.
* * *
The End