Chapter 29
REN
SIX WEEKS LATER
I drive Eloise to work with my hand resting on the cute little baby bump she’s grown.
She, of course, feels like it’s huge, but in reality it’s only noticeable if you're looking for it. I’ve been waiting for it to pop out for weeks, and seeing her with it just makes all this seem even more real.
Balancing life between her and everything that needs cleaning up hasn’t been easy.
My uncle was right when he said stepping away from all our illegitimate business wouldn’t be easy, and although I’m proving that it's possible, I know he still isn’t sold on the idea.
What I do know is that an illegitimate business is what got my parents killed.
I will not allow my family to be in that kind of danger.
“Remember to leave it a good ten minutes before you come up. Yesterday, Mary-Ann looked suspicious,” Eloise reminds me, leaning over to kiss me once I’m parked.
“Ten minutes would make me late,” I tell her, locking my hand around her neck because I’m not ready to let go of her yet.
It’s getting harder and harder to spend the day pretending that she’s not mine, and now that sexy little tummy is starting to stick out, I want everyone to know I’m responsible for it.
“You're the boss, you don’t have a time schedule. You don’t even have to be here.” She raises her eyebrows, reminding me that she’d much prefer it that way.
“And miss you blush and look all panicked every time I open my office door? Nah.” I shake my head and kiss her one more time before I release her.
“It won’t be for long, I’m gonna tell Human Resources that I’m pregnant today.” Her words shock me. She’s been so hell bent on keeping all this a secret, it completely throws me off.
“That's awesome.” I drag her back to me again so I can kiss her some more.
“Well, I figure they’re gonna need to find a replacement for me, and this little one clearly doesn’t want to stay hidden anymore.”
I love the way she looks down at her stomach and smiles. It makes all my deception worth it.
“No, she doesn’t.” I smile as I reach over and stroke it tenderly.
“She?” Eloise looks surprised.
“We’re definitely having a girl,” I assure her, taking the sonogram picture out of my wallet and proving it to her. “Look how pretty she is, far too pretty to be a boy. She’s even got your cute little nose.”
“You spend far too much time looking at that, and the only way to know for sure is from my blood results. We could ask the doctor at our next appointment, if you want.” She looks tempted, despite the fact we both decided we wanted a surprise.
“I don’t need to ask the doctor, I already know.” I kiss her one last time, and she rolls her eyes before she gets out the car.
I keep the image in my hand as I give her time to make her way up to the office floor.
Just looking at it makes me want to be a better man.
I don’t regret the bad things I’ve done, especially not the ones I did to protect Eloise.
I’m just hoping that all that shit is in the past now; that me, her, and our little baby girl can have a quiet, peaceful life together.
I wait another ten minutes before I head on up, and when I see Eloise at her desk looking mad at me I gotta wonder what the fuck it is I’ve done now.
Luckily, up till now she hasn’t suffered with much more than horniness and nausea, but her mood swings are starting to get out of control.
Yesterday, she threw a shoe at me because I told her she should quit wearing heels.
I smile at her curtly, keeping up the pretense that she’s no more to me than an employee as I head into my office. I pull out my phone to message and see if she’s okay, and I see that I already have a message from her.
I got a notification from that app you downloaded on my phone!!!
Same. She’s not a peach anymore. She’s an apple.
I smile to myself as I send her a message back, wondering what she was looking so mad about.
Yeah, and now Mary-Ann and Fiona know that too. It came up on my phone screen while it was on my desk!
I don’t respond, just look up through the glass and see her scowling back at me. Fiona and Mary-Ann are deep in conversation around her, and when I do nothing to hide the grin on my face, if looks could kill, I’d be six feet under.
I really get her mad when, at 11:05, a huge bouquet of flowers arrives at her desk, with a simple message that reads
From Your Baby Daddy!
It makes those nosey women she shares desk space with cluck even more, and builds my girl up into a frenzy that I'm sure she will need to relieve when we get home.
“I can’t believe you did that.” She eventually starts speaking to me when I’m driving the narrow lanes that lead through the woods.
“I don’t know what you're talking about.” I shrug
“I’m talking about you making a bad situation worse. There's already whispers about us going round the office, and now that those two know about the baby, they’re gonna assume it’s yours.”
“Baby, she is mine,” I remind her, unable to resist reaching out and placing my hand over the tiny swell that's under her blouse.
“You know what I mean. I just hate the idea of people talking about me.” She throws her hands in the air and rolls her eyes.
“I’m sorry if it made them worse. You're just so irresistible when you’re mad.” I pull through the gates, and when I stop the car, she doesn’t give me a chance to get out and open her door for her, she gets out herself and strops inside.
I follow after her, and when I see my uncle resting his shoulder against his office door, looking smug, I shake my head at him.
“Someone’s looking angry,” he points out, and we both flinch when the door upstairs slams. “In my experience, you're better off leaving her to simmer down.”
“What experience do you have? I’ve never known you even use a whore more than once.”
“Now, Ren, that's not kind. True but not kind.” He winks. “Come in here, there's something I want to talk to you about.”
“Fine.” I blow out a breath and follow him inside. I figure giving Eloise a little space won’t hurt. I have been a little overbearing recently.
“Make it quick,” I tell him, taking a seat and knowing that I won’t be able to give her space for long.
“I just wanted to congratulate you, you’ve done a good job of cleaning up since you’ve been home.”
“Thanks.” His gratitude comes as a surprise; it’s rare to get a compliment out of him, so I’ll take it while I can.
“I want you to rethink pulling out of everything . DeMarco relies on our cargo ships to bring in his supply, and it’s a big deal, Ren.”
“I told you I’ll handle DeMarco. He’s a smart guy; he’ll find another way.”
“And what about O’Driscoll? Have you cleared things up with him? All it’s gonna take is an apology. He feels disrespected.”
“He is disrespected. I’m not apologizing to that prick.” I shake my head in refusal.
“You need to stop being stubborn; you're putting everything your father worked for at risk.” He looks frustrated.
“I’m risking nothing. O’Driscoll is a phony; he hides behind his Irish accent and family reputation. He’s a nobody who was getting rich from putting other men into fights.”
“And what about The Pit, you really done with all that?” The look he gives tells me he’s unconvinced.
“Have I been there since I got home?” I put it to him. “I’m done with anything that's gonna prevent me from coming home to my family.”
“There are a lot of things you’ve not been doing since you’ve been home, it worries me,” he sighs.
“Yeah, well, save yourself the trouble and don’t. There’s no reason for us to be involved in all that shit anymore. We own huge corporations, we have a fleet of cargo ships, and three shipping yards.”
“Yes, Ren, we have all those things, but at the root of it all, you’re still your father's son. You may not realize it now because you're distracted, but you need the chaos. That girl is changing you, turning you into someone you're not.”
“ That girl has a fucking name.” I stand up and lean over the desk.
“Whether you want to admit it or not, she saved me when no one else could. If it wasn’t for her, I’d still be a scared little boy hiding in his room and we’d have nothing, cause let's face it, Stefan, you’ve never been much good at getting your own hands dirty.
” I leave him with that thought and head upstairs to change out of these stuffy clothes.
I’m really hoping Eloise changes her mind about working until her due date. I hate playing Mr. CEO. I’m used to the companies I own running themselves. I’m happy to pay top dollar to the people who know how to do it. Still, where she goes, I go. It’s always been that way, and it always will be.
Eloise isn’t in the bedroom when I get there, so I strip out of my shirt and slacks and throw on some sweatpants instead. Taking a t-shirt from the top drawer, I head off to find her, hoping she’ll be in a better mood when I do.
“Otto said I’d find you here.” I admire how pretty she looks when I find her doing slow, steady laps in the indoor pool, her hair is tied up high on her head and although she’s clearly still pissed at me, I know exactly how to remedy it.
“I knew he’d rat me out.” She turns her back when she gets to the side below my feet and proceeds to do another length.
“I see you’ve been reading the book I got you.
” I look over to the lounger where her robe and the Guide To Pregnancy book I ordered online last week is resting on top of it.
I read it cover to cover in two days, and since she got fed up with me constantly giving her facts from it, I gave it to her so she could read up on some herself.
Not that she needs to, I’ve become a walking book of knowledge when it comes to this shit.
When she gets to the other end of the pool, she turns around and rests her shoulders against the sides, looking at me as if she expects me to say something.
Instead, I reach over my shoulders and pull my tee over my head, then, dragging my sweats to the floor, I kick them to the side. She braces herself when I dive into the pool, covering an impressive few meters and swimming the rest underwater so I can pop up right in front of her.
“Hey.” I smile, running my hand through my hair to slick it back before I move in to kiss her.
“Ren.” She takes a steady, calming breath. “I’m sorry for being a bitch. I know I’ve been a little teasy lately and I–”
“You're allowed to be teasy,” I interrupt her, taking her hips in my hands and looking down beneath the water, her bump sticks out even more in the pretty bikini she’s wearing.
“I think it’s a mix of pregnancy hormones and sexual frustration. It’s hard having you at work all day and not being able to…you know.” After all this time, she’s still too shy to say the words.
“Well, anytime you feel that frustration, all you gotta do is knock. My office door is always open,” I remind her, gently pulling at the ties that are keeping her bikini bottoms attached around her hips.
“I guess I’m just not used to being the centre of attention. I don’t like it,” she admits.
“How can you say that when you’ve been the centre of my whole world since the day I met you?
” I laugh at her as her bikini bottoms lift up to the surface.
Taking them in my hand, I drag them out and place them on the pool edge behind her shoulder.
“Now, are you gonna let me make you the centre of attention here, where it’s just us?
” Lifting her under her thighs, I wrap her legs around me and let my cock find it’s way into her warm, little pocket.
“That's nice.” She rests her head back on the pool edge, giving me perfect access to her neck, and I lick all the way up the centre of it, under her chin, eventually making it to her mouth.
“I love seeing the way you relax when you take this cock.” I slowly rotate my hips, keeping my motions slow and deep as the water laps around us.
I untie the bikini top behind her neck, letting it fall from her big, round tits and grab one in my hand as they bob in front of me.
“These are getting so big.” I fill her mouth with my tongue as I squeeze her hard and feel her pussy respond.
They’ve been far less sensitive the past few weeks, which has given me more opportunity to play with them.
I’ve scattered them with different colored bruises from all the occasions I’ve sucked her blood to the surface.
I love how they’re getting bigger, ready to feed our child, and that they’re marred by me.
“Everything about me seems to be getting big.” She slides her hands around my head as I take her nipple in my mouth and suck it hard. I swear these are getting bigger too, and they’re definitely much darker than they used to be.
“I fucking love how your body’s changing.” I make the water ebb a little harder when I thrust deeper. “Every day you're looking more and more perfect.”
“You have to say that, you did this to me,” she whispers as she takes what I give her.
“Fuck.” Just hearing her talk like that almost has me coming, but my girl’s needs have to be met first.
“I don’t have to say anything; it's a straight-up fact, you're beautiful. Even more now that you’re growing our baby in there.” I cradle her cheek and kiss her, and when she starts to come, I ensure that I make it last for her.
Nothing beats that look she gets in her eyes when she loses herself to me, so I decide to make sure she loses herself a few more times before I get her out, get her dry, and take her to bed to worship her some more.