Charlie
Eight months 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, eyes blazing Walker stance.
I am genuinely busy. We have a launch in five days of the NextGen products, and I’ve worked too hard all year on this to scupper it now.
Considering it’s his company, you’d think he’d understand.
Before I look up, I know he’s approaching. The shift in the atmosphere is a giveaway. The entire floor appears to sit straight in their seats and pretend to be model employees.
“What’s he doing on this floor?” someone mutters behind me.
He stops beside my desk and clears his throat. Eyebrows raised, I look up to see him glaring at me. He’s wearing his trademark dark blue suit and brilliant white shirt, 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 as well?
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. You’ve been summoned.”
“You’re summoning me?” I repeat loudly, looking at him in disbelief.
The nerve of this guy.
I bite my tongue to refrain from unleashing all fury on him in the open-plan office.
“Danny’s beside your desk, isn’t he?” Laura laughs over the video link.
“I’m so sorry, Laura. Yes.” I grimace.
“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 staring at me from all angles.
“Start walking,” I mutter, striding down the aisle.
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 scruffy Solution Designer who may run a brush through their hair on a good day.
Not the girlfriend of the CEO.
We stop at the elevator, and I stand apart from him, deliberately creating 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 stormy eyes hold mine. “I haven’t seen you in three 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. Aren’t 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 cash to buy my own flat now,” I tease. The pay-out from DreamWorks equates to a nice healthy deposit.
“Quit fucking teasing me, Charlie,” he growls. “You can buy a flat and rent it out. I need you living with me.”
In the last three months, he has persistently asked me to move in with him. He was overreacting a tad, I made sure to see him at least three times a week.
I do want to move in with him soon. What girl wouldn’t want to live with Danny Walker?
Right now, I have one foot in the doorway of the beautiful Richmond mansion on the hill and one foot in my mice infected flatshare, the place I spent the best years of my twenties.
He’s right. I need to let go of my days of flat sharing with friends. Because this isn’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 is it?” His voice is steely. “Let’s go to the office.”
The elevator pings open, and two developers walk out, cutting through the strange atmosphere.
He puts his hand out to usher me into the elevator first, and our eyes lock in the mirror before we turn to face the door.
It stops at nearly every floor between the sixth and the fifteenth floors as people come and go, with everyone addressing Danny.
In the elevator, he shoots me a sideways glance. He knows when I’m nervous.
Panic rises inside me. He’s got 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’ve been over this scene in my head a hundred times. I intended to wait until he got 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 decide to do it efficiently and bluntly.
“Danny, I’m pregnant.”
I wait with bated breath as his jaw hits the floor.
“No joke?”
“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.”
Immediately, his expression softens, and a bright smile spreads across his face. “Why on earth would you think I would be mad?”
“Thank God,” I cry out. “I know we didn’t plan it, but—”
He moves towards me, locking me in an embrace and tilting my head up so that 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 Kane,” he whispers, taking my wet face in his hands. “Thank you for making me the happiest man alive.”
His lips take mine like he has forgotten 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. Kane 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.”
