He looked up and saw me, surprise flashing briefly in his gray-blue eyes.
"What brings you here?" His voice was softer than usual.
"Brought you some milk." I set it beside him, but my eyes drifted uncontrollably to his laptop screen.
The next second, I froze.
The screen wasn't showing corporate reports, meeting documents, or acquisition proposals.
It was packed with text, the titles glaring enough to make my chest tighten—
Third Trimester Precautions
Complete Guide to Newborn Care
Essential Skills for New Dads
Postpartum Emotional Support and Care
Pregnancy Nutrition Chart
How to Handle Abnormal Fetal Movement
Page after page—all about caring for pregnant women, newborns, and postpartum wives.
He'd highlighted sections in different colors. Meticulous.
I stood there, stunned, my mind blank.
This man, who stood at the top of the business world, who commanded billion-dollar deals with a gesture, who was cold, autocratic, who never bothered with trivial matters, was sitting in his study researching all of this.
He'd even taken notes by hand in the notebook beside him.
This was so unlike Richard.
Richard followed my gaze to the screen, then spoke matter-of-factly. "You're due in five months. Plenty of time for me to learn how to be a good father."
Richard had the ability. Whatever he wanted to master, he succeeded at.
God, I was done for.
Richard was just doing what he should have been doing all along, but my heart was burning out of control.
I looked at Richard—his brow softened by concentration, his expression unexpectedly tender—and said nothing. I turned and fled the study.
I was afraid if I stayed any longer, I'd kiss him without meaning to.
The next afternoon,passing the study, I heard Richard's voice through the cracked door, low and threatening like a gathering storm.
"I'm asking one more time. Where exactly is that equipment stuck? I don't care how you do it. Air freight, chartered plane, fly there yourself and carry it back. I want that specialized pregnancy sleep monitor at the manor by tomorrow. If there's one more screw-up, don't bother coming to work."
My sleep had been terrible since I got pregnant. I'd wake up at night and couldn't fall back asleep. At last week's checkup,the doctor mentioned a new monitoring device that could track a pregnant woman's sleep patterns and the baby's nighttime activity in real time. But it wasn't available in the States yet, and even in Europe, it was in limited supply.
I hadn't thought much of it.
But Richard had heard.
Not only heard—he'd ordered one. And was about to fire someone over a shipping delay.
