Page 27 of Baby Bump for the Mafia Boss

13

DANE

The email that turns my life upside down comes in while I’m working the next day. From the clinic. It’s discreet, and I have to put in Stephie’s date of birth to access it. Yes, yes, immoral to look at her private medical information, but I never pretended to be anything but a controlling, possessive bastard, and this is my child, and Stephie doesn’t know it yet, but she’s going to be my wife.

So I open the document and scan through the various test results. All normal. No issues.

And at the bottom there’s the item I was after. The DNA analysis.

My heart stops.

I can’t breathe.

This is impossible.

I blink rapidly, convinced I’m seeing things. Because in glowing black and white is the result of the paternity test.

And the father isme.

Somehow, I’m not just the adopted parent of Stephie’s child, I’m the biological father too. I reread it, to be sure, and buzzing escalates in the back of my head. There are lots of ways this could have happened, but the most likely?

It wasn’t a dream.

I rest my elbows on the desk as shock rolls through me. The night in the cabin, when I was drugged, I thought I hallucinated the best moment of my life, but I didn’t. It wasreal.

Stephie and I need totalk.

14

STEPHIE

I know something is wrong as soon as I walk into Dane’s office. He’s pacing up and down by the windows, blue sky and blue water of the docks behind him. The air is charged, like there’s a thunderstorm building. And when he turns—breathtakingly handsome in his charcoal suit and crisp white shirt—his grey eyes are threatening rain clouds.

He stops moving as I close the door. He’s imposing, framed by the full height windows. Tall. Dark. That jawline is enough to cause damage.

I swallow nervously.

“Hi?” It should be a simple greeting. We’ve done this hundreds of times before, but it’s never felt like this. He doesn’t turn. I gulp. “You called, Mr Bridger?”

He shifts, so he’s regarding me from the side. “You can call me Dane.”

I shake my head. “Not in the office.”

“Yes. Even here.” He scowls. “Because you and I are having a baby together. I don’t want anyone misunderstanding our relationship.”

“Exactly! I’m your employee, and I’m having your heir, but…” My heart thuds because he cannot know how much I wish this wasn’t the extent of what we are to each other.

“That’s another thing we should sort out,” he says darkly.

“Oookaaay?” I draw out the word uncertainly.

“I’m claiming your pregnancy as mine, but it’s not enough.”

I blink. “What do you mean?”

“We should marry.”

I think he’s joking for a moment, or I heard wrong. But then he comes to stand right in front of me, and lowers his massive body until he’s on one knee. We’re face to face. For once.