Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 98469 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98469 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 492(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 328(@300wpm)
“You’re not pregnant yet,” Dominick says. “And maternity leave is allowed. If you decided to stay home with our baby, then we’d hire a replacement, and when you were ready to go back to work, you’d already know what you were doing. But who says you can’t do both? Men have kids and jobs all the time. Why can’t women?”
“Are you saying you’ll be a stay-at-home dad while I focus on my career?” I smirk, expecting him to laugh me off.
Instead, he simply shrugs. “We’ll cross that road when we come to it. If it means we hire a nanny, then that’s what we do. But wanting to expand our family doesn’t mean you can’t follow your dreams.”
He gets up and comes over to me, sitting in the seat next to me and turning it to face me. “I want a life with you, Peyton, and I don’t want to follow in Andrey’s footsteps. My mother felt trapped and oppressed, and I never want you to feel like that.”
He reaches out and cups the side of my face, and instinctively, I sigh into his touch.
“If you genuinely don’t want another baby with me right now, get on birth control. I’ll hope it doesn’t work …”
He grins devilishly, and I swear my panties dampen. The man wanting to breed me shouldn’t be so hot, but it totally is.
“But I’ll support whatever you decide. I thought about you for years, our short time together staying in my head on replay, and now that I have you, I’ll take you however I can get you.”
“You’re making it hard to think clearly,” I choke out, overcome by his sweet words.
“Then, take some time to think about it,” he says, leaning in closer and placing a chaste kiss on my lips. “The job is yours. I’ll introduce you to Vaughn, and he’ll show you around today. If you want to train with him, then you can do so. If you want to work at another one of my hotels, you can do that. If you want to stay home, go for it.”
“You’re being very accommodating,” I joke. “And the job sounds like something I’d want, but I don’t want to be given it because you love me.”
He rests his hand on my hip, and I smile to myself, loving that Dominick craves my touch. The man always has to be touching me in some way. Even at night, if I roll away from him in my sleep, he finds me and drags me back into his arms.
“I know moving here wasn’t in your plans,” he says. “But I’m going to make sure you never regret it. And if hiring you to work at one of my hotels makes you happy, then it’s a win-win because any of them would be lucky to have you as an employee.”
“You flatter me.” I wrap my arms around his neck and lean on my tiptoes to give him a kiss. “Keep it up, Mr. Antonov, and you’ll be rewarded tonight when we get home from work.”
I waggle my brows, and he chuckles.
“Oh, really? That’s all it takes?” He glides his hands around to my ass and gives my cheeks a squeeze. “Putting your ass to work was the key to your pretty pussy all along?”
“You know what they say,” I tell him with a laugh. “Happy wife, happy life.”
Today was, without a doubt, one of the best and most exhausting days I’d had in a long time. I’d forgotten how much work went into running a hotel, and I’d never worked in one with this much extravagance. But Vaughn was amazing and didn’t treat me with kid gloves, despite Dominick’s threat for him to be good to me before he left to go to his office downtown.
I shadowed Vaughn all day, taking notes on my phone and learning more from him in one day than half my classes had ever taught me.
Before I knew it, it was lunchtime, and Dominick texted that he would pick up Damien from school and that when I was ready to go home, a car would be waiting for me.
I teared up at his text—because I hadn’t experienced having a partner before—and then got back to work.
Now, it’s almost six o’clock, and I’m on my way home, excited to come back tomorrow. I’ve never minded working—it’s all I’ve ever known—but doing what you love makes it that much better. And I already love working at Hotel Blu. It’s clear Dominick only hires efficient, knowledgeable employees, and a sense of pride runs through me when I remember him showing me my file. He might love me and want me to be happy, but he wouldn’t have hired me if he didn’t feel I was capable.
When I get home, the living room is empty, so I follow the voices into the kitchen, stopping in the doorway to take in the sight in front of me.