The Billionaire's Baby Negotiation

She’d been outraged and relieved all at once.

Outraged she was still affected by him. Relieved he wasn’t going to humiliate her by bringing up her attempt at kissing him.

But sadly, she still wasn’t cured. Which had fueled her need to win this contract. It now held the weight of so many of her needs.

To see her father’s dreams come to fruition. To be as strong and ruthless as he’d wanted her to be.

To get Gunnar out of her life so she could be free of this tangle of feelings.

Because even now there was heat. All these months there had been heat.

For far longer than that. For years, her late-night fantasies were of being carried away by a Viking and tied up as his prisoner in his longhouse...

Well. No one had to know that. And no one ever needed to see her stack of medieval Viking romance novels.

There was a particularly interesting Caitlin Crews on the subject that had occupied the last few nights.

It was probably not the best reading material just before heading in to see Gunnar. But being totally truthful, it didn’t matter if she read the books just before seeing him or not. He owned that part of her. He was tangled up in so many things. In formative ideas about fantasy, sex and romance.

It was easy for her to tell herself she’d never had a romantic life because she’d been so busy training to take over Ambient.

But the truth was a lot more specific. A lot more Icelandic.

A lot more...him.

“Very avant-garde. Nobody has ever done this...” He gestured over her outfit. “I have simply never seen it.”

“I’m not trying to be original, I’m trying not to take up my time with ridiculous details that have nothing to do with innovation.”

“I brought you something.”

She knew that he had. He reached into his briefcase, and pulled out a chocolate cupcake. Oh, she despised him. Because it was like Pavlov’s dog, and she had a feeling that he knew it.

He had taken to bringing her a chocolate cupcake at each and every one of these pitch meetings. Which only became more and more heated.

They never spoke to the person whose contract they were competing for separately. No. They always did it together. Their fights over who would win these wars had become legendary, and people wanted a front row seat.

He claimed, and she did not believe him, that the cupcake was a peace offering. She thought that it was just to make her angry. But the problem was, she was now conditioned to need a chocolate cupcake prior to these events.

And if she refused, she felt that he would know it.

“Thank you,” she said taking the cupcake in hand.

Her stomach growled. And she just grinned past it. She began to delicately lick at the frosting, and when she looked up, she saw that there was heat in his blue eyes.

Yes. This was not one-sided.

“You know. Whoever wins this contract will be tied up for so long... I daresay we won’t be seeing each other for quite some time.”

“Indeed,” he said.

She twirled the cupcake in a circle as she licked at the chocolate butter cream. Making eye contact with him. “I’ll miss you. Or maybe I’ll just miss the cupcakes.”

“I’ll get you a subscription to a bakery service. Cake of the month.”

She put her hand on her chest and looked at him with what she hoped was mournful sadness. “That would help ease the pain.”

“What will be next for you,” she said, “when you don’t get this contract? Will you fade off into the distance and focus all of your attention on your other endeavors?”