CEO's Expectant Secretary(30)

“Yeah, yeah,” she said. “At least you got to stay all night in your apartment. I usually had to drive home in the middle of the night.”

“What are you talking about? My driver took you home,” he said.

“Oops,” she said.

He shot her a sideways glance, feeling his gut tighten with frustration. “Are you telling me Dirk didn’t take you home all those times?”

She paused. “I’m not telling you that.”

“Because you don’t want him fired,” Brock said. “How the hell did you talk him out of it?”

“It wasn’t easy, but how was I going to explain arriving home at my mother’s with a chauffeur, especially when I needed to drive myself to the office the next day? He followed me to make sure I arrived home safely.”

“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Dirk did the right thing by following you home,” Brock said. “I never realized what a stubborn streak you have.”

“When I worked for you, my job was to make sure I anticipated your every need to make your life as easy as possible,” she said. “Now I’m your wife.”

“You mean the job description has changed,” he said, and chuckled.

Silence stretched between them and he shot a quick glance at her. She looked pensive. “Elle, what’s wrong?”

“I worry about how we’re going to negotiate everything. I’m not like your mother,” she said.

“Thank God,” he said.

“What I mean is, I’m not the corporate super-wife type. If you married me expecting me to agree with your every thought, then we’re going to have some problems. Do you realize that you and I haven’t even discussed parenting? Based on what your mother said, your father was determined to raise you as some kind of super Maddox CEO. I can tell you now that I want our child to have a much more balanced upbringing.”

Offended by her assessment of his father, Brock tightened his hands on the steering wheel. “My father made sure I had the best of everything, the best education—”

“The best nanny,” Elle interjected. “What if I don’t want a nanny raising my child? What if I don’t want my child sent away to boarding school?”

Hearing fear and panic in Elle’s voice, Brock realized where all this was coming from and took a mind-calming breath. “Carol’s got you all worked up for nothing. You should know that she loves causing trouble. I think she was just trying to intimidate you, Elle.”

“She brought up some important issues, Brock. For one thing, I’m not going to sign on to a bunch of high-brow clubs and societies if it means our child will be getting leftovers from me. Tell the truth. When you married me, didn’t you expect me to step into a role just like your mother did?”

Brock shook his head, feeling something inside him twist and tighten, angry that his mother had made an already challenging situation more difficult. “I honestly didn’t think that far,” he said. “I just knew that I wanted us to do the right thing for the baby, and that meant getting married.”

Elle was silent again for a long moment. “Well, you can check that off your list,” she said. “But there are other things we’ll need to settle.”

He raked his hand through his hair in frustration. “She’s always causing trouble,” he muttered. “Thank God she’s out of the house now. You’ll see soon enough that everything will work out.” Brock would make sure of it. He may have had one failed engagement, but there would be no failed marriage. “Relax. It’s time for you to take a break.”



Despite the worries sprouting like weeds in her mind, Elle dozed off. As they pulled into a clearing, she got her first glimpse of the mountain chalet, and the serene setting immediately eased some of her tensions. “It’s beautiful,” she said. “So peaceful.”

“It was a mess when I first bought it. I redid the whole thing.” He nodded toward the chalet. “A caretaker looks after it while I’m gone and stocks the refrigerator when I tell him I’m on my way. His wife usually prepares a couple of meals for me and leaves them in the freezer for reheating, so we won’t have to cook.”

“You’ve seemed so restless and busy since I’ve met you. It’s hard for me to imagine you being able to relax enough to enjoy this. What’s the longest amount of time you’ve ever stayed here?” she asked as he pulled to a stop.

“A week in the winter. There’s a ski resort not far. I spent another week working on it during one summer. And then I came up here every weekend for a while,” he said. “But I bought it more for short breaks. Come on. I want to show you inside.”