Chapter Eight.

ELOISE POV:

The following morning was warm and a bit cozy, just the perfect temperature for a morning walk outside in the Romano's residential estate.

I was seated on a couch in the center of the living room with my leg crossed over the other, dressed in my usual maternity gown as I read through a fashion magazine and sipped on some glass juice to while away time since I didn't really have anywhere to go or anything much to do...

But let me be honest, I had a prenatal class at the hospital but didn't feel like going. Besides, I was still very young in my pregnancy trimesters to be going to classes, right?

I will just go some other time, too lazy for that right now...

Suddenly, I heard some precise and deliberate clicking of shoes against the marble floor. Turning my head behind me to know who it was, my lips fell slightly apart as I took in his appearance the moment my gaze came in contact with him.

He was dressed in a Charcoal grey suit and grey pants, with a crisply ironed white shirt, silver tie, and a pair of jet-black shoes.

His dark hair was neatly styled with no strands looking out of place as always. His height was the perfect 6'3, and his cold demeanor and chiseled face were a green tick which actually gives him a pass mark for looking so much like a freaking, fucking, damn demi-god!

Okay okay, I must have exaggerated all that bullshit. Lol. But man, he doesn't look so bad though. It's sad that he is so good-looking with a high IQ when it comes to business, yet it also turns out that he is a clueless little teenager trying to make his first meal all by himself without his momma when it comes to the kitchen. Ha! What an asshole.

I remember clearly how he promised to defeat me in the cook-off last night but ended up making a mess out of himself.

The memory made my cheeks warm. Dante Romano, the feared, ruthless businessman, was reduced to a mess of bread crumbs, lettuce, and cheese tangled in his always-perfect hair. And let’s not forget the way he practically sobbed over the onions.

I bit my lip, struggling to suppress the laughter bubbling in my throat. Turning away, I buried my face in the magazine I’d been pretending to read, hoping he wouldn’t notice the telltale redness creeping up my face.

“What’s so funny?”

His voice cut through the air, freezing me in place.

I didn't even realize when he got down the stairs or else I would have tried hard enough to stop laughing, but now how do I tell him that it's because of what happened last night in the kitchen that made my cheeks so hot and red?

I swallowed hard, knowing that he had caught me and there was no way out of this. The only way out is if I could think of some good reason before he found out the initial meaning behind why my laughing because he would be really offended if he found out, and that was the last thing I wanted this morning.

I didn't want to rub more salt in his wounds, so I slowly raised my head up as my gaze met with his eyes that were already staring down at me as he stood before me, one of his hands tucked in his gray pants.

Dante arched an eyebrow. "The cat cut your tongue? What are you hiding from me, Eloise?" He demanded and I shaked my head.

"No-no, it's nothing, really. I am just laughing because I saw something funny in the magazine I was reading," I pointed to the magazine on my lap, knowing pretty well that my voice wasn't so convincing because, damn, I stutter badly when I lie.

I caught his gaze moving down to the magazine and his brows furrowed on it. "Ogglin on a pimp, weren't you? You're into call boys??" He asked and I was stunned by the question.

My eyes quickly went down to the magazine and saw that the page had turned to the other side which I was yet to read. The picture there had a hot-looking half-naked man in a Calvin Klein boxer. He was advertising the fashion company by putting on Calvin Klein boxers.

His name was Sebastian Audrey, a famously known call boy in California. He fucks both men and women because he was a Bi-sexual, and he got good pay at the end of the day.

He's also an actor. One day, surprisingly, a scandal broke in the news headlines that he slept with the movie directors and producers in one of his latest movies in which he acted as one of the main leading casts, and that was what was written on the page of the magazine that Dante had seen.

I tossed the magazine on the center table as I instantly stood on my feet, shaking my head. "No, it's not what you think. The page had accidentally turned when I wasn't looking."

"Then what were you staring at when it turned?" Dante probed, and it felt like my tongue was tied because I couldn't tell him that I was awestruck by him. No way I'd do that. I can't give him the satisfaction of knowing how good-looking he was compared to the pimp in the magazine.

The pimp was nothing close to Mr. Romano.

"Um, I don't know. Oh, I almost forgot!" I palmed my forehead in pretense, having already thought of a way to escape all these damned questions.

"I have to get going immediately. I have somewhere important to be right now, Mr. Romano," I said as I dropped the juice on the table and walked past him in a hurry but I halted in my tracks at the sound of his voice.

"Where are you off to with my baby? Don't you think it's only right to let the father know where you're taking his child?" He sounded pissed off.

"I-i," I stuttered as I slowly turned to him, biting on my lips and pressing my fingers together nervously because I should have at least told him where I was off. It was stated in the contract to always let him know first before I go anywhere.

"I'm sorry for being forgetful and not letting you know first according to the contract clause I signed," I said with a little sigh. "But I'm going for a prenatal class at the hospital," I said.

"I'm coming along." Dante spoke with a stern finality in his tone and I was speechless as I stared at him.

What would Mr. Romano be doing in a prenatal class that's filled with preggy women?

I had thought I had a perfect and solid escape plan to get away from all these damn questions of his but I was fucking wrong!

I was so speechless that I felt like crying my eyeballs out.