The Billionaire's Secret Baby

Chapter 3: The Devil's Offer

Ella's hands wouldn't stop shaking.

She stared at the building in front of her - Sterling Enterprises. Sixty floors of glass and steel that pierced the Pretoria skyline. The most powerful company in the country. And the name on the building made her stomach turn.

Damien Sterling.

She hadn't slept. After Lucas had shown up at the coffee shop yesterday, after that look in his eyes when he touched her stomach, she had run. She'd spent the entire night staring at her bank account. R47.23. That was it. Rent was due in three days. R3,500.

The email had come at 6 AM.

"Miss Ross, Your application for Executive Assistant has been shortlisted. Please report to Sterling Enterprises, Floor 60, 9 AM sharp. - HR"

She hadn't applied. She knew exactly who had arranged this.

She should have deleted it. She should have run. But she was desperate. And angry. If he thought he could just summon her like one of his employees, she would go there and tell him exactly what she thought of him.

The lobby was all marble and cold perfection. Just like him.

"Ella Ross? For Mr. Sterling?" The receptionist smiled. "He's expecting you. Private elevator."

Of course he had a private elevator.

The doors opened on the 60th floor and her breath caught. The entire floor was his office. Floor-to-ceiling windows, a desk that cost more than her entire flat, and him. Standing with his back to her, looking out at the city like he owned it. Which, she realized, he probably did.

His suit was black. Perfectly tailored. His hair was still slightly damp, like he'd just come from the gym. He didn't turn around.

"You're late."

Two words. Cold. Dismissive. It made her blood boil.

"I didn't even want to come," she snapped. "You forced me here. You... you hacked my application or whatever rich psychopaths do."

That made him turn. Slowly.

And God, he was even more handsome than she remembered. Those cold blue eyes that had looked at her with such heat that night, now looking at her like she was a problem to be solved. His eyes dropped. To her stomach. Her small bump, barely visible under her loose dress, but he saw it. His jaw tightened.

"Sit."

"I won't sit. I'm not your employee. I'm not anything to you."

"You are carrying my child," he said, his voice dangerously low. "That makes you very much my business."

"Your child?" Ella laughed, but tears burned her eyes. "You don't even know me. It was one night. One mistake!"

"It was not a mistake."

The way he said it made her shiver.

He walked towards her, each step slow, predatory. He stopped inches away. She could smell his cologne - expensive, dark, intoxicating. The same scent that had been on her skin for days after that night.

"I've been looking for you for three months, Ella," he whispered. "Do you know what that does to a man like me?"

"A man like you? Cold? Ruthless? The man who destroys companies for fun? I've Googled you, Damien. I know who you are."

"Then you know I always get what I want."

He reached out, and before she could stop him, his hand was on her stomach. Large, warm, possessive. Ella gasped. The baby - as if it knew - kicked. Hard. Right against his palm.

Damien froze. His entire perfect, cold mask shattered. His blue eyes widened, his lips parted in shock. For a second, he looked like a completely different man. A vulnerable, stunned, almost... happy man.

"He... she kicked," he breathed.

"She," Ella whispered without thinking, her hand covering his. "The doctor thinks it's a girl."

Something passed between them. Something raw and terrifying.

He pulled his hand away as if burned and walked back to his desk, putting distance between them. When he spoke again, his voice was ice again.

"Here is what's going to happen. You will move into the penthouse. You will have the best doctors. You will be paid R50,000 a month for your... inconvenience. In return, you will not disappear again. And no one will know the child is mine until I say so."

Ella stared at him, disgusted. "You want to buy my baby?"

"I want to protect what's mine."

"I'm not yours! And she's not yours! You can't just..."

"What do you want, Ella?" He slammed his hand on the desk. "To raise my daughter alone? Working in a coffee shop for minimum wage? Living in that shoebox you call an apartment? Be realistic."

"Don't you dare judge my life!"

"I am offering you a better one!"

"No! You're offering me a cage! A golden cage where you can control me! That's what you do, right? You control everything!"

They were both breathing hard, inches apart again. The chemistry between them was explosive, furious, undeniable. Ella hated him. She wanted him. It was confusing and awful.

"Why do you even care?" she cried, tears finally spilling over. "You have women throwing themselves at you. Supermodels. Heiresses. Why me? Why us?"

Damien looked at her for a long, long time. And when he answered, his voice was so quiet she almost didn't hear it.

"Because for three months, I couldn't forget the sound you made when you said my name."

Ella's knees went weak.

"Because I have never wanted anything the way I want you in that dress," he continued, his eyes darkening. "Because that night... you saw me. Not Sterling Enterprises. Not the billionaire. Me. And no one has ever looked at me like that before."

She was crying freely now.

"I am not a good man, Ella. I am possessive. I am jealous. I am demanding. I will ruin anyone who hurts you. I will ruin you if you try to leave me again."

"That's not romantic," she choked out. "That's terrifying."

"Love is terrifying."

The word hung in the air.

Love.

He reached out and wiped her tears with his thumb, his touch surprisingly gentle.

"Stay," he said. It wasn't a command this time. It was almost a plea. "Just... stay. Let me take care of you. Both of you."

Ella looked up at him. At this broken, powerful, dangerous man who was the father of her child. The man who had haunted her dreams for three months. She thought about her empty flat. Her empty bank account. Her baby girl who deserved the world.

And she thought about the way he had looked when the baby kicked.

"Not the penthouse," she whispered. "I won't be your kept woman. I will be your assistant. I will work. I will earn my salary. And I will have my own room."

A slow, dangerous smile spread across his face. The smile of a man who had just won.

"Welcome to Sterling Enterprises, Miss Ross," he said, pulling her closer. "Your office is right next to mine. Where I can see you. Always."

"You're impossible."

"And you're mine. You just don't know it yet."