Boss's Secret Baby

She can feel sweat prickling in her armpits—but the train remains stubbornly stuck in the dark tunnel, unmoving.

She can’t be late today, of all days. The big boss will be in the office for the first time since she started work at Rodriguez International a month and a half ago. She already knows he doesn’t tolerate tardiness.

The whispers around the office paint a picture of the man who owns and runs the bank as a stern, intimidating, and relentless figure.

A single mom’s story about an unusually fussy baby and a delayed train won’t fly as an excuse for not being at her desk on time.

Even Cassandra’s immediate boss, Scott Smith—a pleasant, relaxed man—talks of Mr. Rodriguez with an awe bordering on outright fear.

It’s clear from the grapevine that Mr. Rodriguez is also a playboy. He’s the youngest CEO in Manhattan at thirty-one and definitely the most eligible. As ruthless as he is good-looking, they say he treats women like rental cars—enjoyed for a spin and then exchanged for a shinier model.

Cassandra steers clear of men like that. Not that it matters. Men like him usually go for tall, slim women like her roommate Gwen, not short and curvy redheads like her.

Cassandra is still adjusting to the emptiness of the apartment now that Gwen has moved out to take a new job in Seattle. And she isn’t the only one who misses Gwen.

Baby Alex may be only six months old, but he seems well aware that someone has disappeared from his life. Cassandra sees his eyes tracking the room when she gives him his bottle, and she’s sure he’s looking for Gwen…

Her heart aches for her little boy. She wishes he had a big, loving family network to care for him.

Cassandra has no family of her own. She was brought up in the foster system, so losing her closest friend—her only friend, really—has left her reeling. And Alex has one less person to cuddle him.

Poor baby. He really didn’t seem well this morning, which added to the early morning chaos. Looking into his tiny, scrunched-up face as he cried inconsolably, Cassandra had even considered calling in sick so that she could stay home and take care of him.

On any other day, she would have done it. Alex is the most important thing in her world, and she’ll do anything to keep him safe and happy.

But she can’t afford to miss work today, of all days. Not only is she meeting the big boss for the first time, but she has a top-secret file to hand over to him. So she took Alex to daycare as usual, begging them to call her immediately if he got any fussier.

It isn’t easy being a single mom, juggling the need to pay the rent with the need to spend time with Alex, but Cassandra never once thought of giving her baby up for adoption when she found out she was pregnant.

Alex is the result of the only one-night stand she ever had in her life.

Cassandra reached the age of twenty-three without once falling in love or even in lust, her heart an unbroken fortress. She knows it has something to do with the way she was raised, bouncing from foster home to foster home. All that instability made her a loner—self-sufficient, slow to trust.

But when Emilio Perez appeared in her life, a single glance was enough to unravel her resistance.

Cassandra’s mind wanders back to the night she met the tall, dark, handsome stranger who swept her off her feet.

The company she used to work for had thrown a costume party, and everyone was wearing masks. But even behind the disguise, the chemistry between her and Emilio had been undeniable.

She’d never met a man who made her pulse race, her heart pound, and her stomach flutter like he did.

He was her first—and her last.

When she found out she was pregnant, she tried to track down Emilio, but no one seemed to know who she was talking about. Her internet searches turned up nothing, so she eventually gave up and decided to raise her baby alone.

Now, staring out of the window into the darkness, Cassandra jiggles her knee, willing the train to move. Only when it finally lurches back into motion does her panic begin to subside. She won’t be more than twenty minutes late. Surely, that will be okay.

The main thing is she kept the top-secret file safe by bringing it home overnight.

The courier who handed it to her late yesterday afternoon had instructed her that it needed to be placed under lock and key for security reasons until it could be given directly to the CEO. But by that time, her immediate boss, Scott Smith, had already left for home, locking his office behind him.

Since none of her desk drawers could be locked, Cassandra made the snap decision to take the file home with her. She kept it safe and sound on the kitchen table, and she is all set to hand it over to the big boss first thing this morning.

She glances into her bag to reassure herself that the file is there.

Except it isn’t.

Cassandra digs through her bag and, coming up with nothing, stands and searches around her seat. It’s definitely not there.

In her rush to soothe Alex and get him off to daycare, she’s gone and left it on the kitchen table.