She's Having the Boss's Baby - By Kate Carlisle Page 0,32

let it out slowly. “Now get back to work.”

*

Ellie re-read the custody agreement one more time. The lawyers had sent her a fully executed original and since she’d already signed it, she was satisfied with it. It was a done deal. But she still couldn’t quite believe Aidan had agreed to go through with it, so she’d decided to read the document again, just to make sure. And oddly enough, just reading the legalities of what Aidan had consented to do for her made Ellie feel even closer to him, somehow. Oh, they were definitely closer now that they were having sex, and that was wonderful. But this agreement made her feel even closer to him on a vital, life-giving level.

They had agreed on many of the essential points she had listed in her slide presentation and most of those items had been integrated into this legal document. But Aidan had fought back persuasively on a few of the others. He simply hadn’t been willing to relinquish all his claims to Ellie’s future baby.

He wanted to be listed as the father on the child’s birth certificate and Ellie was in complete agreement with that. A child should know who her father was, right? Even if that father wanted nothing to do with her.

Ellie rubbed her arms to ward off the chill that that thought brought. Even though her own father had cut off all ties with her and her sister, that didn’t mean that Ellie’s own child would ever experience that same level of hurt and confusion. No, her child would always know that she was completely loved and wanted by Ellie. They were a complete family, just the two of them. But now Aidan wanted to play a tiny part, too, and she had decided that that was fine. After all, once the baby was here, she didn’t expect him to be much more than a friendly visitor in their lives.

But Aidan had surprised her again by requesting a more liberal visitation arrangement than she had originally proposed. Of course, since her original idea was that there be no visitation at all, no connection between her child and Aidan or his family, she supposed she couldn’t blame him for asking for a little more leniency on that item.

Still, Ellie had argued with herself on that one. After all, some anonymous sperm donor wouldn’t be given those rights, would they? No, of course not. But since it was Aidan and since his family was so lovely, she couldn’t find it in her heart to fight him. Besides, they would all be living on Alleria so it would be pretty hard to avoid having her child run into its father from time to time. Better to be upfront about all of this from the get-go.

But then Aidan had insisted on supporting her and her child monetarily, too. Ellie had tried to turn him down, but he had persisted. She’d pointed out that it was odd for a man who had no interest in children to be so adamant about supporting this child. Aidan had brushed it off as being something any man would do, but Ellie knew he was wrong about that.

Finally, Aidan had included a clause that stated that he intended to rewrite his will to include the child, which, in the privacy of her office, had moved Ellie to tears. She had never expected that level of generosity and support, especially from a man who, let’s face it, had only offered to father her child to keep her on the island. That’s what she’d originally thought, anyway. Clearly, she was wrong about him in more ways than one.

*

The following morning, Ellie decided that this must be her week for signing personal legal documents. Soon after she arrived at her office, her assistant dropped a thick, padded envelope on top of her inbox. It was her copy of the Sutherland partnership agreement Aidan had promised her. How he had been able to have the lawyers write it up so quickly was a mystery to her, but she’d read it over carefully, called the lawyer to clarify a few issues, then signed it the next day.

Unable to hold in her excitement, she checked that her secretary wasn’t watching, then jumped in the air and clicked her heels with joy. She was now a partner in the Sutherland Corporation! She clutched the document to her heart and tried to hold back the happy tears trying to escape her eyes. It wouldn’t do