Chapter Seventeen: Gerard
Four months later, Gerard was sitting in his office when the intercom on his desk began to flash. He was dressed in a pure black tuxedo today, the only spot of color in his outfit coming from the pure white tie that Elena had bought him for his birthday last month. It had been a rather slow day at the office, his meetings had ended hours ago and the last bit of paperwork had been placed in his Finished basket ten minutes previously. He lazily reached over, tapping the button on the intercom with his freshly manicured fingernails.
“Hello?” he asked uncertainly, not having expected any calls.
“Hello, Mr. Donahue. I have an Elena Hartwright here to see you,” his secretary Donna said cheerfully.
A smile immediately spread across his face, Gerard rising from his chair as he kept his finger pressed against the button on the intercom. “Send her in.”
“At once, Mr. Donahue,” Donna replied, the line going dead a few seconds later.
He walked over to where a small mirror was hanging on the wall of his office and straightened his tie, his hand moving to stroke gently through his hair to move a few stray hairs back into place. His relationship with Elena had continued with relatively few issues, the two of them seeming to have been made for one another. She drove him crazy sometimes, but it was also her quirky personality that he had fallen in love with. The thought of possibly asking her to marry him had been bouncing around in his mind for the last couple of weeks, but he was worried that he might be rushing things, and the last thing he wanted to do was scare her off by trying to push her into something she wasn’t ready for.
A gentle knock on the wooden door of his office caused him to turn his head just in time to see Elena walk through the front door. He could tell that something was on her mind, her normally bright blue eyes seeming slightly dull for some reason. Her movements were slow as she walked into his office, her gaze fixated on the floor. That didn’t seem like her at all, and Gerard was understandably confused. “Elena? Is something wrong?”
She looked up at him, her hands fidgeting in front of her nervously. He had never seen her in such a flustered state before, and that was only proving to make him feel more anxious. He walked over to her and took her hands gently in his, his voice gentle as he spoke. “If there is something wrong you can tell me. I can’t help if I don’t know what the matter is.”
She took a deep breath, clearing her throat as she brushed a lock of her golden blonde hair away from her face. “I just got back from seeing my doctor for a checkup, and I have some news.”
“What sort of news? Good or bad?” he enquired, his eyebrow rising slightly.
“I suppose that depends on how you look at it,” she said delicately, not seeming to want to come out with what it was that was on her mind without some deliberate prodding from him. “I can just say for certain that it is probably going to change our lives in a big way.”
A sudden flash of fear rippled through the billionaire, his throat growing suddenly dry as a thought occurred to him. “You aren’t dying, are you?”
That made her smile, her head shaking slowly back and forth. “No, it is nothing as dramatic as that. You won’t be rid of me that easily, I’m afraid,” she said playfully, moving to stand on her tiptoes as she threw her arms around the back of his neck gently.
“Then what is it, darling? Your unwillingness to tell me what is going on is making me slightly anxious, you know,” he said, his own hands moving to gently rest on her hips, stroking over them softly.
She didn’t say anything at first, instead taking one of his hands and moving it from her hip to her stomach, which he realized now was slightly rounder than he remembered. Realization dawned on him in an instant, a small smile starting at the corner of his mouth before soon transforming into a huge grin. “You are pregnant,” he said, his words more of a statement than a question at this point.
“That’s right,” she said quietly, a nervous smile on her face. “Looks like our habit of not using protection caught up to us,” she added sheepishly.
“Worse things have happened,” he said dismissively, his hand continuing to stroke over her slightly swollen belly. “I don’t really know what to say.”
“You aren’t going to leave me or something like that, are you?” she asked, biting her bottom lip as she spoke.
“Leave you for getting knocked up with my child? Hardly. What sort of piece of garbage would I be if I abandoned the woman that I impregnated?” he asked, a gentle smile on his lips as he leaned down to kiss her forehead gently. “I’m not going anywhere, Elena. I promise you that.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” she said, relief evident on her face as she leaned up to plant a gentle kiss on his cheek. “I plan on being with you for quite a long time, after all.”
“It’s funny that you say that, because there is something that I wanted to talk to you about regarding our relationship,” he said, pulling away from her gently and walking with her toward the comfortable leather couch that sat in front of the large window in his office. “I’ve been thinking about how wonderful these last few months have been, and I’d like to be certain that these good times aren’t going to end anytime soon.”
“What are you trying to say, Gerard?” she asked, gazing up at him with expectation.
“I was thinking that maybe we could move our relationship forward just a little bit more. Deepen our commitment to one another,” he replied, scratching his cheek nonchalantly with his pointer finger.
“Deepen our commitment how? We are already dating, and we just finished moving into our new house together a few weeks ago. I think I am already kind of in it for the long haul,” she said, a note of amusement creeping into her voice.
“I can agree that is a pretty big commitment, but I had something even bigger in mind,” he said, his hand moving over so that he could gently take hers in his, giving it a gentle squeeze. “Something that I’m slightly hesitant to bring up considering we’ve only been dating for less than five months now.”
“Now who is beating around the bush?” she asked playfully, giving him a gentle push. “Just tell me what you are thinking already!”
“How would you like to become my wife?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper as he popped the question.
Elena’s jaw hung open slightly, the question obviously having taken her slightly off guard. She cleared her throat, trying to speak but not seeming to be able to get the words to come out the first time. She closed her mouth and smiled sheepishly, looking away from him for a moment as a slight pink blush began to spread across her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. “I-I don’t know. I guess I never really thought about it before,” she admitted, glancing back at him out of the corner of her eye.
“Well, I’m just thinking that it would be the best way for us to handle this. I don’t want our child to be called a bastard, and I think that you are a woman that I could feasibly spend the rest of my life with and remain quite happy while doing so. I know it might seem slightly sudden, but you were my partner far longer than you’ve been my girlfriend. We probably know each other better than anyone else, so I don’t think it would be too far-fetched to think that we could make a marriage work,” he said, feeling the hot flush of embarrassment spreading across his own cheeks.
She was quiet for a moment, moving to rest her head on his shoulder gently, her eyes closed. “I can’t say that I disagree with you, Gerard. I just don’t know what to say right now. I feel like rushing into things isn’t something that we should do. Why don’t we just start by getting engaged and go from there?” she suggested, a smirk tugging at her lips.
He laughed gently at that. “Getting engaged is the same thing as planning to get married,” he said, his arm wrapping around her shoulder gently.
“Then the fact that I suggested it should tell you my answer,” she replied cheekily, giving him a quick peck on the cheek.
He smiled at that, his heart beating quickly in his chest. “I’ll have to go find you a decent engagement ring, then.”
“I’m sure you’ll be able to manage that, Moneybags,” she said teasingly, tapping him on the nose gently. “You’ve never exactly had trouble when it came to finances.”
He chuckled at that, cupping her face gently with his hand as he allowed his lips to press against hers. She didn’t even try to fight it, her own lips pushing back against his insistently. Her hand moved up to grip into his hair gently, their tongues rolling over one another as the two made out. They didn’t stop until the two of them had run out of breath, panting gently after breaking their kiss.
“What do you say we go home early and we can celebrate our engagement the way I like,” she said, a seductive purr evident in her voice as she allowed her hand to cup his cock and balls through his pants gently.
“I thought you would never ask,” he replied, a lustful growl in his voice. “I can think of nothing I would rather do right now.”