I cross my legs and frown. “And you think that’s acceptable?”

Mike looks like he’s shaking with fear, and I do feel a little bad for him. But he fucked up the North Pike accounts beyond recognition, and I can’t let that slide. He’s just a kid, barely graduated college, and I think he has potential. But he needs to try harder.

“I’m sorry,” he says to me. “Really, Sofia. I didn’t mean to—“

“No excuses,” I interrupt. “You messed up big time. But I’m not firing you. I’m giving you another chance, because that’s what we do here.” I lean toward him and speak louder. “But if you screw up this bad again, you’re gone. Try harder, do you understand?”

“Yes, I get it,” he says. “Thank you so much.”

“Get to work.”

He stands and hurries out of my office. I can’t help but smile to myself a little bit. It’s been a little under two years since I was promoted into Karl’s old job, but it still feels a little weird.

As Mike leaves my office, Jacob steps past him and comes inside. He grins at me, glancing at the door. “He was in a hurry,” he says.

“That’s the kid that pissed off North Pike,” I say.

He laughs. “No wonder he’s shitting himself. Did you tear him a new one?”

“No,” I say. “I gave him a second chance and told him that it’s his last.”

“That’s my girl.” Jacob walks over to me and kisses me softly on the lips. “You’re running the hell out of this department, you know that?”

“Thanks, boss,” I say, grinning.

There were some strange looks and comments when I was promoted two years ago. But after what happened with Karl, and the way things went down with Jacob, everyone basically gave Jacob a pass to do anything he wanted for a little bit. He made some changes in the company, many of them based on the proposal this team wrote up, and ever since then Quest has been growing like crazy.

Which means my department has been growing like crazy. I’ve already brought on six new people this year, and we’re interviewing four more. We opened a new office in Japan, and Darlene was tapped to run it. Overall, things have been good.

“How is he today?” Jacob asks me, putting his hand on my pregnant belly.

“Good,” I say, grinning. “Kicking like crazy.”

The company isn’t the only thing growing. My family with Jacob is about to get bigger. For a little while, we liked just being the two of us, but soon we both wanted to start making a family. Jacob’s nearly forty, after all. We can’t wait all that much longer. Which is why I’m now seven months pregnant with a little baby boy.

“I hope the maternity benefits are good here,” I say to him, sighing. “I hear the boss is a real hard-ass.”

“You know he is,” he says, grinning at me. He kisses me again, this time slow and deep.

In the first year of our new relationship, we did nothing but explore our limits together. Jacob taught me things about myself that I never knew before. He opened up wide new worlds of bondage and domination.

He’s still my Daddy, although he’ll be the father of my child, too. No matter what, he’ll always be my Daddy. That was part of the vows we took when we got married a year ago.

Now here we are. I’m moving up in the company, and he’s steering it forward. We’re doing this together, building a family and an empire. Jacob’s my Daddy, the center of my world, my husband, the father of my child. He’s everything I ever dreamed about, handsome and gorgeous.

It’s funny how life can go sometimes. What was meant to be an innocent flirtation almost turned into something more. And then years later, it turned into a family. Things happen and then they happen again, the same motifs recurring again and again. That’s the way the world happens: cyclical, patterned. Jacob is my cycle, my pattern, the center of my universe.

“What are you thinking?” he asks me, head cocked.

“Nothing,” I say, standing. “You hungry?”

“Sure am,” he says. “Let’s do it.”

We walk out of my office, hand in hand. I feel blessed, joyous, that I’m a part of this man’s life. I never want to leave. I’m never going to walk away.

He’s my everything, and I’m his. Soon we’ll have a baby together, and our family will just keep growing. Who knows, maybe I’ll have a bunch of babies for him, and we’ll make a huge family together.

That’s the beauty of the future. You never know what’s going to happen, but the possibilities are so amazing. I just can’t stop smiling, thinking about my life with Jacob. Nothing could be better, nothing could be more real. He’s my Daddy, always will be.