Filed to story: Finding the Secret Daddy for My Baby Novel >>
At that moment, Anastasia revealed a slight smile before pulling out a chair to take a seat. Suddenly, everyone focused their attention behind her. Elliot had arrived exactly on the dot.
Swiftly, Anastasia turned her head to glance at him before quickly shifting her eyes in the other direction. She intentionally kept a distance from him in the office as she wanted to avoid being involved in any rumors with him.
“Alright, enough with the chatter, guys. It’s time to start the meeting!” Felicia instructed her subordinates to stop their discussion.
Firstly, Felicia made a few announcements regarding some work and then she also reported on the situation recently with the manuscript submissions. She also talked about the situation with the market analysis she had found out.
Meanwhile, Anastasia sat by Elliot’s side and her thoughts ran wild as she sat there. For example, she recalled the incident with his gastritis last night and also the kiss they shared in her bed. Furthermore, she thought of the flowers from this morning too.
“Anastasia… Ahem! Anastasia…” Felicia tried to get Anastasia’s attention once again.
Right away, Anastasia came to her senses and lifted her head to glance at Felicia with a slightly confused look.
Just then, Alice, who was seated across from Anastasia, was quite annoyed, so the former took the opportunity to deliver a scathing remark. “Miss Tillman, you seem to be quite preoccupied each time we have a meeting. This is rather disrespectful of you!”
Anastasia’s face turned slightly flushed when she heard that. She was quite embarrassed as she recalled what she had been thinking of earlier.
“Forgive me. I was too preoccupied thinking about work-related matters,” Anastasia apologized.
By then, everyone in the meeting room had turned to glance at Elliot, who was seated next to her, and each of them wondered how he would react to knowing that his staff was daydreaming during a meeting.
However, they were stunned to see Elliot’s expression. Right now, he was looking at Anastasia with a doting gaze that held a hint of amusement.
“Anastasia, we were just talking about the introduction of a tea break area. What do you think about that?” Felicia chose that moment to bring up this topic.
Instantly, Anastasia recollected herself. “Uh… I think that we should switch to a different dessert shop. I’ve heard of a very popular place and I think it would be awesome if we could arrange for that company to prepare the pastries for our tea break.”
“Oh—could you share the name of the place?” Felicia immediately asked.
“It’s a patisserie located in town and the name of the place is Belle’s Patisserie. I’ve been there plenty of times with my son and the pastries taste very good. The ingredients that they use are very fresh too.”
With a torn expression, Felicia muttered, “But as far as I know, the prices of pastries from this place are on the higher end and we do have a budget restraint. Well…”
“Then let’s just make arrangements for this shop to join our company.” Suddenly, a low yet dominating male voice rang out.
At that instance, Felicia turned to glance at Anastasia, and there was an approving
look that flashed across the former’s eyes. Indeed, this plan worked and Elliot is agreeing to it!
Meanwhile, Anastasia was quite shocked when she heard that. How can he just agree to it so easily?!
On the opposite end, Alice shot Anastasia a jealous look as she thought to herself, Anastasia is treated so favorably in the company; even President Presgrave gives in to her whims.
“You guys continue with the meeting.” Elliot glanced at his watch and looked at the time. “I’ve got something else on, so I’ll head off now.”
After he left the room, everyone in the meeting room heaved a sigh of relief and the first thing that they obviously did was to thank Anastasia for suggesting the new patisserie, thus successfully obtaining such great staff benefits for them.
Anastasia had merely mentioned it in passing, so she actually didn’t expect that Elliot would agree to her suggestion just like that.
Right after Elliot walked out of the meeting room, he suddenly heard two female staff chatting to each other excitedly by the end of the corridor.
“The flowers were given to us by a designer. The roses are very beautiful! It’s a shame that you weren’t here earlier so you missed the chance.”
“She’s so generous. She shared such expensive flowers with the entire office”
At that point, Elliot paused in his tracks and his handsome face significantly darkened. He strode back toward the direction of the working area and instantly, he saw that every single vase of all of the staff in the office was adorned with a stalk of red rose. From his observation, it was in fact the imported roses that he had carefully hand-picked from the florist before his morning meeting. That woman just gave it away after taking a glance at it?!
His handsome face was as cold as ice and there was an annoyed look in his eyes. He turned around and walked back toward the meeting room. Subsequently, he yanked open the door and hollered toward the woman inside, “Anastasia, come and see me in my office.” After he had said that, he added, “Now.”
His tone of voice caused everyone in the meeting room to tense up as they directed slightly sympathetic looks at the woman specifically mentioned by Elliot. Deep down, they thought to themselves, What sort of major mistake has she committed this time? Why is the big boss using such a commandeering tone of voice?
Slightly shocked, Anastasia collected her belongings and got out of her seat. Then, she walked out and shut the door to the meeting room behind her. “President Presgrave, is there something urgent?”
“Let’s talk in my office.” He spoke through clenched teeth and strode on ahead toward the direction of the elevator.
Meanwhile, Anastasia was quite confused. How did I offend him anyway? Is it because of the suggestion for that patisserie earlier on? But I didn’t insist on it, though! It’s entirely up to him!
In the elevator, Anastasia could clearly feel the tense vibe in the air and she glanced at the tall, strapping man next to her who had his arms crossed. He seemed quite angry at the moment.
“How’s your gastritis? Are you feeling better now?” She took the chance to express her concern.
However, Elliot continued to ignore her and as soon as the elevator doors slid open, he strode out immediately with his long legs. As for Anastasia, she trailed behind him awkwardly.
The moment she entered Elliot’s office, she saw him turn around all of a sudden and his tall, well-built figure approached her. Frightened, she took a step backward but she found her back hit against the door. Meanwhile, he placed both of his hands by each side of her shoulders as he held her captive against the door.
“Anastasia Tillman, do you actually dislike the flowers I gave you so much?! Why did you share it with the others just like that?!” Elliot’s deep, dark eyes were clearly smoldering with anger.
In response. Anastasia blinked her eyes a few times. Oh–so he’s mad about this!
“You sent me a lot of flowers but I don’t know how to maintain them, so I shared them with the others in the oflice. That’s much better than having the flowers wither in my hands, right?” Anastasia tried hard to come up with an excuse, but it sounded quite feeble.
“I hand-picked every single stalk of the roses today, so how dare you waste my efforts like that?!” Elliot’s warm breath hit the skin on her face, and he looked quite angry to the point that he seemed to be about to devour her.
Shortly after that, he did exactly that. He leaned forward and bit Anastasia with his thin lips just below her clavicle underneath her shirt.
At that moment, Anastasia had her guard down so she yelped out in pain and surprise. “Ah!”
After Elliot had bitten her, he continued to stare at her with a sullen look on his face. “This is just a minor punishment. I won’t let you off the hook so easily next time if you disregard my gift again.”
In response, Anastasia reached out to shove him before retorting confidently, “Well, I could always give you back a bouquet of flowers!”
“Yes, it is possible to pay me back with another bouquet of flowers, but are you able to compensate for the effort I put into it?” Elliot spoke up in a hoarse voice and his expression was quite upset.
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