Pampered by my Billionaire CEO Husband

The familiar voice reached my ears and my eyes landed on Stella who was staring dead into my eyes with clear disdain written all over her face.

I ignored her, turning to walk away when she ran up to me and roughly grabbed me by my arm, pulling me back. I clicked my tongue in annoyance and anger started to pulse inside my veins as I yanked my arm out from her tight grasp in an instant.

"What do you want?" I asked curtly as I glared at her.

A chuckle emerged from her throat. "What do I want?" She repeated with an incredulous look plastered across her face. "Did you not hear me earlier? I want you to leave Blake alone," her sharp voice pierced through the air as tension hung in the air between us like a thick blanket.

I smiled.

"How can I possibly leave him alone if I’m his new team lead? He reports to me now," I announced as a smirk tugged at the corners of my lips and my eyes gleamed with a knowing look which only made her anger grow.

She clenched her jaw and her fists were balled up beside her body, her knuckles were even starting to turn white from how hard she was clenching them. "I know about the report you made him do at the very last minute," she stated. "Why are you intentionally making his life difficult? Do you know how stressed he had been? Why can’t you just let it go?" She said, each word that left her lips was coated with a thick layer of venom.

I took a step closer to her, forcing her to step back as her strong demeanour immediately faded. I leaned down to close the small gap between us, our faces now dangerously close to one another.

"Why should I let it go?" I asked in a low voice as I raised my brow at her and watched as she swallowed her saliva inaudibly. "You are constantly all up on him and he lets you do it all these years. I think the two of you deserve what’s coming your way. If he’s that unhappy working for me then maybe he can find a job elsewhere."

She gritted her teeth. "You are unreasonable! Blake and I did nothing wrong, you are just insecure and jealous of our friendship!"

I let laughter slip through the gaps of my fingers as amusement twinkled in my dark brown eyes. "Insecure and jealous?" I tossed her words back at her. "Why would I be insecure and jealous over someone like... you?" I taunted as a smirk morphed itself onto my lips.

"You –!"

"What?" I said crudely, my voice carrying a sharp edge to it as I cut her off when the word barely left the tip of her tongue.

She narrowed her eyes into thin slits as she stared at me.

"Why are you doing this? You are still not over him, are you? You are just taking this opportunity to get closer to him to seduce him!" She yelled, her words dripping with accusation.

Peels of laughter escaped my parted lips and she looked at me with a frown on her face.

"Seduce him? Nah..." my voice trailed off for a while. "I’m carrying his child, he will come crawling back to me sooner or later," I reminded her and I could see the way her face fell once again.

"You are lying," she muttered under her breath, her voice laced with a hint of doubt as suspicion began to crept into her mind. "He told me that the child isn’t his."

"And you believe him?" I laughed. "My gosh, you are more naive than I thought, Stella."

She shook her head in denial and she clenched her fists tightly beside her. "No, I’m not naive. I just know and trust that Blake won’t lie to me!" She yelled, emotions running wild in her eyes.

"Why are you getting all worked up?" I questioned with an arched brow. "You can believe him for all you want but I know that I’m pregnant with Blake’s child and it has nothing to do with you. Unless... you are in love with my ex-husband?"

Her eyes widened, taken aback by my sudden accusation as she straightened her posture. "So what if I am? He’s no longer yours."

I smiled, I have known all these while, her answer wasn’t surprising at all. "I’m glad he isn’t."

I spun on my heels to leave when she tried to grab me again but another familiar deep voice caught my attention.

"Don’t touch her," the voice warned.

I turned to see Xavier standing beside me as he glared at Stella and his face darkened visibly.

She immediately obliged, stepping back to create a distance between us. "I just wanted to talk to her."

"Can’t you see? She’s not interested. So, leave before I call security," he threatened.

I didn’t stay to listen as I walked off, still angry about what happened yesterday as his cruel words replayed at the back of my mind like a broken record player that I couldn’t seem to fix.

I heard his footsteps approaching me as he called out to my name.

"Aurelia!" He caught up to me and wrapped his fingers around my wrist. I snapped my head around to meet his gaze with a distant expression that masked my features.

"What? I have work to do," I muttered before averting my gaze.

"Look, I’m sorry, Aurelia," he apologised, sincerity laced his tone, successfully tugging at my heart strings. "I just had a lot on my mind. I know it’s not an excuse, but I’m truly sorry. Will you let me make it up to you?" He was now holding onto both my hands as he looked at me with an expectant look plastered across his face.

A moment of silence lapsed between us and I let out a breath as I looked up at him.

"Sure," I said and watched as his eyes lit up in an instant. "But I’m expecting nothing less than a diamond necklace," I joked as my lips curved upwards into a slight smile to lighten up the mood.

"Only the best for you," he said with a playful wink.

***

Blake was standing before me while I flipped through the report that he rushed out the previous night. It was no more than a couple of seconds before I threw the report aside, letting it land on the table with a loud thud.

"This isn’t what I wanted. Redo it."

"Are you serious?" He asked with a raised brow. "You barely looked through it. I spent the whole night rushing out this report for you!" He yelled as he was starting to lose his temper and his cheeks were now tinged red from the anger.

A cold chuckle left my lips. "Is that so? I can smell the alcohol on you, Blake," I pointed out blatantly. "This report isn’t up to standard," I insisted, my voice remained unwavering as I looked him right in his eyes.

Tension lingered in the air among us.

All of a sudden, he slammed his palm against the table, startling me.

"You are doing this on purpose! Why are you making things difficult for me? What game are you trying to play?"

I let a smile grace my lips as we maintained eye contact. "I’m not playing any games," I said with an innocent look on my face. "I don’t have time for that."

He scoffed loudly. "I don’t believe you. You are trying to chase me out, aren’t you? I’m not stupid."

"I didn’t say that you are. I know you are capable, which is why I assigned you to be the one to finish up this report. Why would I chase out someone as talented as you are?"

There was a knock on the door before Blake could say another word. The door swung open to reveal Xavier standing on the other side.

"Is there a problem here?" Xavier asked.

I turned to look at him with a smile. "No, Blake was just about to leave, right?" I said as I snapped my head back to match Blake’s gaze.

Blake turned to glare at Xavier and shoved past him to leave without saying another word.

It was at this moment when my phone started ringing.

"Hey Aurelia, it’s Natalie."