Page 113 of Outlier

“Well, if you’re happy with me going around being all…unfiltered Vicky,then look forward to a lot more disgruntled clients and contractors.”

Felix sighed. “Vics, don’t you think it’s better for you to be a little less filtered?” he said softly, and I blinked at him. “So what if we lose clients? Like I said – who wants to work with them anyway?”

“Hiding who you are every minute of the day isn’t good for you, love,” Mike rumbled next to me and pulled me tighter into his side.

“Oh,” I said in a small voice, my eyes stinging again. I’d been told too many times to hide who I was. It was going to take some significant adjustment to change this mindset now.

“I want you to be full-power, unfiltered Vicky here,” Felix said decisively, and the stinging got worse as my throat closed over. His expression softened as a tear slipped down my cheek. “Can I give you a hug?” Felix asked and I nodded. “Er… Mike, mate, you’re gonna have to actually let her go a sec. I don’t want to hug your hairy arse.”

“Fine,” Mike grumbled, letting his arm drop so that Felix could give me a very brief, tight hug. Mike pulled me back into his side.

“I apologise for this totally unprofessional display of emotion in the workplace,” I said stiffly.

“The twins brought a piglet into this office yesterday, Vics,” Felix said in a dry tone. “As far as professionalism goes, I think you’re good.”

“Yes, that was…unusual for a Thursday morning.”

Felix shrugged. “Bea’s into pigs at the moment and Lucy thought a piglet would cheer everyone up.”

“Itwasentertaining,” Lottie put in. “We could have done without the squealing though.”

“And that was just from Felix,” Tabitha said as she came up next to Felix and patted his arm.

I smiled. The piglethadbeen entertaining, if not totally conducive to a professional environment. A wave of tiredness swept over me then as I leaned more heavily into Mike and stifled a yawn.

“Right, I’m taking my wife out of this madhouse,” Mike said. “She’s dead on her feet.”

“It’s only three in the afternoon, Mike.”

“And you’re thirty weeks pregnant, sweetheart,” Mike said.

“Andyou fell asleep sitting up in the conference room earlier,” Lottie said helpfully.

I narrowed my eyes at her. “You rang him, didn’t you?”

She bit her lip. “Maybe?”

“Pregnancy is a natural, physiological state,” I told her. “It does not require special treatment. Just because my feet are sore due to the large nature of my baby does not mean…” I broke off as Mike simply picked me up. “What are you doing?”

He frowned down at me. “Getting you off your feet.”

Then he turned around and walked out of the office with me in his arms as if I weighed nothing at all, which was very much not the case.

“You are extremely bossy,” I said without heat as I settled my face into his neck and inhaled his woodsy Mike smell.

“I know, baby,” he muttered as he leaned around to call the lift. I really was tired, though, so as ridiculous as it was to be carried around when you were a grown woman growing another human inside you, I decided to let it go. “Let’s get you to the Land Rover, and you can sleep on the way home to the cabin.”

I smiled against his neck as he walked us into the lift and the doors shut behind us. “I love the cabin,” I said sleepily.

His arms gave me a squeeze. “I know you do, love.”

“Mike?”

“Yes?”

“Do you really think I should just be me?”

“Of course I do, love.”