The Villainess Needs a Hug (Ivy Windsor) novel Chapter 1050

Hanging up the phone, she turned to the colleague next to her. "Eileen, I need to step out for a few minutes. If Mr. Halloway comes looking for me, please just give me a call."

Her colleague nodded, and Katrina quickly slipped away from her desk and headed downstairs.

Naylor's sleek car was parked shamelessly right in front of the office building. Katrina spotted it the moment she walked through the automatic sliding doors.

The rain had stopped, but the pavement was still slick.

Keeping her pregnancy in mind, she walked carefully, refusing to run.

Sitting in the backseat, Naylor watched his gorgeous wife approach. The sheer joy bubbling up in his chest was like boiling water, fizzing with desperate excitement.

As Katrina neared the car, an inexplicable wave of shyness washed over her. It was that classic feeling of being overly nervous when approaching someone you cared deeply about, and her cheeks flushed pink without her permission.

Before she could even reach for the handle, Naylor pushed the door open from the inside, shifting to the far side of the seat to make room for her.

Katrina gracefully slid into the car.

With the heat still rising in her cheeks, she forced a composed look, turning to him with feigned annoyance. "What is so urgent? You couldn't just wait until we got home? I'm incredibly busy."

Naylor looked at her, a soft smile playing on his lips. "I've been gone for days. Did you not miss me at all?"

Katrina was completely speechless. The driver was sitting right there, and he was seriously asking her this right now?

But realizing how much effort he had made to come see her, her heart softened. She relented, her voice turning sweet. "Of course I missed you. But we were going to see each other tonight anyway."

"I couldn't wait until tonight."

Katrina: "..."

She couldn't reply to that. If she did, this man was completely capable of kicking the driver and his assistant out of the car and doing god-knows-what right in the middle of the afternoon.

Instead, she shot her husband a sharp glare. "Do you actually have something important for me or not?"

"I do." Naylor replied with a laugh, turning to grab two beautifully wrapped boxes stacked on the seat. "These are famous local pastries from where I was staying. They were freshly baked right before I got on the plane. I brought them back for you and your team to have for afternoon tea."

Naylor knew girls loved these kinds of sweets. So, when he heard this local bakery was incredibly famous, he went out of his way to make a detour right before his flight, just so he could bring some back for his wife to try.

Katrina stared at the exquisite packaging, silently marveling.

He was so incredibly thoughtful, remembering to bring her treats while he was away on business.

And these types of delicate pastries couldn't be crushed or bumped—how had he managed to get them all the way back here in one piece?

Katrina took the boxes, her heart swelling with joy, her eyes sparkling as she looked at him. "Don't tell me you carried these in your hands the entire way back?"

Naylor nodded. "Pretty much. Make sure you try a little bit of everything. Tell me which flavors you like best, and if you ever want more, I can have the bakery make a fresh batch and airfreight them directly to you."

Katrina was speechless.

"Got it."

Katrina replied without looking back, carrying her pastries toward the building.

Naylor watched his wife's retreating silhouette until she completely disappeared from view, only then ordering his driver to pull away.

Carrying the premium pastries her husband had practically hand-delivered across the country, Katrina treated her colleagues to a spectacular afternoon tea. It was a flawless, unspoken flex of her husband's devotion, making the entire office green with envy.

That evening, Naylor kept his promise and picked her up from work so they could head to his parents' house together.

However, for the entire drive, he was buried in work. His laptop was open on his knees, and he was either typing furiously or fielding non-stop phone calls.

Seeing him push himself so hard just to come pick her up filled Katrina with both deep gratitude and an intense ache of sympathy.

It wasn't until they were almost at the house that he finally finished his urgent tasks, snapped his laptop shut, and let out a heavy breath.

"I'm exhausted." After sighing, Naylor let his head fall sideways, resting it heavily on his wife's shoulder. "My head is pounding. Give me a massage."

Seeing his suddenly boyish behavior, Katrina let out an amused sigh and immediately began gently massaging his temples. "Did you have to go out drinking with clients again on this trip?"

"Mhmm. Couldn't avoid it. The good news is, we closed the deal."

He had been hustling a multi-million dollar contract lately. Katrina hadn't pressed him for the details, but because her firm was on retainer with his company, Mr. Halloway hadn't kept any secrets from her, so she knew how massive the stakes were.