Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 53462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 267(@200wpm)___ 214(@250wpm)___ 178(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 267(@200wpm)___ 214(@250wpm)___ 178(@300wpm)
“I won’t let her near Bailey.”
He meets my gaze, his deadly serious. “You see her, you hear from her, you call me.”
I nod. “I will. I promise,” I say. “Do you think that black car on the street was her?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “She had a blue rental today. Maybe she hired someone to watch the house. But that wouldn’t jibe with her running low on cash.” He shrugs. “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out,” he says, his stress still obvious.
“It’s going to be okay.” I place what I mean to be a comforting hand on his arm, hoping to calm him. But it is the first time I’ve touched him, and the sizzling shock runs straight through my body.
He glances at my hand, and I freeze, meeting his gaze. The warmth of his skin seeps into my palm and the heated look in his eyes wraps around my body like a caress. Physically, there is no doubt I desire him, but every warning in my brain tells me to walk away before either of us does something stupid, and from the darkened hue of his brown eyes, I’m not alone in the wanting.
But I have a good job for a man I respect and a little girl I adore. I’d be a fool to let lust get in the way of common sense and living a smart life. Quietly and with his hot gaze on me, I slide my hand off him.
Shooting him a regret-filled look, I pick up my tea and make my way to bed.
Alone.
Chapter Three
Austin
September goes by quickly with no word from Kayla, which makes me nervous. My lawyer says we can take her apart on the stand if it ever gets that far. As time passes, I become convinced that my ex-wife is more afraid she’ll be awarded custody than I am of going up against her in court. That is the hope I hold on to as I try to push her to the back of my mind.
Dan holds up his end of the bargain, and by late September, I’m working three days a week from home, at the office one day for the weekly meeting, and a second when needed. An intended result of my time at the house is more ability to be on call when parents are requested in class. Bailey’s school is big on “Days of the Year” celebrations, and once a week the teacher allows parents in with the kids.
Today is a celebration of Stanley Berenstain’s birthday, the children’s book author and illustrator, and Bailey volunteered me as one of the parents who will read to the kids this afternoon. Unfortunately, an office emergency comes up and I have to go in to work, so Mia is going to read for me. Bailey took the news in stride, no doubt because she has Mia to take my place.
Mia, who I can’t stop thinking about and not as my child’s nanny. She captivates me with her sexy body. Her easy grace, her kindness… everything about her calls to me. I want to taste her, to feel her curves beneath me. It is quickly becoming an obsession.
She knows me now, takes care of me as well as my kid. Each morning she has my coffee—black, the way I mentioned I like it—ready for me before I go to work or head upstairs to my office. But things have changed.
On the night I confided in her about my ex-wife, the night she reached out and touched me for the first time, I knew the awareness between us was mutual. Why else would she have fled the kitchen, her cheeks on fire, unable to meet my gaze?
And ever since, it is as if a wall has fallen between us. Maybe it is my imagination, but she is more relaxed around me now, less formal. The sharing of my personal pain and her comforting touch both bonded us and crossed a line neither of us wants to acknowledge.
We lock eyes often now. We brush past each other with inadvertent touches I never noticed before but can’t stop thinking about when I am alone.
Nighttime is painful, as I lie in my bed, knowing she is one floor down while I am hot and worked up, wanting her and unable to have her. Showers are worse, but at least then I can make good use of my hand, my mind conjuring images of her naked, kneeling at my feet, her lips around my cock.
It is fucking unbearable, considering there is still that defined line between employer and employee keeping us apart. And I understand, at least on a rational level, that for both our sakes, there has to be one.
I wrap up things at the office more quickly than anticipated, and I decide to surprise Bailey at school. I arrive midway through the reading hour, sign in at the office, and head to the classroom. I walk down the hallways, cheery only due to the brightly colored drawings done by the children, and approach the room.