Page 133 of The Nanny Goal

He frowns, making my pulse race.

“No, I mean I know I’m cute.” I exhale. “But I was?—”

“Cute?” He scowls and prowls right up behind me. “Take your selfie, Emery.”

“I’m—”

“Take a video of us.” His voice is taut with tension. “Something for you to watch over and over again while you’re in New York.”

My breath catches in my throat.

His gaze holds mine in the mirror. A challenge. A command.

I lift the phone and turn the camera around so instead of a mirror selfie, it’s a video of the two of us.

We don’t look like we match. I’m Midwest adorable, he’s European sophistication. I’m blonde-haired and pink-cheeked, and there’s a little pimple on my chin that I didn’t notice before. His dark hair slashes forward over his forehead in a way that money simply cannot buy, and his jaw line is impeccable.

I shift my face this way and that, looking for the right angle to make the zit disappear, and he tugs on his lower lip as he watches me.

“Say cheese,” I whisper.

His gaze darkens as I tap the record button, and as the video starts to roll, he wraps his hand around my throat from behind, nudging my jaw up and my head back as his head comes around and his mouth slides over mine in a hot, searing kiss.

I gasp against his lips and he takes the opening, giving me his tongue.

My phone tumbles from my hand as he turns me around and backs me up against the mirror at the same time.

He plants one hand on the mirror above me and slides the other one down my body, possessively, before he settles it tightly at my hip. “Fucking. Gorgeous.”

I stare up at him.

His face is tight with so much tension as we glare at each other. “And you’re fucking brave, too.”

“What do you…?”

“I didn’t understand why your parents would say that about our childcare.” His gaze drops to my mouth, hot and needy. “So I checked the kitchen camera.”

“The…” Ohshit. “Alexei…”

“I’m sorry. I know that was private. But I wish you had told me how hard it was for you.” He skates his hand up my body again to cup my face, his thumb tracing my lower lip. “But I’m not sorry that I saw how much you love my daughter, moya polovinka.”

“Moya polovinka.What does that mean?”

He shakes his head. “Later.”

“Not later. Tell me.” I lick my lips, the tip of my tongue grazing his thumb.

His gaze darkens.

“Alexei, what does that mean?”

“My soul.” His voice cracks. “It means you are my soul, and I will hold you in my heart forever, even if we can never be together again. It means I will not forget you, but I hope that if you can find better, you do, because I want you to be happy. I want my soulmate to have everything she’s ever dreamed of.”

CHAPTER43

ALEXEI

“Don’t say things like that,” Emery whispers, shock and confusion rippling across her face.

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