Page 34 of The Single Dad Dilemma

But even so, all I can think about now is how much I’d like to see her use it, even if I couldn’t touch her. I could just watch as her body writhed, like a coil tightening on itself ready to blow. I wonder what her face looks like when she orgasms. Shit, I better stop before I get hard. I have to crawl into bed with this woman in a little while and keep my hands to myself—a Herculean task—and I don’t know if I’m up for the challenge.

The familiar sound of a running shower fills the room, and it hits me like a ton of bricks that on the other side of the flimsy wall, behind that paper-thin door, Darcy is naked and stepping into the water. Her hair is getting wet, mascara running just a little, hot water cascading down her smooth skin.

I really need to stop fantasizing about her. It’s becoming a problem. I distract myself with checking emails on my phone, replying to a few clients, and looking over the work calendar. Time has passed but I can’t say how much. At some point, the water shuts off. The click of the bathroom door opening jolts me, pulling my attention back to the present.

Darcy steps out, her damp hair pulled into a bun high on her head. She’s wearing a long vintage-style Ghostface T-shirt that hits just above her knees. Her choice in pajamas screams,“I thought I was going to be alone,” and part of me feels terrible for this situation. But there’s another part of me—the majority, in fact—that thinks this is great. I don’t know that any other situation would have resulted in me getting to know Darcy on this level, and I like knowing her. Hell, I want to know more. I want to know everything.

Maybe that scares me a little. I don’t know that I’ve ever been so drawn to another person. It’s like there’s an invisible thread wrapped around me, pulling me to her always. Like gravity. And that feels absolutely insane to even think.

“So, uh, which side of the bed do you want?” she asks, drawing me from my thoughts.

“Oh, I don’t care,” I say. “You pick.”

She looks from me to the bed and back, assessing for a moment before pointing to the left side.“I’ll take the left, please.”

I nod. “You got it.” Then I grab a T-shirt and athletic shorts from my bag and head to the bathroom. I take a quick shower, brush my teeth, and emerge to find Darcy already curled up on her chosen side. The sheet and blanket are tucked beneath her arms, and she has her phone in her hand.

She looks up, her eyes sweeping over me before making eye contact. She smiles and I can see a nervousness she’s trying hard to hide. I round the bed to my side, pulling the blanket back but leaving the sheet under me. It’s a small gesture, just something to show I’m creating a barrier between us. You know, the exact opposite of what I want to do.

I switch the lamp next to the bed off and crawl in, adjusting my body to be as far away from Darcy as is comfortable. I don’t want to fall off the edge just for the sake of it, but I definitely give her a wide breadth. She seems to have tucked herself far to the left as well, creating a small chasm between us.

The flicker of the light from the TV Lou is watching flashes bright for a second, illuminating one side of Darcy’s face. She’s beautiful, but I bite my tongue from telling her. She flips to her side and faces me, which takes me by surprise. I follow suit and lie on my left side to face her. We’re staring at each other, saying nothing at all. A strange sort of smile plays on her features.

“I had a really good day, Ridge,” she says, beginning to yawn.

“Me too.”

“Thank you for needing a nanny so I could experience this.” Her eyes are beginning to flutter closed.

“Get some sleep, honey,” I whisper. But I think she’s already succumbed to sleep by the time I say it. Probably for the best since my tongue lets slip a pet name that could make her uncomfortable.

I watch her sleep for several minutes, and like earlier, I don’t know how much time passes before I fall asleep myself.

The last thing I think of—I mean the very last flashing thought in my mind before everything goes dark—is that damn little sex toy.

SEVENTEEN

DARCY

If you’d like to experience full out-of-body mortification, just drop your sex toy, watch it roll across the floor, observe in slow motion as the father of the kid you nanny for picks it up and casually hands it back to you. That, my friends, is real terror. Sure, I didn’t die but I definitely fucking wanted to.

It’s a good thing he believed it was actually for skincare. I guess it helps that it’s not your typical sex toy shape. In many ways, Sir Clit Suckerton is the perfect camouflage. He flies undetected, under the radar, pleasing clits along the way.

I’ve been awake for a full ten minutes at least, but I haven’t opened my eyes or given the indication that I am. Hence, my sleepy and strange thoughts. Ridge shifts next to me and my pulse quickens. It does that pretty much every time he moves. I’ll never tell him, but I woke up for a moment in the middle of the night to find his arm wrapped around my middle, pulling me toward him. We were practically close enough to kiss. I didn’t move, though. Eventually, he rolled back to his side, which is when I was able to fall back asleep.

Our midnight cuddle will be a secret I share only with his unconscious body. There’s no need to tell him, and it could justembarrass him or make him feel bad. It’s not a big deal. In fact, I kind of liked it. Well, I really liked it. I felt… safe.

“Good morning!” Lou rounds the corner and yells out her greeting. It startles both me and Ridge, jolting us upward.

“Morning, pumpkin,” Ridge says. “Looks like you beat my alarm.” He clicks around on the screen of his phone, presumably turning the unused alarm off.

“Did you sleep okay in the chairs, Lou?” I ask, despite her cheeriness. I just want to make sure it was comfortable for her.

“I did,” she says. “But now I’m starving.”

Ridge runs his hands over his face and wipes the sleep from his eyes. He looks over at me and smiles.

“Good morning,” he says. “You sleep okay?”

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