Page 14 of Boss with Benefits

They followed her son’s loud directions to the little stand with a wooden ice cream cone decoration out front.

Brady set Axl down on a chair at an outside table and asked for her order. She wanted a large iced tea with lemon. Axl asked for a vanilla ice cream cone. They sat together and watched Brady go to the window. “Having fun, little man?” she asked her son.

He nodded several times. “Brady is fun. He should live with us like Mindy lives with Daddy.”

She choked on her own saliva and steered the conversation in another direction as quickly as she could so Brady wouldn’toverhear something that might upset him. “What was your favorite animal today?”

“Monkeys!”

Axl stood on his chair, and for a moment she thought he might blastoff into space like a tiny rocket. He made monkey sounds and pretended to scratch himself while bouncing on his feet. She started to order him to sit down, worried he might fall, but Brady said it before she could as he returned with a tray of food.

She hadn’t asked for anything to eat, but he had a basket of fries for her. To her surprise, Axl immediately complied with the softly spoken command. Brady didn’t have to raise his voice or threaten him with a time-out. Impressive.

“Thought you might be hungry,” he said as he set the fries in front of her. “I know I am.”

He had gotten himself his own basket of fries. She stared at him as he squirted enough ketchup on them to float a boat. His eyebrows went up, daring her to say something. Her son giggled at the sight.

“Are you having fun?” she asked Brady. “Be honest. Don’t spare my feelings.”

He leaned over the small table and whispered in her ear. “It’s not as much fun as the thing we usually do together, but I’m not complaining.”

Her cheeks burned with emotional heat. If her young, impressionable son wasn’t sitting right there, she would kiss Brady until his toes curled. She missed their secret nights of passion. Unfortunately, she had to live like a nun until the custody hearing.

She glanced around, looking for someone out of place, a loner without a friend or a child with them. Everyone she saw was with someone. Still, she felt like she was being watched. Maybe a private eye was taking pictures of them.

That reminded her she wanted a special photo of her two favorite boys. She’d already snapped several of Axl and the animals he enjoyed learning about. Later, she planned to put them in a scrapbook for him. But there was one photo she wanted that she didn’t have yet. She lifted her phone and got ready to snap it. “Smile, you two.”

Brady leaned sideways and put an arm around Axl. “Say, cheese.”

Both he and Axl grinned. “Cheeeeese.”

She snapped three quick pictures. “Got it.”

Brady grabbed a napkin and wiped Axl’s chin. It was dripping with melted ice cream. More was running down the cone and his tiny fingers. Brady dipped the napkin in his water before cleaning both of Axl’s hands. Then he wrapped the cone in a few extra napkins and handed it back to her smiling little boy.

Her partner would never admit it, but he was a natural-born father. Knowing how much he would hate hearing that, she kept it to herself. She just sat there smiling at him, content to be in the moment.

Brady glanced up and caught her watching them. He stared into her eyes. Deep. He seemed to be reaching into her soul, trying to find something intimate, something she didn’t necessarily want him to see. She started to ask him why he was looking at her like that, but she didn’t have to say a word. He freely gave up the information.

“Let me photograph you,” he said. She started to hand him her phone, but he shook his head. “No. I want to take photos of you withmycamera. Beautiful, professional photos.”

“Why? You took a lot of pictures of me when I modeled for you.”

He shook his head. “This would be different.”

“How?”

“When I photographed you before, you were a child. Now you are a woman.” He leaned across to her again and whispered, “We hadn’t had sex yet back then. I want to photograph you now that we’ve been intimate. I think it would be some of my best work.”

He sat back in his chair and continued to stare at her. The feel of his heated gaze on her body made her inwardly melt. She swallowed hard. He was making it more and more difficult to spend time in his world. She couldn’t give in, couldn’t sleep with him again. If she did, it would be an awful mistake, especially since she was halfway in love with him already.

“Let’s look at the giraffes and go home,” she said. “Axl needs a nap... and so do I.”

Brady looked hopeful.

She added, “Alone. I need to take a nap alone.”

Axl objected. “We haven’t been to Zoomazium yet, Mommy. You promised.”

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