Page 29 of The Billionaire's One-Night Stand Nanny
“Because I know that when you came over that first night, it was because you were upset. You’d just lost your job, and… you wanted to forget.”
I’ll take care of you,he’d told me.
“I could do that for you then. I wanted to.”
“So do it again,” I said boldly.What do you want, sweetheart? Tell me how you want it.
“I can’t,” Ryan ground out from between gritted teeth. “I can’t be that for you now: your escape.”
“But why?” I asked. My voice came out in a whine.
“Because it won’t be an escape for you this time; it will be a snare. If I take what I want from you…” he said, and I held my breath, waiting for him to speak. When he did, I could barely hear it over the rush of blood in my ears. “I won’t be able to let you go. Not this time. Not again.”
CHAPTER17
Ryan
I won’t beable to let you go.
I didn’t tell her what I actually felt as her eyes widened,so, so blue:I already couldn’t.
I couldn’t do that with Flora: have just a fling. Just one more night. Not when she was so inescapably close, so tangled in my life. At some point in the past six weeks, the perimeter of protection I’d maintained around myself and Maddie had, somehow, expanded to include…
Flora.
Sweet, and kind, and generous, and currently with tears in her eyes and a quiver to her hands that I needed to stop. Needed to fix.
So when her arms reached up to wrap around my head, pulling me against her, I couldn’t resist bending down to capture her mouth with my own, sliding my tongue over her pouting lower lip and between her teeth to taste her flavor. I couldn’t stop myself from lifting her up onto the counter, my hands on her hips, fingertips digging into her jean shorts. I couldn’t help the way my body reacted to her soft sound of surprise, my cock pulsing against her core, so close, and yet way, way too far from where I wanted it to be.Neededit to be.
But when her hands flew to the buckle of my belt, I couldn’t bear the thought that she might regret this, might resent me in the morning.
I forced myself to grab them, holding them still.
“No.”
“But–”
“Not tonight,” I said, and she looked away, her face falling. “Not when you’re upset.” I tilted her face up with one finger on her jaw and kissed the corner of her mouth. “Not to escape.” Her chest rose and fell in a sigh, and I knew that tonight, I would come over my hand thinking of her breasts. “I want you so much, Flora,” I told her. “So much it hurts.” Her eyes flicked to the fly of my pants, where my cock strained against my zipper, and I chuckled. “Not like that. Or notonlylike that. I mean, seeing you in my space. Reading in my garden. Washing my fucking dishes. I told you specifically not to do that. That’s what we have a housekeeper for,” I said.
“Sor–”
I shut her up with another kiss. “Your coffee creamer in my fridge,” I murmured. “Like you belong here, with me.”
“I–”
“You’re the tenth nanny to carry around that house key, but you’re the only one who makes me feel likethiswhen I see you with it. A key tomyhome.” I ground against her, letting her feel my hardness again.
I looked into her eyes when I pulled away, searching them for signs I’d confessed too much. Scared her off. But she was staring at me, lips softly parted, eyes shining.
“So no,” I said. My heart thumped against my ribcage. “Not tonight. But–fuck–I want to. I want you, Flora. I know I shouldn’t. But I want you to be mine.”
She nodded slowly, almost imperceptibly.
“Yeah?” I asked, and she nodded again. “Tell me,” I urged, slipping my finger onto her plush bottom lip.
It was risky, what I was asking for. It was almost certainly a bad idea.
“Yes,” she said. “I want that, too.”
