Page 3 of The Billionaire's One-Night Stand Nanny
That was definitely not going to happen.
No,shewas coming home withme.
“Meet me outside in fifteen minutes,” she murmured, our lips so, so close to touching, my cock stirring in my pants, my heart racing.How long had it been?A year, I thought, at least, since I’d had the time and the inclination and the space–and the babysitter–that casual sex required.Casual. Right. When you needed a babysitter just to get laid, everything became a lot more complicated. I hadn’t understood that when Tally and I got divorced and I got primary custody of our daughter–but I wouldn’t change our arrangement for a hundred one-night stands. Amillion.
Flora smiled at me as she slipped out from where I had her caged in against the romance novels, her pink lips there and then gone as she stole away through the stacks, back out into the party. I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath, and then–fuck. I looked around to ensure my privacy before I used one hand to adjust myself through my suit pants. I could definitely not return to the book launch likethis. I picked up a novel, hoping some flowery language would slow my heart rate.
–her breasts spilled from the top of the corset, her sharp intake of breath–
Flora was wearing a demure cardigan, like a teacher or a librarian, but she’d left it open over her pretty little sundress, and I had taken a glimpse at her chest while I was teasing her. She’d been holding her breath, just like the corseted lady in the novel, her breasts pushing against the flowered fabric of her dress, and I’d wanted to kiss them, to peel the cardigan off her shoulders, tug off the straps of her dress...
Fuck, this was certainly not helping my cause. I shut the book again, carefully replacing it on the table.I know you like the steamy ones.Had I really said that? I grimaced.You’re losing it, old man.
But I hadn’t cared what I sounded like. I’d only been trying to distract her from whatever had been making her eyes so desperately sad. Something that had her seeking the solace of a good book.
Well, I was no romance novel hero–I eyed the bare-chested man on the cover ofRavished by the Rake–but I would do everything I could to ensure that whatever was making Flora sad… she would forget it even existed.
At least until tomorrow.
I checked my watch. It had taken me a few moments to calm myself, and I probably only had a few minutes before I was supposed to be meeting Flora outside. Jesus, I still couldn’t believe she’d asked me to go home with her, and I didn’t want to leave her waiting. What if she changed her mind? It was her right to change her mind–if we got back to my place and she decided that she wanted to read a book after all, that was her right, too, and I’d respect that. But still–better to not make her wait. I cleared my throat, collecting myself, then straightened my shoulders in my charcoal suit and strode back through the bookshelves toward the event.
* * *
“How’d Barrett get out of this?” Charlie griped when I made my way over to him, not wanting to interrupt James or Edie, who were deep in conversation with people I didn’t recognize and had no interest in being introduced to, not right now, not when Flora–Flora–was waiting for me.Waiting for me. “Just look at them. James looks so goddamnsmug.”
“Barrett had to work, like always, and your brother doesn’t looksmug, he lookshappy, Charlie. And you should be happy for him. This is a big deal for them.” It was. James was one of my oldest friends, and he’d recently gotten married to a kind, smart woman who worshipped the ground he walked on. IlikedEdie, which was more than I could say about some of the other women he’d dated, if you could call how he’d spent his time with themdating. No, Edie was good for him, and he for her, and if seeing the two of them in love made me feel old as hell, well, that wasmyproblem. “Besides, if you’re happy for him, then you won’t have time to be annoyed at me for what I’m about to tell you. Listen, I gotta go.”
“You’re going to leave me here where the only people I know are the lovebirds andSam?” he asked, glancing over at the woman standing on the other side of the room, a full champagne glass held elegantly between perfectly polished fingers. She and Charlie had a long-standing feud I didn’t pretend to understand. “I thought we were out on the town tonight,” he added.
I looked around pointedly. Not that James’s wife’s romance novel’s launch party wasn’t alovelyevening–it had turned out to be much,muchbetter than I had ever dreamed of, if I were being honest–-but it was neither an uproarious blowout nor a high society event of the type Charlie and I often frequented.
“Fine,” he sighed. “Go be with your girl.”
I felt a twinge of guilt at his assumption that it was Maddie who was spoiling the fun–and then another that I would evenconsiderusing my daughter as an excuse to go home early when what I was really doing was taking home a stranger for a one-night stand. I nodded, clapping him on the shoulder. “Thanks. Tell James, will you?”
“Sure. Now go. Don’t keep her waiting.”
I didn’t plan on it. I pushed through the door of the bookshop and into the warm air of early summer to find Flora standing in a golden wash of setting sunlight that made her hair look like molten copper.Gorgeous.
“Ryan,” she said.
“Flora,” I said. Her name was the only thing I knew about her–her name and that she was beautiful, and funny.She likes the steamy ones.Four things. “Shall we?”
She nodded. “We can walk to my place from here. Or if you’d rather get a cab–” she started, but I cut her off.
“Come to mine.” I’d already called my driver to come pick us up. Was that too much? Probably–but then again, the back of my chauffeured car was decidedly more comfortable than a taxi, and more private. Her eyebrows rose, as if she could hear my thoughts. “I have a wine fridge,” I supplied. “And a patio. We can have a drink first.”
“Right,” she said. “Okay. Cab, then?”
A sleek black car pulled up to the curb, and I watched her eyes track it as it rolled to a stop. They widened as I stepped to the back passenger door, holding it open for her.
“We’ll take my car.”
CHAPTER3
Flora
I slidinto the leather-scented backseat of a low, expensive-looking car, my stomach doing somersaults as I knew I was really going to do this. He murmured something to the driver–I couldn’t hear it over the pounding of my heart and the whoosh of blood through my ears–then he pressed a discreet button, and the window between us and the driver rolled up.
