Page 59 of Taming the Boss

I hurried out into the hall to find Owen wandering from door to door, peering inside while clutching his giraffe and sucking on his thumb.

“Hey, buddy. This is still my room.” He’d visited me in it a few times over the past few days, and now I held my door open wider so he could look inside.

Though even this still being my room wasn’t a certainty now that Jude and I were lovers. Maybe I’d be sleeping in his room tonight.

Maybe you should go home and stop playacting as if you’re really living in this fantasy world.

“You did a pretty good job with your clothes today.” I held out his arm to look him up and down. His shirt was on backward, but that was an easy fix. He had on different socks instead of the matching green pair I’d left him, instead putting on one blue and one striped. Simply adorable.

“My one sock had a hole so I put it in my laundry basket”

“Oh, did it? How did I miss that?”

He shrugged and rushed into my room to try to climb onto my bed. I picked him up to give him a boost, and he leaped on the bed to bounce with abandon. I poked one of his tiny wiggling feet and he giggled. “Are you hungry?” I asked. “How about some eggs and bacon?”

If he said no, I’d bring up the toaster waffles, but I’d, uh, worked up an appetite this morning and I wanted something more hearty. Maybe Jude would too.

“More Froot Loops too,” he suggested, already clambering down again.

“You want cereal too?”

“Yes. Hangry.” He launched out of the doorway at a dead run, clearly running right into his father who picked him up and had him sit on his hip as I did all the time. “Where you headed, pal?”

“Kitchen.” But then he put his thumb back in his mouth as his father carted him to my doorway. “What’s going on in the kitchen?” Jude asked me.

I met Jude’s gaze. “I was going to make some breakfast, if you’re hungry too.”

Don’t blush.

“I could eat. What’s on the menu?”

“Bacon, eggs, and Froot Loops. The cereal is optional.” Actually, all of it was optional, since technically, Jude was my employer.

At least I was pretty sure he was. This whole arrangement was weird, but I didn’t mind the orgasm part. I also didn’t mind the playing with Owen part or the staying in such a gorgeous, gigantic home part.

Honestly, a lot of what was happening here worked for me in one way or another.

“That’s fine by me.” He ruffled Owen’s hair like I did all the time, and Owen grinned, tipping his head into the movement in a way that made Jude smile too.

“We still need to go sneaker shopping again,” I said lightly as we headed down the sweeping staircase to the first level. I still hadn’t really begun to explore this enormous house.

“Yeah. We can do that after breakfast?”

“Sure. Tomorrow’s the fourth,” I reminded him, just in case he’d forgotten the upcoming holiday.

“Yeah, it is. Where can we see fireworks here?”

We. His easy usage with that word was both disarming and scary. I liked being part of a we too much, and we’d set no parameters around this whole setup, despite his insisting that he needed some.

Then I’d reacted by hitting the time out button for a few days until I’d gathered my nerve and stripped for him.

Totally normal, except not at all.

“They have some in the village tomorrow night near the gazebo on Main Street. That’s where everyone gathers.”

“You want to see some fireworks tomorrow night in the village?” Jude asked Owen, carting him through the house and then setting him on a stool at counter once we ended up in the kitchen.

“If Baddie goes too.”

---