Page 26 of The Au Pair Affair

Burgess backed out of the apartment as quietly as possible,making an unnecessary amount of noise when he entered the second time, coughing and ramming his knee into the door, jangling his keys as he locked and unlocked it again. This time, when he walked inside, Tallulah and Lissa were well aware of his presence. Tallulah gave him a light smile on her way into the kitchen and Lissa waved to him from the kitchen table.

“Dad!” Lissa shouted over the music. “She made the chicken again!”

Burgess raised an eyebrow at Tallulah, who gave him a prim sniff—or at least he thought she sniffed, the band from hell was doing everything in its power to drown her out. “We had all the ingredients left over from last night. I didn’t want them to go to waste.” She turned on the water in the kitchen sink to rinse her dish, casting him another quick glance over her shoulder. “Left you a plate, if you want it.”

Ifhe wanted it. Was she serious? The only thing Burgess wanted to eat more than her lemon chicken with a side of Saksuka was... her.

And wow, you are disgusting.Obviously, the rookies were rubbing off on him.

Burgess dropped his duffel bag just inside the door, took off his jacket and draped it over the hook. “How was school today?”

“Good. No volleyball practice.” Lissa’s concentration was back on her homework. “Tallulah moved in, but she’s already going out.”

“Out?” Burgess asked, casually as possible, while leaning down to untie his boots—and his back spasmed. It was like someone had stuck a plucked tuning fork in his kidney, a painful vibration zooming through the right side of his lower back. His breath lurched out of his lungs and he had to slap a hand against the wall for balance, a guttural sound escaping him before he could lock it inside.Dammit.

“Dad?” Lissa called from the table, obviously alarmed.

His daughter’s panicked tone was the reason he immediately tried to straighten up, even though his contracting muscles weren’t ready for it. Too bad. He pushed through the strain and sent his kid a tight smile. “I’m fine. Just sore.”

Burgess looked toward the kitchen to find Tallulah watching him closely.

Too closely.

In her mini skirt and makeup, all dressed up to go meet someone who could bend over and untie their boots without needing painkillers. Lissa still looked worried, so he fought through the pain of leaning down and picking up his duffel bag again, tossing it over his shoulder. “I’m just going to throw these sweaty clothes in the laundry. Keep working on your homework and I’ll be back.”

His daughter relaxed somewhat. “Okay.”

Burgess passed through the living room to the other side of the apartment, down the short hallway where the bedrooms were located, along with one of two bathrooms in the residence. The other was his ensuite. Despite the lock he’d installed this morning, the guest room door had been left slightly ajar, so after checking to make sure no one was watching, he craned his neck to look through the opening and saw Tallulah’s suitcase open on the queen-sized bed, her sneakers untied on the floor, jacket hanging on the knob of the closet door.

Had she tried the pillows he’d bought? Were they too firm? Too soft?

They were . . . on the floor, actually.

In place of them, there was a balled-up sweatshirt.

Is that what she preferred to lay her head on at night?

The slightest hint of her orange and basil scent drifted out, diverting his thoughts and making him swallow hard.

Inhaling quietly, Burgess continued a few steps to his bedroom door and nudged his way inside, flipping on the light withhis elbow. Now that he was alone, he allowed himself to grind a curse through his teeth, dropping his duffel onto the bed and unzipping it quickly, in search of the white bottle of Advil. The damn music was still on full blast out in the living room... which was why he didn’t hear Tallulah enter the bedroom behind him. Not until her shadow cast itself over the bed and he turned to find her quietly closing the door, but very deliberately leaving it open a crack.

The pulse at the base of her neck was fluttering slightly, her fingers linking and unlinking in front of her. Being alone with him still made her a touch uneasy, and he wasn’t sure he’d ever stop being rageful at the man who’d turned her world into a scary place, but he was going to do everything in his power to make sure it wouldn’t be that way for long. Still, no amount of pain in his back could distract Burgess from the fact that he was alone with Tallulah in his bedroom and she looked like a fucking smoke show.

His hookups had been few and far between since the divorce, mainly because they made him feel lonely. The aging bachelorhood of it all was pathetic. But Jesus, if he encounteredthiswoman on the road, or anywhere for that matter, he would beg, cheat, and steal to bring her home and sleep with her. The irony of heralreadybeing in his home—and off-limits—was not lost on him whatsoever.

“Hey.” Her gaze flickered down to the white bottle in his hands. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, just run-of-the-mill stuff,” he said smoothly. “I get body slammed for a living.”

Her lips jumped. “So you do.”

“Lissa seemed happier today.”

“Yes.” Her smile made his stomach flip over. “She did.”

“Thanks for helping her with her homework.”

“You don’t have to thank me. That’s my job.”

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