Page 51 of The Nanny's Bossy Billionaire

“Him, who?” Ryan asks.

“Who else, your friend,” she retorts. My heart starts to pound.

“Well, are you going to open it?” Ryan asks.

“No way in hell.” Stella digs in her heels.

Ryan marches to the door.

“Don’t you dare—” Ryan picks up a shocked Stella and throws her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, then pulls the door open.

Xavier fills the doorway. He looks glorious in gray slacks and a soft white cashmere sweater that molds to his torso like a lover’s embrace. The sleeves are pushed over his forearms, exposing tanned skin and thick coursing veins. My eyes eagerly drink in the lines of his broad shoulders, his tanned neck, his square jawcovered with dark stubble, and finally creep up to meet his hot green gaze.

He looks straight at me. My heart lurches to a stop, then picks up its rhythm.

“Baby,” he whispers to me alone. I’m not sure what Ryan has done with Stella, but right now I couldn’t care less.

“Xavier,” I say through my parched throat. I can’t say anymore because he’s coming toward me.

He approaches slowly as if he expects me to bolt. He stops a few feet from me. He’s too far and yet too close. I can smell him. My skin prickles with awareness.

“Can you ever forgive me? I behaved like an absolute monster. I don’t know what came over me. Actually, that’s not true, I know. And I can explain. Not that it excuses my actions, but perhaps it might make you understand.”

“Ryan beat you to it.” I motion to the general area where I think he might be, but he and Stella have disappeared. “And I had lunch with Zoey today. She told me everything.”

He nods. “I was hoping to tell you myself.”

“Oh, so now you want to talk. Why didn’t you pick up your calls or respond to my messages? Why did you say those things? About the baby not being yours?”

“I said a lot of things that were not only horrible but untrue. I’ve never had any doubts about you. I know I’m the only man you’ve been with in a while. I just wasn’t ready to face why I never used protection with you, and I turned it around on you.”

“Xavier, look—”

“Brooke, I’m in love with you. I’m so utterly consumed with it. I think I loved you from the moment I first saw you. I wanted you with a ferocity I didn’t understand. I want you to know that I have never ever been with anyone without using protection.Never tried it. That’s a level of intimacy I haven’t been able to share with anyone. Except you.”

“How—what about Taylor?”

“The condom broke. That’s why she got pregnant.”

My stupid heart leaps and a languid warmth bubbles inside my chest. Xavier loves me. Right from the start he gave himself to me in a way he’d never shared with anyone before.

I put my arms around myself, not sure if I’m protecting myself or doing what I need his arms to do.

“Let me hold you, baby.” He moves closer.

You’re killing me, Xavier, and I need to keep my head sane to deal with you.

I take a step back. He doesn’t follow, but his eyes are pulling me in. Dominant Xavier is back, exerting the force of his desire. I look away, then turn toward the window, presenting my back to him.

“So what happens now? I’m still pregnant and you still have the trauma you’re dealing with. Are you going to repress your emotions the way you did with Zoey and Lisa?”

“I can’t, even if I tried. Haven’t you listened to what I’ve been saying? It’s impossible for me to suppress what I feel for you. You have all of me, body and soul. I want to fight for this, for us.”

My heart might as well be butter on a hot skillet for how it withstands the impact of his words.

Still, I fight the urge to go to him and stay with my back turned. “Are you going to be having random times when you’ll be weird?”

“What happened two weeks ago was a panic attack. It happened because I was blindsided by information that triggered my unresolved trauma about what happened to Taylor. I wentstraight to therapy. It’s only been a few sessions, but I can see that it’s helping already.”

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