Page 21 of Falling for the Single Daddy

I laugh. “Maybe a few pages, huh, to help you sleep? Not that you look like youneedhelp.”

“A few pages,” she murmurs.

“Shall I?” I offer my arms to Gray, indicating I’ll hold her.

Gray looks down at me with his piercing eyes, but he seems less annoyed than earlier—less like he wants to take my head off. His moods are giving me whiplash. At least, they would be if I cared about them anymore. After the conversation with Kat, I’m determined to be cold. Professional.

I almost stumble at the first hurdle when he hands me Emery, and our hands touch. That’s it. It's just a simple brush of our skin, but the contact is electric. At least I can use his daughter as a shield this time.

“Has she brushed her teeth?” I ask.

“Yes,” Emery mutters.

Gray smirks. “Nope.”

“I’ll handle her bedtime routine, too, if you like?”

“Thank you, Callie.”

“It’s my job.”

He flinches and then tilts his head. But then his smirk vanishes, replaced with — not a sneer. Not a grimace, but no longer a smile, either. I carry Emery into the house, into her en-suite, where she dutifully brushes her teeth before throwing her arms up at me. My heart throbs with a million maternal instincts as I carry her to bed.

“Is this the book you’re reading?” I ask, picking up a paperback with a dragon on the cover.

“Hmm,” she mutters, nodding.

“Should I carry on?”

“Hmm,” she says again.

I read for a few minutes. It doesn’t take long for her to drop off. But I almost wake her when I turn to find Gray leaning against the door. I put my hand to my chest, just about stopping the surprised yelp from escaping me.

“Sorry,” he whispers.

“It’s okay,” I tell him.

“It’s just nice, you know, seeing somebody read her a story.”

Don’t start wishing me into the mother she never had,please. “She’s an imaginative little girl,” I say.

“It’s more than that. You bring the story to life for her. She couldn’t stop talking about you at dinner. She kept asking why you weren’t there with us.”

We walk down the hallway together, side by side. I try to tell myself it’s imposing, creepy, annoying, but it’s none of those things. He’s nothing like Jorge or Josh. It feels almost protective, the way he stands so close I can feel his heat, smell his manly scent.

“What did you tell her?” I ask.

“That you deserved a break.”

“I haven’t really done much this evening,” I murmur as we walk down the stairs. “If you ever want me to tag along, that’s fine wi—”

I don’t think I’ll ever understand how I tripped. It’s like one second, I’m fine, then the next, I’ve got the balance of a drunken klutz. I yelp, reaching for the banister. Then Gray pressed his firm, hard body against mine, hugging me close to him and spinning us so that if we were to keep falling, he’d be the one to take the impact. He holds us steadily.

“You need to be more careful,” he says, voice gravelly, his warm breath whispering over me. “You could’ve seriously hurt yourself. What are you doing?” He turns me toward him, hishands on my shoulders, holding me tight as if he wants to make a point. But what point? “Seriously,what are you doing?”

“I didn’t slip on purpose,” I whisper, noting on some level that I should be scared right now. My very tall, muscular, older employer is suddenly acting possessive and weird. He’s got an accusing tone, as if he thinks I threw myself down the stairs to… to what, to make him save me, to be his damsel?

I turn away, both relieved and disappointed when he lets me go. My shoulders tingle from where he touched me, remnants of the closeness. I walk down the stairs quickly, sure I can feel his eyes on me. That’s nothing new. Ever since I walked into this house, I’ve felt his eyes watching me. It became achingly real after the gym incident.

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