Page 91 of Worth Every Risk

“We’ll have to be extra careful.”

“On a boat? With all your family around?”

“It’s a big boat.”

I laugh, then remember Seb’s comment. “You told your brothers, didn’t you? About us?”

Slowly, Matt nods. “How did you—”

“Seb made a joke about the boat compensating for the size of your dick. I contradicted him without thinking.”

Matt laughs. “Fuck. I can’t even say I’m sorry. Seb can be an arse, but most of the time, he’s a joker. Life’s a game to him.”

Matt leans over me to grab his watch from the nightstand. “Shit. We’ve got to get going. We’re headed to an exclusive beach today, but the boat can only take us if we’re there on time.”

I reach out and cup his balls. “So I can’t give you a little extra energy healing?”

He laughs and moves my hand. “Are you sure you’re really a nanny?”

“I’m a lot of things. My mum home-schooled me. We didn’t exactly stick to the regular syllabus.”

Matt rears off the bed. “You were home-schooled?”

“Is that so shocking?”

He relaxes back against the sheets as he straps his watch to his wrist. “Actually, no. That fits.” He rubs the back of two fingers over his mouth. “I want to meet this mother of yours. Anyone who could home-school you deserves a trophy. I bet you were an unruly kid.”

I laugh. “My mum was an unruly mother. But in the best way.” My voice catches in my throat and I clear it, but Matt’s gaze has turned wary, so he must have noticed the blip.

“You want to see her?” he asks. “Because we could do that.”

“We?”

He shrugs and looks away. “I don’t have to come. I thought you might want to spend time with her. I feel bad having you all to myself. If you want time off to go and visit, then please take it. But seriously”—he turns to look at me—“whoever raised you did a stellar job.” He kisses my cheek and even though it’s an innocent peck, my blood turns hot. “Did you like it? This homeschooling thing? My parents sent us all off to boarding school when we were eight.”

I catch a glimpse of little Matt in the grown man’s face and wonder if he minded that his parents sent him away from home. But then, he’s chosen it for his own son so he can’t have hated it. “Hmmm,” I say, drawing my focus back to his original question. “It was still learning, and some of that is always tedious. The bits you don’t want to do. But it did the job in the end. I got to uni.”

Matt’s body jerks like he’s brushed against something sharp, and I can tell he’s surprised by this information. I could be irritated by his reaction, but I’m not. I knew he must have an ‘idea’ of me—some jumbled bunch of assumptions he’d made. But until right now, I hadn’t considered what that idea might be, and it’s very apparent that going to uni was not part of it. “What did you study?”

“Social anthropology at St Andrews.”

He whistles. “Really? How did I not know this?” He props himself up on one elbow. “Shit, I’ve been sleeping with you for weeks and I didn’t know this. I’m a terrible human being.”

“No, you aren’t. We were somewhat preoccupied most of the time.”

“No excuse,” he mutters. “Christ, I thought you were this kooky energy healer’s kid, who wanted to work with children.”

“I am.” I narrow my eyes at him. “Didn’t you read my CV?”

He frowns. “Obviously not. I mean, I glanced at it. But Mrs Minter sorts all the house stuff out. I trust her. She normally picks nannies who arenannies. You know? Career nannies.” He scratches his forehead. “I thought that’s what you were. I assumed. Have I been duped here?”

The more he speaks, the more his surprise seems to escalate, which makes me laugh. “No. You haven’t been duped, stupid. I’ve worked as a nanny for years. I enjoy it. I like it more than anything else I’ve ever done. And don’t feel bad about not knowing. I have no idea what you studied or where you went.”

“Google didn’t tell you?”

I snort. “No. And I really don’t care. It makes no difference to me. It doesn’t change who you are.”

“God”—he drags a palm down his face—“I feel like such an arse right now.”

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