Page 66 of Sven

“I’ll talk to you later.”

He nodded and let himself out the sliding door.

Rain started falling on him as he made his way to the house.

What the fuck was he doing? She was here for Winnie. He needed to get over his feelings for his nanny. There was part of him that thought of her as so much more than that, but it was clear she didn’t feel the same way. Sure, after the dream he’d overheard he thought she might feel the same, but you can want to fuck someone and not care about them. And, fuck, that hurt more than he cared to admit. There was a reason why he played the field as much as he did. Life was much easier when emotions weren’t involved, but even as much as this hurt, Natalie was worth it.

When he got to his house, he paused and looked up into the cloudy night sky. The clouds blocked out any moonlight. But something about the rain streaming down his face let him pretend that he wasn’t crying. When he got in his house and the rain was gone, he would have to deal with these tears. So, he just stood there, feeling the rain on his face, pretending everything was fine... when everything was absolutely fucked.

24

Natalie

The next morning, Natalie woke up, and she felt like she was hung over, even though she hadn’t had a drop to drink. She groaned at the sun coming in through her window. Last night, everything had gotten so messed up. She was still angry at Sven for being an ass at the escape room, but she was also mad at him for telling her he had feelings for her. And she was aware that it made no sense. He couldn’t help how he felt, and he didn’t come onto her.

It was just the fact that she could very easily ignore her feelings when she thought they were one-sided, but knowing he felt the same way had her head all confused. Everything she had learned about him with the research she did showed him as a lovable playboy—maybe a bit cocky but a decent guy. And until the night before, that’s exactly who she thought he’d been.

Yes, he was flirty, but she had chalked it up to the fact that it was just who he was. Knowing he had feelings for her complicated things. Even though she was still angry with him,whenever she thought about who he was around the house and with Winnie, she was incredibly attracted to that guy.

She made her way out of bed and headed into the kitchen to make some coffee. Then she remembered she was out of it. She was going to stop on her way home from the escape room to pick up a few things from the grocery store, but clearly, her mind had been elsewhere.

She got her mug and made her way to the house to steal some coffee from Sven. It was the least he could do after last night.

As she opened the back door and headed to the kitchen, there was Sven. He was standing at his sink, shirtless, washing bottles. And if that wasn’t enough, he had Winnie in a baby carrier on his back fast asleep.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” she mumbled.

Maybe being angry at her hot boss making her ovaries explode didn’t make complete sense, but she was well past making sense these days.

He turned as she shut the door.

“Good morning,” he said.

“I’m just getting some coffee,” she said, raising her mug.

“Help yourself. I’m about to make a second pot.”

As she got closer, she could see bags beneath his eyes. On top of that, his eyes were red and puffy. He looked bad. She wasn’t ever sure that was possible.

“I needed lots of coffee this morning. This one,” he said, motioning to a sleeping Winnie on his back, “was up all night. I’m not sure what’s going on with her.”

Natalie gave him a small smile, anger waning. “Yeah, I think she might have some molars coming in. She was having a hard time sleeping on your last road trip.”

“You think?”

“I think so.”

She poured herself coffee as he finished up the last bottle.

“Do you want any breakfast? As long as I keep moving, she’ll stay asleep. Might as well make the most of it.”

“Oh, umm . . .”

“Come on, Nat, just let me make you come eggs and toast. I even got some bacon.”

“Well, who can say no to bacon?”

She pulled out one of the tall chairs by the island and sat while Sven made her breakfast... shirtless... with his baby on his back. Crossing her legs, she squeezed her thighs together. This was damn ridiculous.

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