Page 120 of The Nanny Goal

She rubs her eyes as she eats, and it doesn’t take long for me to get her upstairs, her little arms wrapped tight around my neck, her soft breath puffing against my skin.

Alexei meets me at the top of the stairs and takes her from me.

“There’s a present for you on my bed,” he murmurs. “I’ll put her down and then come find you.”

I see it as soon as I step into his room. The retro jersey he wore a few games ago. Not one of the clean, crisp replicas. This one ishis. Game-worn. Goalie-cut. Enormous.

I pick it up, soft and heavy in my hands. It’s been washed, but the battle of the game is obvious. There’s a significant tear at the neck, and there’s still a puck mark in the middle of the chest, just above the stylized boar logo.

It wasn’t that long ago that I longed to fire shots in that exact same spot. To make him take all of my frustration, all of my longing, to absorb it because I didn’t think there was any point of talking about what had happened between us.

Water under the bridge.

All in the past.

A mistake we once made together.

In such a short period of time, all of that has faded away. It’s so bittersweet to realize just how much he means to me now, when I’m the one who is faced with the decision to walk out a door at the wrong moment, for a good reason.

“Put it on,” he says from the doorway, voice low.

I glance back.

He’s gripping the doorframe, his gaze hot and focused. “Inessa went straight to sleep. I’m all yours.”

And the way he says it…he means it on more than one level. I know that in my soul.

So I give him a show.

I set the jersey down and unbutton my jeans. Slowly unzip the fly and slide them down my legs.

I turn around, giving him my back before I peel off my shirt. Then I reach behind me, unclasp my bra, and hold it out to the side until I hear his groan.

Slowly, the bra slips off my fingertips and tumbles to the floor.

Before I take off my underwear, I tug the jersey over my head. The fabric rubs against my hard nipples and makes me shiver.

Alexei doesn’t miss that I’m still wearing something other than his jersey, and that won’t do. “Your panties belong on my floor, too.”

I glance over my shoulder and hold his eye contact, my breath shallow in my chest as I shimmy them down slowly.

Flick, they go flying off my toe.

Then I crawl onto his bed and kneel for him—bare except for his number.

He makes the most satisfying growl low in his throat.

“See something you like?” I ask, a little breathless.

He steps inside and closes the door behind him, cocooning us in his bedroom.

“You look good enough to eat,” he says. He wipes his mouth, his fingers pulling at his lower lip as he prowls closer. Then, softer, “Can you be a quiet girl for me?”

I bite my lip and nod as he closes the gap between us, tumbling me onto my back, climbing over me fully clothed while I burn beneath him.

“I found your birth control pills earlier,” he murmurs. “Do we need anything else? I haven’t been with anyone since you.”

A tremor of desire flutters inside me, low and deep and absolutely certain. We have to close the loop we started two years ago.

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