Page 56 of Winning Brynn

Tossing a curious glance at my lap, she asks, "Cold?"

"Yep."

"Can we share?"

She doesn't wait for my response before she's lifting back the edge of the blanket and slipping her legs beneath it. I feel them slide against mine, the heat of her bare skin burning me even through the material of my sweats.

As discreetly as I can, I sneak a hand down to my crotch and adjust myself, tucking my straining dick into the waistband of my boxers. But he isn't happy about it. Horny bastard has his sights set on one thing and one thing only.

"So, how's your work going?" I ask her, my voice strained. "The influencer thing, I mean."

Her eyes widen in shock at my question. I've never once shown an interest in her job. Hell, I've belittled it at every opportunity.

But that was before.

Before her brother made me realize how much of a judgmental, jaded piece of shit I've turned into over the past year. Before I started catching glimpses of the woman behind the mask. Before every waking moment of my damn day became possessed by thoughts of her, like a twelve-year-old with a crush.

It's embarrassing, actually.

All of it is.

Lifting a skeptical brow, she asks, "Why do you want to know?"

"Because I'm interested," I tell her simply.

And it's true.

I asked because I genuinely want to know. I want to know everything about her, and it's pissing me the fuck off.

How I've gone from cursing her existence to being borderline obsessed with her is a plot twist I never saw coming. It must have been a glitch in the matrix or the universe making a mistake. Whichever one it is, somebody's getting fired.

Because Brynn and I together would be chaos waiting to happen.

And there's a real possibility of my premature demise if I give in to my urges and do all the things to her body that I've been imagining for too long now.

"Yeah, it's good." She pauses, rethinking. "Actually, I'm kind of struggling."

"Why?"

She shrugs. "Just slipping behind on content a bit."

"Because of Salem?"

"No. Well, sort of. But it's my fault, really. I just need to manage my time better and use my weekends to catch up."

My heart sinks. Because if she isn't getting her work done, it doesn't matter how good she is with my daughter, or even how comfortable and happy Salem is with her. This was only ever a favor. It was never meant to be permanent, and even though, at the beginning, I probably wouldn't have given a shit that it was compromising her social media work, I care now.

I don't want her to give up something important to her just to make my life easier.

"If this isn't working for you, I can figure something out," I offer quietly, though it kills me to do it.

I told her when she agreed to be Salem's nanny that I'd be looking for a replacement as soon as possible. And I wasn't lying, not intentionally. I just never got around to doing it.

Never thought about it again after that, actually.

"What?" She blinks. "No, I didn't mean it like that."

"I know. But you have your own life, and if you aren't able to live it just so you can help me out, then I wouldn't blame you if you took a step back."

---