Page 75 of Winning Brynn

Isabella:You know I meant it in the most loving of ways.

Brynn:*eyeroll emoji*

Brynn:Yes, bitch-tits, you're staying with me. I just have to check with Leo that he's cool with it.

Isabella:Leo? That's his name?

Brynn:Yep.

Isabella:That’s a fuckboy name, but I’ll try not to hold it against him.

Brynn:You've had a lot of experience with fuckboys called Leo, then?

Isabella:Too much, dude.

Chapter Twenty-four

Brynn

Gordon Ramsay is purringon my chest when I wake on Saturday morning. Gently pushing him away, I rub my eyes, squinting as light slips in through the eyelets in Leo's curtains, bathing us in a golden line of sun dust.

"Good morning." The man himself rolls onto his stomach and graces me with a sleepy smile. "Sleep well?"

"Once you let me go to sleep, yes." I laugh, running my fingertips up his arm just because I can.

I stumbled into his bedroom after another nightmare in the early hours of the morning—something about being the reincarnated spirit of Joan of Arc, I don't know—and he made me forget all about it the very moment his lips touched my skin. In fact, he made me forget all about it three times over last night.

He is insatiable.

But there are worse things in life than being ravished by a man like Leo Sullivan, I suppose.

"Any plans for today?" he asks, pushing himself up into a sitting position with two strong arms, muscles rippling with the movement. Catching where my attention has drifted to, he shoots me a vicious grin. "I'd tell you we could stay in bed all day, but Say will be up any moment."

I push his chest lightly, a small smile tugging at my lips. "I told Miss Jessica that I'll be stopping by the home again today. I want to check in with Ivy and see how she's doing."

Covering himself with the linen sheets, he leans back against the headboard. "I'll take Salem to the playground or something for a couple of hours, then."

It's strange, the change in our dynamic. How easily we move around each other now. It was happening even before we slept together, but sex has a way of intensifying things. And now, in the few days it's been since he touched me for the first time, Leo, Salem, and I have interacted almost like a family would.

It feels both natural and terrifying.

Because none of this is real. We're not a family. Leo isn't my partner, and Salem isn't my daughter, no matter how much I love her like she could be. I'm her nanny. Simple as that. And Leo is my brother's best friend, a soccer player at the top of his game with thousands of women wishing that they could be lying naked in his bed just like I am now.

There is no future for us, no world in which I could magically become Salem's mother and Leo's partner and become part of their family for real.

It's a fantasy, one born probably from the buried trauma of losing my parents so young.

Thinking otherwise would be foolish, and yet I can't stop myself from saying, "Well, I actually asked Miss Jessica if she wouldn't mind me bringing you and Salem along with me—you know, if you wanted to. You’ve had all your background checks done now, so it should be fine."

Leo blinks at me in surprise. "You're serious?"

A wave of shyness washes over me, making me suddenly self-conscious that I've overstepped. "Only if you want to," I reiterate.

But then he smiles so bright and wide and genuine that whatever I was feeling before melts away. "I'd love to."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. It'd be really cool to learn more about where you and Alex grew up."

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