Page 87 of The Nanny and the Nerd
“It works. I like the sound of it,” he replied, then checked the script. “We’re at the part when Princess Amelia places her hand around the arrow’s shaft.”
“Shaft?” Penelope breathed, eyes wide.
“It’s in the scene you wrote,” he offered, trying not to think of his own rock-hard shaft.
“Right, right, the arrow’s shaft!” she replied, pretending to hold the imaginary piece of thin, cylindrical wood while his thick cylindrical shaft strained against his pants.
She play-acted her way through the scene, removing the venom-tipped arrow, then set the imaginary item aside. “You’re partially correct about our destinies, AI-77. My purpose is to play the harp at the Ruby Castle. And, by the gods, we will succeed in getting there. Of course, I’m a princess, too, but there’s more to me than that. Just like there’s more to you than your directive. There’s more to us.”
“Not for me, Amelia. I serve one purpose,” he whispered, anticipation building in his chest.
Penelope slid the strap of her tank top down her shoulder. “You might be part man and part robot. But you have a heart—a human heart. It beats for something. What does it tell you?”
He smiled at the thought of his line—a line written by her, his real-life Princess Amelia. “This arrow might have pierced my heart, but you’re the one who’s stolen it, Penelope.” He brushed his thumb across her bottom lip.
“You did it again,” she said through the mist.
“Did what?”
“You switched Penelope for Amelia,” she answered through a smile that went straight to his robot heart.
“You wrote that line for your short story. Why did you put it in the cut scene?” he asked.
She held his gaze. “It works better here. It fits.”
“It does,” he whispered, enchanted, enthralled.
They stared at each other, lost somewhere between role-playing and real life.
“The next part is where AI-77 slips the other strap off Princess Amelia’s shoulder, and then…” she trailed off, wrapping her arms around his neck as she’d done in the hallway the night he’d left.
He’d missed this. He’d dreamed of this.
“And then, surrounded by a cloak of mist, they consummate their love in the healing Waters of Salvation,” he answered, lifting her onto his lap. Her skirt bunched around her waist as she straddled him, twisting her fingers into his hair. Were they acting, or was this real? A dizzying current passed through his body as she trembled in his arms.
“I was so mad at you,” she confessed, her sable eyes shining as she broke character.
He pulled her in close, not wanting to let go. “I’m sorry, Penelope.”
She searched his face. “Why did you leave after that kiss? It felt like so much more than just a kiss. Did I read you wrong? Did I—” she began when he pressed his finger to her lips, silencing her second-guessing.
He had to tell her the truth. He couldn’t hold back. He couldn’t pretend that she was some employee or just the nanny. She’d been more than that from the second he’d listened in on her conversation—the first time she’d called him a nerd. The pull was there, the attraction, the draw that had him second-guessing every choice he’d ever made. It had been there from the beginning. She and her ridiculously awful flip phone had crashed into his life and had achieved something no one had ever done before.
She’d given him hope that he wasn’t destined to be alone.
He rested his forehead against hers. “I left after I kissed you because I wanted you too much. And I knew if I stayed, I wouldn’t stop kissing you.”
She pulled back and took his face into her hands. “What if I don’t want you to stop.”
“Do you mean that?” He had to ask. He had to be sure she understood what she was saying.
“Is this crazy?” she asked with the sweet smile that crushed his defenses.
He shook his head. “No, it’s not. Whatever this is, I felt it the moment I saw you in the park.”
She traced her finger down his jawline. “For me, it was when I poked you in the chest.”
“Which time? You tend to do that a lot,” he teased.
