Page 27 of Bully Wolf's Nanny
“Thank you,” she said softly, drying her hands on a dishcloth, “for Thea. I know it’s nothing to you, that money is nothing to you, but to me…”
“It’s not nothing,” he said, “to me, I mean. It’s not nothing.”
She looked up at him, her lips parted, her green eyes wide and innocent and entirely too trusting.
He swallowed.
“Thank you,” she said again, her voice impossibly quiet, “for all of this. I…I didn’t know what to expect. When I took the job. Things between us…I mean…I didn’t know how it would be. But it’s been…”
His heart thudded in his chest as she mulled over her words, her eyes flicking down.
“It’s been lovely.”
Slowly, he reached out and took her hand. It was impossibly small in his, warm and damp from the water, but soft, nevertheless.
“I’m glad.”
Her breathing hitched, her fingers tightening against his, and she tilted her head up. She smelled like sunshine and flowers and vanilla.
He dipped his head down, his other hand coming to rest at her waist.
Her eyes darted to his lips before her tongue peeked out to wet her own.
He pulled her closer towards him.
She closed her eyes, leaning up, and he leant down.
They were close now. So close. He could feel the warmth of her breath against his lips—
“Mommy! Mommy, I can’t choose a book!”
They leapt apart just as Thea tumbled into the kitchen, several books half-falling from her grasp. For the first time in his adult life, Nicolas truly considered cursing at a small child.
But Daisy was gone, slipped away from his arms to attend to her daughter, her motions jerky and frantic.
Nicolas rolled his shoulders back, frustration lancing through him, and Daisy shot him one almost desperate glance before letting Thea pull her out of the room.
His fist came crashing down on the marble slate of the kitchen counter.
He hissed at the impact, shaking his hand out, debating launching himself out into the woods to let his wolf run, wild and raging.
In the end, however, he decided a cold shower was what he actually needed.
Chapter 9 - Daisy
Eight years ago
All the air left her lungs in a great whoosh of air as her back slammed into a tree, her hands instantly crossing over her chest to protect herself from her assailant.
Nicolas sneered down at her, one hand braced on the wood above her head, his teeth flashing in the low evening light.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going, Copperfield?”
‘Nowhere!’ she insisted, scowling up at him, leaning as far back into the tree as was possible to put any amount of distance between them. It didn’t work. His chest rose and fell, his broad shoulders blocking her in, his aristocratic face twisted in displeasure.
“Didn’t look like you were going nowhere.”
“If you must know,” Daisy said, “I was going to get coffee with Jason. He…he asked me out.”
