Page 39 of Bully Wolf's Nanny
Francesca flipped her caramel hair over her shoulder with well-practiced ease. “I’m here to be a mother to my daughter. Why else would I be here?”
“You seem to be forgetting,” Nicolas replied, struggling to keep the venom from his tone, “that I am her sole legal guardian. You had the chance to be her mother. You gave it up. As I toldthe lawyers, I was more than willing to share guardianship;youwanted nothing to do with her.”
He remembered the day she had appeared on his doorstep with Gracie as clearly as if it were yesterday. He had barely recognized her. Sure, she had all the same luxury designer clothes, perfectly styled hair, immaculate nails and so on. Even only days after giving birth. But in the cold, harsh light of day he struggled to place the stunning woman in front of him, only snatching vague recollections of wine-haze and sultry music of some party or other from the dim recesses of his mind. As far as he was concerned, she was only one of a long line of one-night stands, and a barely memorable one at that.
She had smelled like wolf musk. He remembered that much, but only because it had been off-putting. She was definitely human, but it seemed she had sprayed herself with one of those tacky pheromone perfumes meant to attract shifters like him. Drunk as he was, he hadn’t cared to do anything other than wrinkle his nose and roll his eyes, but it had stuck out to him. Human women of Francesca’s type rarely went in for cheap tricks when trying to bag themselves a shifter. They relied on other, more subtle means.
He was coming to learn that there was absolutely nothing subtle about Francesca.
“Oh Nicolas, you’ve got it all wrong!” she said, artfully dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief. “I couldn’t tell you the real reason I had to give Gracie up. I couldn’t tell anyone! I was in danger! Giving her to you was the only way to keep her safe.”
“Explain,” he replied, tapping his finger against the glass.
She sniffed delicately, hugging Gracie close to her chest. “It was my boyfriend. I admit when we had our…tryst…I was ina relationship. I wanted to leave, I wanted to so badly. He was awful, Nicolas, absolutely awful!”
Nicolas didn’t reply. He wouldn’t have cared if she was in a relationship when they slept together, and he certainly didn’t care now.
Sensing his frosty displeasure, Francesca pushed on, “When he found out I was pregnant, he…he…” she paused, fixing her gaze out the window, eyebrows quivering. “Well. Let’s just say shifters aren’t the only ones with a temper. Aren’t the only ones who can…hit people,” she added on the end, just in case he hadn’t managed to get her point.
As if it were possible not to get her point.
“It’s truly unfortunate that your partner was abusive,” he said curtly. “I hope you are well and safe. But that still doesn’t answer my question. What are you doing here, now?”
He didn’t miss the slight hint of steel in her eyes at his less-than-enthusiastic response. What was she expecting? Him to leap from his chair, apoplectic with wrath at the harming of the mother of his child, and swear his eternal love and devotion to her?
Please.
Shifters were protective. That was no secret. Alphas were protective of their mates, parents of their children, packs of their territory. But it wasn’t like the mere mention of harm to someone they might happen to know would send them into a protective rage.Thatwas a reductive stereotype believed by humans.
“I finally escaped him,” Francesca said with a sickly-sweet smile. “I’m free! And all I want to do is be in Gracie’s life again.”
She spoke the words as if laying out a gift at his feet, clearly expecting him to fall to his knees in gratitude. Or at least, hoping that he would.
“Francesca,” he said, crossing his legs, “let me make this plain. You cannot just show up on my doorstep, one year after giving up Gracie entirely, and demand to be let back into her life. I am truly sorry that your circumstances did not allow you to keep her, but it was your choice not to share that information with me at the time.”
She opened her mouth to protest, and he held up his hand to silence her.
“I refuse to believe you are idiotic enough to think that an abusive partner could have preventedmefrom keeping you safe to co-parent Gracie. I appreciate that you may not have been in a stable frame of mind, and again, I am sorry for that. But you did the right thing. You ensured Gracie would be safe. And you decided that would be without you in her life. You cannot now disrupt her entire existence because you’ve decided you want to be a mother again. Youcertainlycannot show up unannounced at my house and demand it.”
Francesca’s lips pursed slightly, but then she reached down into the red leather bag at her side, pulling out a thick cream envelope. With a slight flourish, she handed it to him.
With narrowed eyes not leaving her form, he took it, the card heavy in his hand.
“What is this?”
“Open it and see,” she said, “because I’m afraid to say, I think you’ll find Ican.”
Chapter 13 - Daisy
“But when is Nicolas going to come and read me a bedtime story? He said he’d read me another chapter ofThe Hobbit!” Thea whined, tugging on Daisy’s hand. “Where is he?”
“He’s downstairs,” Daisy replied, not moving even as Thea redoubled her efforts to try and get her mother to leave the room with her to find Nicolas, “talking to…talking to Francesca.”
“Who’s Francesca?” Thea asked, finally giving up and flopping down on the floor.
Daisy swallowed the lump in her throat, her stomach all in knots. “Francesca is Gracie’s mother.”
Thea frowned. “But I thought you told me Gracie didn’t have a mom, and that was why you had to help Nicolas look after her.”
