Page 26 of Alpha Wolf's Nanny
“You’re going alone?” he asked.
Cassie tilted her chin, her voice firmer than she felt. “I’ve gone hiking it a hundred times before. I’m careful.”
Felix muttered something under his breath she didn’t catch, then turned his back to her, dragging a hand down his face.
“I just…don’t like the idea of you wandering around those woods on your own. It’s not a damn playground out there.”
Cassie blinked. “You let the boys play out there all the time.”
He turned on her, eyes narrowed. “That’s different.”
“How?” she asked, more sharply than she intended.
He didn’t answer. Instead, his mouth pressed into a thin line, his arms folding across his chest as if he could physicallyhold back whatever he was feeling. She could see it in his posture. He wanted to say something else, but wouldn’t let himself.
The silence stretched between them.
Cassie swallowed. “I didn’t mean to…this wasn’t about avoiding you. Or the boys. I just…I needed a night for myself. That’s all.’
“I didn’t ask for an explanation,” he said quietly.
That stung more than she thought it would.
“Right,” she said, her tone clipped. “Of course. Well. I should go start breakfast.”
She moved past him before he could say anything else, heart hammering, pulse loud in her ears. The tension between them crackled like an electric wire, and if she didn’t put space between them, she was going to explode.
God. What was it about him? Intense and brooding and angry one moment, and then charming and friendly the next? And that was when he wasn’t pressing her up against the wall and nearly kissing her. It was starting to give her whiplash.
Downstairs, the kitchen was bathed in soft morning light. Cassie threw herself into preparing breakfast for the boys. Pan on the stove, eggs cracked, pancake batter mixed and poured. Anything to distract her hands from shaking.
Why did it matter so much what he thought about her going hiking, anyway? While her stubborn side was still fuming that he dared question her ability to look after herself in the woods, another part of her struggled to understand where such vehemence even came from. It surely wasn’t because he cared, right? Because he truly had no right to.
Cracking an egg with slightly more violence than was necessary, she decided that she was, in fact, angry with him.
She shook her head.
The boys would be down soon, full of questions and hungry grins, and she couldn’t let them see her like this, moody and unsure and wanting.
She forced herself to hum under her breath as she sliced strawberries, the bright red juice staining her fingertips.
If Felix had assumptions, that was on him. She had done nothing wrong. She wasn’t some reckless teenager sneaking off into danger. She was a grown woman who needed a night under the stars to remember who she was, away from all of his…his…uncertainty.
And yet, even as she stirred the batter and flipped the pancakes, she couldn’t shake the image of Felix’s face when she told him she had plans. The flicker of something behind his eyes. The tension in his shoulders.
She didn’t owe him anything.
She certainly wasn’t flattered by his scrutiny. There definitely wasn’t part of her that preened under the weight of his attention, how much he seemed to care. It definitely didn’t whisper to her that he was strong, that he could protect her, that hewantedto protect her. No. Certainly not that. She couldn’t give in to that. Cassie had spent the last few years completely alone in the world, running from those who wished her harm. While the opportunity to stop and relish someone looking out for her for once was…intoxicating, it was also incredibly stupid and naive.
Whatever the case, it felt like they were approaching some sort of breaking point. The incident upstairs wasn’t thefirst time they’d gotten closer, nearly breaking the fragile guise of professionalism that they were both working under. And it was happening more and more frequently. Heated moments, tense exchanges, lingering touches.
She couldn’t help but wonder which of them would break first.
***
Felix had the boys finished with breakfast and out the door in record time. He had paused only once as he turned back towards her, looking her up and down, something fierce and wild in his expression. “I hope you enjoy your day.”
“Thank you, Felix,” she had replied with as soft a smile as she could manage, “I hope you do as well.”
