Page 75 of Alpha Wolf's Nanny
A silence stretched between them, heavy and taut.
Then Cassie said, almost inaudibly, “I was scared you wouldn’t come.”
Felix looked at her, adoration fierce and thick in his chest. “Cassie. I’d burn the world down to find you.”
Her breath caught, and she covered her mouth with her free hand, as if trying to hold something in. A sob, a confession, a truth too sharp to say aloud.
“I don’t deserve that,” she said.
“You deserve more,” Felix said. “You deserve peace. You deserve safety. You deserve someone who would go through hell to bring you home.”
She stared at him. “Why?”
“Because I love you.”
It landed like the coming of a storm.
Cassie blinked. “You…what?”
“I love you,” Felix said again, softer now. “I tried to pretend I didn’t. Tried to push it down, tell myself it wasn’t real. That it was a bad idea. That you didn’t feel the same. But it didn’t go away. It never went away.”
She looked at him like she couldn’t breathe. “Felix…”
“You don’t have to say it back,” he said quickly, voice rough, “not now. Not if you’re not ready. But I need you to know. I need you to understand that this”—he gestured between them—“was never about duty, or protection, or anything else. It’s you. It’s always been you.”
She let out a broken breath and finally, finally, leaned into him.
Her forehead pressed against his collarbone, her hands fisting in the front of his shirt. She was shaking, but not from the cold.
“I didn’t think I could love anyone,” she murmured. “Not after what I went through. Not after…not after the fear.”
Felix wrapped his arms around her, careful, patient.
“You don’t have to do anything you’re not ready for,” he said into her hair. “Not now. Not ever.”
“But I do,” she whispered, “I love you too, Felix. I just didn’t know how to say it. I didn’t know if I was allowed to feel something good again.”
“You are.”
They sat there like that for a long time, the world outside completely forgotten.
Eventually, he stood, keeping her hand in his.
“Come on,” he said softly. “Let’s clean you up. You’re bleeding.”
Cassie nodded, silent, letting him guide her toward the bathroom. Her legs were unsteady, her ribs bruised, but she leaned into him like she trusted him completely.
And Felix…he didn’t take that trust lightly.
He led her to the bathroom where he turned the taps on, running a hot, steaming bath. He didn’t look at the labels of the various products before dumping them in the water; an aromatic, floral scent clashed with some sort of coconut.
Carefully, so carefully, he helped her remove her clothes, his heart clenching at every scrape, every bruise. Then, when she was standing completely naked in front of him, she tugged at his stolen shirt. Wordlessly, he climbed out of his own clothes and lifted her into the bath, settling himself behind her.
For a while, he just enjoyed the feeling of her safely in his arms, her fingers tracing shapes in the bubbles around them. Gently, he massaged shampoo into her hair, relishing how she groaned in pleasure as his fingers massaged her scalp, how her body relaxed into his.
His hands skated down slightly, brushing over her shoulders, rubbing her tender flesh. He skirted closer to her neck, and her breathing hitched, the motion pushing her chest slightly out of the water, her nipples pink and swollen at the water’s surface.
He felt himself harden at all the soft flesh under his touch, felt the energy in the room change, become charged and alive.
