Page 47 of Falling for the Nanny

I sniffed, something that brought me dangerously close to tears. “You do make it look effortless.” I refused to look back at him.

He reached out and got hold of my other arm. Slowly, inexorably, he pulled me toward him. I dragged the comforter with me and it squashed up against us so that even when I was in his lap, I had a buffer.

David secured an arm around me, then used his free hand to cup my chin and turn my face toward his.

“It is effortless,” he agreed soberly. “But I try to be better for you, Cat. Because you’re worth the effort. I care about you. More than I should.”

I sniffed, his tenderness breaking down the last of my reserve. “You do?”

“More than I’m going to admit to you.” His voice became deprecating. “Or myself.”

“This isn’t just about…convenience?” I finally met his dark emerald gaze again.

He snorted. “You are the most inconvenient woman I’ve ever–” he broke off, but this time, the rest of his sentence didn’t hang in the air between us. I had no idea what he had been about to say. And I never found out, because rather than finish his sentence, he kissed me.

And though my heart still ached and my mind was still a swirl of confusion, I kissed him back.

CHAPTER 28

DAVID

I’d fucked up with Cat when we argued about Lily. We both knew I’d been about to say that she wasn’t Lily’s mother. I was determined to make it up to her, so the next day, we got in the car and tackled as many things on her must do list as we could.

It was almost as exhausting as the conference itself, but her enthusiasm was infectious. I’d never been a hiking guy, but I tackled both the glacier and the national park because she was excited to show them to me. At the end of the day, we went to one of hot springs that Denver was famous for and soaked out the aches and pains of the day.

“I’m getting old,” I muttered as the hot water soaked into my sore muscles and elicited a satisfied groan that reminded me of my grandfather.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you in your feeble old age,” Cat joked, flicking water at me.

I laughed, but the image was entirely too enticing. Forget being old though–I needed her to take care of me now. And I needed to take care of her. We couldn’t get back to the hotel fast enough.

The next day, even though we didn’t get enough sleep, we tackled the rest of her must see list before he had to catch our flights home that evening. I couldn’t even remember what we did exactly, but I remembered the feeling of being with her. All day. No one to hide from. Just the two of us.

It felt entirely too natural. Entirely too good. I didn’t want to come back to reality. Even when we got dinner together that night within walking distance of the resort, I couldn’t bring myself to put my guard back up. We touched and teased and kissed over the small two-top table, slowly working our way through a bottle of wine. Then, after Cat convinced me that we had to relinquish the table for the server’s sake, we moved to the bar and ordered another bottle.

And that’s when I saw him.

Isaac McMann, my CFO, sitting at one of the booths in the bar. And from that booth, he’d had a clear view through the window that separated the bar from the restaurant of the table where Cat and I had been sitting. When we locked eyes, he raised his eyebrows and smirked, then gave me a little toast with his beer that made me want to punch him in the face.

“What?” Cat asked, looking around. “Do you see someone you know?”

I couldn’t bring myself to tell her I had and ruin her good time. Not after the other night. I shook my head and decided that what was done was done. There was no point in trying to hide it now. And if Isaac asked me about it later, I’d tell him to fuck off and mind his own business.

I kept my back to McMann, hoping he’d get the hell out when I wasn’t paying attention. But when Cat went to the bathroom and I felt someone slide onto her vacated barstool, I knew I wasn’t going to get that lucky.

When I turned to glare at him, Isaac just grinned at me and then nodded after Cat. “I see now why you haven’t been team building with me.”

“It’s been a busy weekend,” I bit off, ignoring his reference to Cat. “How did your meetings go?”

“Killing it on all fronts. Who’s the girl?”

I ground the back of my teeth together with the effort of keeping my face relaxed. Trust fucking McMann. He did everything full throttle. If he was in work mode, he only talked about work. But if he was in drinking buddy mode, there was no way I was going to get him off the topic of Cat.

“She’s no one,” I settled on. “Just a woman I met.” It felt shitty to describe Cat that way, but what the hell was I supposed to say? She’s my kid’s nanny. I sign her paychecks twice a month and sleep with her every chance I get? I’m dangerously close to falling in love with her, but I’ll do anything to keep that from happening.

McMann wasn’t buying it anyway. “If you don’t mind me saying so,” he began, then barreled on before I had a chance whether to say that I did fucking mind and he should go away. “She looks like a real upgrade from Chloe.”

That stopped me short, but I managed to say evenly, “I do mind. That’s my kid’s mom you’re ranking.”

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