Page 33 of Billionaire Babysitter

I can barely remember what I ever did without her. I hired her almost as soon as I became CEO, and after that, I kept giving her more and more responsibility. And she’s never once let me down. Even now, when I’m giving her the least expected job in the world, she’s rising to it. She’s put up with all my unpleasantness and never once complained.

Barely ever, anyway. I guess her plan was just to slip away in the night.

“Yeah,” I say. “I did. It was revealing.”

“Revealing? How so?”

I shrug. “She’s a lot like you. You look similar; you have the same expressions. You’re lucky to have her.”

For reasons I can’t begin to figure out, she almost looks embarrassed. “We’ve always been close.”

“Must have been nice,” I say, wincing as I realize I’ve let too much of my enigmatic detachment slip.

But before she can question me further, Noah is tugging on my hand again. “Strawberry cheesecake and strawberry and cherry please!”

“You can’t get all three,” says Chloe with the tone of someone who knows everything and is always right.

I close my hand gently around Noah’s. “I meant it; you can have whatever. As long as it’s in a tub. I’m not paying to get wafer crumbs cleaned out of my car.”

Chloe hums in consideration. “Then I want chocolate and cookie dough.”

I lean against the counter and relay the two orders as the server turns to us. “Then,” I add, “we’ll get a small vanilla for the baby, and I’ll have two scoops of mint choc chip, and…?”

It takes Sophie a second to realize I’m waiting on her. “Um…” she says, clearly in the middle of making a decision. I watch her closely as she reads the menu, noting the way the electric lights illuminate her face, lighting up her little button nose and casting a shadow under her chin that makes her jawline seem softer, almost pliable. Like if you were to touch her, she’d sink into your hands like putty.

Which is nonsense. I know her better than to think she’d ever give herself up entirely. She might give up a piece of herself, but that independence is important to her. It’s the pieceI’mchasing, anyway. The piece that I can keep to myself.

“I’ll get chocolate too — one scoop of that and then another of vanilla, please.” She smiles at the server, her hair flopping into her eyes. She brushes it back and I look away, not wanting her to catch the way I was memorizing every curve of her face.

The server gives us a somewhat vacant expression, but gives us extra big scoops. Guess we must look like a family to him too.

As I tap my card to pay, Samuel texts me to say he’s outside. “Excellent timing,” I say, mostly to myself. Then to the group, I add, “Okay, guys, let’s go to the car. You can eat while we drive if you’re careful.”

By the time we get home, Ava’s woken up again and started demanding snacks, Noah’s mouth has a thick outline of sticky pink, and Chloe looks like she’s about to throw a tantrum. We herd them all inside, and they all flop onto the sofa to finish their ice creams. I watch them carefully. We’ve got this far without getting any permanent stains on the upholstery; I wouldn’t want to break that streak now.

“Lucas, do you mind watching them? I want a shower,” Sophie says as she dumps her tub in the trash.

The way she leans over draws my attention to the curve of her breasts and ass, and I have to force myself not to stare or to imagine running my hands along those smooth lines. Not staring, I manage, but not fantasizing… how can I resist wondering what her firm breasts would feel like in my hands? It’s like every inch of her has been designed to draw me in. Now that this emotion has unlocked inside me, there’s no way I can ever crush it down again.

“Okay,” I say. “No problem.”

She gives me that curious little look again, the one with narrow eyes and a scrunched nose. It’s a subtle expression but I’m pretty sure it means I’ve behaved in a way she wasn’t expecting. For the better, I hope.

As she vanishes, I realize I kind ofdohave a problem with it because the children are gross, but I’ve agreed to it now. “Come on, guys. Let’s clean you up before dinner, okay?”

The kids and I wander through to the bathroom, and as I’m dabbing Noah’s face clean, I realize for the first time, I actually don’t mind at all.

CHAPTER 21

SOPHIE

Ithink one of the things I’m still most surprised by is the amount of nice silverware Lucas owns. The fact that he can afford it doesn’t shock me, but there’s no way he needs it. I’d know if he ever hosted dinner parties. I’d know if he had any close friends who came over.

Is knowing that much about his social life a bad thing? It’s not creepy. I’m just his walking, talking calendar.

Which is why all this is so confusing and weird. Our relationship has always revolved around work, around what I can do for him. We’ve never seen each other aspeople, and that’s why we’ve always worked. It’s easy to deal with shit if you can detach from it.

But now, here he is, laying the table again, throwing me another smile like it’s the most casual thing in the world, and I can’t help letting my gaze linger on his arms, on the definition of his muscles and the perfect sculpting of his shoulders. It makes him look reliable. Like the kind of guy you could trust. Someone whose arms you could fall into and you could trust them to catch you.

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