Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 130307 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130307 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 521(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
We were alone.
Like… truly alone.
Chef Patel had the night off. Ava was at a sleepover.
It was just me and him, and when he turned and slowly prowled closer, the air came alive with electricity and a delicious promise.
Will’s hair was still a bit damp from what I assumed was his post-practice shower. I was used to that look. I was used to his routine.
Except tonight, it looked a little more unruly, like he’d been dragging his hands through it in frustration.
My mind whirred the closer he came, and I tried to read his menacing gaze but found myself even more confused. I didn’t know if I was about to get fired or kissed senseless.
The first one made the most sense.
The latter one was what I prayed for.
He wrapped his fingers over the top of the chair across from me when he reached the table, taking a long, steely breath before he cracked his neck and sat down. Where I was ramrod straight in my chair, he kicked back in his, long legs stretching out and one finger drumming on the table as he assessed me like I owned something he was prepared to pay a hefty price for.
“Do you want to have sex with me?”
I balked.
Did he… did he really just ask what I think he did?
“Uh…” I stammered, truly concerned I’d misheard him.
“It’s a pretty simple yes or no question.”
“Then why does it feel like a trap?”
“It’s not.”
“You answer first.”
He flattened his lips. “Clearly, you already know my answer if I’m here asking you.”
“Maybe I want to be wooed. That wasn’t exactly a romantic declaration.”
“I don’t do woo and I don’t do romance, either. You want honesty? That I can do.”
He leaned over the table then, folding his massive hands together and leveling his gaze with mine. He spoke slowly, intently, with a rasp like every word burned on the way out.
“Yes, I want to fuck you, Chloe. Badly. So much so that I’ve fucked my hand every night since you’ve moved in and thought about you waiting on your knees when I came.”
Holy hell.
Those words were degrading. They were horrendous. They were the kind of filth that would have had my grandmother clutching her pearls and my mother slapping Will right across his handsome face.
But they did something else entirely for me.
My body erupted with chills that I didn’t even try to hide, and I swallowed, somehow holding his gaze even when I felt my entire body flush with heat. I was tempted to play with my hair, so I sat on my hands to keep from doing so.
“Your turn,” he said, and even though he’d just confessed to masturbating to the thought of me, he looked like he’d rather strangle me than get me naked. “Do you want to have sex with me?”
I blinked, my throat dry.
“I… this is just… I’ve never been asked quite so directly,” I stammered.
“I think we both know I’m not one to beat around the bush.”
I swallowed, nodding, and then held my chin as high as I could. “Yes,” I breathed. “I… do.”
“You do what?”
“I want to have sex with you.”
The words were a breathy, secret confession that felt as dirty rolling off my lips as any curse word I’d ever muttered in the presence of my grandmother.
For a moment, I wasn’t sure Will had heard me.
But then I saw it, all the small ways he reacted — the way his Adam’s apple bobbed, his hands gripping each other tighter, his nostrils flaring, eyes heating.
“Here’s the deal,” he said, and he stood, pacing like a businessman about to close on a billion-dollar merger. “Clearly, there is a mutual infatuation between us. I think it’s fair to say we’ve both felt this way for a while now.”
I smirked, folding my arms across my chest and leaning back in my chair.
I’d never seen this man so flustered.
I was very content to sit back and watch the show.
“But as you are well aware, I went through hell and high water to find a nanny who didn’t make me want to pitch myself off the nearest cliff. Ava adores you. I am beyond grateful for what you do for her, for me, for us as a family. And the last thing I want is for this arrangement to be put at risk due to us being stupid.”
I didn’t dare interrupt — mostly because I was highly entertained by watching him fumble his way through this.
“So, here’s what I propose,” he said, and he sat back down, back straight and eyes hard on me. “Sex. Only sex. Whenever we both consent to it and as long as it doesn’t interfere with Ava or our business arrangement in any way, shape, or form. No one can know. Not your friends, not my teammates, not Chef Patel, and most of all, not Ava. I need to know that will be enough for you, that you’re not secretly hoping for more than that. Because I can tell you, right now, that I can’t give it to you.”