Page 17 of Forbidden Kisses

"First, fuck off. Ms. Williams does her job well. Second of all, no. Riley is young—she's twenty-four. I think she's amazing. She bonded with him instantly, and as a perk, she's a great cook."

Chase looked at me intently but didn't say anything. Wyatt narrowed his eyes. Griffin glanced at Wyatt and then at Knox and Finn, who looked stunned.

Yeah, I smelled victory. I’d put them in their place.

"You're attracted to her," Knox stated matter-of-factly.

What?

Fuck.

My.

Life.

That wasnotwhat I thought he would say.

I cleared my throat. "Sorry, what?"

"Yeah," Finn said. "That whole speech you just gave about her? Holy shit, man."

"What are you talking about? I just told you why she's a good fit." Yeah, she was gorgeous, but I was over that. I was in control.

"For Jeremy or for you?" Chase asked.

"Really? What made you even think that?" I asked him.

"I don't know what to say. The way you talked about her took me by surprise too. I just couldn’t put it into words until Knox did.”

"Thank you. Always nice to get credit for things," Knox replied.

"All of you are out of your minds," I said.

"So, you're not attracted to her?" Wyatt asked. He was usually the most cerebral of all of us, weighing pros and cons, and never jumped to conclusions.

I took a deep breath.

"He's hesitating," Wyatt said.

I looked around the table, and the fight went out of me.

Why would I want to keep this from my siblings? They’d hound me about it until the sun went down. Besides, it wasn’t as if I was going to act on anything. But I could admit to them that she was attractive.

"I'm not indifferent to her," I hedged.

"Ha," Knox said, victorious.

"But I am behaving perfectly professionally," I added.

"Good, as you should," Griffin said, "because she's your son's nanny."

Wyatt looked at him. "Since when are you the fun police? Chase usually does that."

Chase jerked his head back. "That is in no way true. However, I don’t think it would be the best idea?—”

"Look, no one at the table thinks it would be a good idea, okay?" I concluded. "Let's forget about it and move on. We've agreed that we’ll look into the Napa Valley idea. Anyone else want to contribute ideas?"

I liked that we scheduled these meeting Monday mornings. It set the tone for the entire week, and I always walked out of here full of energy and ready to take on the world.