Page 66 of Learn Your Lesson

He wanted me, he just didn’t want to mess with what we had.

It made sense. He’d searched high and low for a nanny he could trust. He’d fought off a dozen women trying to get to him through Ava. I didn’t want to be added to that list. I didn’t want him to think even for asecondthat I was the same.

Because Iwasn’t.

I didn’t want a ring or any kind of promise.

I didn’t want the fame or attention that came with being his girlfriend.

I just wanted him totouch me.

I wanted to know what it felt like to have those goalie hands on me. I wanted him to prove to me that not every man on this planet was as terrible as the one I let inside me in college.

I sighed, shaking off the thought and the pure impossibility of it as I scrolled through more comments at the kitchen island. I was standing, sipping on a glass of white wine and absentmindedly stroking Nacho’s soft fur where he was lounging on the counter. I was also debating deleting the thread and my username altogether. Clearly, no amount of advice was going to help me, because this was just one of those situations that there wasn’t a way out of.

I had the hots for my boss, and he evidently didn’t think I was too terrible to look at, either.

But we couldn’t go any further than that.

I lifted my wine glass to my lips, and then nearly dropped it when the sliding glass door of the pool houseslid open so hard it hit the barrier and shook the whole place.

Nacho jumped and scrambled off the counter, paws skittering as he bolted for the bedroom. I saw another blur of gray fur follow him.

Panic gripped me by the throat, and I was already running through all the self-defense I’d learned over the years. I was one second away from breaking that wine glass over the counter so I’d have something sharp to work with when I realized it wasn’t a predator who’d burst in.

It was Will.

He stood in that opening like the god of war arriving at a battle, his eyes wild, hair blowing in the breeze, chest heaving. He stared at me for one long, hesitant moment, like he was about to turn around and storm right back out just the way he’d come in.

Instead, his fingers curled around the edge of the sliding glass door, his jaw flexed beneath the beautiful bronze skin stretched over it, and then he took a full step inside.

“Sit down,” he ordered, pointing at the dining table.

My pussy fluttered at that command as if he’d told me to drop to my knees and open wide.

I hastily shut my laptop, abandoning my wine and scurrying over to the table. I dropped down into a seat just in time to watch Will calmly, slowly, shut the sliding glass door behind him.

We were alone.

Like…trulyalone.

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?”