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16

MICHAEL

My steps faltered when I walked through the backdoor and saw Mia sitting on the deck. Her feet were in the water, and she swung them back and forth as she stared into the dark depths. I almost went back inside, but Mia must have heard when the door slid open.

Without looking back, she said, “I can go inside if you want your space.”

I stood there, stupidly staring at her back, and wondering if she knew it was me.

“Should I take your silence as a yes or no, boss?”

I hesitated for a moment before walking toward her. “How did you know it was me?”

“I heard the sternness and intensity in your footsteps.”

“Hilarious.”

She glanced over her shoulder and grinned at me. A typical playful twinkle lit up her eyes, which surprised me because I knew her feelings were hurt earlier. However, Mia didn’t stay upset about things for long. I liked that about her.

“On a serious note, your aunt hinted that seeing your father would upset you,” she revealed. “Plus, you don’t like being in crowds for too long. I figured you’d come through the door sooner or later.”

My eyebrows elevated. My aunt seemed to have taken a liking to oversharing with Mia. It was strange because she barely tolerated the other nannies the few times she’d interacted with them. The unease that usually swamped me when the topic of my old man came up didn’t hit me quite as hard. I suspected that was because I was comfortable talking to Mia. There was no denying it, considering how I tended to put my guard down in her presence, which usually led to us kissing or having an entire night of hot sex…

My jaw tightened as I exercised great willpower to eradicate those images from my mind. However, I really didn’t want to. I wanted to kiss her again. I wanted her in my bed again.

She must have taken my silence to mean I was upset because she glanced up at me with a frown. “Don’t be mad at your aunt for sharing. I wasn’t prying or anything when she told me.”

Her worried expression heightened my guilt for overreacting earlier. “About earlier…” I shoved my hands into the pockets of my jeans. “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t apologize often, do you? You look so uncomfortable.” She let out a little laugh as she rose to her feet to face me. “I appreciate the apology, Michael, but it isn’t necessary.”

Rubbing my jaw, I grunted with a mixture of amusement and confusion. “And here I thought it was normal to apologize for being a dick.”

She smiled as she always did, and my eyes hungrily moved over her face. Usually, I was more subtle with my assessments of her. I supposed a part of me was done denying that I was attracted to her. What happened last night made me realize that fighting it was futile. I stared at Mia, amazed that she made me want to break my strict rule of never getting intimate with employees. The woman was the bane of my control.

“The thing is, you weren’t a dick,” she said. “

“I was,” I insisted.

“Well, you weren’t wrong. I work for you. There’s no need for me to know the imitate details of your life. I understood your reaction.” She tucked her chin into her chest and shrugged. “I know you’ve been feeling uneasy around me after what happened last night.”

I blew out a barely audible sigh. I’d been skirting around her like a coward, which was unlike me. “Look, Mia…” I searched for the right words to explain my mixed feelings. My attraction to her refused to go away as I thought it would, but I couldn’t afford to complicate things. A part of me wished I’d never met and slept with her because she was the perfect nanny.

However, another part of me wouldn’t change what had happened for the world because it was fucking fantastic. Before I could say anything more, a loud croak erupted from the nearby garden. Mia jumped, her eyes wide with alarm as she peered around me.

“What was that?” she whispered, inching closer to me.

Amusement surged through me. It seemed she was a city girl through and through if she didn’t know what that was.

“It’s just a toad, Mia. They’re harmless.”

“Oh, god. I don’t do frogs.”

“Toad,” I corrected. While there were plenty of frogs around, Aunt Neddy’s backyard was also littered with toads.

“It doesn’t matter. I don’t do amphibians. Period. I… I don’t do arachnids either… Hell, I don’t do any species that isn’t a fish, feline, canine, or human.”

I chuckled. “Okay.”

“I’m going back inside.”

Another croak sounded, this one even louder, and Mia visibly tensed as her eyes darted around the yard. “Harmless or not, that thing sounds like it’s the size of a freaking dog.”

I was about to reassure her when the toad decided to make an appearance. It hopped out of the shadows and landed near our feet. Mia let out a startled yelp. She backed right to the edge of the deck and lost her balance. With flailing arms and a surprised squeal, she toppled backward into the water.

“Mia!” My amusement instantly turned to concern, and without a second thought, I jumped in after her. I couldn’t see a thing under the water, so I was immensely relieved when she surfaced, sputtering and gasping.

Before I could even reach for her, she leaped into my arms, wrapping herself around me like a vine. For a moment, I was stunned into a stupor by her warm body pressed against mine, but then I realized she clung to me because she was still terrified.

Through her frightened haze, she realized our positions too and quickly unwrapped herself from me. I kind of wish she hadn’t…

“Holy shit, Michael! It’s huge!”

I followed her bulging eyes to the tiny animal and shook my head. She was so dramatic. “It’s not.”

“It looks like it wants to jump in here with us. Swim away, Michael. Save yourself,” she whisper-shouted.

I couldn’t help it. I burst out laughing. The sound boomed, carrying on the night breeze. “Mia, this is hardly a life-threatening situation,” I sputtered between chuckles. “If it was, I’d be a real asshole for saving myself, wouldn’t I? Has anyone ever told you you’re way too dramatic?”

Mia glowered at me. “Oh… shut up! I panicked.”

I only laughed harder. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d laughed this hard. After a beat, Mia snickered, and then her giggles joined my uproarious chortling. She shrieked and pounced on me again when the toad croaked and hopped away. We found ourselves face-to-face with her arms wound around my shoulders and mine around her waist… I hadn’t even registered grabbing onto her.

As our laughter died down, we just stared at each other.

“We should get out of the water,” she whispered. “It’s getting cold.”

I swallowed hard as I took her in. Her eyes were wide and her hair soaked. I followed a drop of water that fell off her eyelashes and trailed down to the corner of her mouth. I had the urge to lick the droplet away.

“Yeah, we should…” Yet, we didn’t move. My voice was so thick with need, I didn’t even recognize it. The air became charged with that sexual tension that had been looming over us since… Well, since the night of our blind date.

The space between us shrank as I leaned forward. I heard the slight hitch in her breath, but she didn’t pull away. Her gaze was glued to mine, and I saw the invitation in her golden eyes. The space between us slowly disappeared. My pulse sped up as I leaned in until I felt her warm breath on my lips.

Her eyes fluttered closed before I pressed my mouth to hers. On contact, my valued control vanished—that happened a lot with Mia. The kiss was voracious, reflecting weeks of pent-up desire and tension. As she matched my hungry movements, I wondered if, like me, she’d had sleepless nights thinking about the one we had together. I’d spent plenty of time trying to convince myself that what happened was a one-time thing and that I didn’t want to do it again. But I’d stopped lying to myself about it two weeks ago…

Mia’s arms wound tighter around my shoulders, and she pressed her body to mine. A tortured groan rumbled in my throat. I wanted her naked. I wanted to be buried inside her. I wanted?—

She yanked her mouth away from mine. “Michael, we shouldn’t.”

I gritted my teeth and searched for that control I usually had. It was the hardest thing to find. “No, we shouldn’t.”

Yet, she didn’t let go of me. I still held on to her, too. As she stared at my mouth, my arousal mounted. She had to have felt my cock twitching and rising, begging for another taste of her. Blowing out a breath, I disentangled us.

“Let’s get out here.” I was making out with the nanny in a pond in my aunt’s backyard where anyone could walk out and see us. What was I thinking? I grabbed on to the deck and pulled myself out of the water. When I reached out to offer Mia a hand, she ignored it and pulled herself up. My lips twisted into a wry smile. Maybe she was onto something. If we made even the slightest contact after that kiss, I’d likely take her right here on this deck, consequences be damned.

We stared at each other for a moment and spoke at the same time.

“Michael—”

“Mia—”

“You first,” I said.

“Look, that was… I didn’t mean… Last night… That night two months ago was…”

My gaze was glued to her mouth as she spoke, but I didn’t hear a word she said. All I could think about was how good she tasted. All of her. The memories of our one-night stand were incredibly vivid. I looked lower and sucked in a breath. Her wet shirt had become see-through, and I gawked at the outline of her breasts. I’d sucked on her nipples before, and I wanted to do it again…

“Michael, did you hear a word I said?”

My eyes snapped back to her face. Instantly, I felt bad for zoning out and missing every word. I’d turned into a horny teenager. “I’m sorry. I’m usually a great listener.”

She blinked slowly, those doe eyes of hers drawing me in further. Pink highlighted her cheeks as she realized I’d been staring at her tits and that’s why I didn’t hear a thing she said. Her eyelashes lowered to hide her eyes, and her teeth sank into her lower lip. She looked so… fuckable.

“Michael…” she began.

She didn’t get another word out because I captured her mouth again. Fuck it. I’d have her again and assuage the burning need for her that I couldn’t shake. Just as my logical self checked in to remind me that she was expressing some kind of concern a moment ago, and maybe she didn’t want this, she moaned and threw her arms around me. We were on the same page.

As our tongues clashed, my hands roamed, copping a feel of everything I could.

“We’re in your aunt’s backyard,” she moaned.

“Mmm-hmm.” I cupped her ass and lifted her. As soon as her legs wound around my waist, I was on the move, heading to the tree house.

“We said this wouldn’t happen again,” she panted, her words muffled by my hungry mouth.

“Mmm-hmm.” I plunged my tongue between her lips to explore.

We passed the back porch where Irish traditional music, which Aunt Neddy loved, filtered outside. I put Mia down in front of the ladder that led up to the tree house. It wasn’t the typical child’s treehouse, but a massive one that had enough space for two adults. It was Aunt Neddy’s and my pride and joy back in the day because we worked on it for an entire summer… and I was about to make love to my daughter’s nanny in it.

Mia glanced up at the structure and then back at me with a tilted head.

I shrugged. We couldn’t exactly stroll through my aunt’s party soaking wet on our way to a bedroom, could we? “Do you mind?” I asked, my eyes boring into her.

In response, she turned and started climbing. Satisfaction surged through me. A little shock hit me, too. Was I, Mr. Responsible, really going to have sex with Mia in a treehouse ? This was so far removed from my typical behavior. However, as I gazed at her delectable ass as she ascended, the little logic that was hanging by a thread seeped away.