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Nola was smiling at me with her red hair still wavy from the braids she’d taken out. It spilled across her shoulders and slid down the open collar of my dress shirt. I saw her nipples were pressing harder against the fabric than they had been a moment before and wondered if this conversation was getting her wet like it was getting me hard.

I shook my head. I thought about Ben. Ben. I made him be the only thing in my head until the choice became obvious. “We shouldn’t be having this conversation. I’m sorry,” I said, getting up from the bed. “I’m your boss, and—”

“My boss?” Nola asked, scrunching up her forehead. “What does that have to do with—”

“You can finish those chocolates if you want. Good night, Nola.”

She was about to say something else when I left the room. All I could do was hope the room was too dark for her to realize my body had been ready to do exactly the opposite. I closed the door and pressed my back against it, looking down at my pathetically hard cock.

Seriously?

Sometimes, I thought having a dick was like having an over-eager dog attached to your body at all times. Except instead of losing its fucking mind at even the hint of the word “walk,” it was on never-ending alert for pussy. I normally had little trouble controlling myself, but something about the nanny was working on me like kryptonite.

I heard footsteps coming for the door. I was still standing there like an idiot with an erection the size of a baseball bat. Awkwardly, I ran as fast as I could while violently hard. I had to sidestep some furniture. Just as I was about to reach the couch, I heard the bedroom door open.

In a moment of pure stupidity, I decided it would be too obvious if she saw me laying on the couch and winded—also comically erect. So I jumped, trying to clear the back of the couch where I could duck behind it. Except I missed.

My knee caught the back of the couch, tipping it and myself over and a painfully loud heap.

I was staring at the darkened ceiling of my apartment, wondering if the nanny had really reduced me to this level of embarrassment. When did I become the awkward geek who did shit like this? When did I start doubting every damn decision I wanted to make?

Nola’s face appeared above me. She looked like she was barely holding back laughter. “I’m sorry,” she said, voice breaking. “Did you just try to tackle your couch? Is this like some super-secret professional athlete training routine?”

“Yes,” I said flatly.

“Does doing that normally get you that… excited?”

I saw where her eyes were focused, and I knew there was nothing to do about it. I just kept staring at the ceiling, wishing for that time machine from earlier. Except this time, I thought I might need to go back to the beginning. Maybe the very beginning of time itself to make sure this series of events never happened.

With a half-smile, she stuck her hand down toward me to help me up. “There’s still some chocolate. If you wanted?”

I sighed. “Yeah. I’ll take another.”16JackI needed a break from the nanny. Ben’s little sleepover had brought me to the brink of my willpower and then somehow ended with me making an absolute idiot out of myself.

I ran my hands through my hair and sat back in the dugout. I’d told Nola to take the day off after the fiasco that was last night. It meant Ben was at my side like usual, and I was icing my shoulder after practice. Most of the guys were heading off to the locker room, which gave me a chance to give Ben my full attention.

“What are you drawing?” I asked.

He was lying on his stomach with his feet kicked up behind him and a sketchbook under his nose. Without replying, he spun the book to face me. There was a picture of a woman with red hair and a man in a baseball uniform holding her hand. Next to them, two little boys were giving a thumbs up.

I ran my tongue across the inside of my cheek, trying to decide if I should even ask. “So,” I said slowly. “Did Miss Nola put you up to this?”

Ben tilted his head. “What does that mean?”

I sighed. “This is supposed to be me and your nanny, right?”

He nodded. “If you married her, Griff would be my brother. Then every night would be a sleepover.”

Fucking hell. “That would also mean you’d be losing your nanny.”

His forehead creased. “She would be my mommy, then. Even better!”

I opened my mouth to argue my side of things. To tell him that no, it wouldn’t be better because it would depend on his dad who had the world’s shittiest reputation for maintaining a healthy relationship with a woman to do just that. Or maybe I could point out how much worse it would feel to have another mom walk out of his life when I inevitably fucked up.


Tags: Penelope Bloom My (Mostly) Funny Romance Romance