1
What You Wish For
Hanna Sparrow had always daydreamed of a passionate kiss in a romantic locale, just like in the fairytales. The Eiffel Tower perhaps, or a gondola slipping over the canals in Venice. Or the French Riviera, on a moonlight-soaked beach in Saint-Tropez, with the rhythmic sound of waves competing with the sound of her heartbeat in her ears and the taste of gourmet food lingering on her partner’s lips. A night like tonight, a perfect, clear evening illuminated by a thousand stars…
In her fantasies, the man had not been her employer. Neither had he left a wife and two children waiting in a hotel up the beach. Maybe she should have specified what she expected more clearly while dreaming of this night, because the agents of destiny couldn’t be trusted to manage on their own.
She shoved Steven away from her. “What the hell are you doing? Have you lost your mind?”
Steven Dawson looked back at her with the smirk she’d seen on his lips in the past, when he’d come home from the office after he sealed a particularly juicy deal. Her skin crawled as he spoke. “We both know you’ve wanted me to do that for months.”
“That answers the question. Youhavelost your mind.” She took a step back, the sand under her bare feet an unpleasant reminder of her shoeless and vulnerable state.
Too few clothes. Too much skin on display. She’d wanted a moonlight walk on the beach as Steven’s wife spent time with her children, just a few quiet minutes for Hanna to gather her thoughts after a long day herding her charges around. Nannies didn’t get much rest on vacations, and she would take her calm moments where she could steal them. A modest one-piece swimsuit with a flowery waist wrap had seemed appropriate when she left the resort. Now, she wondered if a full suit of armor would cover her enough.
Steven stepped forward to match her retreat. “You don’t have to hide it, Hanna. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. We’re both adults. Both allowed to have our desires.”
“There’s nothing to hide. I have no desire for you. In fact, at this moment, I have less desire for you than I did when I woke up this morning. It was zero, then. We’re in the negatives now. Negative desire.” Another step back.
“That’s not true.”
“You have a wife.” Hanna stabbed a finger towards the hotel in the distance. “She’s back there tuckingyour childreninto bed. They all deserve better than this. So do I. This is inappropriate and gross. If you think I’m going to keep this from her–"
Amusement flickered across his doughy, unattractive face. Before he’d kissed her, she’d thought him handsome enough, if a partner had affection to sweeten his features fromplaintobeloved. Now, Hanna didn’t know if she’d seen an uglier man.
“I’d be careful what you say to anyone, Miss Sparrow,” he said. “You’re just the hired help. Who do you suppose people will believe?”
She didn’t respond. She just scowled and shoved past him.
Or tried to. His arm shot out to block her path, one hand curled over her shoulder. “A jealous, horny nanny swept away by a head full of romantic thoughts about a vacation in Saint-Tropez. Her rich boss, a family man who loves his faithful wife. Why does that fake woman with plastic tits and stretch marks deserve him? Why doesn’t the pretty, younger woman with the hot, tight body deserve him? They’re alone on the beach, she just can’t help herself…”
His hand tugged at the strap on her swimsuit. She swatted it away. “You’re disgusting. I hope Julia cleans you out in the divorce.”
This time, he didn’t stop her as she stomped by him. His laughter followed in her wake. “Do you think that’s how this will go? Aside from the prenup, do you really think that’s what will happen? You stupid bitch.”
His words turned into a sour soup in the pit of her gut, but anger carried her forward.I can’t just sit on this. All these days in paradise, trying to look Julia in the eye, trying not to see the look on Steven’s face when we go swimming with the kids, wondering if he’ll be in the hotel room when I get out of the shower…
Whatever happened, she knew she would never look at her old daydream the same way again. Julia might divorce Steve, he might find himself disgraced, a shark might leap out of the sea and bite off his stupid, smirking head, but Hanna’s romantic daydream would be little more than chum in the water from tonight on.
She liked to think her righteous indignation gave her a powerful, confident bearing as she stormed up the beach, because otherwise she would feel like a violated, scared girl fleeing for the safety of the resort. That indignation certainly enhanced her coordination, since she worked the electronic lock on the hotel room and opened the door with a graceful push. “Julia? I need to talk to you. I’m so sorry to say this, but– Julia?”
Steven’s wife stood in the middle of the suite’s living area, phone cupped in her hands. She glanced up as Hanna breezed in. “What have you done?”
Only then did Hanna catch sight of Julia’s phone screen. The header at the top of the message readSteve.Hanna’s hopes sank.Always take control of the narrative before the other side can,Steve liked to say. Hanna had run straight to Julia to do the same in person, but at the speed of text messages, Steven had gotten there first.
“He kissed me. I’m sorry. I was just out on the beach, and I thought he’d followed me to ask me to watch the kids. I forgot my phone back here, and I thought he’d– Julia, I’m sorry.” The words tumbled out of Hana’s mouth in a flood of embarrassment and desperation.Why am I apologizing? I didn’t do anything wrong.
But she couldn’t seem to stop it. “I’m sorry. I would never have touched him. He surprised me, then he said awful things to me. I came right here to tell you.”
For a heartbeat, Julia looked tired. Tired, and afraid, and trapped, resigned to the fate that had fallen onto her shoulders. Hanna’s throat squeezed closed as she wondered if this was the first time Julia had heard those words, or if they could ever be the last.
“Steven would never do that,” she said, voice toneless and flat. “He isn’t that way.”
“Julia! You have to believe me.”
Julia’s laugh could have etched glass with the acid that dripped from it. “I don’t have to do anything,” she said, words they both knew for a lie. “You need to pack your things. You can’t stay here. Consider your employment terminated.”
“The plane back isn’t for days yet. Can I have another room to stay in?”