Page 69 of A Nanny for the Reclusive Billionaire

“I’m thinking Westchester County.” Rhys turned her hand over and traced slow circles on her palm with his thumb. She rewarded him with a sharp intake of breath and a slight shiver. “Or maybe Fairfield, or somewhere on Long Island. Close to your parents but not too close. I was hoping you’d help me house hunt. I’ve been out of the tristate area for so long. I’m sure you know the real estate market better than I do.”

“House hunt?” She frowned again, deepening the adorable creases in her brow. “What about Flamingo Key?”

“We’ll spend summers on the island. School vacations and holidays. But our home base will be here.” Rhys dropped his arm from the back of the couch to her shoulders and clasped her hand tight. “I meant what I said, Mallory. You were right. I’m just starting to get to know my son. I don’t want him to resent me as he grows up. It’s time for us to rejoin the human race.”

A tear slipped down her cheek to the corner of her tremulous smile. “You’re doing the right thing.”

“I’m not going to lie.” His eyes caught hers and held. “It’s not going to be easy. I’ve got a lot of baggage to sort through. I’m going to need some help.”

“Of course. I’ll do whatever I can.”

“For starters, you can say you love me as much as I love you.”

You could have driven a truck through the silence that followed his pronouncement. A wave of desperation washed over him.

“You heard me, right? I said I love you.”

“Y-yes.” Her chin dipped, and heat colored her cheeks.

He pulled her hand to his lips and peppered it with kisses. “I don’t take those words lightly. I’ve only said them to one other woman. And I never thought I’d say them again. Then you crashed into my life like an asteroid and changed everything.”

“An asteroid.” She lifted her face. The start of a smile playing about the corners of her mouth and the light dancing in her eyes boosted his hopes, even though she hadn’t said the words he longed to hear. Yet. “Sounds deadly.”

“Not this one.” He reached up to cup her cheek. “This one saved me.”

“But…”

“No.” He put a finger across her lips. “No buts.”

“What if…?”

“No what-ifs either. We don’t have to have all the answers today. As long as we’re willing to find them together.”

She bit her lip and blinked back fresh tears. He mentally crossed his fingers that they were tears of happiness. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity but was probably only a few seconds, she brought her lips to his and kissed him, so soft and fleeting he almost thought he’d imagined it. “I’m game if you are.”

“Oh, I’m game all right.” To hell with soft and fleeting. He hauled her into his lap, cradling her.

“You’re crazy.” She clung to his shoulders, her nails biting into his skin through his thin shirt.

“So my elaborate plan to win you back worked?”

“I loved it.” She pushed his collar aside and nuzzled his neck. “I love you.”

Relief, sweet and sharp, flooded his heart. Words weren’t enough to express the depth of his feelings, so he didn’t bother to try, preferring to rely on the tried and true maxim that actions spoke louder. He parted her lips with his, slipping his tongue inside to find hers. They’d been apart less than a month, but they kissed like it had been years, locked together, their whole bodies involved. Mouths moving, chests melding, hands wandering, needy and desperate.

“Rhys,” she protested when he let her up for air. She reached behind her to tug on the hem of her dress, which had risen almost to her waist in their frenzied groping. “My dress…”

“Is lovely.” He smoothed a hand over the sleek curve of her ass, bare save for her lacy pink panties. “And it will look even better on the floor.”

“Are you forgetting your son is downstairs? Along with my entire family?”

“What can I say?” He tucked a piece of hair that had escaped from her updo behind her ear. “When you do that thing with your tongue, I can’t think about anything else.”

“What thing with my tongue?” She batted her eyelashes, the picture of faux dewy-eyed innocence.

“You know full well. The thing where you trace my earlobe. It’s very distracting.”

“You’re saying this is my fault?” She stood and adjusted her dress, the hint of laughter in her voice robbing her words of any sting.

“No.” He rose to join her, making his own necessary adjustment to the crotch of his pants. “I’m saying we’ll finish this later.”

“I’m going to hold you to that.” She stepped into her heels, which she must have kicked off during their make-out session. “But the logistics won’t be easy. The reception’s not over for a couple of hours, and my mother will kill me if I leave again. Oliver’s going to be bouncing off the walls from all that chocolate. And I hope you have a hotel suite, because I’ve been staying with my sister and her husband and…”

He wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her off her feet, silencing her with a kiss.

“Don’t worry, sweetheart.” He let her slide down his body slowly, intimately, feeling every inch or her with every inch of him. “We’ve got the rest of our lives to figure it out.”