5. Bast
After dinner, I groan when I see Geri strolling to the table. Her teeth showing as she grins as she glances from me to Bree and back at me.
When she reaches the table. She leans down and pecks my cheek. “You’re here.”
And the way Bree is looking at me now makes me think Bree thinks there is something between Geri and me.
Geri’s eyes flit from me to Bree. She turns to Bree and says, “Ah, so you’re the nanny?”
My blood boils.
“Yep, I’m the nanny,“ Bree responds, curtly. She stares at me weirdly as though in her thoughts she is saying ‘fuck you.’ “At least until I decide where my life is going.”
Oh fuck!
“He told me you needed a night out. Are his children darlings or devils?” Geri pulls out a chair next to me and sits. She leans across me to speak to Bree.
Bree picks up her flute, takes a sip, and smiles. “They are perfect darlings for me.”
“All the time.”
I know she’s trying to get a rise out of her. But it’s me who is getting angry.
Bree arches an eyebrow. She might be young, but she knows when someone is trying to push her buttons. “I’m not answering any more questions about them. I like to protect their privacy and to be honest with you, I think you’re being pretty rude to be asking about someone’s children in this way, don’t you? If you want to know about Doctor Havers children, then ask him.”
A guest opposite nods in approval at Bree’s answer.
I squeeze Bree’s thigh.
“I also have a name. It’s Breanna.”
“Breanna … Are you…” She narrows her eyes as she stares at her. “Sorry, honey. He never told me your name. He only mentioned he was bringing his nanny.”
Bree’s shoulders sag. She tries to plaster on a smile before saying, “I’ll let you both catch up. I’m going to mingle.”
She looks at me with a look that tells me. ‘If that’s how you described me, you can go to hell.’
She says nothing to Geri as she pushes out her chair and strolls to the youngest person in the room, Dr. Ellison.
“Rude,” Geri says. “No goodbyes. That’s the younger generation for you.”
“Or she treated you with the same distaste you treated her.”
“I was being friendly,” she huffs. Her spine straightens when I glare at her.
“You were being a bitch.”
She gasps because until today, I’ve always been friendly with her.
I stare ahead and watch as Bree speaks to the younger doctor. I recognize him from the hospital, and I hate he is hanging on her every word, clearly smitten.
My blood pressure is ticking up as I watch him lay it on thick with an exaggerated smile and a laugh at whatever Bree says.
Annoyance skittles down my spine, knowing he’ll become infatuated with her. Of course he will. Only Bree doesn’t see herself for the beauty she is.
Another older physician I vaguely recognize approaches them, greeting Dr. Ellison, and then Bree a little too warmly by stepping into her personal space.
“Is she just your nanny?” Geri asks, but I ignore her as I watch Bree as I take a sip of my drink.
It’s infuriating how the other men fawn over her, but I can’t blame them. With her glossy red curls cascading down her back and a sun-kissed tan, Bree looks absolutely radiant in the dress, which hugs her curves before flaring out just below her hips.
“Her name is Bree, and she is my nanny, but it doesn’t define her,” I finally respond. “Just like being a doctor doesn’t define you or make you any better than her.”
Geri smiles weakly. “Sorry, I’ll apologize to her when she gets back to the table.” She glances at Bree. “If she gets back. It looks like she has found someone closer to her age.”
I force myself to look away, grabbing another drink from a passing server.
I sip on my drink as I try to focus on making small talk with Geri, but no matter how hard I try, my gaze keeps drifting back across the room.
Bree turns and watches as Geri talks about her latest travels. I’m not really listening because Bree’s smile falters as she watches us. Her back straightens before she says something to Doctor Ellison and turns away.
I push out my chair while watching the direction Bree disappears in. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
I rush in the same direction, seeing Bree as strides down a corridor. When I reach her, I pull her to one side. “What’s wrong? Why didn’t you come back to the table?”
“I’m not sitting around listening to a stranger talking about me in a derogatory way. Do you know how that makes me feel? Knowing she only knows me as the nanny.”
“Sorry. I was trying to get away from her that day. She asked to be my date, and I panicked and saying you were my date was a slip of the tongue.”
She swallows. “Oh God. It gets worse.”
I hold her biceps to make her look at me. “I wanted you here as my date. But yes, I never planned it.” Honesty is always the best policy, right?
She shrugs, trying to release herself from my grasp. “I just want to get the hell out of this stuffy event.”
I hate the way her body sags under my touch.
“I want you here,” I say, sounding more desperate than I want to.
“Oh.” Bree slams her hand over her mouth. “Is she the women you dated a few weeks ago when you never came home?”
“Fuck no.” I hate she thinks I slept out because I was with another woman.
Anger drips off me. I’m sure I’m about to explode, but need to calm whatever is going on in her mind. I take her hand and lead her out of the event room into the hotel foyer, before marching down a corridor and into an open room. Kicking my foot up against the door, slamming it shut. “I never had sex with her or anyone.”
She raises her palm to my face. “Stop! You don’t have to explain yourself to me.”
“For fuck’s sake, Breanna,” I hiss.
She gasps, taken aback that I’ve used her full first name for the first time.
“I feel like I’m being chastised by my mother.”
I take her hand in mine. Electricity zips down my spine. I pause for a moment and shrug off the sensation.
“Now listen to me. I never touched her. I was with seven other doctors having dinner with medical reps. And she was one of those in my company. We’re always being wined and dined. It goes with the territory. That night, I had too many whiskeys and decided not to drive home. But I’ve touched no one, not her, nor anyone else.”
“Why are you telling me this?” She shivers and goosebumps erupt over her skin. She wraps her arms around herself.
“Why do you think?” I stroke my thumb over her cheek, looking in her eyes while resisting the resist the urge to look at her plump mouth.
She sways and her arms reach out to stop her from falling. Her gaze slides from my eyes to my mouth and back to my eyes.
“I’ve got you.” I say it before I realize the position we’re in. I’ve pulled her so close to me to stop her from falling. Our breath mingles and my hand settles on her nape.
Her pale green eyes suddenly look like a dark emerald now, darkening more every second we stand in silence and stare. I should pull away from her, but I don’t. And when she licks her lips nervously, all the blood in my body seems to travel to my cock.
I push myself closer to her, pressing my hardening cock into her soft stomach. Letting her know how she makes me feel.
“Have you?” She tips her head back and stares at me, waiting, but not realizing she’s pressing her tits tighter against my chest with each heaving breath.
Bree surprises me. I never expected her to twist my words or press her body against my cock. My fully erect cock. Because that’s what she does to me.
I tighten my grip at the back of her neck, lower my mouth and growl, “You’re playing with fire, Bree.”
“Then burn me.” Her gaze remains on mine, but my control is seriously slipping.
I’m fully erect now. Yet, I should walk away. I should not be thinking about fucking a woman for the first time in five years. And if I was, it shouldn’t be my best friend’s daughter. A woman thirteen years younger than me.
But it’s like I’m in some spell when I walk her backward until her spine connects with the wall. She gasps when my free hand grabs her thigh, hike it, and instinctively she wraps it around my hip.
My cock grinds against her core. Only the fabric of what we are wearing stops us from fucking right now. Because I doubt either of us could stop it.
My chest heaves as I release the grip on her leg and run my hand up to her waist, over her rib cage, all the way until it rests on her cheek.
My breath hitches as she stares through hooded eyes—desire staring back at me.
Can I do this?
Walk away Bast.
The world seems to stop all around me. Only Bree and I exist at this moment.
Her eyes are begging. Her mouth parted, waiting when she reaches up and presses a chaste kiss on my lips.
I’m taken aback for a moment and she swallows and gasps, “I’m so sorry.”
“Stay.” The word comes out with a grunt as she tries to push past me.
She stills, and I cradle her face in my hands as she stares at me.
My body feels like it’s coming alive. Not only my cock is responding to her. That I find scary as well as exhilarating. I stare at Bree intensely for a moment.
Then I crush my mouth on hers.
The kiss should be gentle, just like she is, but it’s not. It’s fervent and fierce as I hold her against the wall and slide my tongue into her mouth. She hums as her hands reach my hair and grip as she responds with equal hunger.
Her nipples are hard against my chest, and make me so aware of what is happening. I pull away. “Shit ... sorry ... I won’t ever do that again.”
“It’s okay,” Bree says, smiling. “I wanted to do it.”
I shake my head. “Fuck no. I can’t. I’m sorry.”
I drop my hands like they’ve suddenly been burned.
Then I turn and leave her standing against the wall.