Liam
The Caribbean sun had barely set on their idyllic getaway when reality came crashing down like a rogue wave. It was their last night on the island, and the girls were sound asleep after another exhausting day of excursions.
They were seated in the large living room, furnished with dual white leather couches, dark mahogany furniture, and huge glass double doors that offered a breathtaking view of the beach beyond.
Fuck.
Splashed across the gossip website LimeLight was a photo of him and Sunny on the beach, his arm casually slung around her waist as they strolled along the shoreline. The headline screamed: “Hockey Hunk’s Hot Time With Nanny!”
The image was slightly grainy, obviously taken with a long lens.
“What the hell?” he muttered, scrolling through the article as his face flushed with anger and shame. There were more intimate photos — them standing on the balcony, him tenderly tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as they gazed up at the stars.
Liam gripped the phone tighter, his knuckles whitening.
The article speculated about their relationship, insinuating he was rebounding from his wife’s death with the much younger nanny.
Worse, it included a photo of Kate from happier times, her brilliant smile forever frozen.
His heart lurched as he looked at her — with guilt, with shame, with foreboding.
“How did they get these pictures?” Sunny whispered, staring wide-eyed, like a rabbit caught in headlights.
Liam shook his head, his jaw clenched.
“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.”
His first thought was Morgan. His prickly sister had made no secret of her disdain for Sunny, viewing her as a gold-digging ‘interloper.’ That was her word.
Liam had informed his parents of the holiday plan. Had his mom or dad let it slip to Morgan? Could she have tipped off the press as a twisted act of revenge?
Rubbing his temples, he felt the familiar tendrils of grief intertwine with rising panic as he continued to stare at the image of his dead wife.
He recalled telling Morgan that Kate would want him to be happy.
But not like this. Not in the sordid public glare.
Kate would never have wanted this. She would be devastated to see her memory dragged through the mud for cheap clicks.
Even more so for the girls — his precious daughters — who had already suffered so much.
Liam imagined the ridicule they would face in the playground when they returned to school.
How could he protect them from this spectacle? Was it even possible at this point?
“I’m so sorry, Liam,” Sunny murmured, momentarily pulling him from his spiral of worry. “I never wanted to cause you more pain. But it seems that’s all I do.”
Her eyes were awash with tears, and her lower lip trembled as she hugged herself.
In that moment, she looked impossibly small and fragile, a stark contrast to her usual bubbly radiance.
Liam’s throat tightened at the sight of her distress. Despite the maelstrom of emotions swirling inside him, the familiar urge to comfort her took hold.
He enveloped her in his arms, tucking her head under his chin. She melted into his embrace, her warmth and familiar scent providing a fleeting respite from the chaos.
“This isn’t your fault,” he said, planting a soft kiss atop her head.
She sniffled against the hollow of his neck.
“But your career… your reputation… the girls…” she murmured.
She was astute; the same thoughts were cascading through his own mind.
You fucking idiot, he chastised himself. You absolute moron.
What he had just told Sunny was absolutely correct.
This wasn’t her fault; it was his. He should never have allowed himself to cross the line with her.
It was a moment of weakness, a desperate grasp for fleeting happiness after months of desolation.
But one indulgent mistake had spiraled into a tangled web of complications that now threatened his family.
The hard truth was that Sunny should never have been in the house to begin with.
It was too much of a temptation. The nanny should have been a matronly, grandmotherly figure — mature and strict.
Someone with whom there was no chance of crossing the line.
Liam had to come clean with himself. Hiring Sunny was about more than just her credentials, even if he refused to admit that at the time. Now look where that had gotten him.
Gently extricating himself from her arms, Liam scrubbed a hand over his face before running it through his hair.
“Maybe… maybe we should take a step back. At least until this blows over.”
The crestfallen look on Sunny’s face pierced his heart, but he knew it was for the best. Getting entangled in a messy public scandal could derail his remaining career and devastate his little girls.
She hitched a breath and straightened her posture slightly.
“I understand,” she said, her voice low as she swiped at the tears streaking her flushed cheeks. “I’ll start looking for another position.”
The thought of her leaving twisted his gut into knots.
“No, Sunny…” he blurted out, reaching for her hand without thinking.
But she recoiled from his touch, her shoulders hunched as she retreated into herself like a wounded animal.
Liam’s outstretched fingers grasped at empty air.
He felt unmoored and unsure of himself. He could already envision the hurt and confusion on Maddie and Hailey’s faces if Sunny walked out of their lives as abruptly as she’d entered.
Not to mention his own feelings. The clouds had only just started to lift from his life.
Fuck, fuck, fuck! What do I do?
What other choice did he have? Really? Risking his daughters’ well-being over some fleeting romantic dalliance was unacceptable, no matter how strongly he was drawn to Sunny’s light. She was the hired help, not family, as much as it pained him to echo Morgan’s cruel words.
Slumping back onto the couch, Liam dropped his head into his hands, digging the heels of his palms into his eye sockets until starbursts danced across his vision. This soul-wrenching torment felt all too familiar, a haunting echo of the grief that had consumed him after Kate’s death.
Only this time, the prospect of losing Sunny represented a different kind of devastation — one of his own making through selfishness and poor judgment. Fate seemed to have granted him a second chance at happiness, a lifeline in his bleakest hour, but it was an illusion. A mirage. It could never be.
The muffled sound of Sunny’s soft weeping pierced him like a shard of glass.
He wanted nothing more than to gather her back into his arms, to shield her from the harsh realities they now faced.
But that protective instinct — the need to be her rock — was a large part of what had landed them in this predicament.
Scrubbing a hand over his face again, Liam finally turned to face the woman who had parted the dark clouds engulfing him.
“Hey…” he rasped, the word catching in his dry throat. “Hey. You can’t leave.”
Slowly, she lifted her head, her eyes glassy yet still radiating a spark of the light he found so enthralling.
“But you said…” she began.
“I know what I said,” Liam replied, desperately needing her to understand. “Taking a break from… us… is for the best right now. But I can’t let you walk away from the girls. They need you, Sunny.”
He needed her too, though those words remained caught in his tangled branches of pride and self-preservation.
Sunny’s delicate features crumpled once more as fresh tears spilled down her flushed cheeks.
“You don’t know how much I care about them, Liam,” she admitted. “They mean everything to me.”
Reaching across the divide, she tentatively brushed her fingertips over his knuckles, sending a tingle down his spine.
“And you…” she added in a tremulous whisper, “you and those girls have become my world.”
The vulnerability in her gaze seared straight through his tattered defenses.
Unbidden, his mind flooded with visions of a future he would never dare to admit he imagined: Sunny curled up beside him in bed, her swollen belly cradled tenderly in his rough hands; a sun-kissed little one with her radiant smile and his stormy eyes frolicking in the backyard as he flipped burgers on the grill; Hailey and Maddie cooing over the baby.
It was a foolish fantasy, easily shattered by the harsh glare of public scrutiny and scathing condemnation. She was his nanny, his employee, almost a decade younger than him. He would be seen as a user, a harasser, a predator.
Yet that fleeting glimpse of a love and a life he never dreamed he’d have again made his weary heart ache with longing.
Wordlessly, Liam cupped Sunny’s tear-stained cheek, stroking her silken skin with the pad of his thumb. She instinctively leaned into his touch, a shaky exhalation escaping her lips.
“One last time,” she breathed, looking up at him. “Just one last time. For me. For us. An ending.”
Those words took him aback. Yet they were perfect — just right for this heady moment. Of course, it made no logical sense. But logic be damned right now.
Bridging the last few inches between them, Liam claimed her mouth in a searing kiss, pouring every ounce of his stolen hopes, fears, and desires into the passionate act.
Sunny stiffened briefly, then melted against him with a soft whimper, her slender arms winding around his neck as their bodies molded seamlessly together. Liam swept his hands over the dips and curves of her frame, eager to commit every exquisite inch to memory.
One last time. One last time.
Her fingers threaded through his hair, blunt nails scraping deliciously against his scalp as the kiss deepened. A low rumble resonated from Liam’s chest, his palms roaming the supple expanse of Sunny’s back.
In that heated moment, the world beyond their frenzied embrace ceased to exist. There were no damning exposés or looming PR nightmares — just two souls finding solace and pleasure in each other.