Chapter 20
CHAPTER
TWENTY
ADELINE
It’s been two weeks since I went back to work and one week with our new nanny, Astrid, and I swear I’m about ready to quit my job.
After the longest day ever and the worst drive with the traffic, I park in my new parking spot that Damon is paying for.
I was prepared to pay, but he insisted. Since he’s the one who asked me to live down here, it was his responsibility.
After much arguing, I relented. His Mercedes is parked in the spot beside mine, but that doesn’t mean anything.
Oftentimes he’ll catch a ride with Cooper or Miles or hop in an Uber if he doesn’t feel like driving.
I don’t know why I didn’t take him up on getting a driver for me.
Yes, I do. Because I know how much it costs.
I’m regretting that decision now after dealing with all the idiot drivers on the road today.
I swear, put the happiest, most low-key, easygoing person in traffic for a couple of hours, and they’ll come out of the car as a vicious, intolerant asshole.
I walk across the street, glancing at Peeper’s Alley.
I’ve yet to hang out there, and though I’m looking forward to a night out, tonight I just want to cuddle my baby girl and chill.
I walk up the stairs and open the door to the apartment, and the shrill sound of laughter greets me.
After slipping off my shoes and hanging my bags on the hooks by the door, I walk in and see no one in the main area.
“You’re wet,” I hear Damon say, and I stop in my tracks.
“So wet,” Astrid says.
My body goes ice cold, and I close my eyes. Please don’t tell me he’s sleeping with the nanny. My chest gets tight, and my heart rate picks up.
“Feel it, it’s soaked,” Astrid says.
I can tell now that the voices are coming from Damon’s room.
I don’t see Clover anywhere, so she must be sleeping in her crib, which is ridiculous. She should not be napping when it’s so close to her actual bedtime. I’m trying to get her on a schedule, and I specifically told Astrid that when we hired her.
When we interviewed Astrid, she was so polite, giving me most of her attention.
I thought awesome, she doesn’t care about Damon.
Maybe she doesn’t even follow football. But that all changed the first day on the job.
She laughs at all his jokes—which aren’t all that funny—and she paws at him as though they’re cats and she’s trying to play with him.
I’ve been meaning to mention it to Damon.
But this…
“Ohhh.” Astrid again. “Damon!”
Damon laughs. “I gotta get you out of these clothes.” God, he’s using the same voice he does with Clover.
“Be gentle,” Astrid says.
I feel as if I’m in a nightmare.
“I’m always gentle,” Damon says.
“With those big hands, you handle something so small perfectly.” I can only assume she’s talking about her tits. They are small. That’s one area I have her beat.
“I’m a master, that’s why.”
I groan.
“You sure are,” Astrid says with a soft purr to her voice that makes bile rise up my throat.
“Shit, Adeline should be home soon. We have to hurry,” Damon says.
I step back and sit on the edge of Damon’s bed, hearing them scramble.
“But you didn’t get everywhere. We have to finish.” Again, Astrid uses that stripper voice.
“No, I did. You go ahead and leave. I’ll handle the rest myself.”
I tilt my head. He’s going to jerk off?
“But—” Astrid fights not leaving.
If his hands are on her, I can’t blame the girl. I wouldn’t want to leave either. I was in her shoes a long time ago.
“I’m good. Plus, your shirt and stuff.”
“Yeah, I suppose. Don’t want her getting the wrong idea. Okay, I’ll see you on Monday. Maybe we can do this again.”
“We’ll see.” Damon’s voice has lost some of the light quality it had earlier. Is he pissed he didn’t get to finish with her?
Fucking hell.
The bathroom door opens, and Astrid comes out, her T-shirt soaked through with the outline of her breasts showing. She startles when she sees me. “Adeline!”
“What?” Damon rushes out after her with Clover in a towel, cuddled into his chest. “Hey, Adeline.”
It makes me feel a little better about the situation because I know Damon wouldn’t be fooling around in front of our daughter. But just a little.
“Guess I missed out on all the action.” I meet Damon’s gaze.
“I should go.” Astrid hurries to the door. “I hope she’s not sick. Bye, guys.”
I hold Damon’s gaze, but as soon as I hear the door to the apartment open and close, I stomp into the kitchen and grab a glass and my bottle of white wine from the fridge.
Damon comes into the kitchen, standing behind the breakfast bar. “You didn’t think…”
I pour a heavy amount of white wine into my glass and gulp it down.
“You actually think I’d fuck the nanny?” He laughs, but there’s no humor to it.
“Why wouldn’t I think that? There are a million romance novels about it. Not to mention, isn’t it every guy’s wet dream to fuck the hot nanny? It’s not out of the realm of possibility.” I swallow half the glass.
“Shit, Adeline, Clover had a blowout. I came home, and Astrid was in there trying to clean her up. Didn’t know how to use the shower spray properly, and the nozzle went crazy on her. We shut the door a bit so water didn’t get everywhere. She soaked her shirt. Go look, you’ll see.”
He heads into mine and Clover’s room—to put her in a diaper and change her, I suppose.
I head into his bathroom and see that it’s a disaster. On the floor sits the outfit I put Clover in this morning, covered in poop.
I go back to my room and rest my shoulder on the door frame. “I’m sorry for thinking that. It’s just…”
“It’s fine. You wouldn’t be alone in thinking that. It’s who I was, right?”
Was? He’s using past tense.
“It has nothing to do with you or your reputation. It’s me.” I walk away and go to the living room window to look out.
Astrid is waiting at the bus station. Thankfully, she had a sweatshirt she’s able to wear even though it’s still warm outside.
A couple minutes later, I hear Damon join me in the room.
“What do you mean it has to do with you? If I heard the same thing you did, I would’ve busted in the door.
How do women control themselves in those situations?
They can wait until nighttime to cut off his dick or plan for months to take his money little by little until they divorce them. ”
I chuckle. “Haven’t you ever heard that revenge is best served cold?
While we want revenge, you guys always want to beat up the other guy.
In our eyes, you’re the one who hurt us, but you guys always blame the other guy.
Or maybe hitting him feels good, and you won’t hit a woman.
I’m not a psychologist.” I finish the wine in my glass and go back to the kitchen for more.
Damon puts Clover on the mat that has all the toys hanging down above her and comes over to take the bottle from my hand and pours me a glass. “Talk.”
He sits at the breakfast bar across from me and slides the wineglass over to me.
“Astrid is good with Clover, but every time you’re here, she’s more interested in what you think.
She always flirts with you, and I don’t like it.
” I have no idea how I can convey this without outing myself as jealous.
“We’re doing really well with what we have going, and I don’t like how she’s trying to come between us.
And then with what happened in there, although it was nothing, she looked guilty when she came out of the bathroom. ”
“Probably because I could practically see her tits. Believe me, I didn’t look.” He holds up his hands in front of him.
“We’re not a couple. You can look. I just don’t want someone in this house who wants you or me. I understand there’s not a long line of men waiting to nanny our baby and who would want a middle school teacher with a postpartum body, but…” I laugh at my own joke.
Damon doesn’t. He just nods, looking more serious than usual. “I understand.”
“It’s not that I’m jealous,” I say, because I want that out there. But I am so jealous, and now I’m sure I’m making it obvious.
He stands and rounds the island. “She’s gone. I’ll make the call.”
“Are you sure you understand…”
He walks into his bedroom while I sulk in the kitchen for another minute.
Eventually, I join Clover on the floor. “I know you might have liked Astrid, but she wasn’t here for us, baby. She was just here for Daddy.”
That night, I lay awake thinking that maybe I had it wrong with Astrid. Is it even feasible to find a nanny who doesn’t see Damon as a sex symbol? Maybe it’s something I’ll just have to get used to.
Clover keeps making noises in her sleep—whimpering or crying for a second or sucking hard on her pacifier.
Most nights it doesn’t bother me, but tonight I can’t block it out and get to sleep.
She’s been doing excellent at sleeping through the night.
We put her down at eleven at night and she sleeps until five or six.
So, nighttime feedings aren’t much of a thing now.
I throw off the covers, unable to take it anymore.
Tomorrow is my day off, and I do not want to spend it asleep on the couch.
I tiptoe out of the room, taking the monitor and turning it on once I reach the kitchen.
The black leather sofas look so uncomfortable.
There’s no way I can sleep on those. My eyes shift to the double doors of Damon’s bedroom.
No. That’s super weird.
Then the doors open, and I step back.
“Adeline?” He squints, his hair mussed. “Fuck, I got up to go to the bathroom and heard someone walking around out here. I thought someone got in or something.”
He’s in only his boxer briefs, and I try to divert my attention from the outline of his dick. God, he’s so gorgeous. I don’t blame you, Astrid. I might’ve done the same thing.
“Sorry, she’s really restless tonight, and I couldn’t sleep. I’m just going to take the sofa.”
He steps back and motions into his room. “Get in my bed, Adeline.” His voice is deep and husky from just waking up, and my libido perks up and takes notice.
“Oh no.” I shake my head.
“It’s a king. I won’t even know you’re there… unless you want me to.”
I swallow hard. There’s been no conversation about anything sex-related since the night I delivered. It’s as though we’re both pretending it never happened.
“Are you sure?” I lift the monitor. “I have this in case she wakes up.”
“Just get in and let’s sleep.”
He walks into his room, then goes into the bathroom. I’m still standing outside of the room when he comes back out.
“Stop thinking so much. We’re friends. And it’s not like you haven’t slept there before.” He laughs at his own joke but sobers a bit when I still haven’t moved. “If you don’t get in this bed, I’m going to pick you up and drop you on it. Sound familiar?” He arches an eyebrow.
He remembers that night? How? He must have had hundreds just like it.
I nod. “Okay, just tonight.”
“And Sunday,” he says.
I frown. “Sunday?”
“I’ll be out of town.”
“Oh right.”
Anyone in my head right now would think I get off on torturing myself. I slide under his sheet and comforter, instantly cocooned in the musky scent of his body wash. I might never leave.
“Good night,” he whispers into the dark.
“Good night, Damon.”
His breathing evens out after a few minutes while I remain wide awake. I’m in Damon Siska’s bed again. But if someone had told me the first time I was here that I’d be back under these circumstances, feeling this way about the man sleeping beside me, I would’ve said they were crazy.