Sydney (Babysitter’s Club 2)

Her eyes showed fright as she shook her head wildly and for once I wished I really did have it in me to take her life. But as much as I hate her, as horrible a human being as she is I won’t go that far. No, what I have planned for her is even worse for someone like her. Much, much worse.

I didn’t spend too much time with her now, I’d pretty much done what I came to do. I have to wait until Sebastian goes back to the city on Monday before I can carry out the next phase of my plan.

At the breakfast table I wore a permanent blush, my eyes never meeting his as I focused on the girls. I knew he watched me though and my body seemed like one big ball of fire.

When his fingers covered mine on the table I jumped and had no choice but to look at him. He didn’t say a word, but he didn’t have to, his eyes said more than enough.

The girls were too preoccupied with their meal to notice the byplay, or to hear my harshly indrawn breath when he turned my hand up and dragged his thumb across my palm. I should pull away, should start distancing myself before this went too far. But what the hell, I only have one more day to enjoy him fully.

After breakfast I played with the girls outside, running and laughing in the most carefree way since I was a child myself. I had moments of deep longing, when I’d watch their little heads bent together as they plotted some mischief.

What would it be like to have this forever? What would it feel like to be his woman? I felt his gaze and turned and looked as he entered the garden where we’d been playing a game of hide and seek.

“Daddy, daddy…” The two little angels ran to him to be picked up. He was so good with them and it was plain to see they adored him. I felt foolish tears tease my eyes and sniffed them away hurriedly. He looked over their heads at me after giving each one a kiss, before putting them back on their feet.

They dragged him off to the little garden table where their tea set waited and this man, this great adorable man, sat and had tea with his daughters. It was obvious that this wasn’t the first time they’d played this game. This wasn’t something he was doing for show. “Come join us Sydney.”

The look he gave me said he was inviting me for something more than tea. I walked over on suddenly shaky legs and took the last remaining seat. As I sat there for the next half an hour I let myself play make believe. I allowed my mind to drift aimlessly as I pretended, what if.

What if this was real? What if I was just a girl who had just wandered into his life, this ideal setting, and we shared what we had and it became something more?

Even more, and beyond that, my thoughts turned to, what can I possibly do to change the course that I’d set so that I could make this a reality?

But no matter how I tried I couldn’t come up with a plausible solution. As we speak, his wife was locked away in the attic. Chained, bound and half starved.

I’d rigged his country home so that said wife could watch our interactions while I seduced her husband and monopolized her children.

Sure I had a viable excuse. Sure she deserved every bit of it. But would he see it that way? Or would that heated look of attraction that he wore even now as he looked at me, turn into something else?

I felt a shiver run down my spine as I thought of his reaction when it all came to a head. I wasn’t planning on him knowing my part, and if everything went as planned she’d be in no position to point the finger at me.

But I have no choice but to leave in order to keep my secret, and that’s where the parting of ways will come. That’s where the cold betrayal would come into play.

I felt confused for a second and wished for my mother. The mother I hadn’t known since I was thirteen. The mother who used to kiss my brow and assure me that everything was okay in my world.

But I couldn’t, and can’t have it both ways. To exact vengeance for that lost woman I’ve had to go to the lengths I’ve gone to, but in the process I’ve lost the only that had meant anything to me ever.

I didn’t know; didn’t comprehend that it would be this easy to get sucked in like this. I’d brushed off the sex as nothing more than a piece to the puzzle.