Reunited by the Tycoon's Twins

itchen so that the adults could at least dose with caffeine to get through what was feeling like an endless night and the babies could spit out the lovingly prepared formula that Finn had somehow managed to make one-handed.

When Bella finally exhausted herself in Finn’s arms and Hart was asleep on her shoulder, Madeleine was left with a deliciously heavy bundle snuggled into her as she collapsed onto the sofa in the open-plan area. Finn leaned back against the kitchen island, pinching the bridge of his nose before rubbing a hand across his forehead.

‘I can’t believe you’ve been doing this on your own,’ Madeleine said.

‘It’s not always like this,’ Finn said with a wry smile. ‘Wait here. I’ll put Bella to bed and come back for Hart.’

Madeleine snuggled deeper into the corner of the sofa and her eyes were just starting to close when she heard Finn’s bare feet padding across the tiles of the kitchen floor.

‘I’m sleeping here,’ she mumbled without opening her eyes. ‘Possibly for a week.’ She heard his smile in his little huff of breath. Didn’t even need to crack open an eyelid to see the lines around his eyes that he always got when he grinned.

‘Let me take him,’ Finn said, and her shoulder was suddenly cold where Hart had been snuggling and she heard the gentle swish-swish of his swinging chair.

‘If you’re sleeping, I’m sleeping,’ Finn said at last, when they had both finally released their held breath. ‘Budge up.’

She lifted her feet so that he could collapse at the other end of the sofa, and it was only when her thighs started to ache that she realised she really hadn’t thought this through. She lowered them slowly and felt heat spark when Finn’s hand cupped her ankle and guided her feet onto his thighs.

‘God, you really need a nanny,’ she said, trying to think of any topic of conversation that would distract her from the electric feel of his hands resting on her. Suddenly, her ankles were the most sensitive part of her body and she could feel the heat of each of his fingertips as they gently rested against her.

He’s not even thinking about it, she told herself. He’s literally only touching you because you refused to give up the sofa.

Except now one fingertip was tracing a feather-light circle around her ankle bone, so slowly, so gently that she suspected that Finn didn’t even know that he was doing it. Had no idea that he was driving her so insane with the gentlest of touches.

‘I’ve scared you off, haven’t I?’ he said. ‘You’re going to pack your bags first thing in the morning.’

‘No, not that,’ she said, trying to keep her mind on the subject of nannies and their arrangement, and definitely not on the sparks of heat that she could feel radiating out from his hands on her. From the feel of hard muscle beneath her feet. ‘You must be desperate for someone who knows what they’re doing, that’s all. I don’t feel like I was much help tonight.’

His grip on her ankle was suddenly firmer, the wandering fingertips that had been driving her so insane were still, and she could feel that the hardness in his body went beyond that. She had annoyed him. Perfect.

‘Why do you do that, Maddie? You did great tonight. I hate that you won’t acknowledge how capable you are.’

She cracked an eye open at last, trying to read the expression on his face from the half-light of the lamp in the corner of the room.

‘Okay, I won’t say it again. It’s no big deal.’ She shut her eyes, tried to get the swimmy, heavy feeling of nearing sleep back into her muscles but it was gone, and she was angry at Finn for that. It was bad enough that she was awake in the middle of the night. Worse that he was annoying her so much that she couldn’t even get the sleep she so desperately wanted.

‘Don’t,’ Finn said, holding onto her as she went to swing her ankles off the sofa and sit up. ‘I’m sorry,’ he carried on in hushed tones. ‘I didn’t mean to criticise.’ The stroking fingertips were back, driving her insane, and really she knew that that was reason enough to take herself off to bed. But... But. But she was a complete idiot and clearly needed her head examined, and it felt so good to have his skin so near to hers that she felt herself relaxing back, her eyes drifting shut again.

She could feel the intimacy settle over them like a blanket, shutting out the real world. They were the only two people awake in London. She was sure of it. Never mind that she had been out in this city at every hour of the day and night and never found it sleeping. She was quite sure that she and Finn were the only people in the world right now. As if they had slipped through some sort of wormhole brought about by screaming and pacing and fallen into a universe where no one but the two of them existed.

‘I didn’t mean to snap.’ She sighed. Finn’s hands stilled and she let out an involuntary mew of displeasure and nudged him with her toes. Her feet ached. Her calves ached. Her toes ached. She’d had no idea that it was possible to walk so far without leaving the house. The circles around her ankle bone resumed, each one unwinding her a little looser, each one undoing her a little more, so when Finn asked, ‘What happened?’ she didn’t have the energy to throw up her usual barriers. The words fell out of her.

‘A professor, the last year of my university course. I thought he was taking an interest because I showed promise. I thought the grades I was getting were because I was working hard. But it was all a play. It was all to get me where he wanted me. To get what he wanted from me.’

The hand on her ankle stilled, and she nudged him again. If he stopped, if they returned to real life, there was no way that she could talk about this. The circles came back, and so did her words.

‘When he made it clear what he really wanted... When he locked his door and stood in front of it so that I couldn’t escape, I finally worked it out. God, what kind of journalist was I going to be if I couldn’t even see that coming? I managed to get out of there, and that’s when it all fell into place. It was never my work that he saw. It was my body. He thought that he could just take it. That I would hand it over. Well, I didn’t. I wouldn’t. I walked out of university and I never went back and I lost my career because of it. Well, the career that I wanted. That I might have had. Except I’ll never know now, will I? I’ll never know if I could have had that career, because everything I know about my ability has been cast into doubt. I never got a single grade that I don’t ask myself whether it was for my insight and understanding and thorough research. Or whether it was just someone wanted to get a better look at my boobs.’

Finn was quiet, still for a long moment, and when he spoke his voice was ice. ‘You should kill him.’

She gave a wry smile at his instinctive response to protect her. ‘Too late. I thought about it, but a heart attack beat me to it. Two years ago. Glowing obits in all the broadsheets.’

‘You could dig him up and kill him again.’ The words were ground out, shocking her with their carefully harnessed rage. She opened her eyes and the expression on his face startled her. She had never seen his features contorted into such anger. Every line of his face was hard. His jaw was a slash of muscle beneath the hollows of his cheeks. The bones above were stark lines caught by the light from the lamp. The creases around his eyes owed nothing to laughter now. They were deep and harsh.

She sat up, her feet sliding under his leg now, her knees bent as she hugged herself smaller, brought herself closer to him.

He shook himself and she watched as he forced some of the tension from his face. When his eyes met hers she wanted to hide from the raw intensity there, but then her hand was on his face and she couldn’t look away.

He gripped her other hand hard, and she could feel him shaking. ‘I am so, so sorry that that happened to you,’ he said. His other hand came to rest on top of hers, trapping it against his jaw. ‘If you want to talk more about it, I’m here. I want to help—just tell me what I can do.’