Reunited by the Tycoon's Twins
‘That’s the thing, though. I didn’t. I knew I wasn’t, and Caro knew it too. We were even able to cite it in the papers as unreasonable behaviour.’
She gave him a grim smile. ‘You worked hard for that business. Your hard work changed your life. That’s got to be a pretty difficult habit to break. But look at you now. Devoted dad. Here with me, not in the office, because you’re determined to find the right person to take care of your kids. Looks like you’ve got your priorities right at the moment.’
‘That’s different,’ he said, frowning, as if he was determined not to accept her assessment of the situation. ‘They’re my kids; it’s not a choice, it’s just what I have to do.’
‘Plenty of people wouldn’t do what you’re doing. I’m not commenting on you and Caro. It’s not my place, and no one can understand what a marriage is really like just from looking in from the outside. I’m not going to go along with your pity party. You’re a good dad, a good person, Finn.’
He grimaced, but let the matter drop.
* * *
‘Are we going to eat before these kids wake up?’ he asked, breathing out a sigh of relief at the change of subject. He had never meant to get so heavy with Madeleine. And he never talked about what had happened with Caro. But after what had happened last night, after he had seen Madeleine so vulnerable, after she had shared a little of her past with him, it seemed wrong to hold out on her. Sharing a bit of his life made them equals again.
But it made them something more too—confidantes? Intimates? Whatever it was, she wasn’t just his friend’s sister any more. They were something to one another now, something that existed outside of their relationships with Jake.
He dug into the picnic bag and brought out cheeses and ham, salad and bread. There was a flask of coffee in there, and a bottle of Sicilian lemonade.
Madeleine swung her legs around, sitting cross-legged with the sun behind her, her hair highlighted by its rays and her skin glowing from the warmth of the day.
‘So, how is the nanny hunt going?’ she asked.
He narrowed his eyes, stopped short by her question. Was she trying to find a way out of their arrangement? Admittedly, it had already got more personal than he had planned, but she had only been there a day. And this mutual attraction that they had both acknowledged and then pledged to determinedly ignore had complicated matters beyond recognition. But that didn’t mean that he wanted her to leave. She was staying with him because she had nowhere else to go. He had promised that he would look out for her, and he hated the thought that she might be making plans to leave because of everything that had happened over the past twenty-four hours.
‘I’ve been speaking with the agency,’ he said, wishing he could smooth the crease he could feel in his forehead, but not quite managing to get his muscles to co-operate. ‘They’re going to send some people over this week for interviews. It would be great if you could sit in, actually, if you don’t mind?’
The crease in her brow at this request reflected his own, and he wished that he could see inside her head and work out what was going on in there. Last night had brought them closer, there was no denying that. But there was also absolutely no denying that she still had some very substantial protective barriers in place. She might have shown him more of herself than she had planned to last night, but she was making up for it now with reinforced defences.
‘I... I don’t know if that’s a good idea. I don’t know anything about being a nanny. I don’t even know much about you or the kids.’
‘I trust you. I trust your judgement. It would just be nice to have someone to talk it over with. If you don’t mind.’
It was the sort of subject that he should talk over with his wife, except she had left him and the country as soon as she could be rid of him. Even the lure of their two children hadn’t been enough to stop her wanting to get away from him. What he’d told Madeleine had been true. He hadn’t tried hard enough to save his marriage. He had never
put Caro first. He had been a spectacularly bad husband, and he couldn’t blame Caro for wanting to put the whole catastrophe behind her.
But even he couldn’t have imagined how devastating losing her would prove to be. For the first time ever he had thought that he had a stable home. For seven years they had lived in their beautiful house with their perfect life and full fridge and plans for the future. And then, all of a sudden, it was pulled from under him.
He’d lost it all: Caro, his home. Very nearly his business, if he’d not been able to secure the funding that they’d needed for the new premises in time.
Now he had the kids to focus on, he could tell himself that he didn’t even miss her. And he didn’t. Sure, sometimes he missed having another adult to speak to at the end of the day—he loved sharing the kids’ firsts and milestones with her over video calls—but he didn’t really miss her. And when their marriage was falling apart, all he could think about was how he was going to ensure that the financial consequences didn’t reduce him to the poverty he had spent his life running from. What did that say about him—that he was more concerned about his bank balance than about trying to save his relationship?
It only went to show how much he’d let her down. It had been a long time since he’d been in love with Caro.
They’d married young, when his business had first started to boom and he’d realised he didn’t have the skills or the experience or the connections to navigate the world he was suddenly living in. Caro had all that—had grown up in that world. She’d shared it with him, and he had honestly loved her, at the start. But as the years had gone on, and he had found himself further and further out of his depth, he had to work harder and harder. Spend more and more hours at the office. And what he’d had with Caro had...died. Because he had neglected it. And she had tired of the world of CEOs and easy money that she had grown up in and decided she wanted to do something more...worthy.
He looked over to where Madeleine was helping herself to the picnic and was hit with that stab of attraction that had been present since the moment that he had opened the door to her the day before.
If they hadn’t had that misunderstanding yesterday evening, would he have acknowledged his attraction to her? Would he have ignored it—pretended it wasn’t there? Or would he have flirted with her? Played with that chemistry, and seen where it might take them?
With Jake’s sister? he reminded himself. No, he wouldn’t. He couldn’t. She was as off-limits today as she had been yesterday. He had to remember that. But her culottes had slid up her legs, showing smooth, toned calves, and he physically ached with the need to reach out a hand and feel the softness of her skin, the firmness of the muscle. He flexed his fingers and tried to concentrate on his food. But for once he could barely taste it. He was more interested in the curve of her lip and the close of her eyelids as she tasted an olive. The slide of her finger into her mouth as she sucked them clean.
He stifled a groan. That really wasn’t helping matters.
‘What?’ Madeleine asked, opening her eyes and catching him watching her.
He opened his mouth to tell her Nothing, but no sound came out. Instead he held her gaze and watched as her expression shifted from quizzical to interested to knowing. He knew that what he was thinking must be written all over his face. But he had told her yesterday how he felt. It would be dishonest of him to try and hide it from her now. At least that was what he told himself so that he didn’t feel he had to tear his eyes away. Not just yet. He just wanted another moment.
‘Finn...?’