‘I know, I know,’ Finn said. ‘It’s not ideal. This place was already finished before we found out Caro was pregnant. It was the best I could do in the circumstances. In my defence, at least it’s a really big cupboard.’

But she was still smiling as she laid Bella onto one of the play mats—the baby reached straight for one of the squeaky toys and cooed as if she’d been reunited with a dear friend. Madeleine was willing to bet that the cupboard in Finn’s office was one of the baby girl’s favourite places—and really, who could blame her? Hart had started to reach out for his sister, so Finn put him down on the mat too. Madeleine took a step back to marvel at the cuteness of twin babies in a closet.

‘It’s a masterpiece,’ she told Finn honestly.

‘Baby sensory class in a cupboard. I should market it.’

‘You’d make a fortune. Another fortune,’ she corrected herself, glancing around his office and feeling again that strange mixture of pride and being utterly out of her depth that she’d felt when she’d first walked in here.

He had achieved so much. She’d bitten off her words earlier. Hadn’t wanted to turn the conversation back to herself, but the contrast in the direction their lives had taken had never been starker. He had achieved so much. She was homeless and jobless. Had zero prospects for her future. Well, until Finn had proposed some. Paying for her to go back to uni. It was ludicrous. And offered as, what? Some sort of payback for the generosity of her parents? Well, she couldn’t accept. Her parents’ generosity had nothing to do with her. If he felt some misguided sense of duty, then he could take it up with them or with Jake. She’d never given it a minute’s thought.

But she could take it. She let herself think about that for a second. She had no job. No ties. The offer of a generous benefactor. She could go back to university, finish her degree and stop wondering. Stop asking herself what might have been and actually go and do something about it.

If only it wasn’t Finn making the offer. If only it was some completely disinterested stranger offering her this money to go and follow her dream. Because... Finn. Her feelings for him were anything but disinterested. They were complicated, and growing more so by the day. If she were to take him up on his offer, what would that do to them? What would that do to these feelings that she didn’t quite know how to name but was finding increasingly difficult to ignore?

What if there was another way?

When she’d been stuck on the treadmill of rent arrears and copy deadlines, she’d never had a chance to draw breath and work out if there was a way that she could go back to studying. For years she’d hated the thought of having to come into contact with the professor again. But that excuse had died two years ago. He was gone, and she was still here. What if her dreams weren’t as dead as she’d thought they might be?

She brought her attention back to the babies on the play mat. This wasn’t something that had to be decided now, right away—going back to university or getting a new job. Whatever it was she was going to do next deserved more thought than the reflexive denial she’d just given Finn. She’d had to abandon her dream once already. If she was being given a second chance, she had to at least think about it, however uncomfortable that might make her feel.

‘I promise I’ll think about your offer,’ she said at last. ‘It’s incredibly generous. I’m sorry that I didn’t start by saying that.’

Finn gave her a long intense look that had the colour rising in her cheeks.

‘Take all the time you need.’

She blinked once, twice, then turned her attention back to the babies.

‘Right,’ she told Finn, her tone firm. ‘You are meant to be at your desk. I’m going to play with the kids here, but if we’re keeping you from working then I’m going to take them on a tour of the building. If we’re making too much noise, let me know and I’ll get out of your hair.’

The morning passed more quickly than Madeleine had known that time could. By the time that the babies had got bored of their play mat, Finn’s assistant had arranged someone to give her a tour of the building, and she’d not needed to do much more than step back and watch as the twins were passed from department to department. A hot cup of coffee had been pressed into her hands whenever they had been empty, and as she passed through the art department the guy with the checked shirt had finally got his cuddle with the babies.

By the time that she had changed two lots of nappies and made up two bottles, fed both babies, burped them and got them back in their pushchair, she realised that she was starving, and had no idea where she could get herself some lunch. She was just looking around for someone to ask when Finn’s assistant appeared behind her and let her know that lunch was ready in Finn’s office. Cool, problem solved.

When she arrived back on his floor with—somehow, miraculously—two sleeping babies, she was ready to eat her own body weight in cheese. Or, well, whatever culinary delights got sent up to the CEO’s office in a company like this.

It was a far cry from the grubby office that she had just been made redundant from. And it made her realise that all the years she had spent in that dingy office with those dingy people ha

d skewed her perception until she had lost sight of what the alternatives were. There were people in this building who loved their job. Who were excited and motivated to get to their desk in the morning. Who believed in what they were doing—believed themselves to be important. She’d taken the first job she’d been offered, convinced that without graduating she wouldn’t be able to get anything else. And then she had stayed for years as it had gradually eaten away her ambition and her passion. It was like a light being switched on, being here at Finn’s company. And he had offered her the way out.

Not a job that she hadn’t earned, but something more fundamental than that. He had given her the chance to go back and pick up where she had left off. To retrace her steps back to the moment that her life had taken a catastrophic swerve and try to correct its course.

She got to decide now, what she wanted from her life, how she was going to define herself, and it was Finn who was offering her that chance.

Why? Why did he care so much? Yes, there was that chemistry between them—so much more complicated and confusing than the desire that normally characterised her relationships. Men who wanted her for her body. Men she wanted for their shallowness, their inability to hurt her. What she had felt with Finn that night, when she had woken in the morning with her body wrapped around his, protected by his, that was a far cry from simple. It was anything but shallow.

She had been adamant that these feelings they were having were not welcome, and were certainly not going to be acted upon. But, even without that future, one that they both knew was impossible, she was in no doubt that Finn saw her. Not her body, but her. He’d recognised the passion, the yearning she felt for the career that she’d left behind. And more than just seeing, he’d talked to her about it. Given her chances and choices, if she wanted to take them.

She put her finger to her lips as she walked into the office, and Finn came to admire her top babysitting and the sleeping babies in the pushchair. Then he parked them just inside the door and gestured to the table where lunch had been laid out for them.

‘Fancy,’ she said with an impressed smile.

Finn shrugged. ‘Perk of being the boss. No such thing as a free lunch, though. Do you mind if I pick your brains about CVs before the interviews?’

Madeleine grabbed a plate and a stack of resumes and started reading, raising an eyebrow from time to time.

‘This is...impressive,’ she said as she read about languages spoken and subjects tutored. Cookery skills and forest school trips and school entry exams. ‘Though I think this is a little high-achieving for a couple of kids who aren’t yet crawling,’ she said with a shrug. ‘I mean, it’s great that she offers all this, but where’s the care for the kids’ emotional well-being? She hasn’t mentioned that once.’

Tags: Ellie Darkins Billionaire Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net