Reunited by the Tycoon's Twins

Madeleine concentrated on repacking the twins’ changing bag, trying not to eavesdrop on Finn’s conversation with his wife. Ex-wife.

From the way the interview had gone, and the tone of Caroline’s voice, Josie was probably going to be receiving a job offer pretty soon, and that meant that she had to work out a plan for what she was going to do next. Once Finn had a nanny in place, he wasn’t going to want her living in his spare room. She’d known ever since she’d been made redundant that she was going to have to make big decisions, and her thinking time was almost up. If she didn’t act now, she was going to find herself running out of options.

Since she’d walked out on her university education, she’d gone from one precariously held flat to another. The only constant—the job that she despised—even that was gone now. She had nothing to show for her life, and nothing made that more clear than being in Finn’s office with his successful business and adorable children and his grown-up co-parenting.

So she had to think about Finn’s offer. Had to think seriously about whether university was what she still wanted. Whether journalism and politics were what she still wanted. Because, for the first time in for ever, she could actually choose what she wanted. Not what options were left to her. Not what she could afford, or which seemed to throw the least hurdles in her way. She had been given permission by the universe to make a fresh start. To be whatever she chose.

Was Finn one of those options? They had both been upfront about the fact that they didn’t want a relationship. God knew he had told her that enough times. Roughly the same number of times that she had said the same thing. But... But did she mean it? Definitely the first time she had said it, and the second. But she had been less and less convinced by her own internal monologue as the days had gone on.

More importantly, he’d made her see that no one was putting more restrictions on her life than herself. Now was the time in her life she could make a change.

Finn had told her that he would help her financially. If she was turning him down because of—what?—some need to do this without his help?—who was she hurting? Only herself. It didn’t make any difference to Finn or to anyone else in the world if she didn’t go back to university. The only person it affected was herself.

Didn’t she owe herself another chance? What else had she worked so hard for all those years? It didn’t matter how resolutely she’d tried to ignore her dreams, to pretend that they meant nothing to her, they weren’t going anywhere. Finn had seen them. He’d made her see them again too. To look at them straight on in a way that she’d been afraid to do for years. He thought they were worth fighting for. What did it say that he had read them so plainly on her face?

It said something unsettling. Unnerving. That she was so easy to read. Or maybe that Finn could read her easily—that wasn’t the same thing at all, and she knew which one was true. Finn understood her. He saw her. And she wasn’t sure where that left any consideration on her part about accepting money from him.

He hung up the phone and she crossed to the stack of CVs that they had left on his desk to remind herself of the next candidate. But the words swam in front of her eyes as she considered her next move. If Finn was serious about funding her, she had so many options that it was dizzying. Once, years ago, she’d looked briefly at the costs of going back to her studies and it had been beyond anything that she could dream of. Even a distance learning course would have left her hopelessly broke. But if she got a loan from Finn to cover her living costs, a student loan would cover her fees. She needn’t be entirely dependent on Finn. If she was going to take this seriously, she could apply for some of the grants and bursaries and scholarships that had been so overwhelming when she had looked before. If she really wanted to do this, she could start applying for them now, and do it all by herself.

When the knock on the door snapped her back into the room, Finn had a half-smile on his face that she didn’t have to work hard to interpret. She knew that her excitement was showing on her face, knew that Finn knew her well enough to guess what was going through her mind. But she wasn’t going to share. Not yet, when it was still so fresh and delicate and unformed in her mind. She’d share later, when she was ready, and she knew Finn wasn’t going to rush her.

And at that thought she was hit by a wave of desire for him that stole her breath and made her look away for fear that he was going to see exactly what swerve her thoughts had just taken. Because these feelings that she was having for Finn weren’t just a case of lusting after a pretty face. He’d had that face for years and she’d barely noticed it. It was about seeing the man he’d become—capable, successful, generous, kind—and desperately wanting to keep him in her life. And yes, the pretty face made these thoughts extra lusty, but the wanting wasn’t about the face or the body. It was about nurturing this connection. This feeling of seeing and being seen. About taking care of someone she absolutely knew would take care of her.

And those feelings were huge and hot and terrifying—and absolutely undeniable. Now that she saw the truth of them, it was hard to believe that she’d ever been able to ignore them. They’d burst to life outside his bedroom door the first night that she’d spent in his home, when he’d seen her vulnerability and stood by her side as she’d found her strength, and she’d been kidding herself ever since that these feelings were something she could ‘manage’.

These damn inconvenient feelings were about as far from manageable as she could imagine. But at least they were both agreed that they weren’t happy about them. Right now, the fact that Finn was fighting them as hard as she was was just about the only thing stopping her doing something really stupid.

The knock on the door from Finn’s assistant stopped that train of thought heading somewhere that would get them into trouble and she pasted on a professional smile as the next candidate was shown into the room.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THANK GOODNESS THE babies have gone down with barely a peep, Madeleine thought as she sat at the writing desk in her room and opened her laptop.

It had taken all her considerable willpower to get through the afternoon without a cheeky search on her phone to look at what loans and scholarships and grants were available for mature students. Now, with the kids asleep, she had all evening to research and start to come up with a plan.

An hour later she had a list of politics and journalism courses in London, application details for her shortlist, and every scholarship, grant and bursary that she could hunt down.

The next job would be finding somewhere to live. She had no idea how she would pay for a place yet, not until she’d found some sort of work, but she had to start trying to find somewhere. If she got into university, she could maybe get a place in a hall of residence but that would be months away, if she even managed to make it happen at all. And she didn’t have months. She needed somewhere soon. She pulled up a flatmates website to see what was available, and how much money she was going to have to come up with to survive the next few months. Maybe she would be able to find some freelance work just to keep her going until she had this university thing sorted. A house share might not need the same financial information and upfront deposits as renting a place on her own. It wasn’t ideal, but she wasn’t sure what else she could do right now.

She looked up at a knock on the doorframe to see Finn standing there watching her.

‘Just wondered if you fancy dinner?’ he asked, and she realised that she was starving. ‘What are you working on??

? he said and she turned the laptop to show him, then frowned at the expression on his face.

‘What?’ she asked.

‘I didn’t realise you were looking for somewhere else already.’

‘Of course I’m looking. It’s great of you to let me stay but it was always the plan to find somewhere as soon as I could. Josie is great, so it seemed like you wouldn’t need my help much longer.’

‘That doesn’t mean you have to move out.’

‘I’m staying here to help you with the babies, Finn. If you have a nanny, then what would I be doing? It would be...weird.’

‘You could stay as Jake’s sister. As a friend.’

‘I think we both know that it wouldn’t be a good idea, Finn.’