He shook his head, unconcerned. “I called Poppy last night. She stayed with them.”
I combed my hair back with my fingers. “Where did you tell them I was?”
“With me.”
I must have blanched because he sat up and laughed. “I didn’t tell themwhatwe were doing all night. Just that we were together. They’re delighted, I’m sure.” He motioned to the lopsided birthday cake and now-empty bottle of champagne. “Their gambit to push us together worked.”
I rolled my eyes but felt the unmistakable tug of a smile on my face at the same time. My tank top straps were ripped in two, so I pulled Severn’s button-up shirt over me, then wiggled back into my panties and shorts.
He let his heavy gaze run down my body dressed in his shirt and said in a gravelly tone, “So sure you want to get dressed already?”
It was a tempting proposition: another rooftop tussle with Severn. Just the thought of it and my body was already tingling with desire. But I shook my head. “It’s a workday, and my boss can be a real asshole.”
He gripped my chin, tilting my face to match his gaze. “I bet he’ll give you the day off if you ask him nicely.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Consider it a bonus forverygood performance.”
In any normal job, our banter would have been serious grounds for a visit to HR, but now I only smiled coyly and finished doing up the buttons on my shirt. “I need to shower.”
He leaned in to nuzzle my jaw with his mouth, nipping lightly at my skin. “Want company?”
I pressed him away and shook my head. I was still giddy from the sex last night, but I also knew that I needed some time to think about what had happened. When I’d come to the rooftop yesterday, I certainly hadn’t planned on sleeping with my boss. I’d been honest when I’d told him that I didn’t regret it, but I also knew that any interaction with a fae was tricky. They couldn’t help but be devious in some aspect—it was simply their nature—and we’d just had sex. Talk about a tangled-up, confusing situation.
Severn relented, though not before gliding a hand down past my waist and giving my ass a squeeze. “Meet me downstairs in an hour. I’m taking you to breakfast.”
His tone told me there wasn’t room for me to say no.
Back in my apartment, I was relieved to find Henry and May playing video games, perfectly safe and happy, though I was startled to see Poppy Wildealsoplaying the games, her feet up on the coffee table and a determined look on her face as she jabbed buttons on the controller.
They barely looked up from the game as I said good morning. May grinned at me briefly, clearly satisfied that her plan had worked, but then returned to the game. Puck yipped and ran up to me, wagging his tail furiously. At leastsomeonehad missed me. I dropped to my knees and gave him a good scratch on the head.
“Poppy, are you okay watching the kids a little longer?” I asked.
“Huh?” Her avatar shot a bow and arrow into a horned devil on the TV screen. “Oh, yeah. Die, asshole!”
I took my time showering and getting dressed and considered texting Zara but decided I needed to give myself a little more time first to get used to the idea of losing my virginity to Severn. Everyone in Wilde Tower had made it abundantly clear that fae weren’t into relationships. One glance at the crowd at Locke’s party had told me that. So I tried not to have expectations about what happened next with Severn. I’d certainly be open to sleeping with him again, and I felt he probably would, too, but would it end there? Would our working relationship remain the same except for the occasional no-strings-attached tumble in the sheets?
I took my time putting on makeup. Severn had seen me plenty in pajama bottoms and no makeup, and for once, I wanted to actually look nice for him. When I went down to the lobby of Wilde Tower, I found him waiting by the turnstile. He put down his phone as I approached and gave me a long look up and down that instantly made my thighs ache all over.
I glanced nervously at the secretaries, who were throwing us curious looks. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” I asked, pointing to the turnstile. “Don’t you want us to go through the garage instead? What if the paparazzi see us?”
Fortunately, no pictures had appeared from the day that I’d come running back to Wilde Tower and Severn had swept me in his arms, but that didn’t mean people weren’t still ready to snap a shot of Manhattan’s sexiest billionaire with a woman at his side.
“What if they do?” Severn asked.
I hefted a shoulder. “Well, it isn’t going to help convince anyone that the wedding in Central Park was fake.”
He wagged his head slightly back and forth. “I absolutely could not care less what they think.”
“You cared before,” I pointed out. Locke had even taken away my phone, ordered me to hide out for days on end like they were ashamed of me.
“For your benefit,” he explained. “Inever cared about the public’s perception. It was only to protect you from unwanted attention.” He cocked his head. “I thought you realized that.”
I had most definitelynotrealized that. All that time, I’d assumed that Severn was horrified by the rumors of him marrying a nanny. I took a deep breath as we stepped into the turnstile and came out into the open. It felt strange being out publicly with Severn after all the crazy media sensation. As we crossed the street to the waiting car, a few onlookers started pulling out their phones.
He told the driver to take us to a French bakery in Chelsea that was small and intimate, the kind of place that was used to hosting celebrities. The hostess led us to a small second-floor seating area with only three tables; we were the only customers, and I couldn’t help but think Severn had arranged for our privacy.
