The fear disappears, and I’m face to face with Saint again. It’s crazy how now that I know who he is, I can see the switch so clearly. Nico is the sensitive man I fell for. The man who protected me from a bully at a coffee shop. The man who remembered my birthday and opened his home to me when I thought I was in danger.
Saint is who he truly is. The man who orchestrated the danger.
“We’ve gone over this. There will be no divorce.”
It’s stupid, I know, but divorce is the furthest thing from my mind. And maybe that makes me just as crazy as he is. My end goal isn’t to leave, it’s to get to know the real him.
I hold up my hand. “I didn’t say anything about divorce. But until you are honest with me, you can’t come back to my bed.”
He cocks his head to the side, a smile lifting the corner of his lips. “Is that so?”
Fuck! Just the way he says those three words with that mischievous grin has my nipples hard and my belly fluttering. My pussy spasms at the memory of Nico’s dick pushing into me.
“Yes.” I lift my chin. Look, I may be a little dickmatized, but I wasn’t a pushover. It wasn’t going to be easy for Nico to climb back between my legs. I’m a firm believer that if I sleep with a man, I want to have a connection with him, something more than surface level. Not knowing who Nico truly is feels like a disconnection.
He chuckles and rubs his chin. “Okay.”
Feeling a little more confident, I go on with my demands. “Also, I’d like to go back to work. Not full-time, but maybe a client or two.”
The smile on his face falls. All playfulness is out the window.
“We agreed you wouldn’t go back until Noah was at least a year old or older.”
That was the agreement he and I had come to when I got pregnant. He wanted me to stay at home for good, but I never wanted to be a stay-at-home mother. We came to this agreement as a compromise.
“We did, but things change. And I need to have an outlet and my own income.”
His gaze narrows. “Your own income?”
“Yes.”
“You know that if by some miracle we don’t end up together for whatever reason, you and Noah will never have to work a day in your lives. That’s not just a promise, but it’s written on paper and filed with my lawyer.”
It was encouraging to know that he had taken precautions for me and his son and that if we weren’t able to make it work, I would be taken care of. But things change, and so do people. I wanted my own money. Plus, as I said, I never wanted to not work. I love what I do, and being away from it made me realize how much I miss it. And if I’m honest, I need a distraction. Sitting in this house all day thinking about the shambles my love life is in is depressing.
I shrug. “I know and I appreciate that, but I want to go back to work. Not just because of the financial aspect, but because I need something else to do other than sit in this house and be sad.”
That was the truth. I loved my son, and I enjoyed spending all this time with him, but my mind can’t stay busy here. And I needed something to distract me from Nico.
He’s silent for a moment. His face gives nothing away.
“Okay,” he finally says. “You can go back to work, but Jake stays with you.”
I roll my eyes and laugh. “Are we still pretending Saint is after me? I don’t need a bodyguard.”
“Yes, you do.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Either Jake goes with you, or you don’t go.” His words are said with such finality that I don’t even consider arguing.
Tossing my hands up in the air, I sigh. “You know what, whatever.”
He nods as if he just won a debate.
“We’ll need to find and hire a nanny for Noah. I’m not sending him to a daycare.”
On this, he and I agreed. “Okay. I’ll do some research and send you over what I find.”
