Inside the cool air of the aquarium, my sundress felt too small. I shivered but stayed focused on arguing with Griffin. I didn’t understand what he was doing. “You can’t just force me to hang out with you. What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking that hanging out with me won’t be such a hardship.” He growled down at me while rubbing my arms, clearly noticing I’d gotten cold. “The kids are in good hands.You’rein good hands.”
My eyebrows raised. “I’m in good hands?”
“Do you ever just stop arguing?”
“Do you ever just stop making plans for other people?”
“No.”
I slapped his chest. “Well, me either.”
He yanked me flush into his chest, trapping my arms between us. “You’re infuriating. No matter how hard I try to be nice to you, you’re always the same amount of judgmental and skeptical.”
I resisted the urge to bite his chin, but barely. “This is you being nice?”
He lowered his voice to a gravel-filled whisper. “About as nice as I get, Autumn.”
A shiver worked its way through my body that had nothing to do with the chill in the air. I didn’t know what else to say. I was afraid that if I opened my mouth again, I was going to say something inappropriate. Like maybe telling him how good it felt when he manhandled me and got all angry. What was wrong with me?
“We’ve got two options, sweetheart.” He licked his lips and ran his hand over my back, growling when he didn’t feel a bra strap. “One. You and I walk through this aquarium, acting like there isn’t this energy snapping between us. Or, my personal preference, two. You let me take you into any private space I can find so we can get this out of our systems.”
My mouth snapped open and I gaped at him. “You’ve got some nerve.”
“So, you’re leaning towards the first option?” He lowered his mouth to my ear and growled. “Come on, then. Let’s go look at some fish.”
I was left reeling as he pulled away from me and started walking ahead. My heart was in my throat and all my blood was rushing to my core. That was the only way I could explain the way I chased after him. Grabbing his arm, I pulled him to a stop and stretched to be taller so I could chastise him properly. “You are far too bossy. You just say and do whatever you want. Do you ever think about repercussions?”
“What repercussions, Autumn?”
“Like what if you do fuck the nanny and then the nanny gets obsessed with you and stops doing her job to focus on more sex with you and then your kids grow up to be bad seeds because they missed the chance at a loving nanny that one summer.”
He threw his head back and laughed, the sound filling the aquarium and drawing the eyes of the staff who weren’t with the kids. It was a full, husky sound that warmed me all over and sent a blush blossoming all over my body.
I took his hand and dragged him into a corner so we wouldn’t be such a spectacle. “What is so funny?”
“I’m pretty sure you don’t even like me, Autumn. I don’t think I need to worry about you becoming obsessed with me.”
I scoffed. “I like you enough.”
“You like me?”
“Well.” I stopped and pursed my lips. I wasn’t sure how to answer him. “Sure. I guess.”
He grinned down at me and shook his head. “I think if either of us got obsessed with the other, it wouldn’t be you obsessing, Autumn. Even if you guess you might like me a little bit.”
I scoffed as he started to walk away. Catching his arm and tugging him back around to face me, I grabbed his shirt with my other hand without even realizing it. “You’re not going to obsess over me. I’m your nanny. I’m literally no one.”
His eyes went to that dark forest shade of green that I hadn’t been able to unsee since the day he’d kissed me, and he glanced around for a beat before pushing me into the bathroom next to us. Slamming the door closed and locking it, he looked back at me with fire in his eyes. Catching me and pinning me against the wall, his breathing was ragged as he looked down at me and braced his fists on either side of my head against the wall.
“You are someone. And you’re already under my skin. No one talks to me the way you do. It’s infuriating, but it also makesme want to bend you over and fuck you until we both lose our minds. Stop fighting with me right now if you don’t want this. Get out of here and go catch up with the kids and be the nanny. If that’s what you want, I won’t stop you.”
I was panting, too. Why was I panting? I just needed to scoot around him and leave the bathroom. There was nothing else to do. I couldn’t sleep with him. I’d slept with both of his brothers. Yet, I physically couldn’t make myself move.
“You need someone to argue with you when you’re being an asshole. Everyone just lets you get away with it. They’re scared of you. I’m not.” Why was I pushing him? Why was I still speaking?
“You’re not scared of me?”
