Billionaire and Nanny Secret by Lauren Wood
Ezra
Ihad never felt so angry in my entire life. I was struggling to keep myself from snapping at them, struggling to keep the rage that I was feeling down. I was mad for so many reasons. When had Quinn found out that she was pregnant, and why hadn’t she told me? Why had she let me fire her and kept her mouth shut just for me to find out, all of a sudden? And from Kayley, of all people.
Quinn should have been the one to tell me, and now they were making me out to be some kind of bad guy because I hadn’t known the truth. I wasn’t going to be blamed for her misdemeanors. If she had known, why hadn’t she said anything? What was the point in keeping that information from me?
Unless it was a lie, some kind of ploy to allow for Quinn to keep her job. I might have expected something like that from Kayley, but definitely not from Quinn. She was far too honest of a person. Besides, she’d looked me in the eye and told me that she was pregnant. And, even if it made me an idiot, I believed her.
A part of me felt joy at all of this, at the fact that I was about to have another kid. Before the death of my wife, there had been nothing that I wanted more than to have a large family with four or five children. There was nothing that I valued more than family, but after Paige, it had felt like that dream was taken away from me.
I was more than willing to take care of what was mine, but the fact that she’d been prepared to keep this a secret from me made me want to punch a hole through a wall. Did she call that fair, reasonable? She would raise our child in secret when I could be giving the kid the best of everything, the same way that I had done with Paige?
My eyes didn’t stray from Quinn, but my words were directed at her best friend instead. “Go upstairs,” I demanded. “Or get out.” I wanted to speak with Quinn alone, get down to the bottom of all of this, and with how Kayley was, I wasn’t going to be able to do that with her there. She would hover and put her nose in things that didn’t concern her.
“You don’t tell me what to do.”
“Now!” I roared.
That made Kayley’s back straighten, as she continued to glare at me. “I’ll just be upstairs, so if you need anything, just shout my name, and I’ll be here.”
Quinn didn’t say anything, probably because she was too focused on me, as Kayley made her way upstairs, staring at us the entire time before she disappeared at the top. Now, I could give my full attention to the woman who was supposedly carrying my child. I attempted to keep my voice level. “Were you going to tell me the truth?”
She swallowed. “No.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” I growled. “What were you hoping to accomplish by not telling me? What did you want to prove, that you could be a big girl, and you could raise the kid all on your own? How stupid can you be, Quinn, I mean, come on! Obviously you know that child’s best option is with me.”
“Don’t call me stupid!” she snapped, gaining some of her fire back and ripping her chin from my hand. “And what am I supposed to do, just be clear of the picture and let you enjoy the kid all to yourself? No, thank you.”
“It’s our kid,” I stated, as if she had forgotten. “Which means that I had a right to know.”
“I don’t disagree with you.”
“But you weren’t going to tell me?”
“Why would I?”
“Because I’m the father.”
“You kicked me out, Ezra, did you forget that? You fired me the second that I came home. Even if I had wanted to tell you, which I did, originally, there wasn’t time for me to. You made it incredibly clear that you wanted nothing to do with me.”
Some of my anger evaporated as I thought about what she was saying. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so hasty with how I’d acted, but I hadn’t thought that I’d had any other options. I’d thought that it was going to be the best for both of us.
“So, was not telling me your way of spiting me?” I asked, inhaling and exhaling deeply to keep myself calm. “Your way of getting back at me because I hurt your feelings?”
“You think that this is what all of this is about?” She asked and cocked her head to the side. “I would think that you would know me better and would have thought better of me, at this point.”
“I don’t know what to think, Quinn, you lied to me,” I pointed out.
“Hey, I never lied,” she argued. “I just withheld the truth.”
“That’s the same thing.”
“You made it obvious that you didn’t want me. Was I supposed to think that you would feel differently about the kid? If you didn’t want me, what reason would you want to have a kid with me?”
“Don’t you think that a child changes everything?”
“No, I don’t,” she answered simply. “If you didn’t love me before, a child isn’t going to change that. And I’m not going to bind you to me just because you got me knocked up when you weren’t able to hold yourself back.”
“You thought that was all that it meant to me?” I asked Quinn, surprised by her words. Had I really hurt her this much? “That you were available, and I’d just had urges and couldn’t hold myself back?”
“That’s exactly what it was. You wanted me, and you always get what you want. And now that you’re done with me, you’re pushing me aside because I don’t fit into the perfect little life that you’ve formed.”
“You weren’t just a one-night stand.”
“So, you had feelings for me?” she asked, placing her hands on her lips and tilting her head, to the side.
My hand ran through my hair. “I don’t know.”
“Because if you did, and this is your way of showing it, then you’re nothing but a child, an immature kid who can’t handle showing his feelings for others. You felt something for me, and you pushed me away because you like to keep your distance. Don’t you think that’s ridiculous? You’re going to end up by yourself.”
“Don’t you think that I know that?”
“Then why do you do it?”
“Quinn, don’t go looking for an answer that you can’t handle.”
“You don’t get to tell me what I can and can’t handle.”
“Quinn,” I warned.
“Just tell me!” she snapped.
“I don’t want to be involved with anyone because I feel like it would be messing up the legacy that my wife left, being disrespectful to her memories. I had loved her with all of my life, and when she died I’d told myself that I was never going to fall in love with another woman. Paige deserved to know that her mother was one of the best instead of trying to have some fake new mom, attempting to get into her life.
“And let’s be honest, love isn’t exactly the easiest thing for me. Women want me because of my wallet or my looks, and trying to find someone that’s not shallow is a hard task. So, you wanted to know, and now I’ve told you.” But I wasn’t pleased that she now knew this information about me.
“I didn’t know,” she whispered. “I didn’t know.”
“And you didn’t need to know,” I snapped. “You’re wondering if I have feelings for you then my answer is yes. I’ve been fighting back the feelings that I started to develop for you because I didn’t want to fall in love, not again, not after having the woman that I’d thought was my soulmate taken away from me. It had nothing to do with you, Quinn. It was all me.”
“Ezra,” she started, but I was determined to finish what I had started to say.
“No, stop talking,” I put a hand up and stopped her. “Isn’t this what you wanted to know? Well, now, I’m telling you, and I’ll be damned if you interrupt me, so stand there and just listen. I know you’re good at that.”
She seemed shocked by my words, but she stayed quiet.
“I am so in love with you, Quinn. There’s no doubt about that, and I couldn’t hide it even if I wanted to. If that wasn’t obvious to you then I understand because I didn’t want for you to be able to tell, but the reason that I hadn’t told you was because I was trying to protect myself, not because I wanted to be an asshole or hurt you. But this baby, it changes everything because I’ll be damned if I’m not going to be involved in the life of my child. You’re not going to keep me away from him, and this entire situation is forcing me to face how I’ve felt for you. So, I’ll say it again and again and as many times as you want to hear it because it won’t stop being true. I’m in love with you.”
Quinn looked absolutely stunned by all of the words that I’d just spoken. She was quiet, biting into her bottom lip in an attempt to think about everything that had just been said. She was looking at me pensively with those big green eyes as she tried to take everything in. Once, she finally did, she reached out and put her palm against my cheek.
“I love you, too, Ezra,” she stated. “Can’t you see that?”
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly.
“And there’s nothing that I want less than to hurt you, don’t you get that? I want to be there for you through thick and thin. I want to stand by your side through the good times and the bad because that’s what being in love means, not pushing someone away. So let me in and know that I’ll never hurt you.”
I nodded. “I understand.” And then I did what I knew best. I wrapped an arm behind her waist and pulled her towards me while pressing our lips together. This was safe; it made me feel like we were okay if she was with me. Sex between us had felt like we were two people connecting, rather than just fucking the brains out of each other.
Quinn was quick to reciprocate my kiss, her lips urgent against mine, just as they always were, just as I knew her to be. In that moment, I knew that I wanted her, and I knew that the feeling was mutual and she wanted me, as well. There was no more holding back, no more fighting the feelings that we had for each other.
She thrusted her hips against me before she paused. “Is it safe to do this while I’m pregnant?”
I laughed. “Yes, very.”
“At least we don’t need protection.”
She was full of jokes. But I didn’t want her talking when there were so many better things that her lips could be doing. I pulled her shirt over her head and picked her up before setting her on the counter. My hands made quick work of her bra, and I pushed it to the side.
We shouldn’t be doing this, not with her best friend just upstairs, probably about to return any moment. But I didn’t care about any of that. The only thing that mattered to me was the amazing woman in front of me.
Once the bra was gone, my lips wrapped around her nipple and tugged it the way that I knew she liked. She threw her head back and let out a little moan, as my fingers worked the buttons and zipper of her pants. I pulled them down her legs and let them hit the floor, not particularly caring where they ended up.
I pulled away, and she pulled my shirt off of me before I went down on her. My tongue was swirling around her clit, and she was moaning, writhing against me, begging me for more. What option did I have than to give it to her?
I backed away from her so that I could pull my pants down and kick them aside before I walked back to her. Our lips clashed together, as I thrust inside of her, hearing the fierce moan that she let out.
Nothing felt more right than this. This was home. She was my home.
