She sighed and stared at herself in the mirror. Her cheeks were reddening already at the sheer thought of staying with Nick.
She stuck her tongue out at her image.
Who was she kidding? Of course she was stirred. Nick’s presence did that to her in bright sunlight, so the cozy moonshine wasn’t going to help her case. It was bound to worsen it big time.
The armchair was probably her safest option. She could sell it to Nick like a thing she always did. A sort of habit where she preferred to sleep vertically. Would he believe her?
Nick had always acted like a gentleman. Almost surprisingly old school compared to what Ginny would expect from a famous young writer. He might not go through with letting her sleep all crumpled up in a chair.
She grabbed a comb and ran it through her hair. She tried to convince herself that she did all these preparations, not because she wanted to look her best, but only as a routine. But deep down, she knew the truth. Was it desperate of her to wish that Nick wouldn’t only see her as his fake girlfriend but as a real woman?
In the ocean, there was a moment when she thought he did. Then she got so scared that she pushed him away. It was for the best. Nick had severe trust issues with women. His interest in her, if there was any, was most likely physical instead of emotional.
She put the comb back to its place, brushed her teeth, and then stepped out of the bathroom.
Nick wasn’t in the bedroom and the door to the corridor stood open.
His strong baritone spoke to Jacob. Did the boy wake up? “Hey, buddy. What’s the matter?” he asked.
Ginny tiptoed her way over to peek into the child’s room. Maybe he’d want her to come in, as well. There had been cases where he’d called her instead of his father.
Jacob was rubbing his eyes. “I had a dream. We were in a forest and got trapped in a hole. Ginny went to get help, but she never came back.”
Ginny’s heart jumped to her throat. She should have expected that, sooner or later, Jacob was going to exhibit abandonment issues with her. Guilt wormed through her chest as she considered that after the court’s ruling she’d be leaving Jacob for good.
The idea that she initially had about visiting once in a while was becoming more and more unrealistic as her attraction to Nick grew. She didn’t know how she could meet Jacob’s father and pretend that they’d broken up but still remained friends. She couldn’t even bear the idea of bumping into him on the Riversmith School grounds.
Nick, who sat with his back to Ginny, leaned forward to kiss his son. “It was only a nightmare, Jacob. We’re all safe, and nobody is trapped. And even if we were, and Ginny wasn’t around to save you, I’d have your back. We’re a team, aren’t we?”
Jacob’s lips moved into a tired smile, his eyes half-closing. “Yes, Dad, we are.”
Nick caressed the boy’s forehead. “Good boy, now sleep.”
He straightened up and switched off the lamp.
Ginny didn’t want to be caught lurking around in the corridor, but after what Nick’d said, her legs seemed to have grown roots into the ground.
Why was she so upset about his words? He and Jacob were a family, not the three of them. It was natural that he tried to prepare Jacob for what was about to come.
But somehow Nick’s words stung more than she’d ever imagined they would. Perhaps it was the realization that she had been right all along. Whatever tension had been building up between Nick and her, it was only a carnal interest from his side.
Nick came out into the hallway, pulling the door behind him. His jaw fell as he saw Ginny standing there. His eyes traveled from her face to her toes, taking in her silk nightgown. His irises dilated, and he swallowed.
Only chemistry. No feelings.
Ginny tried to hammer the words into her brain, hoping they would stick long enough for her to get through the night without significant blundering on her part.
Nick’s eyes moved back up to Ginny’s, and he smiled, “I see you’re ready to go to bed. I hope you don’t mind. I changed our sleeping arrangement. I wanted to give Jacob the right impression about us.”
Right, like you did a moment ago with ‘Ginny won’t be back to save us’?
But she managed to catch the words before they pushed their way to her lips, and she nodded. “Yes, I’m all set.”
Nick put his hand between her shoulders, giving her a soft push. “Then, shall we? I’m sure if we stay here like this, Marcia is going to pop her head out of her room to check on us.”
The waves of heat sweeping from his palm to Ginny’s spine were so strong that she needed a moment to gather her wits before she could answer. Why was the silk fabric so porous to the touch? She felt as if he’d brushed her bare flesh, and her treacherous skin wanted more of it immediately.
She strode forward, breaking the contact between their bodies.
Okay, this is better. Maybe she just needed to avoid any direct contact with Nick, and she could act normally. “Well, we wouldn’t want that. Let’s go.”
She hurried to the room and went straight for the armchair. She gritted her teeth as she settled on its less than comfortable frame. It looked more fluffy to the eye than it felt to the butt, that’s for sure. No problem, she could handle it.
Nick followed her and stood in front of her with arched brows. “What on Earth are you doing, Ginny? Don’t tell me you’re going to sleep in this armchair?”
Ginny peeked up. A smile tugged on his lower lip. Come to think of it, it looked more like a smug smirk.
Was he amused by her? Did he suspect that she wanted to avoid exposure to his warm body because it was turning her bones into butter?
She cleared her throat. “I was contemplating it. You know, when I’d go camping with my family, we used to sleep sitting up, so yeah—”
“You guys didn’t use sleeping bags like normal folks?” His grin widened.
It did sound ridiculous when she heard it out loud. It must be obvious she’d never actually camped. And probably her behavior was also a tiny bit funny.
Her eyes flicked to the bed. It was a king-size, nicely made with white sheets and large pillows. Perhaps there’d be enough space for both of them.
Nick put out his hand to her. “Come, Ginny, I won’t bite, I promise. I only turn into a big bad wolf on the full moon, and today it’s still half-moon.” He winked and flashed a menacing grimace. But instead of looking scary, it made him dangerously attractive.
Ginny chewed on her lip. Did she really have so little self-control that she was ready to endure a likely severe back strain?
She stood up, ignoring his hand. She walked to the bed and hopped in. “Fine, I’ll sleep here. But don’t forget what happens to the wolf at the end of each story. So behave.”
Nick rolled his eyes. “Of course, always.”
He turned off the night lamp beside the bed and slid under the blanket as well.
Ginny had calculated well. The bed was large enough that their limbs could avoid being entangled due to the lack of space. But those few inches didn’t entirely shield her from Nick’s magnetism.
“Good night, Nick,” she whispered.
“Good night, Ginny.” His warm breath tickled her cheeks.
Was he turned toward her? She couldn’t see much in the dark room.
She turned on her back, folded her arms on her chest, and crossed her legs. Just in case her body decided to take on a life of its own.
Chapter 18
Nick listened to the weak creaks of the mattress. Ginny was trying to find a comfortable position.
After a while, there was silence. It was cumbersome—as if the burdens of his thoughts were diffusing into the air around them.
He turned his head toward her, and as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, her profile became visible thanks to the moonlight infiltrating from the window.
Her lashes batted, so she wasn’t asleep yet.
Why did she want to sleep on that frigging armchair? Was it such a pain to be near him?
Or was she just as uneasy with the magnetism that sparkled between them as he was? Maybe he should talk to her to break the awkwardness of the situation.
“So…” Wow, his voice, intended as a murmur, came out rather strong.
Ginny twitched.
“Oh, sorry, were you asleep already?” he asked.
“No, not yet.”
“I was just wondering, how come a nice girl like you doesn’t have a family of her own yet?”
Ginny exhaled loudly. Nick mentally beat his head into a wall for starting out with a question like this. Wasn’t he trying to make the atmosphere less cold between them?
From the way Ginny’s tensed breaths sounded, he might as well have unleashed an ice age around them.
He reached out and brushed his fingers across her shoulder. “That came out all wrong. It wasn’t meant to imply that you should.”
Ginny didn’t move away, which was an encouraging sign. She turned her head toward him. Now half of her face was in the shadows, while the other sparkled in the silver light like it was made out of diamonds.
“Don’t worry, I understand what you mean. I get this question quite a lot, especially now that one of my cousins is married. Since I’m the oldest in our family, Mother hasn’t stopped bugging me about having kids ever since I turned twenty-five.”
The image of little girls with blue eyes like Ginny’s flashed through Nick’s mind. She would have ravishing children, and from what he had seen from her behavior with Jacob, she would be a good mother. Why didn’t she want to commit then?
“So why wait? Don’t you want kids?”
Ginny propped herself to her elbow. “It’s not that simple, Nick, and you of all people should know it.” Her voice trembled as if she was suppressing some strong emotion.
“I didn’t want to upset you,” he mumbled.
Was Ginny like Heather; deep down she didn’t want to be tied down by a family? Was she angry that Nick was probing this subject?
Ginny shook her head. “You didn’t. To be honest, a lot is on me. I’ve been so caught up in my striving to get into Riversmith that I haven’t really had time to date. If you don’t meet your soulmate then all good intentions about having kids go out of the window. You know what it means to start a family with the person who isn’t the one for you.”
Nick’s throat swelled. He was such a jerk. Here he was comparing Ginny to his ex, when in reality, Ginny wasn’t afraid of the responsibility a family meant. She only hadn’t found the right one yet.
“Yes, I do. I feel stupid for even asking. It’s clear that for a family you need two people. Finding a soulmate isn’t—”
Ginny snorted. “Please, Nick. Don’t act as if you believe in happy marriages. You told me yourself, you don’t.”
It was true, he didn’t. Not for himself, anyway.
But for Ginny? An exquisite creature like her deserved her happily ever after with someone.
“You’re right, Ginny, I’m broken goods after the whole story with Heather. But you shouldn’t give up on having a family.”
She pivoted her chest toward him. “I’m sorry, too, for what Heather did to you and Jacob. I wish I could say that it was better if you’d never met her, but then you wouldn’t have your amazing son.”
Nick’s chest fluttered. Ginny had said out loud something that he’d run through in his mind many times: Should he have stopped coaxing Heather into keeping the baby? But every time, he came to the same, unavoidable conclusion. Having Jacob was worth all the mess he’d gone through with his ex.
He lifted himself into a sitting position so he could look into Ginny’s eyes. Peering down at her as she held herself on her elbows, an urge to bend closer and kiss her overcame him. He pushed it back. He wasn’t going to take advantage of her like that.
Instead he said, “You seem to get me quite well, Ginny. Maybe if we’d met a few years ago—” He cut off his phrase in time.
Ginny straightened. Now her face was only an inch from his. “Then what?” she whispered.
Oh man, this is even worse than jumping on her. Insinuating how things could have gone differently between them if he’d encountered Ginny before his marriage to Heather was a dangerous road to go down.
He tried to find a breezy comment to wash off the weight of his previous words, but his head wasn’t cooperating. Ginny’s closeness was tinkering with his brain. Instead of coming up with anything intelligible, it seemed to be intoxicated with her smell and the warmth radiating from her breaths.
Ginny reached out to his cheek and ran her thumb on his jawline. She shifted forward so that her nose brushed his neck.
Nick’s heart throbbed in his ears. If he only tilted his chin a little, his lips would meet hers.
Oh, how he wanted to close that distance between them. To taste her again. It would’ve been so easy, and all the atoms in his body buzzed with sweet anticipation.
Just as he was about to give in to the yearning, a cold settled into the pit of his stomach. Jacob’s dream popped into his mind, and he cringed inwardly.
Ginny wasn’t here to stay.
And Nick wasn’t the material for starting any real relationship.
He could fake it well because make-believe emotions didn’t make him vulnerable. But if he were to snake his arms around Ginny and haul her mouth to his, he wasn’t sure what kind of gate he would open in himself. This woman was making him act, think, and feel so out of character that it frightened him.
He forced his neck muscles upward and shrank back a little. The motion was small, but Ginny reacted immediately. She recoiled and lowered herself to her elbows again.
If Nick thought the silence between them was odd before, then he didn’t know what he was talking about. The stillness settling on them after what he did was beyond any describable awkwardness. It was glacial.
Was there any way for him to break it and bring things back to normal?
He rubbed his neck, then lowered himself to the pillow. “Why do you want to teach in Riversmith that badly, anyway?”
Would Ginny take the bait and pretend the moment they stood at the edge of an abyss didn’t happen?
She sighed. “It’s a long story. I’ve wanted to become a teacher ever since I was a child. Geography and history were my two favorite subjects in school, and I figured it would be a great idea to transmit my own joy of learning them to others.”
Her voice started out tense, but as she spoke, it filled with her usual warm jingle. “Then I got to university, and all my professors could talk about was how the smartest among us shouldn’t teach in elementary schools, but continue on to a PhD and postdoc.”
Nick furrowed his brows. “Not a very smart move, considering that all education starts with those early levels. If they withhold the brightest students and let the dumbest teach the children, then they’re shooting themselves in their own leg in the long run, aren’t they?”
Ginny tapped her hand on the mattress. “Exactly, my point.”
A smile fought its way to Nick’s lips at her gesture. He’d managed to change Ginny’s mood. Also, he was curious why she decided to go against her teachers’ advice. “So, Riversmith?”
Ginny nodded. “Yes, getting there. There was only one professor who encouraged those of us who wanted to go and work with younger kids.” She put her hand to her mouth. “I think I might’ve had a mild crush on him at the time.”
The cruel worm of jealousy burrowed into Nick. The idea that Ginny had had feelings for her university professor felt like a knife twisted between his ribs. He kneaded his side with his left hand. “Oh, so you had a forbidden affair when you were a student?”
Ginny giggled. “No, for heaven’s sake. He was much older than I was and had a family. I just meant that his charisma might’ve influenced me more than I realized at the time. Anyways, he raved about the Riversmith school system. He said it was the best of all possible worlds: discipline and freedom matched with openness for new ideas. It was his doing that I became a fan.”
>
Nick didn’t know why, but his neck muscles relaxed. “So you applied after graduation?”
Ginny clicked with her tongue. “Yes, two years in a row, but I got rejected each time. As a rookie, I was kind of against anyone pulling strings for me. My cousin’s wife offered to help me—her father worked with influential people—but I refused. I wanted it to be solely based on my merits.”
“I guess that changed, huh?”
Ginny huffed, “Oh, yeah. After working as a secretary for three years in order to pay my rent and have the time to go through the application process each winter—and still getting turned down for lack of recommendations—I decided to take matters into my own hands.”
Nick chuckled. “I’m aware of this part of you taking control. I’m still impressed that you stalked the school premises and made use of a private investigator to land someone for your endorsement.”
Ginny pouted. “Well, when you put it like that, it does sound a bit desperate.”
Nick shook his head. “No, I’m happy you did, as I’ve told you already. Especially how your arrival couldn’t have come at a better time for Jacob and me.”
The memory of the hearing came to mind. Nick shuddered.
Ginny took his hand and gave it a squeeze. “You’re thinking about the court meeting, aren’t you?”
Her fingers closed around Nick’s palm. Instead of the tingles, there was again that feeling of safety that Nick felt before when they’d walked hand-in-hand. But given the setting they were in, this unexplainable familiarity her touch provided was even worse than the electric sizzles he was used to getting from her.
It reached not only his cells but the impalpable layers of his soul.
But as fast as her gesture came, just as quickly it was over. Ginny released his hand. “Don’t worry. We’ll make it. You and Jacob are going to stay together.”
Her words warmed his heart, but the hidden message behind them made his belly twist into knots. He and Jacob. Not Ginny.
Fake-Dating The Single Dad (Gems 0f Love Book 3) Page 10