The grass looked a little greener than it had the last time. The trees along the back fence even seemed a little taller to me. I sprawled out on one of the lounge chairs and just took in the warmth of the sun. This was what I had pictured myself doing while the kids were at school. But instead, I was curled up in my bed totally exhausted.
For the rest of my afternoon, I took advantage of the beautiful day we were having and sat outside as much as possible. I made some eggs and brought them out first and then since I was still hungry, I made a sandwich and brought it out as well.
I even went and grabbed my swimsuit and threw it on as the afternoon warmed up even more. With a good book and my shades on, I did my best to fully relax and enjoy the day. I didn’t have to start getting ready until at least six o’clock, so I was going to really enjoy the quiet I had going on.
“Summer is naked!” I heard Thomas yell as he slid the back door open.
“I am not,” I protested. “This is my swimsuit. I’m getting a suntan.”
Thomas and Faith just blasted right past me as they ran out to their fort in the back of the yard. As I stood up from my lounge chair, Tyler was standing in the doorway staring at me with a smile he just couldn’t wipe off of his face.
“What? I’m not naked,” I again protested.
“Pretty close,” he teased.
“This is a normal swimsuit. It’s not that tiny.”
“Let me see, do a spin,” he said as he playfully motioned for me to spin around.
I did as he asked just to play with him. This particular swimsuit was actually covering me more than any other from my collection. It had cheeky bottoms but a full top. Nothing like the string bikinis I had decided not to bring with me.
“You like?” I teased.
“Yeah, that’s a nice swimsuit. But I thought you were going out with your friends tonight?”
“I am, just not meeting up until later. I really enjoyed spending the day out here. The house is a lot different when everyone is gone.”
“I always found it hard to relax when I had the house to myself – like when I would take the kids to school and work from home. It was creepy as it was so quiet.”
“Well, I better go get in the shower and start getting ready,” I said as I walked over to the sliding glass door, but Tyler didn’t move.
His eyes were glued to my body as he stayed right where he was. The look of desire that filled his face was clearly the same one I’d seen before. I wasn’t sure if I’d just been too tired this week to notice it or if he had been behaving himself so much that he wasn’t giving me that look.
“Oh, sorry,” he said as he finally realized he was blocking the door. “Call if you need a ride home or anything like that.”
“I can get an Uber, but thanks.” I laughed as I went toward the stairs.
“Where are you guys going?”
“Club Lively.”
“Oh, yeah, I hear it’s nice there. Okay, well, have fun,” he said again as I turned and made my way up the stairs.
I couldn’t help smiling as I closed my bedroom door behind me and hopped into the shower. It only took me an hour to get ready instead of my usual two hours because I just didn’t care as much as I normally did. I wasn’t at all interested in looking for men and just wanted to have fun.
Instead of my usual super short dress that clung to every curve, I opted for a flowing style dress with flowers. I kept my hair down with a couple of braids on either side to spice it up a little, and instead of my super hi-heels, I had on a pair of sandals. It was a great feeling to come down the stairs and not have to worry that I might topple to my death.
“Wow,” Tyler said right away.
“You look like a princess,” Faith added.
“Thanks, guys.”
“I like this look. Very cute,” Tyler added with a nod.
I knew exactly what he meant. I wasn’t dolling myself with a ton of makeup and my super hi-heels. Instead, this felt much more like the real me, and I was one hundred percent more comfortable than I normally was on a night out.
“Well, you guys have a fun night. I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said as I gave Faith and Thomas a little hug. “You too,” I motioned to Tyler but didn’t hug him.
“Have fun,” they all said as they waved goodbye.
Chapter 10
Tyler
Summer was looking damn good. It was really worth it to come home early and run into her in that swim suit. Dang, I couldn’t stop thinking about her for the rest of the night. It was a little surprising that she had on sandals instead of those heels that she loved so much, but it was a good look for her.
Her hair was pulled up in a cute design, and she had color back in her cheeks and a smile from ear to ear. Things seemed to be going much better for her with a day off to relax, and I was really glad.
With only a few weeks left until my big trip, I had to make sure she was going to be able to handle the kids without any major events. At this point, I was still a little worried about her being able to hold down the fort, but hopefully, she’d keep feeling more and more confident.
When Summer left for her evening of fun with her friends, the kids and I started our movie marathon. The baseball game had been a scorcher, and we were all a little sunburned and tired, so I doubted we would make it through all three of the Disney movies that the kids had picked out.
At 8 o’clock, I loaded in the first movie to the DVD player, and we cuddled up on the couch with our popcorn. This sort of downtime with the kids was what I craved the most. I could care less about running around and constant after-school activities. I liked spending as much time alone with the kids as possible.
“You guys are growing up so much,” I said as I pulled the two of them closer to me.
“Dad,” Thomas said as he wiped the kiss off of his cheek.
Faith just smiled up at me and then turned back to the movie. It was true, though, I could still remember when they were both barely able to talk, and now the two of them could practically take care of themselves. I couldn’t imagine what life was going to be like when they were teenagers.
Our night ended a little early as both of the kids fell asleep during the first movie, and I had to carry them off to bed. For the first time in a very long time, I thought about their rooms upstairs and how I should clean them out and get them set up for the kids again. With such a giant house, it was ridiculous that we just lived downstairs because of all the old memories. Plus, having Summer upstairs might actually make the kids feel better since I often left for work before anyone was up.
After tucking both of the kids into their beds, I made my way up the stairs and to the bedroom that had once been Faith’s. It was still decorated in her baby nursery décor, which Claire and I had talked about changing for years and never got around to.
At one point, I had put some boxes in the room because I was going to pack things away, but I never got to that step. This time, I opened one of the boxes and actually started to load things into it.
Although it was slow going at first, soon I was getting excited about how much fun Faith and I would have picking furniture out for her new room. She was going to love picking out big girl furniture and trying to find things to decorate her room with.
With my music blaring, I managed to work well into the night cleaning up Faith’s room first and then moving over to Thomas’ room. When two o’clock rolled around, and I saw a car stopping in front of the driveway, I was wide awake and packing up the boxes still.
I watched Summer from the window as she wobbly walked up to the house. She looked like she had a little bit to drink, but not too much. She managed to get into the house just fine and walked up the stairs quietly so she wouldn’t wake any of us.
When she got to the top of the stairs, I peeked my head out to check and see how her evening went. She really did deserve to have a fun night with her friends and let loose a little. She was still young, and being cooped up with the kids all day every day had to b
e getting hard for her.
“Did you have a fun night?” I asked.
“Oh, my God, yes,” she said as she came straight up to me and hugged me. “We talked about you a lot. Sorry.”
I had to laugh at her playfulness as she let go of me and stood at the other side of the hallway near her bedroom. She looked so damn beautiful in her flowing dress and sandals like someone out of one of the kids’ Disney movies.
“You look like you had fun.”
“Come here; I want to tell you all about it,” she said as she motioned for me to come into her room.
As she opened the door, I realized she hadn’t decorated her room at all yet. She still had her luggage bags all around and looked like she was getting ready to leave at any moment. That made me really nervous. I hoped she hadn’t felt like leaving because she was so overstressed, but more than that, I hoped she was feeling better now and didn’t want to leave if she once had wanted that.
“Okay, tell me about your night,” I said playfully as I plopped down on the big bed and she sat in the fluffy chair across the way.
“Oh, my gosh. First of all, I loved wearing these shoes instead of heels. Big props for me on wearing those.” She laughed as she unhooked the buckles and took the shoes off. “Second of all, I really like this job, and you made me feel so much better when you told me I wasn’t as horrible as I thought I was. Thank you for that, even if you were lying.”
“You are doing a great job. So did you guys go dancing?”
“Yeah, but mainly we just hung out and drank. It was nice to have a life to talk about besides just shopping. And I gave Patrick his rent money that I was behind on, so he was really happy about that.”
“I have to tell you something.” I laughed as I remembered what I wanted to tell her and kept forgetting about.
“Oh, no, I’m fired?”
“No,” I said. “Did you go to a country dancing bar a few weeks ago and met a guy with a yellow tooth?”
“Um, yeah, how did you know that?”
“He’s my partner at work. The other day when you and the kids ran out of gas and you slept on my couch, he saw you come in and was totally freaking out that you were my nanny.”
“No way!” she said as she jumped up from her chair and slapped my arm before pouncing on the bed next to me. “You know that guy?”
“Yeah, he’s like my best friend.”
“What’s with the tooth then? He’s got money, right? He’s your partner. Why doesn’t he fix his tooth?”
Summer was leaning over and super interested in my answer. It was actually pretty funny how I seemed to have her full attention.
“You really want to know why he hasn’t fixed his tooth, don’t you?” I laughed.
“Yeah, it’s baffling me. Seriously, how on earth could someone just walk around with a tooth like that if they could afford to get it fixed? That’s really weird to me. So tell me, why?”
“I don’t know, maybe I should leave you in the dark,” I teased.
“No, you tell me right now,” she demanded as she got up on her knees and put her hands on her hips like that was some sort of threat to me or something.
“I think I might just keep this little tidbit of information to myself now,” I continued to joke.
“Tell me now,” she said playfully as she pushed me over.
Somewhere between her pushing me over and then climbing on top of me, this whole playing around thing turned into something much different. I kept my hands on the bed and did my best not to touch her, but Summer pressed her hands into my chest as she continued to demand that I tell her.
“I’m not telling.” I laughed as she started to tickle me. “You can’t make me.”
“Tell me right now.” Her face got super serious, and she narrowed her eyes down at me. I couldn’t stop laughing as she started to tickle me even harder.
“Stop,” I said through my laughter. “Seriously, I’m so serious. You better stop.”
“You don’t look serious.” She laughed. “You look very unserious.”
Then I reached up and pulled her down to me and let my lips take hers. She didn’t seem shocked by it at all. In fact, she quickly started to kiss me back. Her hips rolled against mine, and I throbbed hard for her.
There was no stopping us now that we started this. No giving up this path I’d committed myself to. No, if Summer wanted me as badly as I wanted her, then I couldn’t hold back any longer.
A funny thing happens to a man when his body is consumed by desire. Any and all reasoning skills disappear, and that is exactly what happened to me at that moment. As Summer’s hands slid up my shirt and pressed against my body, I gave up any hope of letting logic get in the way of what we were about to do.
“We are doing this?” Summer asked breathlessly.
“We can stop.”
“No, don’t stop,” she moaned.
Her hands quickly unbuckled me, and before I knew what was going on, she was sliding my pants down and throwing them onto the ground. She slammed her bedroom door shut and locked it before grabbing a condom out of her side table drawer.
I had a lot of questions about why she had condoms in her side table drawer, but now wasn’t the time to be bringing those questions up.
Summer was in charge. She slid her white lace panties down to the ground and stopped at the end of the bed to admire how hard I was for her. She didn’t say anything; she simply looked me over before she crawled up the bed.
“I want you so bad,” she said before her lips wrapped around me, and I closed my eyes in the midst of absolute pleasure.
Slowly she moved up and down my body as I felt my hips thrusting in time with her movements. She became even more worked up than before and then unwrapped the condom and slid it over me.
“Are you sure about this?” I asked one last time.
“Shhhh,” she said as she put her finger to her mouth and stood over me.
She kept her finger on her mouth as her body took me inside of her, and I felt the tightness of her pleasure around me. For a minute, she teased me by moving her hips only slightly while she reached back and pulled her dress up and over her head.
“You are so beautiful,” I whispered as my hands went straight to her breasts.
“I’ve wanted you since I first laid eyes on you,” Summer said as she looked down on me.
Her body rocked and moved faster and faster as the pleasure between us built up more. She fell onto me and let her hip grind hard against me as I felt her body starting to tighten. Harder and harder we moved together until I felt myself getting close to explosion.
“I’m cuming now,” she moaned out as if to give me the freedom for my own explosion.
I took her cue and let my body release the flood of desire that had built up. We both let out one final thrust and deep moan as our bodies gave in to the perfection of the moment. It wasn’t a tender lovemaking session, that was for sure, but it was hot as hell, and I couldn’t believe it had just happened.
As Summer collapsed into my arms and lay on top of me, my mind started spinning as I tried to figure out what I should do next. What was appropriate for a man to do when he’s just slept with his nanny? Should I sleep in the room with her? Go to my own room? Invite her to come to my room? There really should be some protocols for a situation like this.
I decided to stay there with Summer for a little while as she cuddled up next to me. I was tired, but I couldn’t go to sleep. All I could hear was the voice of Rob in my head telling me how much I messed up by sleeping with my nanny. He would certainly tell me I shouldn’t have done it.
“This was a one-time thing,” Summer whispered as she moved to lay beside me. “We won’t speak of it again.”
“Um, okay,” I replied.
“It’s not a big deal. So don’t make it one, okay. We go back to normal tomorrow.”
“Okay,” I said, although I wasn’t sure going back to normal was going to be an option for us.
I’d just seen
her naked, and she had seen me naked. My body was inside of hers, and we both gave into this primal desire that was held up inside of us. It wasn’t going to be possible to just turn back the clock and go back to the way things were before.
When the sun started to rise in the morning, I gathered my clothes and hurried downstairs to my bedroom. I wanted to be in my normal bed when the kids woke up. Summer didn’t wake up as I snuck out of her room, and I wasn’t planning on waking her up either.
The kids and I had plans to go to the children’s museum for a play date, and technically Sunday was Summer’s day off. I slept a couple more hours and then got into the shower while the kids ate their cereal for breakfast.
We managed to get all of us ready and out the door before Summer was awake, and that was a huge relief for me. Although she had been the one to say things wouldn’t change, I just wasn’t so sure about that. Women had a hard time with casual sex, and it wasn’t the same for them as it was for guys. But then again, Summer had been the one who initiated things between us, so maybe she wouldn’t have any issues with this at all. The whole thing made me really nervous, though.
At the children’s museum, the other family we were meeting up with took all the kids with them, and I was left sitting on the side while they went through one of the exhibits. I couldn’t help giving Rob a call and telling him what had happened. I needed a little advice.
“So I slept with the nanny,” I said right when he picked up his phone.
“Summer? Damn you. You slept with her? I knew it.”
“Yeah, so she basically just threw me down on the bed and had her way with me. It was wild. Then she said it was a one-time thing and not to let it change anything between us.”
“Uh oh,” Rob said in a low sort of scary voice.
“What do you mean? Isn’t that good? I don’t understand.”
“What did you say when she said it was a one-time thing?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“God, Tyler, seriously? Have you really been out of the market so long that you have no idea what’s going on?”
“I don’t understand what’s going on.” I laughed. “I really don’t. Why is this bad? She said she didn’t want it to change anything between us.”
Bedroom Rodeo: A Billionaire Romance Page 11