The Billionaire's Nanny

38

Mia leaned down, grabbing my broken phone in her hand before I got the chance to stop her. I did not plan to though, I was too shaken by the last message to move an inch. 

"What the hell is this Chris?" she asked, as her eyes roamed the message, "Is this the reason you have been uneasy all afternoon?" she flashed the messages in my face, confusion, and anger plastered across her face. 

"What's going in here?" Lilian asked, strolling over to us. She had a louder gasp after Mia handed her the phone. 

"Chris, this is scary," she said, eyes darting around in search of what I could not bother to figure out, "who is it?" 

"Sarah," I said with surprising calmness,

"Sarah?!" their faces mirrored the horror written on mine. 

"She's going for the kid's," I handed Zoey over to Lilian, without waiting for them to complete their surprised expressions, "we have to get to the kid's school," I raced out through the glass doors, scrambling for my keys as I made my way to the Mall's exit. 

Mia said something to Lilian about packing the velvet lingerie she handed her, before following behind me. I could hear her calling out my name as she tried to catch up with me, but I could not bring my legs to stop moving until I made sure for myself that the kids were safe. 

I had never met Sarah before, but if she was capable of stalking me, I was pretty sure she was capable of kidnapping her kids. The thought made my heart thump louder in my chest. 

This was all my fault. If I had just told Lucas what was going on from the first time I thought I was being followed, none of this would be happening. If I wasted even a second more, Lucas and the kids would be the ones paying for my bad choices. 

I could not live with that. 

Mia caught up with me at the parking lot just as I held the car door open. She moved swiftly, standing in between me and the car, as she tried to catch her breath. "You're shaking," she panted, "you'll get yourself murdered if you drive." she pulled my car keys from my hand before I got the chance to protest. 

"Get in," she climbed into the driver's seat while I turned around to the other side to get in too. 

"What about Lilian and Zoey?" I asked, looking behind as Mia turned the car around with more speed than I could have imagined. 

"She waited to clear us out, she'll come in her car." she said, eyes trained on the road, "how long to the kid's school?"

"Too long if you don't drive faster," I snapped, biting my nails to hold back from crying. There was no room for me to be emotional right now. 

"Of course why don't we just get a private jet instead," she bit back, clearly tense too by how quickly everything was going, "I'm sure Lucas has one." 

"I'm sorry Mia, today has just been bad for me, and now I think I'm about to go crazy just thinking of what Sarah might do to Abby and Aiden," despite my best efforts, I found myself fidgeting in my seat. 

"Why would Sarah want to hurt the kids?" she gave me a look full of confusion. 

"She's been following me for the last few weeks,' I blurted, "and I can not explain anything else to you, just please get to the school fast enough." 

Thankfully, Mia did not try to make any further inquiries or say anything else. She stepped on the gas, jerking back into her seat, as she zipped through traffic with wondrous speed. I dug my hand into my purse and realized too late that I left my phone with Lilian. I did not get the time though to brood over my phone as we got in the waiting line for the cars approaching the school's parking lot. 

"It would take minutes to get past this," Mia said with a frown. 

"Call Lucas," I said, unstrapping my seatbelt and pushing the car door open. "I can get to them faster on foot." 

I was so tense by the time I raced past the school's security, that I almost did not recognize the man standing next to the familiar red Ferrari car or the sweet sounds of my two favorite twins arguing next to him the moment I walked into the parking lot. I blinked a few times to make sure I was still seeing right and to my surprise and relief, it was Lucas and the kids. 

I sighed in relief, holding my thumping chest. I took a moment to drink in the sight of Abby and Aiden fighting over god knows what now and the beautiful man that watched them with pride and love and adoration. Without so much as a second thought, I closed the distance between us, kneeling to wrap the twins in a tight hug. 

They stiffened in surprise, but immediately relaxed as they realized it was me. They wrapped their small hands around me, squealing happily as I poured all the relief I felt into our embrace. 

"Chris?" Lucas said from above us, just as his phone rang. I knew it was Mia calling and I knew I should have stopped him and given him the explanation first, but I could not bring myself to tear away from the kids. Even if the building was on fire, it would still take a miracle to pull me away in those seconds. 

"I'm so glad you're both okay," I said and it took me a second to realize I was sobbing. 

"What?" Lucas snapped. Well here comes the s**t. he paused for a second and said, "I have the kids here with me," his jaws clenched then he paused to listen again and finally spoke, "no, come take the kids. She won't drive. I'll take her home myself." I could almost feel his eyes boring into me, and I knew I had a s**t load of explanation to do, but at least for now, I could breathe easy knowing they were safe. 

"You're crying Chris," Aby said, sounding suddenly worried. She pulled back, and Aiden followed too. 

"Oh no baby," I wiped the tears quickly, knowing it would scare them to see me crying so much, "I'm sorry, I'm just really happy to see you both," I forced a nervous laugh and managed to reach Lucas's eyes for a split second. He did not look happy. 

"You saw us in the morning," Aiden protested, but still reached out to wipe the tears that remained in my eyes. It melted my heart to see them care so much. 

"It's just because I love you both too much, that's why I missed you so much today." I gave a more genuine smile this time. 

"I love you too," Abby grinned. 

"I love you more," Aiden countered with a grin too. 

"Okay kids," Lucas said from above us, "It's time to go and aunt Mia is waiting to come to take you both out for ice cream," he was trying his best not to sound pissed, but his voice faltered into a clipped tone as he spoke. 

"But you were going to take us for ice cream," Abby whined. 

"I was," he said, jaws clenched, "actually we were going to surprise Chris at the mall," from his tone, I knew that part was for me, "but clearly I have a bigger surprise I need to deal with." 

"Daddy are you upset?" Aiden asked in a small frightened voice. 

"Oh no buddy," he said snapping back into a cooler demeanor. "I just have something really important to deal with," he shot me a sharp look, "I'll take you next week," he promised, brushing his hand through Aiden's hair. 

"Is Chris still going to come?" Abby asked in her usual hopeful voice. 

"No," Lucas answered before I git the chance to. "we have to go somewhere."

The disappointment they wore on their faces did not last long after Lucas led them down the parking lot to where Mia parked my car. I could see them from where I leaned on his car, squealing and cooing at Zoey who just arrived with her mom. I watched like a child waiting to be scolded after doing something really bad. Lucas was doing a great job controlling his anger, and I could tell it was for the sake of the kids, even so, I could see through him that he was flipping mad at whatever Mia had told him over the phone. 

I knew I should not have hidden this from him. Now it was time to face the music. 

He stretched out my phone to me as he returned to the car. I took it with shaky hands and mumbled a thank you to which he gave no reply. Despite his irk, he still held out the door for me and waited for me to climb in, before banging it shut and getting in through his side. 

The drive home was quiet and terribly shorter than I wished it would be. Lucas headed first for the minibar and poured himself a drink, and I could not help but wonder what he was thinking since the unreadable expression he wore on his face betrayed no emotions. 

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" he asked in a clipped and cold tone with his back to me. 

"Um, I..um," I stuttered, realizing that I did not even know where to start. 

"I'm not biting you, Chris," he turned to me. 

"Yet," I realized too late that I had said that out loud and clamped my mouth shut when Lucas gave me a glare. 

"I just want to know why Mia called asking me to get to the kid's school quickly because they were about to be f*****g kidnapped." he took a swig of his drink and added in a strained voice, "by Sarah." 

"I don't know either," I blurted and sighed, taking out my phone.

"What do you even mean by that?" he glowered. 

"I'm saying I do not know what the hell is going on okay," I opened the message I had received and stretched my phone out to him, "I just know someone has been stalking me for the last few weeks..."

"What?" he stepped closer, not bothering to hide the shoe and concern on his face. He dropped the drink on the bar counter and took the phone from me, reading through the message. 

"Yes Lucas," I threw my hands in the air and moved to seat on the couch, holding my hand in my head. "I was not sure at first, and when I became sure, I realized it was a woman and me just kind of guessed it was Sarah, and then she stopped following me after the last time she bumped into me at the school," 

"That was her?!"

Ignoring him, I continued, "but then she resurfaced again today at the mall, and then I got this message on my phone, and I just kind of freaked out thinking she was out to hurt the kids and I did not know what to do so I did the only thing my very worried and very crazy mind could think of that's why Mia called you okay?" I was hyperventilating at this point, "I hope you have your answer now on what the hell is going on,"

"Chris," his tone no longer had the coldness that made him scary minutes ago. He closed the distance between us and dropped to his knees in front of me, pushing my hands away from my face and forcing me to meet his eyes. "this is all so much, Jesus, why did you not tell me any of this?" 

"Because I was scared," I sobbed, getting to my feet. Lucas followed too, moving to stand in front of me.

"For f***s sake what could you have possibly been scared off?!" he snapped, "I was right here, every day, every time. All you had to do was tell me once that you felt like you were being followed or you were uncomfortable in the very least, that was just all you had to do." 

"You make it sound like it's easy—like you make it easy. Like you would not snap every time I even mentioned her name, like just the thought of her does not completely change your mood and every damn thing about you." I wiped away the tears that rolled down my cheeks angrily. 

"Chris," he called my name in a much calmer tone, and for some reason that was even more upsetting than when he sounded mad, "Muffin if you would only have told me once that you felt that way, I would have done something about it. You could have even told me you were being stalked without telling me your suspicion, I would never let it get this far," 

"I'm sorry Lucas," I whispered, wrapping my arms around myself. No matter how much I tried to push the blame away, it was all on me. I had been careless enough to keep something so important away from him. "I'm sorry that I put the kids in such danger," 

"Do you really think it's just the kids I'm worried about right now?" he stepped closer taking the arm that had been hurt the other day, "if she got close enough to hurt your arm..." he trailed off, smoothing his palm over my hand to my wrist. 

"It stopped hurting since the first day," I said, feeling guilty for giving him more reason to worry. 

"I cannot believe I let her get close to you," clearly, my attempt to make him less worried only resulted in making him guilty. 

"You did not know," 

"I did," he corrected, retracting his hand and looking away. 

"What does that even mean?" I asked, terrified of what answer he might give. 

"My sources informed me when Sarah returned to the country and..." 

"You have people for that?" I wore my shock plainly on my face. 

"I know," he said running his hands over his face, "I set them up when Sarah and I recently got divorced, for some dumb reason, I wanted to know her every move, maybe because letting go was much more difficult than I thought it would be. I was relieved when they informed me she was permanently moving away from the country, but only recently, I got the news that she was back," 

"So you knew she was here all along?" 

"I did, but I never expected her to pull up such a stupid stunt or more importantly cause you any danger." 

"Well you were wrong" I snapped, suddenly feeling more pissed. 

He reached out to hold me firmer this time, "I know you're upset right now," I wanted more than anything to tell him that I was more upset at the fact that he was still keeping tabs on a woman who not only abandoned him years ago but completely broke his heart too, but I knew that would achieve nothing. In his opinion he had completely gotten over Sarah, I though saw things from a different perspective and I was not liking what I saw. "But I honestly did not think Sarah would ever want to hurt you," 

"What does she want?" That was the one thing I wanted to know more than anything. 

His jaw ticked and his eyes flashed with guilt, and for a second I feared that he had the answer to that, but instead, he said, "I really wish I could tell you, I wish I knew." 

"That's fine, I just want her to stop following me, It's creepy and I feel like I would go crazy anytime, that is if I am not already," I looked away, remembering all the times I had become frantic and horrified at the thought that she was behind me. 

"You're not crazy Chris," he wiped the fresh tears that fell with the pad of his thumb, "and I promise she will not be following you anymore. I will make sure of it." 

Lucas's expression softened, he reached out with his other hand, grazing his fingertips over my jawline, "I'm sorry you had to go through this, alone," without giving me a chance to lift some guilt off his shoulders, he leaned down, closing his lips over mine. 

The whole day had been brutally hard on my system, I had gone from confused to excited to nervous to aroused to completely horrified and the day was not nearly over yet. But all of the s**t I had faced seemed to melt away as his lips moved against mine. One hand wrapped around the back of my neck tugging me closer. The taste of his bourbon lingered as he explored my mouth, and I plunged my tongue in his, ready to pick off where my imaginations had left off at the mall. 

Maybe it was the wrong time to let our desires overcome us right now, but I only knew one way to quench these desires raging inside me. And thankfully, I did not have to ask, Lucas was already taking the lead. 

He pulled back, and stared at me, eyes darkened with the intensity of both our desires. If I did not know better, I would mistake the look on his face for anger. I swallowed thickly against the lump that formed in my throat at his next words, "Is it so wrong that the only thing I can think of right now is how I want to f**k the memories of today out of your system?" 

"Not in the very least,"