I gathered Faye and brought her into my bedroom. Jacob’s nose was a little out of joint at being abandoned three-fourths of the way through a scary clown movie. But when I spelled out the alternative, him taking care of the baby while I continued to take care of Alex, his pout faded.

“I’m going to grab her a clean diaper before she falls back to sleep,” I say handing the baby to Alex. He hesitates and takes her from me holding her similarly to the way Jacob had earlier. I was ready to walk away when I realize her discomfort and turn around to show him how to do it right. “Hold her close like you do with me. Support her back with this hand. Good, yes, exactly like that. Now she feels safe in her daddy’s arms.” I smile down at him sitting on the edge of my bed, and he smiles up at me although his smile is small, crooked, and unsure.

It’s a good look. The arrogant smugness that he usually exudes is gone for now, and I am enjoying the sensitive and vulnerable side of Alex Wolfe. I take my time going to the living room to get Faye’s bags. I stop at Jacob’s door on my way and blow him a kiss good night.

“Night, honey. Will you wake me in the morning? I’m sleeping with earplugs in case your little screamer wakes up.”

I roll my eyes. “Yes, princess. I’ll make sure you’re up. Six o’clock okay?’

He gasps. “Are you out of your mind? Seven at the earliest, I need my beauty sleep.”

He doesn’t need beauty sleep at all. He’s beautiful enough for both of us, but I nod and pad down the dim hall. I stop just outside my door to peek in to find Alex holding Faye the same way I left him. He has relaxed a bit, and he is talking softly to her while she looks at him in awe. I know how she feels—he’s a ruggedly metrosexual man who is easy on the eyes. I’d stare at him like that, too, if I could get away with it.

“Okay,” I say announcing myself when I enter the room. “How about a dry diaper and some sleep, sound good?”

“Yes, I think she’s wet,” he says laying her down on her back.

I tickle her under the chin, and she smiles. “I’ll bet she is. She had a whole bottle before she went to sleep.”

“When will she eat again?” he asks as she wraps her hand around his finger and pulls it to her mouth.

“She’s nine months old. I think she will be okay until morning.”

“Are you sure? That seems like a long time for a baby.”

“She’s eating rice cereal and some baby food, too, not just bottles. You’re a biggie girl, aren’t you?” I say wiggling her out of her pink sleeper.

“How do you know that?”

“Her schedule. Lilly put it in her bag.”

“You seem to know a lot about babies.”

“I babysat a lot growing up to help with the bills. They’re pretty easy, just change their diaper, feed them, play with them, and make sure they get good sleep.”

“I highly doubt it’s as easy as that.”

I look at him out of the corner of my eye. “You’ll be fine. Maybe you should hire a nanny for a little while until you two are comfortable with one another.”

“A nanny?”

“Yes, there are tons of agencies around. Just call and set up some interviews.”

“I don’t want a nanny. I want you.”

I slide the clean diaper under her butt and remove the wet one wrapping it up and tossing it into the trashcan next to my bed. I choose my words carefully. “Alex, I would love to help you when I can, but I have a business to run, and we hardly know each other. Wouldn’t you rather have a professional taking care of her?”

“No. I want you. She likes you, look at her smile.”

“She probably has gas.”

“See, you are a professional. I would never have known babies smile when they have gas.”

“You’ll learn, it takes time to get to know someone.” The double meaning behind my words aren’t lost on him.

“Olivia, I realize we have only known each other for a short time, but my feelings for you are not going anywhere, and I think you feel the same way.”

“I don’t usually get too involved because I’m so busy…”

“You don’t get involved because you don’t want to get hurt. It’s okay to be honest with me. I understand that hesitance.”

“I am busy, too, though.”

“I run a law firm, so I understand busy.”

“Then how are we going to do this? If we do it, I mean.”

“Help me with Faye, and I’ll take care of the rest. I promise, your business will not suffer. I’ll hire someone extraordinary to do what you want to be done, and when things are running smoothly at home with Faye, you will be able to go right back to work.”

“What happens to Faye then?”

“I’ll take care of her myself.”

I straighten up and place my hand on my hip. “Wait a minute. You’re going to take care of a baby, run your law firm, and do whatever else you do with no help?”

“I never said that. You will still be in my life, and she can go to the daycare at the firm when I’m there.”

“You’d rather take her to a daycare than hire a full-time nanny?”

“Yes. She will be well cared for at the daycare, it’s my daycare after all. And I don’t want anyone else living under my roof and being so close to me.”

“What about all of your staff that already live there?”

“They have specific jobs to do, and they live in their perspective quarters away from me. I would want Faye to be near me, and that puts a strange woman near me, and I do not want that. My employees have been with me for years, they’ve all had extensive background checks, and I trust every one of them with something I value above all else, my privacy.”

He doesn’t want a strange woman in his living quarters. That makes sense. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but how long are we talking?”

“I’m not sure, how long do you think it will take to get her on a new schedule and settled in at my house and with me?”

I drop my arm and tip my head back to look at the ceiling. “I have no idea, Alex. This isn’t something I ever had to deal with when I was thirteen years old and babysitting the Anderson’s twins down the street. I’m not sure how I feel about handing over my life’s work to some stranger either. I’ll still have to work.”

“Okay, how about this, you nanny for me, and I will pay you handsomely to do so for two months. During that two months we, you and I together, will hire someone to work in your shop and perform your daily tasks such as baking and helping customers. Any and all major decisions will go through you, and you can work there on weekends so your beautiful face will stay synonymous with your brand.”

He’s good, really good. No wonder he’s the best medical malpractice attorney around. My mom used to use the expression he could sell a cape to Superman. I think she was talking about Alex Wolfe.

“You’ve thought of everything.”

“That’s what I do, sweet girl.”

I look down, and Faye has fallen to sleep. I’m glad she’s too little to understand what’s going on around her. “She’s asleep. We should move her to the middle of the bed and sleep on either side of her.”

“No, I need to sleep next to you.”

Alex stands up, and I move Faye to the center of the mattress and build a wall of pillows and blankets on one side of her, and we crawl in and spoon on the other side.

“Have you made a decision?”

“I have. I’ll do it on one condition.”

“Name it, anything you want.”

“I will have a say in every decision made with my shop, not just major ones. If they need to order an extra bag of flour, I want to know about it. And, I want all of this drawn up by my lawyer, no offense.”

“None taken… your shop, your rules, your lawyer.”

“That’s right.” He may be good at manipulation, but my business is my life, and I’ll protect it at all costs.

He presses against me, and I feel his cock harden. “I missed your sass.”

“You’re going to keep missing it, too. From what I hear, having a baby can seriously mess with your sex life.”

“Never. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. You can bank on that.”

I smile in the dim room and relax in his arms watching Faye’s little chest rise and fall with every breath. My life has done a complete three-sixty in a matter of a week, and amazingly enough, I’m not too freaked out about it. Being with Alex makes me feel like we can do anything together.

I hope that’s true.