The Billionaire's Nanny

45

The next morning, Lucas woke up feeling even worse than he felt last night. Mia had gone home last night after she made me promise a thousand promises to call if he did not get better overnight, so I had my hands full with taking care of the kids and looking after Lucas too.

The latter was harder though since Lucas would not even admit to being sick.

"I'm fine, I swear," he grumbled as I put my hand over his head again.

"No, you're not. People who are fine do not have high temperatures enough to burn up." I leaned back from where I sat on the mattress next to the cold water and towel I used on him all morning. It almost felt weird sitting next to him in the same bed and I worked hard to keep memories of how many times he had taken me on this very bed from my mind. Thankfully I had a more important distraction to keep my mind busy. I pressed the water off the towel and placed it on his head, despite his many protests about being fine. "If your temperature does not improve, I might dump you in a bowl of ice."

"That's so sweet," he said drily, trying and failing to hold back a shiver.

"You're cold," I said taking a peek of the early morning sun as the bright rays filled the room through the open windows.

"I'm fine, it's just work stress," he growled.

"And now you're about to dive back into the same stress you speak of," I raised a brow, hoping he would see how ridiculously stubborn he was being right now.

He didn't.

"You never heard about the magic Tylenol," he held the bottle that sat on the nightstand up to prove his point.

"You have been taking this all night and you still look bad," I pressed, "maybe you should see a doctor or even better, visit the hospital."

"No," he said sharply, throwing his legs over the bed and rising with a grunt, "I am not going to the hospital because I do not need to," he squared his shoulders, but I could see right through his false bravado. "I'm fine and I have a s**t ton of work to finish today, so I need to get ready." He took a few long, heavy steps towards the bathroom.

He was in a bad shape, but he would not even admit it.

Stubborn arse.

"Can you not finish them up here at home?"

"I'm fine Muffin," he growled.

I wanted to remind him that he was no longer allowed to call me that but lost the will to as my heart skipped a few beats when he took his shirt off. How does he get to be so hot even when he's ill?

"I'm sure the kids should be ready for school now," he said, tossing the shirt to the floor, "you should leave to take them now. I'll get ready for work."

"Lucas," I started, mustering the strength to move my wobbly legs to stand close to him. "I'm not sure you should go to work today. You look pretty bad."

"Are you worried about me?" he quirked a brow and for some reason, the air between us felt so tense, I thought it would crack any second. I struggled to keep my breathing steady and my thoughts clear as he pushed the pair of sweatpants he had on, leaving him in just his boxer briefs that left absolutely nothing to the imagination.

Breathe Chris, it's nothing you haven't seen before.

"Why would I be?" I shrugged, walking past him to put the towel away. Even I was not buying my feigned nonchalance and from the smirk playing on his lips, I knew he was well aware of what he was doing to me with just his presence. "You can do whatever you want, I don't care."

His eyes darkened with hurt, but he just nodded tersely, letting me walk past him into the bathroom. This feels like a trap. It was not until I had placed the towel on the hanger that I felt the familiar warmth from Lucas's body pressing mine against the tiled wall of the bathroom. Suddenly I felt too dizzy and my knees felt so weak they would buck anytime.

He was not playing fair.

I had brought up the idea of going back to what we were before he shredded every last bit of whatever innocence I had reserved left, but if was going to keep confusing me with just his hot breath on my shoulder, this was going to be much harder to keep up. "You're worried," his words came out in a guttural grunt, reminding me that he still needed to see a doctor. He was not asking this time, it was an affirmation. He saw right through me, not like I made it hard to anyway. And I knew I was not imaging the smallest hint of hope tugging at his tone.

"I'm just being a good nanny," I managed to breathe, though my panties already felt thoroughly soaked. I would not be surprised to find a damp spot in my skirt the moment I sat down again.

"You're not my nanny," he growled with a hint of amusement.

"The kids would be devastated if anything happened to you. I'm worried about Abby and Aiden, not you."

Liar.

I turned around in his arms, meaning to push him away, but lost the strength to as he trapped me further into the wall with his strong arms. His eyes were heavy, tired even, but his blue irises still held that lust they had every time he touched me, kissed me, held me in arms, every time he made me cry out his name. There was the hunger and if I did not know better, I would have said they were pleading too.

Too lost in the pool of his fiery gaze, I did not bother to pull back when his lips crashed into mine. There was no strength to. As he deepened his kiss, slamming his tongue into mine so hard, I could barely breathe, I wondered how I had managed to live without his lips on mine for a whole damn week.

I held on to him like he was my very life, parting my lips further to give him more room to leave his mark on them. For the sake of my dignity, I managed to hold back a whimper when he pulled back. It was bad enough that I had let him kiss me, the only thing that could make it even worse was making him think I wanted more.

Even though more was not nearly a good enough word for what I wanted from Lucas right now.

His palm felt hot on my cheeks as he cupped them and it was hard to tell if it was out of his spiraling temperature or because my body was already raging with fire from his kiss. He stroked my lips with the pad of his thumb, resting his head on mine he gave me a long look that made me think he was really about to take this further.

But instead, he threw my words back at me in my face, "Your words and actions have to match Christine."

*************************************************************************************************************

The day dragged on longer than I wished it would, though it had more to do with the fact that I had not heard any news from Lucas. While that could have meant he was now fine and better, I had a strong feeling it was the opposite and despite all the pep talks I had given myself all day,  I still found myself jumping off the kitchen stool the moment I heard the front door unlock at around 10 pm.

"Lucas?" I called as I stepped into the dark foyer, hands searching for the light switch. I had taken the kids to bed a few hours ago and thanks to my mind that was spiraling out of control for him, I could not get a shut-eye after almost an hour of trying so instead, I decided to wait for him to come home. I knew my mind would not be at ease until I saw for myself that he was better than just fine.

The sound of a bottle clattering to the ground from the direction of the door, made me realize I was not wrong to wait up. He had not gotten better.

The foyer lights came on and I squinted briefly at the flood of rays that swarmed my lids. "Sorry," he mumbled, leaning down with so much difficulty to pick the fallen bottle of Tylenol. "Did I wake you up?"

"I could not get any sleep," I admitted, "I was too worried," my admission brought a faint smile to his lips. I could almost hear the 'I-told-you-so's' he was too weak to say. 

I stepped closer and grabbed the spilled bottle of medicine off the ground. Thankfully, the contents left inside would be enough to carry us till morning. I flinched as my fingers brushed against him. He was as hot as an oven pan.

He did not resist as I took his hand and led him to the living room. He dropped into the seat, holding his head. "How are you feeling?"

"Worse," he attempted to laugh, but winced in pain instead, "I feel like my head was hit by a sledgehammer."

I reached for the bottle of pills and handed him two pills. His hands shot out when I got to my feet. "Don't leave," he said slowly.

"I'm just going to get some water for you." I raked my hand through his curls soothingly and pressed a small kiss on his forehead that helped reassure him enough to let me go.

"Here," I said after making a flash-like intro and exit from the kitchen. I did not want to risk leaving him for one precious moment.

"Thank you," he mumbled. His eyes were closed and his head rested on the back of the couch, making it easier to take the pills without raising his head.

I raised the temperature gun I had gotten on my way from getting him water. I almost gasped as I saw the large digits written on it after taking his temperature check. "You really have to go to the hospital Lucas," I placed my hand on his thigh, rubbing softly. "Please."

"I really hate hospitals." he mumbled, but still agreed to go, "but I guess I really have no choice right now."

"I'll ask Benard to bring the car around," I said moving to stand up, but his hand caught mine.

"Not tonight." I did not bother to hide my frown. "If I don't get better by tomorrow morning, you would not have to drag my ass to the hospital."

"I was hoping to do so," I said drily.

"Please call Mia to get an appointment tomorrow."

Without any further words, I took my phone and called Mia who was annoyed at first for having her sleep interrupted, but as the call went on, her annoyance quickly turned into worry after I informed her about Lucas's health. She offered to come in immediately,, but Lucas quickly put her her worries away and assured her she could come in before we left for the hospital early the next morning.

"Do you want dinner?" I asked after the call with Mia.

"Is it weird that I'm starving with not even the slightest appetite?" he brought the glass of water to his lips and took a slow sip.

"I could make you some soup," I offered, "soups always help with a fever."

"I cannot bother you any further..."

"You are not bothering me, Lucas," I snapped, "since you want me to spell it out, I'm f*****g worried about you. I have not been able to take a free breath all day, because I'm terrified to think of what might happen to you. So don't you dare play that card of not wanting to bother me."

"I'm sorry," he said taking my hand and drawing small circles over my wrist, "I think I took too many pills and they're messing with my head now."

He was only making an excuse, but that did enough to reduce my ire. "It's fine. I think your high fever is causing brain damage for you now. Which is why we need to go to the hospital."

My tease was enough to elicit a small laugh from him, followed by him holding his head in a way that made me regret making him laugh. "It has to be much higher. Don't worry, my brain will survive the night."

"Do you want me to make dinner for you now?"

"I really don't want to have dinner. Where are the kids?"

"In bed." I took the glass of water from him and set it on the table. "we need to get you upstairs too."

The walk upstairs took longer than usual, since I was almost on the brink of dragging Lucas along. You might wonder how that went considering our huge difference in sizes.

The bed sank lower as he sat on and I climbed after him, reaching lower to take his shoes off. He struggled to take his suit jacket off and I gave him a hand, feeling my worry build up even higher as my skin made contact with his.

"You feel so cold," he noted, unbuttoning his dress shirt.

"Because you are terribly hot," my eyes widened as I realized a different meaning to the words I just said, but of course, he had a smug grin on his face followed by a smirk. He actually f*****g smirked. "I'll just get the wet towel and some cold water."

When I walked back into the room from the bathroom, Lucas was now lying down with the sheets completely covering him.

"Nope," I said tugging on the lower hem and pulling it off him. "We need to cool you down to make you feel even warmer."

"I'm cold too."

"That's probably what you need more right now," I placed a hand on his forehead, "f**k you might fry any minute."

I climbed on the bed, settling next to him. Close enough to feel the heat radiating off him and close enough to flip the towel occasionally as I worked to make his temperature stable.

"How do you feel now?" I asked some minutes later.

"The headache has gone down a bit but I still feel like I might die any minute."

"We'll be at the hospital tomorrow. Who knows you might have the flu." my breath hitched up as a wild thought hit me, "Jesus people die from the flu."

His warm palm ran over my thigh, "and who knows if you have now caught what I have, seeing as you have been so close to me these last few hours." he teased.

"Then I guess we'll have to share a hospital bed," I chuckled, flipping the towel over.

"That's not such a bad idea," he said, as I traded the towel for the thermometer. I gave a weak smile as I saw that his temperature had dropped a bit, but not so much to avert the trip to the hospital. "maybe we can have hospital s*x too."

"Perv," I mumbled, moving to stand up.

I could not figure how I had gone from breaking up with him, to avoiding him to double entendres to talking about sharing a hospital bed and having hospital s*x too. I gave a light snort at the thought.

"Where are you going?"

"To bed," I answered simply. It was a lie though. There was no getting any sleep for me, not when Lucas was still in this state. But I ached to hear him tell me to stay, so I feigned uninterest at the way his brows furrowed when I returned from the bathroom holding a new wet towel.

"I'll come over to check on you every few hours," I said, placing the towel above his head.

"Please don't leave Christine," he said slowly, holding my hand. "I know you're still really upset and I still feel like a piece of s**t for hurting you but please...please stay."

I felt like a fool for letting his words melt my heart and even worse for not putting up a fight as he pulled me closer and made me lay next to him.

It's only for tonight, I reminded myself.

Big fat liar, that annoying voice screamed, but of course, I was way past listening to it.

"You know I cannot fall asleep. I should be taking care of you," I said as he enveloped me in his warm arms. The heat from his body warming me and my own body cooling him.

"I'm better now that you're right here in my arms," he mumbled, kissing my neck softly.

"Lucas..."

"I know," he said, pulling back just enough to leave his breath hot on my skin. "I won't cross the limit with you tonight. I'm sick remember?"

"How can I forget?" I scoffed but still wrapped a hand over the large hands wrapped around me pulling me tight against his sturdy body.

Time flew by much faster than I thought it would and soon I was floating in the bliss of having Lucas lull me to sleep. Funny, since the roles were supposed to be switched. I could not pretend to complain though. Our problems could come back tomorrow or the day after or whenever Lucas felt better. For now, I could revel in the chance to be in his arms again even if it was under the disguise of just being a good nanny. 

I was almost fully asleep when I felt the soft brushing of his lips over the bare skin around my neck again. It was gentle and tentative like he was scared he would wake me up. I smiled inwardly, ready to turn around and tell him I was not sleeping yet, but his next words froze me right to the spot, 

"I love you so much Christine, so f*****g much."