Page 34 of The Billionaire's Angel

“We could do that,” I agreed. Amelia looked out the windows of the dining room to the gray drizzleoutside.

“Not today,” she said. “When is the weather supposed to clearup?”

I pulled my phone from my pocket and opened the weather app. “Partly cloudy with some sun in the afternoon tomorrow,” Isaid.

“We'll go tomorrow then. Today we might as well finish those birdseed things for Charlie'swedding.”

I raised an eyebrow at Amelia. “Don't you meanIshould finish the birdseed things? I don't remember youhelping.”

Amelia shrugged one shoulder and grinned at me, digging her fork into her scrambled eggs. “I helped organize the ribbons,” she offered before scooping eggs into hermouth.

Amelia's irrepressible sense of mischief was one of the many things I loved about working for her. She really didn't need a nurse, and by taking this job, I knew I was letting my skills atrophy. The little real nursing I did was isolated to monitoring her blood sugar, her blood pressure, and overseeing herdiet.

But I was happy here, and I couldn't deny Aiden paid me well, especially considering room and board were included in the deal. When I decided to leave Winters House, I’d have more than enough saved to cover any retraining Ineeded.

I got the second cup of coffee Amelia had recommended and waited for her to finish her breakfast. She tried to talk me into letting her have a muffin, I reminded her muffins were just cake with no frosting, she glared at me, and Ilaughed.

We went through some version of the same conversation every morning, and it always made mesmile.

I headed for the living room, where I’d left my box of materials for Charlie's birdseed favors. Amelia didn't follow me in. Continuing down the hall, she said over her shoulder, “I want the library today. The living room lookscold.”

It wasn't cold, and it had a fireplace, but I knew what she meant. The living room was a bright, light-filled space, with high ceilings, pale walls and tall windows. In contrast, the library was paneled in dark wood, with heavy curtains and a bigger fireplace. The couch and armchairs all had blankets folded over thearms.

The living room was formal. Every room in Winters House was formal, but the living room always made me feel like I should change into a cocktail dress. The library invited me to stay, to curl up with a book and settlein.

It had been one of my favorite rooms in the heat of summer, the dark paneling and thick drapes giving off the feel of a cave, cool and dry—so unlike the heavy humidity that blanketed Atlanta that time ofyear.

I'd expected to find the room too cold once winter came, but it was the opposite. The dark paneling and thick drapes made it cozy, and the bigger fire threw off warmth that turned the room into ahaven.

I smiled to myself as I walked through the door, holding the big box in my arms, and stopped short at the sight of Gage occupying one of the oversize armchairs, working on a laptop, a stack of papers and a mug on the side table to hisleft.

“Oh,” I said, stupidly. “We're interrupting. We can go somewhereelse.”

“Nonsense,” said Amelia, settling in on the end of the couch closest to the fireplace, exactly where I'd sat the night before. “We won't botherGage.”

A flush settled into my cheeks, and I looked at Gage. He was watching Amelia, a small smile playing over his lips. At the sight of that smile, my cheeks warmed anotherdegree.

“You won't bother me,” Gagesaid.

I walked past him, not quite meeting his eyes, and said under my breath, “Liar.”

He smiled but said nothing. I sat down in the middle of the couch, setting my box beside me on the opposite end from Amelia, where Gage had been sprawled out the night before. This put me right next to Amelia, and about as far as I could get from Gage unless I somehow talked Amelia into giving up her spot close to thefire.

I wasn't ready to be around him yet. Everything had changed between us the night before. Not just physically, though that would've been enough. He’d had his fingers inside me. I remembered the way I’d straddled his body, pushed myself back on those fingers and ridden his hand toorgasm.

My cheeks burned at the memory. I'd never done anything like that before. I'd felt lush and eager. Open. Willing to do anything if it meant he’d keep touchingme.

Sitting there in the library beside Amelia, carefully pouring birdseed into squares of white tulle and securing them with pretty ribbons, wearing my neatly pressed camp shirt, jeans, and white Converse sneakers, I was my normal, buttoned-upself.

Why did my normal, buttoned-up self feel like a pair of shoes that were too small? There was safety in being proper and well behaved. At least, I wanted to think there was. Having orgasms with Gage on the couch was not safe. It was definitely not proper and wellbehaved.

I was not going to think about it while I was sitting next to Amelia. I tried to change my train of thought, suddenly worried that Amelia was secretly psychic and would figure out what was going through my head. If she looked closely, she’d see the flush in mycheeks.

I needed to get myself together and forget that Gage was sitting on the other side of the room. He appeared to be ignoring us, focused on whatever he was doing on the laptop. Every once in a while he would pick up some of the papers of the stack beside him and shuffle through them, find something he was looking for, nod to himself and return the papers to the end table. I lost myself in wondering what he was working on, jumping a little when Amelia interrupted mythoughts.

“Tear off a piece of paper from this. About an inch square,” Amelia said, handing me anotepad.

I tied off the ribbon on my bundled birdseed and set it aside in the box with the others before taking the notepad and doing as she asked. I tried to return both the pad and the square of paper, but she plucked the paper from my fingers and gestured for me to keep thepad.