Filed to story: The Alpha and His Nanny Luna (Tiffany & Asher) Book PDF Free
Verona let out a small gasp and instinctively looked at me.
I felt my heart jump up into my throat, resisting the urge to feel my ears to see if I had put my earrings in that morning. As a knot formed in my stomach, I glanced down at my own tea to see in my reflection that I had not, in fact, put my earrings back in.
“Earrings?” Asher replied after an uncomfortable pause, sounding so nonchalant it made my stomach sick. “I’m not sure. Sometimes Ella likes to play in there.”
Ella slowly turned her head to look up at me, but said nothing.
There was another long silence. I started to wonder if they all knew, and that Kelly would call Asher out on his bluff and expose our unexplainable sleeping arrangement. Thankfully, she didn’t say anything else about it. Surprisingly, Kelly seemed somewhat pleased by Asher’s words and didn’t ask again.
“Asher,” Kelly said after a few more moments of silence, turning toward him in her seat. “Do you remember when we were kids, and we used to drive our training coaches insane? We used to run off into the woods as wolves together and play instead of attending our training.”
“I do remember,” Asher replied, almost absentmindedly, as he cut his food with his fork and knife.
Kelly turned back to face me and Ella. “I’m sure you misbehave all of the time for your trainers, don’t you?” she said, reaching out to pinch Ella’s cheek.
Ella frowned and pulled away. “Actually, I always do my training,” she said, her little voice flat and cold.
With a slight hmph, Kelly returned to picking at her salad.
As the luncheon continued, I couldn’t help but feel guilty for my arrangement with Asher after hearing about how he and his childhood sweetheart used to act together. It felt wrong of me to be participating in this agreement if he had love for Kelly…
And for some reason, hearing about Asher’s escapades with his childhood lover made me admittedly feel incredibly unhappy.
…
After lunch, Verona and Kelly stayed for a while. Ella seemed to get sleepy — although I suspected that she just wanted an excuse to be alone — so I took her to her room. When I finished tucking her in for her nap, I returned to the foyer to see Verona and Kelly preparing to leave. Verona and Asher were talking quietly about something that seemed important, so I turned away to go to the kitchen and give them space.
“Ah! There she is,” Verona said when she saw me, waving me over before I could walk away. I still felt Kelly’s cold gaze on me as I tentatively walked up to Asher’s mother. Verona, much unlike Kelly, was smiling a bit and seemed a little more open to my presence than the young woman.
“It was a pleasure meeting you, Mrs. Sterling,” I said politely as I approached. “And you as well, Kelly.”
Kelly seemed to open her mouth to say something, but Verona spoke before she could.
“I was just reminding my son about our upcoming annual family dinner,” Verona said. “It seems he’s forgotten… Or, he just thought he could get out of going this year.” Her eyes slid over to Asher for a moment, who didn’t seem to react at all.
“Anyway,” Verona continued, looking at me again, “Of course, little Miss Ella’s presence is always appreciated at these dinners. So, I thought it would only be appropriate to invite you as well; the dinners are usually reserved for werewolves, but seeing as you’re Ella’s au pair, it simply wouldn’t feel right to exclude you. Miss Ella seems quite attached to you already, and she’ll need you there to help her if she should need it.”
I was a bit taken aback by Asher’s mother’s generosity and respect.
“I… Thank you, Mrs. Sterling,” I said with a polite smile. “I’ll look forward to it.”
Verona smiled stiffly, but cordially, and turned back toward Asher. She reached out and squeezed his forearm, pulling him aside to speak to him privately. While they were absorbed in whatever conversation they were having, Kelly quietly sauntered up to me and stood beside me.
“Give me your hand,” she said coldly. Swallowing, I did as I was told.
I felt my heart drop as she held out her hand and dropped my earrings that she had found on Asher’s nightstand into my palm, then leaned toward me and whispered into my ear.
“Know your place.”
Asher and Verona finished their conversation and returned just as I closed my hand around the earrings, my eyes wide.
“I’ll see you soon, darling,” Verona said to Asher as the elevator doors slid open.
I felt so shocked by Kelly’s words that I continued to stand there, motionless, as the two women got onto the elevator. The last thing I saw before the elevator doors closed was Kelly’s icy stare, fixed on me.
As I discreetly slipped my earrings into my pocket, I knew that I couldn’t continue my sleeping arrangement with Asher… Not when he had a girlfriend.
Tiffany
I decided not to go to Asher’s room that night. I couldn’t bring myself to do it in good conscience after discovering that he had a girlfriend, and I wasn’t about to be his mistress on top of being his daughter’s nanny!
At the usual time that I normally would’ve been sneaking over to Asher’s room, I instead crawled into my own bed with my sketchbook for the first time in days. It felt a bit strange already to be sleeping alone, but it was also a relief from all of the stress of our strange agreement, and it was nice to have the late night to myself to have some time to draw.
Like clockwork, however, my phone started to ring just five minutes after I picked up my pencil. I lifted my eyes from my sketchbook, letting out a deep sigh when I was Asher’s name on my screen.
“Yes?” I said after picking up the phone.
“Where are you?” Asher said. His voice sounded agitated.
“I’ve decided to unilaterally end our sleeping arrangement,” I replied. “You can reduce my salary back to the original amount. I’m sorry, but I’m no longer comfortable sleeping together.”
Asher was silent. I could hear him take in a sharp breath on the other side of the phone before he abruptly hung up. Rolling my eyes, I shut my phone off and tossed it down on my bed, returning to my drawing.
A few minutes later, there was a knock on my door; no doubt it was Asher. I decided not to answer and to just pretend that I was asleep, which seemed to work as he didn’t knock again…
Or so I thought.
He knocked again, this time louder. I set my sketchbook aside and pondered whether I should let him in or not, but finally jumped up out of bed and scurried over to the door when he knocked for a third time, even louder and more aggressively that time.
“Can you not try to wake everyone up?” I asked in a hushed tone of voice as I opened the door.
