Filed to story: The Alpha and His Nanny Luna (Tiffany & Asher) Book PDF Free
Asher stood then, the dim amber light of the lamp on his desk making his tall height appear even taller as his long, thin shadow loomed on the wall behind him. Then, he gestured to my dress. “Did you really dress up to have dinner at home with me?” he asked.
“Did you really just want to do something nice, or are you trying to push us to cross the line with each other again like we did before? It’s like you think you’re going to find a connection that simply doesn’t exist.”
I felt my face get hot as he pointed out my appearance, but then found myself confused at his last statement.
“A connection that doesn’t exist?” I asked. “What do you mean by that?”
Asher sighed, seemingly annoyed at this point. “We’re entirely different, Tiffany,” he said. “I appreciate your work as a nanny, but that’s just it: you’re the nanny. You’re hardly someone that I should be mingling with unnecessarily.”
As he spoke, I felt my emotions starting to bubble up to the surface once again and began to blink a few tears back. I didn’t know what to say; I had thought, after our time at the orphanage together, that maybe Asher was starting to see me as more of an equal and not just a lowly servant, undeserving of respect. His arrogance clearly got in the way of that, because he was just as cold and demeaning as before, and it made my chest ache.
“Fine,” was all I could choke out. “Thank you for clarifying.” There was so much more I wanted to say, but I couldn’t speak around the lump in my throat. It wouldn’t have made a difference anyway.
Before Asher could say anything else — although I was certain that he wouldn’t have, anyway — I spun around and stormed out. Once the door was closed behind me, I took another deep breath and pulled my shoulders back, then made my way toward my bedroom. But as I walked down the hallway, I felt myself begin to falter, and leaned against the wall. A quiet sob escaped my lips.
Suddenly, a voice spoke up behind me. “What just went on in there?”
I blinked back my tears once again and turned to face Selina, who was standing in the hallway behind me. She was wearing her dressing gown and had her gray hair in a long braid. Her lips were pressed into a thin line, but I had become used to that as being her neutral expression at this point.
“It’s nothing,” I said, straightening myself and smoothing down my skirt.
Selina frowned. “I heard raised voices in Asher’s study,” she insisted. “If it’s nothing, then why are you crying in the hallway?”
I sighed, lowering my eyes to the floor. “I just keep learning that I will never be an equal to Asher. To him, I’m just the nanny and am undeserving of respect.”
A slight chuckle came out of Selina’s mouth.
“What?” I asked, annoyed now at her flippant demeanor along with Asher’s.
“Do you really expect anyone from the Sterling family to see you as an equal?” she asked.
“So his social status would really keep him from treating people with respect? That’s simply bizarre,” I said.
Selina merely shrugged. “You knew the nature of your agreement when you signed the contract to be Ella’s nanny. Don’t expect anyone from a family so privileged as the Sterlings to treat an employee like a friend, or anything else, for that matter.”
I nodded solemnly. She was right; although it made me immensely sad, the Sterlings were an extremely wealthy and powerful werewolf family. It felt silly of me now to think that my relationship with Asher was anything other than pure business to him, despite our history.
“I’ll keep that in mind. Good night, Selina,” I said, before opening my bedroom door and stepping inside without another word.
That night, I got ready for bed, but found myself unable to sleep after the brutal reality that I had come to understand. It hurt me in ways that I didn’t fully understand, and above all else, it made me feel incredibly sad. Even though my sleeping arrangement with Asher and any romantic ties we had had been cut off, there was still a part of me that felt attached to him in some way, and Mina felt it, too. Ever since our arrangement ended, she had been quiet and weak, as though his presence before made her stronger.
Eventually, I finally fell asleep — but I had too many dreams that night.
Tiffany
I woke up the next morning with a strange feeling in my stomach. My head hurt after being kept up all night from having too many dreams, but as I tried to get out of bed and suddenly felt a wave of unmistakable nausea come over me, I knew that that feeling couldn’t have just been from the nightmares.
Groaning and holding my tender stomach, I scrambled out of bed and over to the bathroom just before vomiting.
When I was finished, I took a deep breath and grabbed the edge of the sink, pulling myself up from where I had been kneeling on the floor in front of the toilet. My face looked pale and I had dark circles under my eyes.
“Are you okay, Tiffany?” a tiny voice suddenly said from the doorway, making me jump. I looked over to see Ella standing there, still in her pajamas.
“Yes, love,” I said gently as I squeezed some toothpaste onto my toothbrush so I could scrub away the sour taste of vomit in my mouth. “I think I just ate something bad yesterday.”
Ella stayed there while I brushed my teeth, gripping the hem of her shirt with a concerned look on her face. “Are you gonna go to the doctor?” she asked.
I spit out the foamy toothpaste in my mouth and shook my head as I watched it go down the drain. “No. I’ll be fine.”
Ella, however, didn’t sound convinced. “Whenever I throw up, daddy and Selina make me go to the doctor’s for a checkup,” she insisted. “I think you should go, too.” The concern in the little girl’s voice was sweet, but it also made me sigh deeply. I had already upset Asher by faking sickness on the night of Ethan’s exhibit; I highly doubted that he would believe me if I suddenly went to him again and asked for sick time off after that. He would probably accuse me of lying, especially now that our professional relationship was so distant and strained.
But as the feeling of nausea started to bubble up in my stomach again and my head started to spin, I knew that it would be the wisest decision to have a doctor look at me.
“Okay,” I said, gently guiding Ella away from the bathroom before I inevitably vomited again. “I’ll go to the doctor. Go see if Selina has breakfast for you, okay?”
“Okay.” Ella sounded uncertain about leaving me, but she complied and skittered off to the kitchen before I hurled into the toilet for the second time that morning.
Once that was over, I was certain that there was nothing left in my stomach to throw up. I shakily slipped on a comfortable dress and did my best to fix up my appearance before shuffling out to the living room with my purse in my hand. Asher was sitting at the small round table with his cup of coffee when I entered the room, and Ella was sitting across from him with her plate of toast and bacon. Asher didn’t look up when I entered, as though I was another one of the maids.
“See, daddy?” Ella said, her mouth full of toast as she pointed at me. “Tiffany is sick.”
Asher glanced up at me over his newspaper and briefly took in my appearance before looking back down. “Mhm.”
“She’s right,” I said, my hands shaking as I clutched my purse. “I need to go to the doctor. I hope you don’t mind if I take some more sick time today.”
“Go ahead.” Once again, Asher did not look at me.
“Thank you,” I said. I made my way over to the foyer, but stopped in my tracks when I heard Asher speak again from behind me.
“I hope it’s real this time.” His voice was cold and bitter with a hint of sarcasm behind it. I had already been feeling more emotional than usual lately, and his nasty attitude only made it worse.
