The Billionaire's Nanny

The Basement II

It was hard to tell how long we lay there, with me half-naked and asleep in Lucas' arms. But when I woke up to the light scruff of grass against my knee, the red-orange of the sky told me we had been there in that position for quite a while.

"I'm sorry," Lucas rasped, and I realized we had shifted from the position we were in when I fell asleep. Lucas sat with his back against the wall of the maze, holding me to himself. It was the closest we had been to each other, with the obvious exemption of how intimate we had been before I drifted asleep. "I didn't mean to wake you up,"

"How long did I sleep?" I asked, with quite an idea in mind.

"Not long enough, you needed the rest." he stroked my head as he spoke.

"You should have woken me," I gave a brief chuckle, followed by a wince at the numbness in my hands as I attempted to pull myself away from him and sit up.

Lucas held on to me tighter though, tutting and shaking his head as he did. "I don't want you to leave just yet, stay here in my arms for a while."

A sheepish smile crawled up my face and I dropped my arms back around the ridges of his sturdy muscles, deciding to relish the moment. It had been so long, too damn long since I got to be this close to Lucas and I planned to enjoy it as much as I could.

The silence that followed was anything but awkward. It was not the 'I don't know what to say this is weird' type of silence. It was the 'I have a million things to say but would rather live in this quiet with you right now' type of silence and I loved it.

I knew though that it was time to go back to reality when Lucas sucked in a long breath and spoke a few minutes later. "I almost went crazy when I didn't see you in our bedroom." he paused and I felt him swallow hard, "I thought you left."

I lifted my head, making sure I met his eyes as I spoke, and cupped his cheeks, "I'm never leaving you, Lucas," I did not bother telling him that I feared he was going to take back his ring.

His shoulders visibly relaxed at my words, his eyes filled with obvious relief. And then he smiled, and for a second all I wanted to do was pull him in for a deep long kiss, but then he started to reach for something in his pocket. He held up the ring and suddenly that thrill I had felt when he had first put it on my finger coursed through me again. "Does that mean you want me to put this back on your finger?"

"Nothing would make me happier," I smiled, holding back tears. I did not want to give Lucas the impression that I was still fragile even if they were happy tears.

I chewed on my lip, nearly bursting it open as he slid it back on my finger. He took my hand in his, placed a soft kiss over it, and said, "right where it fucking belongs."

I felt my heart bursting open with joy and I was sure it would have if the sight of the knuckle bandages on his fingers did not snap my attention to my earlier worries.

I sat up, shifting my legs so I was now straddling him. "Is everything alright Lucas?"

"It will be tonight," his simple answer was supposed to make me feel some relief, instead they did the very opposite.

"What happened to your fingers?" I asked, taking his hand in mine, as I examined it carefully. It looked red and sore, with minor cuts all over it. Even with the bandage covering most of it, I could still see a few bruises peeking out and it did a lot more than just worry me.

He looked away, and I knew right there that whatever he was about to say was not the whole truth or worse, a complete lie, "had to let off some steam. There were no gloves for the punching bag in the gym."