The first time I met Saint, he tried to throw me off his property.
I’d been promised an empty guesthouse. What I got instead was a storm, a locked gate, and a brooding, tattooed chef who clearly doesn't want me here.
He's a man who doesn't like surprises, especially in the form of a soaked-through woman trying to escape a public scandal. Since the death of his wife, he’s kept his world locked down, including his emotions, his routines, and most of all, his daughter.
Saint makes it clear he'd rather eat his own Michelin-starred hand than let me stay, until his little girl appears behind him and does something unexpected: she smiles at me and asks if I'm cold and would like to have dinner.
Somehow, dinner turned into staying overnight, just until the storm passed. But when his nanny quits the next day, leaving the little girl stranded, I find myself volunteering for the job.
I was supposed to disappear quietly.
Instead, I’m nannying for a man who doesn’t speak in full sentences, sleeping fifty yards from the kitchen he uses to ignore me, and falling for this single dad who makes room for no one—except me.
At night, he cooks. For me. I start watching him with a growing hunger that has nothing to do with the food. He starts looking at me like he wants to break his own rules, one by one.
Until one night, he does.
Falcon Haven, #2
10/02/2025