NEPENTHE ⟶ James Potter

Chapter Forty-Six

However, to her surprise, as she attempted to apologise to him in the hallway of his flat, James appeared rather happy after Alcina's departure. She figured he was just initially relieved that the evil woman was gone, but it was much more than that. He kissed her like he was proud of her and maybe he was because she stood up to her mother. Maybe he was beyond thrilled that she said that she would much rather be Harry's nanny a million times over instead of becoming an Auror.

She had even surprised herself when she said it, but it remained true. Despite the incident in the kitchen when she had broken the plate, when it came to her job with her Harry, she didn't want to trade it in for anything. She adored Harry as if he were her own son that she was helping to raise and she really meant it when she ripped into her mother. With no recollection of the desire to become an Auror, Renata firmly believed that she never had any want to be an Auror, she had only accepted it as truth because of her parents.

Her job as a nanny proved to bring her more happiness, cooking brought about more happiness than her "dream job."

And it was all of that which led to the breakthrough of James finally requesting that she call him that instead of "Mr Potter." He probably didn't understand how happy she felt during that moment because it appeared that it was something that he had been wanting for a long time. She didn't realise it, only because James had never said anything, yet, he told her that if she didn't start calling him James that he was going to lose his mind.

If that wasn't enough to make Renata swoon, she could distinctly remember what James had said earlier in the presence of her mother.

"...Our relationship started off as Renata working as Harry's nanny, but as time went on and I could see how remarkable she was, I couldn't help but fall for her. If you gave your daughter just a fraction of praise of what she deserves, you would understand that it's really not that difficult to fall in love with her..."

Just thinking about it caused her heartbeat to race in her chest and paired with James kissing her at that very same moment, she was lucky that he was holding her because she was fairly certain that she would have collapsed from weakened legs. However, she wondered if he meant the part of falling in love with her, she had no doubt that he liked her a lot, but had he really fallen in love with her or was he just saying it for the sake of driving his point home to Alcina?

For the time being, it didn't really matter, Renata wasn't happy with how things had ended off with her mother, but she was happy with what it was resulting in.

The kisses were growing sloppy between the two and James couldn't hold Renata any closer to his body at that point, even though he was trying. After he told her that she was going to drive him mad with the whole " Mr Potter" act, his ears were blessed once more when she gave him her response.

"Alright, James."

He wasn't sure what it was about listening to her say his name, but each time sent pleasant shivers down his spine as if she were whispering a love spell in his ear. Paired with the smile on her face as she said it, James was relieved because after he had told her to call him James, he was nervous that he came across as too pushy. But that didn't seem to be the case at all, Renata seemed more than happy to do so as she was kissing him back with as much force as he was putting in initially.

Occasionally, both of them would get a mouthful of teeth from the other, which only led them to break into laughter until the other one couldn't resist anymore and returned to the previous action. They were so caught up in the moment and their own emotions that they couldn't even concentrate or fall into sync with what the other was doing. If Renata was going in for a gentle kiss, James was going in for a hard one, and when her lips crashed against his with such force when he was expecting the gentle graze, he would take a step back.