She wanted to jump on the offer and say, “Of course I’ll take it,” but the situation made her hesitate. “Can you let me think about it for a couple of days?”
She could see that her answer surprised him, but he rallied. “Of course, take as long as you need. I know it’s a lot doing this and being a nanny to the three P’s.”
She wanted to tell him that that wasn’t it at all, but she truly wasn’t sure he’d understand where she was coming from.
“I spoke to Lydia last night,” he said.
“About what?” Emma asked.
“About spending more time with the three P’s. If that’s why she’s here, then that’s what she should do. That’s why she said she’d take them shopping today. That’s something she loves to do, so hopefully the girls will have a good time.”
“I hope so, too, though Pippa tires out quickly and Paris is disappointed if a dress she wants doesn’t fit. Then there’s Penny, who only wants to look at jeans.”
Daniel chuckled. “Yes, well, Lydia will learn their likes and dislikes. Before we get to work, there was something else I wanted to tell you.”
“What?”
He ran his hand up her neck and fingered one of her curls. “I have a surprise for you tomorrow. We’re both taking the day off. Around midmorning, you and I are going on a little road trip.”
“Where are we going?”
“That’s the surprise, so don’t ask any more questions. I won’t answer them.”
The lightness in Daniel’s tone buoyed her own spirits. Time alone with him. That could be just what they needed. She was looking forward to tomorrow already.
* * *
Emma had decided to make braised pork chops with pineapple, parsleyed potatoes and carrots with an orange-juice glaze. After Daniel came home, he set his messenger bag on one of the chairs and came over to Emma. When his arm ringed her waist, she looked up from the glaze she was making.
She felt his heat right away, took in the lime scent of his cologne. His shoulders were broad and she felt his presence from her bangs to her espadrilles.
“Cooking a major supper tonight?” His mouth was very close to her ear as his breath fanned a curl.
All she wanted to do was wrap her arms around him. Instead she responded, “The girls will be hungry. Shopping takes a lot of energy, you know.”
He kissed her neck. It was just a little nibble, and yet she felt her toes curl. “I don’t know. I do it as little as possible.”
“You said Lydia likes to shop. Don’t be surprised if each of them is carrying four bags or more.”
Now he brushed aside her hair and kissed the nape of her neck.
She let out a long breath. “You’re distracting me.”
“That’s my intent. It looks to me as if that glaze is done. Maybe you could just turn it down to warm...at least for a couple of minutes.”
She’d gone beyond warm the minute he’d stepped into the kitchen. She switched the burner to low as he’d suggested and turned to face him. As soon as she did, he slid his hand under her curls and kissed her with a need that she suspected had been building since last night. She knew that because hers was building, too.
They kissed once, twice, three times and then he stepped away.
“That was a very nice distraction,” she said with a smile, her words slow and shaky.
Before he could respond, they both heard the car in the driveway. Daniel dropped his hands and stepped away.
Emma hardly registered the fact that they were acting as if they were doing something wrong. But with Lydia and the three P’s piling through the kitchen door, she kept silent.
As she suspected, she counted several bags. But when she turned her gaze to Pippa, she only saw her carrying one.
Pumping enthusiasm into her voice, she asked, “How was the shopping trip?”
“Fabulous,” Lydia said. “And just look at our nails. Come on, girls, show Emma and your dad.”
Even Pippa had nails painted with glitter and half moons with bright colors.
“You’ll have to show me what you found,” Emma told them all. “Maybe you could have a fashion show for your dad.” She assumed that was something Lydia could be enthusiastic about.
“Oh, no,” Paris said, sidling up to Emma. “He won’t like what I bought. My tummy shows.”
Emma knew that was the style but Paris was right. Daniel wasn’t going to like it.
Penny wrinkled her nose. “No fashion show here. I’ve just got shorts and tops. Dad knows what they look like. I wear them for soccer all the time. I know soccer’s over now, but Mom said I could wear them in the fall. I didn’t want any of the dresses she showed me.”
“Not even one dress?” Daniel teased.
Penny merely responded, “Come on, Dad.”
To Emma’s surprise, Pippa said nothing.
Paris said, “I’m gonna go watch the kittens.” Penny seconded her and followed behind.
Daniel grabbed his messenger bag. “I’ll be in my office until supper. There are a few phone calls I didn’t get a chance to make at the office.” He gave Emma a smile that easily said he’d like to kiss her again. Instead, he walked down the hall.
Emma wrapped her arm around Pippa. “Why don’t you tell me what you bought?”
But Pippa took one look at Emma and ran down the hall after her dad.
Turning to Lydia for an explanation, she found Daniel’s ex-wife looking through the bags. But she looked up when she felt Emma’s gaze on her. “I was looking for something I bought for Pippa. It was a cute necklace with a little dog hanging on it. She said she didn’t want it, though, and I couldn’t understand why. She was so quiet after I picked them up from camp. She’s not usually like that, is she? Is she moody?”
Lydia apparently was trying to get to know her daughters by picking up on their personality traits and that was a positive step. “Daniel told me that after you left, Pippa had bad nightmares every night and cried herself to sleep. She’s not usually a quiet child. She has a lot of excitement and enthusiasm. My guess is she’s afraid you’re going to leave again.”
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Lydia admitted.
Suddenly from down the hall, Daniel called, “Emma, can you come here a minute?”
Emma turned to the potatoes that were slowly simmering on the stove and the glaze that she’d turned down on low.
Lydia motioned toward Daniel’s office. “Go ahead, I’ll keep an eye on this.”
Whether she could trust Lydia to do that or not, Emma didn’t know for sure. She did know that Daniel needed her in his office and she hurried that way. When she got there, she saw he was sitting in his desk chair holding Pippa in his arms. She was sobbing. Over his daughter’s head, he told Emma, “Close the door.”
Unable to imagine what was wrong, Emma gently shut the door. She went to Daniel and Pippa and perched on the corner of the desk. “What’s the matter?”
Daniel lifted Pippa’s chin with his thumb. “Tell Emma what you told me. You know you have to.”
With a hiccup, Pippa confessed, “I took your locket. It’s in my room in my sock drawer.” She could hardly speak because she was still crying.
Although Emma was glad to know the locket was safe, she was more concerned about this little girl. “Why did you take it, honey?”
“Because I didn’t think you’d leave without the locket. I heard you tell Dad you were thinking about leaving. I don’t want you to leave.”
Emma crouched down in front of Pippa, not knowing what to tell her. She took the little girl’s hands in hers.
Seeing that she was at a loss, Daniel explained, “Pippa, I want you to get to know your mom while you have the chance. I don’t know if she’s going to stay. I don’t think she knows if she’s going to stay. And Emma can’t make promises about leaving that she can’t keep.”
Did that mean Daniel didn’t trust her to stay? That if she made a promise she might not keep it...just as his ex-wife hadn’t kept her marriage vows?
This situation was messy, so messy, and she didn’t want to hurt these three precious girls.
“Come here, Pippa, and give me a hug,” she said to the little girl.
When Pippa stopped crying and hugged Emma, Daniel suggested, “Why don’t you take Emma with you and give her her locket.”
Emma took a tissue from the nearby credenza and tenderly wiped the tears from Pippa’s eyes.
“Do you still like me?” Pippa asked.
“Yes, I like you. I more than like you. Nothing’s going to change that.”
After she stood, she held out her hand to Pippa and Pippa took it. As they climbed the steps to the little girl’s room, Emma wished she wasn’t so confused about everything.
* * *
As Daniel drove to Raleigh with Emma, he hoped the surprise would be a winner. Emma hadn’t spoken much on the way, and he hoped this afternoon would mend whatever was wrong between them. He knew he’d been letting Lydia take up too much of his time. That’s what this afternoon was all about—time for him and Emma. The truth was...he was tired of thinking about the right thing or wrong thing to do. His love for Lydia had died a long, long time ago. On the other hand, he realized his daughters might need her in their lives.
He’d almost reached the hotel when Emma glanced at him and said, “Lydia didn’t seem particularly overjoyed at spending the day with the girls. She did take them shopping yesterday. Maybe it was too much to ask.”
“She’s their mother, Emma. She should want to be with them, and that’s all I’m going to say on the subject. Today is just about us.”
Emma sent him a smile that looked hopeful. Her smile could light up a room. It certainly lit him up.
Emma seemed surprised when they turned into the parking lot of the hotel. He parked and she turned to him, looking puzzled. “Are we sightseeing today?” she asked lightly.
“Not exactly.” He unfastened his seat belt and then unfastened hers. “Our sightseeing is going to consist of looking, touching and holding each other. What do you think?”
Slight lines creased her brow. “I guess we didn’t bring a change of clothes because you didn’t want Lydia to know.”
“I just thought it was better all around if we were discreet. I think you’ll like what I’ve set up for us. We can check in early and stay as late as we want, though I guess we should get back around dinner time.” He hated putting a limit on their time together. But right now, it was necessary.
* * *
Emma felt a bit disconcerted as she scanned the lobby after she and Daniel walked inside the hotel. It was easy to see that the establishment had a classic elegance about it without being gaudy. The arrangement of flowers in a tall vase on a table in the foyer was brimming with lilies, spider mums, tulips and roses. They were bright and colorful. Emma felt a little embarrassed when they checked in without luggage. After all, everyone knew what that meant. But the staff was discreet and no one even quirked an eyebrow.
On the way up to their room in the elevator, Daniel took Emma’s hand. She asked, “How did you pick this hotel?”
“One of my clients had stayed here. He told me about it. I remembered what he’d said.”
A client who was getting a divorce or maybe a client who had had an affair?
They didn’t see anyone else as they walked down the carpeted hall together. Daniel found their room and inserted the card key, and when the green light appeared, he opened the door.
They stepped inside to a beautifully appointed room. As they passed a wet bar, Emma peered into the bathroom and spotted a tub with multiple jets.
Daniel encircled her with his arms and grinned. “This is going to be fun.”
Emma couldn’t help but catch his enthusiasm. She spotted the king-size bed, with its blue-and-white silky sheened coverlet and the pillows that were bigger than she’d ever seen. The sitting area, with a mahogany-finished sofa, love seat and chair, was ready for anyone who wanted to watch the TV there.
However, Daniel went to the huge dresser across the room and opened the armoire doors. Another, much larger flat-screen TV was hidden inside. When there was a knock on the door, Daniel went to answer it. Over his shoulder, he explained, “That’s lunch. I didn’t forget that breakfast was a long time ago.”
“You arranged this beforehand?”
“I certainly did. Just wait until you see dessert. We can have it with the meal or we can wait and eat it later for a snack.”
The hotel employee, dressed in a white shirt with black trim and black slacks, wheeled in a shelved cart.
Daniel instructed, “You can just set lunch on the table over by the window.” He checked with Emma. “Is that okay with you?”
“That’s fine.” Eating lunch together at the table would seem more normal than checking into a hotel and jumping into bed. Not that she didn’t want to jump into bed with Daniel. She did. But she didn’t want to feel as if...as if this was just an affair.
As she watched the waiter set up lunch, the scent of the food wafted toward her. There was soup that looked as if it might be cream of broccoli, one of her favorites. A large Caesar salad was obviously for the two of them. There were at least three types of sandwiches—two huge burgers on sesame-seed buns with tomato and lettuce garnish, a sandwich with salad of some type, probably chicken, and a club sandwich with bacon, ham and turkey. Daniel had thought of everything.
Two covered dishes still sat on the cart. Daniel motioned to the coffee table in the sitting area. “Can you put those over there?”
After the waiter did that, Daniel signed the bill, tipped the waiter and watched as he left. “What are those mysterious dishes?” she asked.
He took her hand and pulled her over to the love seat in front of the coffee table. “Let’s just take a peek before we eat lunch. I don’t want the soup and burgers to get cold.” As he removed the lid from the first dish, Emma glimpsed at two slices of chocolate cheesecake. When she took the lid off the other dish, she spotted the chocolate-covered strawberries.
He picked up one by the green stem and held it to her lips. “Want a taste?”
The sparkle of enjoyment in his eyes lit up a joy inside her, too. She took a bite then licked her lips.
Daniel took a bite from the same strawberry and laid the stem on the dish. Then he took her into his arms and kissed her. He tasted like chocolate and strawberries and the future.
After he broke the kiss, he just held her for a few minutes and she snuggled into his shoulder. He’d been right about needing this time together. She loved him. Maybe today she’d finally discover what he felt about her.
They moved to the table, which looked out over the cityscape. As they began their soup course, they talked about anything and everything other than Lydia and the three P’s. It was a delightful break from ordinary life as they discussed more about their childhoods, art they liked, places they wanted to visit. After they finished eating and kept up the conversation, she learned that Daniel’s father had taught him how to fish, how to paddle a canoe, how to swim. His mom had worked as a paralegal and that’s how he’d become interested in the law. She’d made Christmas the best celebration every year and colored eggs at Easter along with taking him to church. His father had been more laid-back and had made furniture as a hobby.
“I’d like to take you on the Blue Ridge Craft Trail sometime. I think you’d like it.”
“All different crafters?”
“That’s right. Everything from weaving to candle-making to furniture. The trail will take you into the mountains. No four-star hotels there, but very cute bed-and-breakfasts.”
He pushed aside his plate. “We did that food justice.” Standing, he came around to her side of the table. “Dessert now
or later?”
When she stood, she knew what she wanted and imagined he wanted the same thing—to be held in each other’s arms. As soon as Daniel’s lips came down on hers, she knew this was true love. They needed this time together. If it was possible, she wanted to stand beside him and go to bed with him every day and every night for the rest of her life. She wanted to see the sun rise and the sun set while he was holding her in his arms.
After he broke the kiss, he came back for another kiss again and again. No talking was needed. His kisses emptied the room of air until she was dizzy. As they undressed each other, she forgot about time, his ex-wife and all the complications that now didn’t seem to matter. As she rid Daniel of his shirt, sunlight skidded across his jaw. She touched it and then she kissed it.
Their clothes flew here and there. All they cared about was the heat of their skin, the vehemence of their desire, the sweetness of each fingerprint on their heart, each embrace that finally took them to the bed. After Daniel swept back the coverlet and the sheet, they tumbled into the bed, holding on to each other. Daniel had learned quickly what excited her and she had learned what excited him. She knew if she kissed right behind his ear, he’d groan. She did it once, twice, and then again.
Rolling her under him, he titillated her body until she was hot and excited in every nerve ending. Emma kept her eyes open when Daniel entered her. She wanted to see the emotion in his. His eyes became a darker green and revealed the deep emotions he felt at everything they were sharing. When he made her his, she reveled in the feelings...and not just the physical ones. Those were simply the manifestation of everything in her heart that wanted to embrace him forever.
When they were one, when they were climbing the mountain to climax, she couldn’t help herself, and murmured, “Daniel, I love you.”
Extreme pleasure shook them both until Emma forgot to listen to his response. However, as they lay side by side again in the afterglow, she was unsettled by the fact that he hadn’t said he loved her, too.
Chapter Fourteen
The Nanny Clause (Furever Yours Book 4) Page 17
