by Aria Ford
He stopped walking. I stopped, too, and studied his face, worried I’d freaked him out with my talk about the future. We hadn’t really broached that subject in the past.
He carefully set down the picnic basket and dropped to one knee. I stared at him, not sure if what I was seeing was what I thought it was or maybe he was just going to tie his shoe.
“Tanner?” I said on an exhaled breath.
He reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a small, black velvet box. My heart nearly leaped out of my chest, and I could feel tears welling before he even spoke. Then he said the words.
“Lindsey Scott, will you please be my wife?” he said, holding out the opened box.
I looked down, my vision blurred with tears. Inside was a gorgeous teardrop-shaped diamond surrounded by vivid blue sapphires.
I was nodding my head, bobbing up and down, and I couldn’t speak. I wanted to say the word he was looking for, but my throat felt like it was closing over the giant lump that had appeared.
“Yes,” I squeaked out.
He stood up and slid the ring on my finger.
“You’re mine, Lindsey Scott. Now it’s official.”
I was still bobbing my head up and down like a fool.
He wrapped his arms around me, holding me while I wept tears of joy.
He stepped away and reached into the picnic basket, pulling out two plastic champagne glasses and the bottle of champagne I had seen him pack earlier. He popped the cork and filled the glasses before he handed one to me.
“To our future. We can live anywhere you want. Wherever you go, I go. I love you more than words can ever say,” he said, clinking his glass to mine.
We drank, and I finally managed to clear my throat. “Tanner, you are full of surprises. I can’t wait to call you my husband.”
We stayed at our special spot for a long while, talking about the future and making tentative plans for our wedding. When we noticed the sun was getting lower in the sky, we headed back to his truck.
“Let’s go tell Brian,” I said.
Tanner grimaced. “I don’t know. Do you think that’s a good idea?”
“He has to find out at some point. May as well be now.”
“Okay, if he says anything stupid, I swear I’m going to hit him,” Tanner vowed.
I rolled my eyes but didn’t disagree. I would be the one who slapped my big brother if he had anything negative to say.
When we told Brian, his response surprised us both. “I’m the best man, right?”
We all had a good laugh and quickly dove into the wedding planning. Brian seemed to be very excited for the wedding. It made me unbelievably happy to see my two favorite guys getting along so well. Life was good. Just when I had thought it couldn’t get any better, it did. I was going to be Tanner Brown’s wife.
The End
DADDY'S TEMPTATION
Prologue
“Oh! Oh…”
I groaned as he pushed inside me, his hard cock pulsing and shuddering as he came. I arched my back, and my arms drew him against my chest, pressing him against my rounded breasts. I drew him closer, gritting my teeth as he pushed into me.
He shivered in my arms, pumping deep inside me. Each thrust rubbed over my places of pleasure, sending little shivers down to my toes. I had already came twice, but I felt myself almost coming again. Just then he let out a deep, throaty growl. I felt the full force of his release. I sighed and felt a deep satisfaction as he collapsed on top of me. His weight was warm and firm on my body.
When I woke again, he rolled off me. Lying beside me, he gave me a weary grin.
“Oh, baby,” he moaned, “that was fantastic.”
I smiled and nestled against him as he held me close. “Thanks,” I said. “It was.”
Then he turned into a monster.
I screamed. The face looking into mine was hideous. His flesh was ragged and decomposing. He was a terrifying distortion—an awful mask. I could smell the scent of corrupted flesh and feel the wetness of it. He grinned at me, and I screamed.
I sat up, eyes open, still screaming.
I blinked and discovered that I was looking up at my own ceiling and then into my own cupboard-sized bathroom, where I had fortunately left the light on.
Collapsing back on to the bed, I sighed.
It had been a dream.
“Nightmare, more like,” I said to myself.
I was used to these dreams. It had been a year since I left Mike, but I still had nightmares about him and about what he had done to me. So suave, so kind. He had slowly turned into the kind of abuser that was accurately represented by the vile thing of my dreams. Not that the dream-monster was the same every time, but each time it was horrible. I imagined that’s how he really looked behind the mask.
“Whew.”
I leaned back on the pillows and let reality slowly sink in. It was warm in my room. The duvet was tucked up to my chin, and yet I did not feel warm or safe. I missed closeness. Even Mike, as cruel as he was, was something.
Now I am all alone.
I sighed. I knew two o’clock in the morning tended to do things like that to someone. In the morning I would surely feel better.
Come on, Emma, I told myself. Yes, you are twenty-eight and single. But so what? That isn’t really so terrible, is it? So nightmarish?
Maybe it isn’t, I thought wryly. But tomorrow might be that scary. Tomorrow I started work again, and it wasn’t just any old job.
Since I left college seven years ago, my jobs had varied from being a writer to a teacher. I left my teaching job at Redwood Kindergarten following a bout of depression and started working as an au pair. I was going to work on my first assignment tomorrow.
And what an assignment. Whew.
The universe really knows that I like a challenge. So instead of starting off on some easy task, like helping out some stressed-out single mom, I got Alexander Carring, a stunning, reclusive billionaire.
Being nanny to Alexander Carring’s children was not just a challenge. It was a task to scare even the most confident. And after a year with an abusive partner, I was far from that.
All I wanted at this point in life was peace. As I lay there in the darkness of the two o’clock morning, peace seemed like the one thing that eluded me. I would just have to wait until tomorrow.
Chapter 1
Emma
I let my off-key voice fill the small kitchen in my bedsit as I put the coffee on. Singing always made me feel better. I needed it this morning. This was the morning I would start my job.
I put the kettle on and then went upstairs to dress. This was the bit that always scared me. Ever since Mike, I had thought of myself as frumpy, unattractive, and graceless. I had no idea if I could even make a good impression anymore.
Well, if you don’t try, you don’t know.
One thing I still had was my tenacity. I went to my cupboard, opened it, and pulled out a pinstripe blouse and some blue slacks. Let’s try this, then.
They were both an nearly identical shade of blue, the blouse from Gant, a present from a friend who always looked cut. I pulled them on. The slacks fit well, and the shirt was a nice loose, one that draped beautifully. I shook out my honey-blond hair over my shoulders—Mike always liked it wild and un-brushed. I glanced at myself in the mirror.
There.
The girl looking back at me was tall, neither super skinny nor super-anything-else, with a long oval face and hazel eyes. Her lips were a natural brown and her skin was clear, slightly freckled over the nose. The blue actually suits me. A color somewhere between Slate and Prussian, it was very pretty. I drew on some navy shoes with a slight heel and turned to the mirror, viciously arranging my hair in the mock French roll I thought was suitably severe.
Giving myself a critical squint, I went through to put on makeup and thence to see if the demon coffee machine could be persuaded to give me a second cup.
Breakfast was hasty. The clock was ticking, and I had agreed to be
there by eight thirty so I could meet my employer before he jetted off somewhere. Then I was on the road.
Life either likes you, or it doesn’t. This morning, it seemed to violently hate me for some reason.
“For pity’s sake!” I shouted out of the window as the traffic backed up in front of me. The workday rush seethed and hooted and gathered round me, hemming me in with the scent of exhaust fumes and the rising pressure of a thousand tempers, loosely held. I put my head on my steering wheel and practiced the ancient art of screaming quietly.
After about a minute of that, I felt better. I looked up and looked around. We were still moving, if just. I let myself roll forward the next inch or so, and decided to turn on the radio. At least if I had to be stuck, and I was destined to be late for my first job in four months, I might as well have music.
“Non…regrette…rien!”
I was shouting along with an Edith Piaff song on the radio as I finally rolled into the car park at my work. The Reliance Au Pair Agency was on the fifth floor of the massive building that reared up ahead of me. Edith Piaf had put me in a great mood, and I was ready to go. I ran up the short flight of steps with perhaps a minute to spare. I could make it. I really could! I collapsed into the lift, panting.
The man in the lift with me insisted on going all the way down to the basement, but I was exactly on time as I fell out of the lift on the top floor. I ran down the hallway, clutching my bag, keeping my balance just on my heeled shoes.
“Watch out!”
I shouted it exactly as I ran into the tall, dark-suited man in the corridor ahead of me. He staggered back, and I went down hard.
I was hissing in agony when I stood up. One of my ankles had twisted, and my shoes insisted on twisting and compressing my little toe wickedly.
“You might have minded out of the way!” I said quite loudly at the tall man. My hair had fallen loose, too, and it flowed over my shoulders, a mass of honey-dark curls down to my shoulders. “You might not be late, but I am!”
I glared at him and pushed my way past. As I did so, he turned toward me.
“If you are late, I presume you are Miss Blunt?”
I stared at him, mouth open. “What?”
“I am Mr. Carring. You are assigned to work for me?”
Brilliant. I would have passed out. I swear I would have. If my blood pressure was slightly lower, I would have been lying unconscious on the tiles at that moment. Life is what it is, though, so I was left standing upright to face my tormentor.
“Yes,” I said.
“Oh.”
He said it thinly, a thread of a word. If he had been even a fraction ruder, he would have sniffed as he said it. As it was, he looked me up and down. I flinched. I imagined I must have looked a sight, with my slacks now dusty and my hair all loose about my shoulders. I bit my nail and met his gaze.
He was, as I noticed earlier, taller than me, his body lean but well muscled, his hair cut severely, his eyes a shade paler than his black hair. His face was thin, cheekbones sculpted in a way that would make Michelangelo proud, mouth sensitive and full. I knew I was staring, but I couldn’t help it. I cleared my throat and looked hastily away.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
I resolutely looked at the wall. He had a beautiful accent—an impeccable British voice. This was the owner of Carring Solutions, an investment bank that had steadily rolled in funds for the last decade or so, making its sole owner, Alexander Carring, a cool billion. Whatever he has in the bank, I told myself, he still doesn’t have the right to look at me like he discovered me in his soup.
“You’re late.”
I glared at him before I realized what I was doing. Realizing it, I looked at the wall, cheeks flaming. “I know that,” I mumbled.
He said nothing. When I looked back at him, I caught a lift of his cheeks, before he hastily rearranged his face to neutrality. Had he been smiling? I swallowed hard.
“Well then,” he said easily. “If you know that, I suppose there’s no point me pointing it out anymore. I expect you will be more reliable in your care of my children.”
I wanted to glare again. Instead I made my voice so frosty I could use it to set ice cream. “I take my responsibilities extremely seriously, Mr. Carring. I would give my life to keep a child safe.”
I meant it. Being a teacher does that to you. Every one of those twentysomething young lives is in your hands, and you find yourself diving into swimming pools or walking into traffic without even thinking about it, to keep a child unharmed.
He gave me an odd look. “That remains to be seen,” he said, very quietly.
“You have my word.”
He snorted. Whatever that odd expression was disappeared, hidden behind that bland mask again. I felt hurt. My word means everything to me, and he had no right to dismiss it so glibly. I was going to take him up on that, but he was walking again and I followed. We walked the last few paces to my employer’s office together and looked at the receptionist at the same moment. The receptionist looked scared.
“Mrs. Hitchins?”
“Um, yes. Good morning, Mr. Carring.”
I had the momentary pleasure of being just behind his shoulder and seeing, undiluted, the effect he had on other people. It was gratifying. At least I’m not the only person who’s scared of him. If anything, Carla looked more frightened than I was.
“I have just met Miss Blunt,” he continued evenly. “I presume there is some sort of paperwork to be done before she meets the children?”
Children. Not kids. I grinned to myself. He really was British, wasn’t he? It was, if I was honest, quite sexy. I was just not ready to admit that to anyone yet, not even myself.
“Um, yes,” Carla said nervously. “You both need to sign this form. This one is for the agreement, and this one, here, is an indemnity…”
Carla rummaged behind the desk. She did not see, as I did, the sudden closing of his features.
“I’m not signing it.”
“Mr. Carring?” Carla stared at him, long-lashed eyes blinking. She looked confused.
“The indemnity,” he said. “I am not signing it. If anything happens to my children, I will hold your agency, and Miss Blunt, personally responsible.” His face was starkly empty.
“Now hold on a minute!” I blurted out at that, feeling my cheeks heat with anger.
He swiveled round to stare at me.
Under that cool stare, I felt myself wither. I cleared my throat and continued in a slightly softer tone of voice. “The indemnity doesn’t excuse me if something happens,” I explained. “It is simply a statement from you, to say that you have, to the best of your knowledge, informed me of any dangers or health risks to your children.”
I kept it as formal as possible, using each inch of my degree in English Literature to its fullest extent. He looked at me. Those dark eyes searched mine and, to my shock, I saw a deep, buried pain there.
“Very well,” he said hoarsely. “But I am telling you, Miss Blunt, that if so much as a single hair on my children’s heads is harmed, I will seek you out. And I will see that justice is done.”
It only occurred to me after he had signed the paper and pushed it back at Carla that he had never said whether or not justice would be carried out in the court or according to his own inner compass. I shuddered.
“Well then, Miss Blunt,” he said quietly, when both forms were signed. “That seems to be all the formalities. Now all that remains is for me to leave you with my own papers and instructions.”
“Sorry?”
He was already walking to the office door. I struggled to keep up as we headed back down the hallway and to the doorway of the lift where, a few brief minutes earlier, we had just met.
“Here,” he said briefly, passing me a sheaf of printed documents, neatly packed into a slimline envelope. “I am a busy man. In two hours I should be in Chicago. I cannot take time off simply to show the nanny round my house. In that envelope is everything y
ou need to know. The set of keys assigned to you is here.” He passed them to me, then continued. “I should ask you to sign that you have read it but I am told you are an educated woman and I am sure you do not need me to tell you the basics. Now if you will excuse me, I am late. And for me, time is money.”
He looked at me, lips lifting in what seemed to be a smile or a smirk. Then, before I had fully got to grips with what he had just said, he turned and walked, quickly and silently, into the lift.
“Wait!” I shouted.
The door was already closing, leaving me alone in the hallway with an envelope, keys and no idea at all how to begin.
Chapter 2
Emma
“And the back door opens out onto the pool area. On no account allow the children out there unobserved…”
I read the notes as I walked up the drive toward the house. That was why I was not fully looking up at it until I came to rest on the front steps. Then I looked up. I almost fell over.
The house was massive. Painted a delicate cream, slate roofed, with twelve steps leading to the front door, it was a mansion, not a house. By anyone’s definition. I was raised in a small apartment—it had an upstairs and a downstairs. I had never—ever—seen a house with three floors. Or one, for that matter, with so many windows. And doors. And such a high wall around the garden.
I stepped back, cleared my throat, and looked up at it again. I looked down at the doorstep, aware that my muddy feet had left a mark there. I had to stop myself wiping it off.
Be cool, Emma, I told myself firmly. It’s a house. What’s it going to do to you? Swallow you? I chuckled nervously to myself and rang the bell. Somewhere, magnified by the depths of the vast house, I heard it ring. I waited. Pressed it again. A few seconds later, someone answered it.
“Hello?”
I jumped. The older woman who opened it looked up at me with a distrustful gaze. I swallowed and set off boldly.
“Hello!” I said nervously. “I’m Emma Blunt. The au pair? I’m pleased to meet you. I was sent here, um, unaccompanied by Mr. Carring?”
