by Susan Meier
“Okay.”
They sat on the rockers in the nursery and fed the babies enough milk to put them to sleep, then gently laid them down for their naps and tiptoed out of the nursery.
For the first time since their little argument the day before, she and Chance were alone. Unsure of what to do, she stopped on the edge of the great room, the big open space that basically included the kitchen, the TV area and even the little reading cove. The only place to “hide” was her room. Or she could go outside. But they hadn’t finished their conversation about her days off.
He ambled into the kitchen. “Do we have any soda?”
“I think that’s the one thing your mom forgot to stock.”
“I’ll call Cook.” Retrieving a bottle of juice, he stepped away from the refrigerator. “She’s the shopper for both houses.”
She smiled. “That’s good.” She supposed. Her parents were blue-collar. She’d never run a home. She had no clue how the house of a rich family ran. God, suddenly she felt incredibly inadequate, unworldly.
He popped the top on the juice and plopped down on the recliner. In a white shirt, with the sleeves rolled to the elbows, he looked sexily rumpled, the way a husband would when he came home to his wife.
Oh, boy. Where had that come from?
But she knew where it came from. She was attracted to him. Not just because he was good-looking but because he was the daddy of babies she adored. That was wrong on so many levels, she wanted to run, but knew she couldn’t. Not only did she have to get adjusted to living with him, but also she had to get her days off locked in so she could go and see her fiancé. And then maybe she’d stop looking at Chance as if she were allowed.
“So two days off will be good?”
He chugged half his bottle of juice, then said, “You pick the days.”
“Okay. Give me some time to think about which days I want and I’ll let you know.”
“Good.”
“Good.”
The room got quiet again.
She glanced around.
Now what? She wanted to run again, but really, she would be living with this guy for at least two weeks. Maybe even a month. If she didn’t get herself accustomed to being in his company, she’d always be slightly on edge around him, like a silly schoolgirl. It seemed wise to try to get them both accustomed to being around each other. And if a little conversation would do it, then she’d converse.
She cleared her throat. “So how’d things go with your brother?”
“Same old. Same old. He wants me to come work for Montgomery Development.”
Relief skittered through her. He hadn’t thought it odd she’d asked him a question, and she really was interested in what was going on with him. Had to be. What went on in his life affected what went on in hers.
She inched her way over to the sofa. “You don’t want to work for Montgomery Development?”
“I already own my own company, remember? I don’t need a job.”
She stifled the urge to gape at him. What would that be like? To be so lucky in life that you didn’t need a job? She slid a little closer to the couch. “You said you have a manager running your company now.”
“Uh-huh. Max thinks I should just let him keep running it so I could help him with Montgomery Development.” He winced. “As president.”
She fell to the sofa. That went beyond lucky. “President?”
“He’s CEO and Chairman of the Board. Technically, he’d still be my boss.”
“Wow.”
“It is a great company.” His face grew thoughtful. “It was a crappy company when I left. My dad was a scoundrel. He nickel and dimed everybody. Out-and-out cheated others.” He snorted a laugh. “I wouldn’t have worked there on a lost bet while he was alive, but in the past years my brother changed things. The company’s more than reputable. And growing. Some of the things Max is into are mind-boggling. I think I’d like to be part of that.”
She frowned. “So you’d stay?”
He grimaced. “I think I’m talking myself into it. I know my mother wants me to stay. I know she wants to be part of the twins’ lives. And I hurt her enough by leaving when I was eighteen and staying away that I feel I owe her that.”
“That’s very nice.”
He shrugged and wouldn’t look at her. “But that means the nanny job could be yours permanently…if you want it.”
Her breath caught. It was only her second day of work, but she already liked it here. She had the run of the house when he was away, and if he worked he’d be away all day. And she had two adorable babies to play with to fill the aching hole in her heart that she didn’t even realize she had until she held them.
And Chance himself was kinda nice. Easy to talk to. For years, she hadn’t spoken with anyone beyond therapists and nurses and her parents—and Jason, who didn’t reply.
The only problem was her attraction—but surely she could keep that under control. After all, she had a fiancé. A fiancé she’d visit twice a week, now that Chance had agreed to two days off.
She licked her lips. “It would mean I’d have to take my days off on Saturdays or Sundays.”
He caught her gaze. “Or I could work something out with my mom.”
“You don’t have to accommodate me.”
“I like you.”
Her heart stumbled in her chest. With their gazes locked and the sounds of chirping birds in the backyard, she felt a million things at once, but the biggest one was happiness. She told herself that was because she liked this job, but staring into his blue eyes, she knew that wasn’t entirely true. She liked him. He was interesting and funny and appreciative of her help. He made her feel needed, useful. And pretty. He didn’t even have to say the words. She could see it in the way he looked at her.
“And I want to keep you as a nanny.”
“Of course.” Idiot. Did she think he liked her romantically after thirty-six hours? And what was she doing spinning fantasies? Hadn’t she said she could handle this attraction? Yes. She had. Because she could. Because being attracted to him was wrong. And she wasn’t stupid. “But I want to be fair too.”
He rose from his seat. “Why don’t we just give it a trial run and see how it goes? See if Saturdays and Sundays are good days off for you or see if we need to make other arrangements.”
He smiled at her, and that thing in her heart tripped again. This time it made her blood rush through her veins and her head feel light.
“Don’t forget my mom has a whole staff we can call upon for help when you need time off.”
So confused she couldn’t speak, she nodded.
“But right now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to get out of these clothes and maybe take a short walk around the grounds before the kids get up from their naps.”
“That’d be great. I mean—fine. It’s my job to be here.”
He laughed and left the room, but Tory collapsed on the sofa. What the hell was wrong with her? Yes, he was good-looking. But he was out of her league. And her boss! He didn’t like her and even if he did, she couldn’t like him. She was committed to Jason.
* * *
The little slip about liking her had been the result of testosterone bubbling around again, so Chance had decided to leave the house to cool off. But he hadn’t gotten three feet into the woods before his head cleared, he began thinking logically again and he stopped dead in his tracks.
She had a secret.
That’s why she’d stumbled over her explanation for wanting days off. That’s why she wouldn’t exactly say where she would be going on those days. There was something about her life she didn’t want to tell him.
Not that she couldn’t keep her personal life private, but…
His life had been built on secrets and lies. After his dad and Liliah, he really needed honesty from the people in his life. Max had won back a lot of Chance’s trust that morning with simple language and truth rather than doublespeak, but now his otherwise perfect nanny was holding something ba
ck.
Still, that might actually be good, depending on her secret. She had a right to a private life and her secret probably pertained to something that wasn’t connected to him or the twins. But, more important, being as picky as he was about trust, finding out she was hiding something totally turned him off. So he didn’t have to worry about his runaway feelings for her anymore. They were gone.
That was the good part.
The bad part was the secret itself. Did he really want to leave his kids with someone who was keeping something from him?
With that in mind, he cut his walk short. He heard the kids fussing as he entered, and immediately went back to the nursery to find Tory changing Cindy while Sam cried in his crib. He changed Sam’s diaper and he and Tory played with the twins a bit before she walked to the mansion to have her supper.
Not only had his attraction suspended, but she hadn’t seemed nervous or upset in the time they spent together, so he decided her secret had to be personal. Something like a boyfriend she met twice a week.
Which was good. Let her have a secret love. All the better to help him keep his distance from her.
When she returned, Chance had the babies on the floor, letting them try to crawl.
Tory raced over and stooped down in front of them. “Well, look at you! Learning to crawl!” She clapped her hands together with glee and Chance smiled at her, but just as quickly as his lips quirked upward, they fell again.
She has a boyfriend. His stomach tightened as disappointment rumbled through him. If her secret was anything else—a bad job recommendation, a firing, a felony—something would have shown up when his mom checked her references before she hired her.
He tried to tell himself that he’d met lots of already-taken women in his lifetime and walked away from all of them as naturally as breathing, but that didn’t make the regret go away.
Why did having to keep his distance from this woman bother him?
“How about a snack and then bath time,” she said, taking Cindy with her as she rose from the floor.
“Sounds good.” He rose too, reminding himself she had a right to a private life—and a boyfriend—and he had to get over himself.
They fed the kids a bit of cereal and headed for the nursery bathroom. Because his mom had done her best to accommodate twins, there were two sinks in the counter.
“Too bad they’re too big to fit in these sinks.”
Carrying Cindy on her hip, Tory brought two plastic baby tubs over from the bathroom closet. “Yeah, but your mom did think of these.”
He pulled them apart, used the hose apparatus to fill them and then undressed Sam.
Loving the water, Sam slapped it with his chubby hands.
Nodding at him, Tory said, “Pretty soon he’s not going to fit that tub.”
Chance laughed. “No. He’s not.”
“Then we’ll have to use the big bathtub.”
“Is that dangerous?”
“Not if we never leave him.” She smiled at Chance. “Childcare is a matter of a little bit of knowledge and lots of common sense.”
He remembered all the things she’d already taught him. In a little less than two days, his kids were happy and he felt more competent.
Wistfulness stole through him. Even with a boyfriend, she could still be an excellent nanny, but they’d lost something. He wanted to like her. She was sweet and funny. The kind of woman he needed after Liliah.
Liliah. Just thinking her name caused anger to spiral through him. It reminded him of the humiliation he’d felt after she’d admitted she’d only dated him to use him. He’d known her weeks before they’d gotten romantically involved, and still she’d fooled him. Wasn’t it a tad stupid to be so quickly falling for Tory? A woman he really didn’t know? A woman with a secret? Probably a boyfriend.
God. Where was his brain around her?
Tory squeezed a washcloth full of water over Cindy’s head. Streams ran through her curls and made her giggle.
That’s where his brain was. On his kids. Tory was so good with his kids and his kids were so needy that he was taking his feelings of appreciation too far. Maybe he wanted a mother for his kids so badly that he was seeing things in her that weren’t really there.
Well, no more.
“And little miss Cindy likes her bath too.”
She eased the cloth over Cindy’s soft belly as Chance washed Sam. They rolled the two wet, squirming babies into fat, fluffy towels and headed to the nursery where they slid them into one-piece pajamas. They fed them bottles, let them drift off to sleep and then left the nursery.
Alone in the great room again, Chance had himself totally under control. He ambled into the sitting area, snagging the remote for the TV from the coffee table and fell to the sofa.
Right beside Tory.
Assuming she’d gone to her room, he hadn’t even looked before sitting, and suddenly they were hip to hip, virtually on top of each other.
His gaze snapped to hers. An apology sprang to his lips. But her brown eyes heated with such yearning that he stopped it.
Warmth spiraled through him. With one simple reach of his hand, he could slide his fingers under her luxurious auburn hair, bring her face to his and press his lips to hers.
Satisfy this hunger that snaked through him every time he looked at her.
As if reading his thoughts, she sucked in a breath. Her breasts rose and fell and sweet need sprang up again.
Then he remembered Liliah. He remembered the humiliation of realizing he’d totally misjudged her and the anger when she abandoned their kids. He remembered he barely knew Tory and that she had a secret.
He bounced from the sofa. “You know what? I’m more tired than I thought.” He pivoted and headed for his bedroom. “I think I’ll just call it a night.”
CHAPTER FOUR
THE SOUND OF THE BABIES crying woke Tory a little after three and she popped up in bed. Shoving her arms into her pink chenille robe to the music of two wailing babies, she limped to the nursery door. Her leg always bothered her after hours of sitting or when she first awoke, so it didn’t concern her. She opened the door from her room to the nursery just as Chance opened the door on the other side, the one that connected to his room.
His short dark hair spiked out in all directions. His eyes blinked against the light she’d turned on. And he was topless. He wore only black sweatpants that hung low on his lean hips, revealing a firm chest peppered with hair as black as the hair on his head. Even his feet were bare.
Her breathing froze. Their moment on the couch rolled through her brain. The shivery heat that had rattled through her flooded her again. She’d never felt anything like that for a man before. Not even Jason. Which made it incredibly wrong. Incredibly. It had to be.
She quickly headed for Cindy’s crib. “I thought it was my job to get up with the babies?”
The question stuttered out of her, but she had to say something. Not only did she need to get them past the ridiculous once-over she’d just given his body, but she also wanted to get them beyond her gazing at him like a lovesick fool while they were on the sofa. He might be gorgeous, with a fantastic, sexy, sensual body. But that wasn’t his fault. It was nature’s. After the way she’d stared longingly at him when they’d accidentally sat side by side on the sofa, she had to show him she could behave appropriately around him. Like a nanny.
He ran his hand down his face. “A full night’s sleep last night was wonderful. But there are two of them and two of us. It will just make things easier if we work together.”
His deep, masculine voice set off a chain reaction of tingles and fluttering inside her. She wanted to ask herself what was wrong with her but she knew. Just as nature had graced Chance with good looks, it was interfering with her biology now. She was a normal twenty-five-year-old woman. Her hormones might have been suppressed for the years she’d gone through surgeries and rehab but they were awake now.
Still, she could ignore them. She had to ignore them.
> They made short order of the diapers in silence. When the last snap was snapped, Chance walked over to Cindy’s changing table and motioned for Tory to put her on his free arm.
“Since I can hold both, you get the bottles.”
She slid the baby onto his arm, taking great care not to touch him. Then she scooted out and raced to the kitchen. She took two bottles from the refrigerator, and headed back to the nursery. Nudging open the door with her shoulder, she found Chance struggling with his two screaming bundles of joy, both of whom appeared to want to crawl onto his head.
She raced over with the bottles, simultaneously handing Chance a bottle and taking Cindy from his lap. “I see what you mean about them crawling all over you like cats.”
Sliding the nipple into Sam’s mouth, Chance only grunted. She sat on the other rocker and slid the bottle into Cindy’s mouth.
Except for the eager sucking of two hungry babies, the room was silent.
Tory drew in a long breath. They shouldn’t talk. The kids should eat and then fall back to sleep. But not talking made the time seem so intimate.
She snorted a laugh in her head. The intimacy was only her perception. A guy who jumped off the couch and ran to his room rather than sit too close to her and grunted his responses wasn’t feeling intimate. She had to get ahold of these weird feelings and stop misinterpreting things. He was her boss. She was a nanny. He needed her. And she liked being needed. She liked being around the kids.
Sam finished first. Chance expertly burped him and put him in his crib with a soft good-night kiss. Without a word, he left the nursery, confirming that all these things she thought were happening were only in her head.
Sleepy Cindy sucked slowly and drifted off to sleep.
“Hey,” Tory whispered. “You can’t fall asleep until you’re done eating.”
Cindy blinked up at her as if saying her talking helped her to stay awake, so Tory smiled. “You like a little dinner conversation?”
Cindy kept her eyes on Tory’s.
“Such a pretty girl,” she whispered, stroking Cindy’s forehead as the baby suckled. “I think we’re going to have to teach your daddy to talk a bit when he feeds you.”
