Daddies & Nannies: A Contemporary Romance Boxset

by Piper Sullivan

  “I’m a damn genius, in case you didn’t know.” He winked and straightened his spine, crossing his arms over his chest. “And you have to stop living your life based on other people’s mistakes. You’re not your mom and Jackson isn’t all those other guys.”

  “You’re something, all right.” He laughed and patted my shoulder in that brotherly way he had of putting me at ease.

  “So are you, Becca. Don’t let anyone tell you any differently.”

  Eric’s words stayed with me for the rest of the day, as I sat in meeting after meeting, taking notes and organizing his life. It made me think of the question Jackson had asked. Did I want to do something else? I did, but it felt disloyal to leave Eric when he’d hired me and given me a chance when I really needed one.

  But no one, not even Jenn, had ever asked me if being an executive assistant was what I wanted out of life. They just assumed that Becca, the nurturer and caretaker, the extremely capable girl who could organize anything, wanted nothing more than to take care of others. Which wasn’t far off the mark, but I wanted a family to take care of and nurture. I wanted a career that fueled my passion.

  I spent the drive home thinking about what work I was passionate about, and I couldn’t think of anything. Until I walked into my apartment and found Jackson there, smiling at me with such affection I felt it all the way down to the center of my heart. And it became clear. He was what I was passionate about.

  “That’s a look a man could get used to.”

  Yes, please! He looked delicious in that red and white striped apron, wearing nothing but jeans and a t-shirt. Simple yet hot. “And this is an image a woman could get used to coming home to, an incredibly sexy man cooking dinner.” And good lord, was he ever sexy.

  “I’m all yours, sweetheart.”

  If only that were true. “What have you been up to all day?”

  He rolled his eyes. “Reading scripts.”

  My ears perked up. Jackson hadn’t acted in more than a year and he hadn’t said why. “Didn’t find anything that appeals to you as an actor?”

  His eyes widened in surprised. “How’d you know?”

  “I didn’t, but I think it’s time you find your next project, don’t you?” The man had surprising depth as an actor, but he didn’t take a lot of roles so most people still saw him as just a handsome romantic lead.

  “Trying to get rid of me?”

  I laughed. “Oh, please. We both know actors never stop wanting to act, the roles just dry up. But you have a significant advantage there. Why not use it?”

  Jackson smiled and took my hands, I let him guide me into the kitchen where he picked me up and set me on a stool at the counter. “Can I ask you to take a look at something? Tell me what you think?”

  I’d never seen Jackson look so uncertain, and it was humbling to know a man with so much, still had insecurities. “Sure, but I’ve never read a script before. Will I be able to tell if it’s good by reading it?”

  “Yes. It’s easy to read, but I’m not sure if the role is right for me. I haven’t done any serious method acting before.”

  “But you’re good, Jackson. Stretch those acting muscles. You have presence, you’re too hot for your own good, and you want something with more depth.”

  He blinked. “You’re right, I do.” He circled the counter and stopped in front of me, bracketing his hands on either side of my body. “Thanks.” His lips were on mine, slow and sensuous as they teased me, electrified me until I leaned in and tasted his mouth. He tasted of wine and garlic and basil.

  “You taste good.”

  He chuckled. “You taste better.”

  I rolled my eyes at his compliment that touched me all the way down to my soul. “Let’s agree to disagree. Now, what smells so good?”

  His deep laugh echoed in the kitchen and he smacked a kiss against my cheek before going back to the stove. “Dinner. We’re having Italian.”

  My stomach stood up and took notice. “My favorite.”

  “I figured, considering you have enough pasta in here to open up your own trattoria. But this dish, I made it up myself.”

  “Because you’re not talented enough?”

  He shrugged. “Only if you think so,” he said with a wink and I swear in that moment I officially lost the rest of my heart to Jackson Steele.

  I let out a wistful sigh and his grin widened knowingly. “Do I have time for a shower?”

  He turned to me and nodded. “Yes, we do.”

  “Can a person die from too much sex? Because my heart is telling me that I’m on the brink.” Jackson had been insatiable lately, and though I wasn’t complaining, it did make me curious.

  His deep chuckle resonated through me, vibrating my back and spine. “Don’t worry, sweetheart, if I feel you fading I’ll give you mouth to mouth.” The way his lips brushed along the back of my neck, the curve of my shoulder, was intoxicating. “Or I could slowly bring you down.”

  His tongue scraped along my spine and pulled a shiver from me. “How can I possibly decide between such intriguing options?” I turned in his arms with a smile as wide as the Brooklyn Bridge and touched his face. “I shouldn’t like it, but this scruff is a serious turn on.” My nails scraped down the tough, short hairs, the sound sent desire rocketing through me.

  “Well I’m happy to keep it since you like it so much.” Big overheated hands slid down my shoulders and back until those hands gripped my ass. He pulled me closer so I could feel how hard he was for me. Supremely. Deliciously hard.

  The way he could so easily dial me up to a thousand without much effort was astounding. And I might lose my feminist card for even thinking it, but I loved it. “Yeah? You’d do that for me?”

  “Oh Becca, I’d do a hell of a lot more for you.” Then he kissed me until my toes curled, until the only sounds I made were incomprehensible moans and cries. He kissed me until I clung to him as he slid into me and thrust over and over, making me love him despite the insistent urging from my brain.

  It was too much. He was too much, but I still couldn’t get enough of him or the way he made me feel. Like I was enough, more than enough. “Jackson,” I whispered against his lips. “I think your mouth is my favorite thing in the world.” I shouldn’t have said it, but I was too sated, too happy to censor myself.

  “It’s yours for as long as you want it.” He said it so easily, as though it were just that simple.

  And we both knew it wasn’t. “Jackson.” My voice held an edge, a warning.

  He flipped me on my back, arms bracketing my body as we lay chest to chest. “No, don’t. Don’t tell me what I mean or how I feel, Becca. If you don’t feel the same way, that’s something else, but you don’t get to define my feelings or the sincerity of them.”

  Wow. I looked up into those hazel eyes, right now they were more gold and green than brown and I just couldn’t look away. He was beautiful, inside and out. And completely out of my league. “It’s not that I don’t believe you, Jackson, but I can’t let myself believe in what you feel in the moment.”

  His gaze seared me all the way down to my soul. “This moment is all we’ve got, Becca. But eventually, you string enough of those moments together and the next thing you know, a lifetime has passed.”

  “Don’t say stuff like that, Jackson.” Listening to words like that, ones I’ve waited my whole life to hear someone say to me, were like a knife to my heart.

  “Even if it’s true?”

  “Even if it was, Jackson, how could it work between us?” It couldn’t. “The whole country separates us and we live very different lives.”

  “We don’t have to. You could come with me, give Hollywood a try if you want, or maybe find your passion.”

  “Are you…asking me to move to Los Angeles with you?” That was a huge commitment, and coming from Jackson I knew it was unchartered territory. It was for both of us.

  “I am, but if it makes you feel better, I’ll ask officially.” he flashed a grin and pulled away from me, sit
ting up tall in all his naked glory. “Becca, will you move to Los Angeles so we can be together?”

  I wanted to say yes. With all my heart I wanted to smile and throw myself into his arms and scream yes at him. But I couldn’t. “I can’t Jackson, but I want to, more than anything. I can’t just leave Eric like that, not after all he’s done for me.” I sat up and cupped his face between my hands because I needed him to see my eyes when I told him. “I love you and I want to be with you, but right now I just can’t leave.”

  I saw the disappointment flash before he banked it, and I had a sinking feeling that my answer would be the end of us.

  Jackson

  Becca had given me a lot to think about, but honestly, I didn’t need to think about it. I wanted to be with her, more than any woman I’d ever met. She was smart and sweet, refreshing and sexy as hell. Plus, she didn’t give a damn about my money, and that made me love her even more.

  I knew my money didn’t mean all that much to her because of the look she got in those gray eyes when she came home from work and found me cooking. A woman who could get that worked up by simple housework, well I could get a lot of mileage out of that.

  And, she was excited about my work. Not the money or the fame, but the work. Becca actually thought I had real skills as an actor and I knew she wasn’t just blowing smoke. She loves me.

  And that meant I needed to make some changes. Fast.

  “Is everything all right?” Becca looked at me across the table at La Fin, my favorite place to eat in New York City. She looked worried. And wary, and I knew that was my fault.

  I was keeping secrets, but I had to until all of my plans were set. “I’m fine, just lost in thought.”

  She nodded, accepting the answer easily because she often found me poring over scripts and production schedules while cooking for us. “You must have a lot of work piling up back in California.” It wasn’t a question. She expected me to leave the city. Leave her.

  “It’s all being handled. By me and my team. Are you all right? You seem…I don’t know, distracted.”

  “Maybe a little.”

  I reached for her, grabbing her hands in mine. “Tell me what’s wrong, sweetheart.”

  “I don’t know... Everything just feels all messed up.” She sighed and reached for her martini glass. “Are we okay?”

  The fact that she was worried about us made me feel good. She was invested too. “Yeah, we’re more than okay, Becca. We’re great, unless you feel differently.”

  “No, but things have been weird since I said, you know.” Her skin flushed beautifully.

  I smiled. “Since you said you loved me?”

  “Right.” Becca pulled her hands away from mine, feeling uncomfortable and I knew why. “That.”

  “Becca, did you mean it?”

  She nodded. “I wouldn’t have said something so important if I didn’t mean it.”

  And I hadn’t said anything back. Luckily tonight was the first part of my grand plan. “Good.”

  Our server stopped at the table with a polite smile, dropping off champagne and dessert. “Enjoy.”

  “What is all this, Jackson?” Becca looked at the milk and white chocolate lava cakes, the bucket of champagne and then up at me.

  I smiled at her and grabbed her hand again, pressing a kiss to the tip of each of her fingers. “This, beautiful Becca, is dessert. Which one do you want?”

  Her shoulders fell in disappointment and I resisted the urge to just blurt everything out. I couldn’t. This was too important. “Um, the milk chocolate, I guess.”

  I slid it over to her and took the other ramekin, digging in while she sat there trying to figure me out. She hesitated, looking at the strawberry perched on top as though it might explode.

  “Go on. Eat it.”

  She plucked the strawberry top between her fingers, realizing it was just a cap. “What the…?” Picking up the strawberry she pulled out the small scroll and read it. “Oh, Jackson!”

  “Yes?” I leaned in and arched a brow. “What does it say?”

  Her voice was shaky when she spoke. “I love you too. You do?”

  “Damn right I do, Becca. I love you, but after your heartfelt declaration, I couldn’t just say it back all boring like, could I?”

  One tear slid down her cheek. “I guess not. You are Jackson Steele, after all.”

  “And I love you.”

  “That’s good,” she said softly with an affectionate smile. “Because I kind of love you too.” Becca dug into her dessert with a sensual moan that shot straight to my cock.

  I rushed us both through dessert and took her back home where I spent all night making sweet, passionate love to the woman who’d captured my heart without even trying.

  Becca

  Jackson was being weird again, and this time I refused to over think it. He said he loved me, and spent the entire night showing me just how much. But that was a week ago, and now he was back to being distant. And secretive.

  I refused to deal with any of it, including the hurt and uncertainty, so I decided to ignore it. I focused on work because Eric’s life was always busy with business and personal meetings, talent events and anything else he needed. I came home to Jackson at night, laughed and smiled, and enjoyed spending time with the man I love. Without pressing for anything more. I didn’t ask about the future, no matter how much I wanted to.

  But Eric had sent me home early because he had some mysterious errands to run and apparently he didn’t need my help. So I returned to an empty apartment, changed into yoga pants and a t-shirt, and cleaned my apartment. I did laundry and dishes and all the things I’d neglected because I was so wrapped up in Jackson. Not that it was a bad place to be, but it wouldn’t last. Eventually he would have to return to the west coast and then we would be done.

  For real.

  I had to be okay with it because there was no other choice. I couldn’t just up and leave Eric, not when he’d given me a job when I really needed one. Even if I did leave, it would be months down the line. After properly training someone who could take over and run his life the way I did. And I understood why Jackson was holding himself back, even if it killed me every time his smile died on his lips. I should do the same, if I stood a chance of surviving once he was gone. But I couldn’t.

  I loved him. Against all odds and despite my best intentions, I fell hard and fast for a man who was going to break my heart. Not intentionally, but the result would be the same.

  It was as I was tidying up the bedroom that I noticed that all of Jackson’s belongings were gone. All of it. There was nothing left behind to indicate he was ever here at all.

  Somehow, I made my way to the living room and plopped down on the sofa. I blindly reached for my phone and dialed Jenn. The call went straight to voice mail. “Hey, it’s me and I was hoping you’d come over and get drunk with me. But you’re off with your mystery guy probably, so I’ll take care of the bottle myself. Later.” I tossed the phone back on the table and pushed off the couch to go in search of a bottle of…something. “Score!” I grabbed the champagne, popped the cork and returned to the sofa.

  And I drank until my eyes were blurry. I drank until I started to cry. It wasn’t a pretty cry either, but luckily there was no one around to see me which meant I could cry as much as I wanted.

  And then I fell asleep.

  “Wake up, sleepy head.” A low masculine voice that I knew so well whispered in my ear, his cinnamon scented words pulled me awake.

  “I’m not asleep,” I told him with a grumpy pout.

  “Of course not,” he agreed, but I could hear the laughter in his voice. “I think passed out might be the better term.”

  Yeah, that probably was more accurate. I opened my eyes and my heart stuttered at the sight of him, so handsome and casual. Hazel eyes clouded with concern. I didn’t want his concern, I wanted him. “What are you doing here?”

  “Where else would I be?”

  I shrugged and slowly pushed myself up t
o a seated position. “All of your stuff is gone.”

  “About that,” he began and sat back on the coffee table, a sudden tension around his eyes and mouth. Suddenly the champagne turned to acid in my stomach. “We should talk.”

  “Let’s not,” I told him and stood to put some distance between us. “Nothing good ever comes after those words.” The last thing I wanted to do was sit there, within arm’s reach of him, as he told me all the reasons we couldn’t be together.

  Jackson sighed and scraped a hand through his hair. “Will you at least listen to what I have to say?”

  “I guess I don’t have a choice.” But I did have a choice, I realized as I went to sit in front of him. I knew what he would say, some variation of ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ or ‘we want different things’ or any number of crap men said to lessen the blow of rejection. I knew it was coming. Hell, I’d known since our first night at that hotel this was how it would end. But my stupid heart let me forget.

  “Just listen, Becca.” Not beautiful Becca, just Becca. A girl he used to know. His hand landed on my shoulder and I savored the heat and the weight. “I’ve been thinking.”

  Normally I was in favor of thinking and over-thinking. It was a specialty of mine, but right now, that’s not what I wanted.

  “I don’t want to talk, Jackson.” If he was leaving, then I wanted him. One final time before we said goodbye forever. Having his handsome face just inches from mine was a special kind of torture, so I closed my eyes and let my lips find his. Taste his. Savor his. I kissed him long and hard, pouring everything I felt into the kiss. The love and the hate, the lust and need.

  The inevitable goodbye.

  At first I thought he might pull back, reject me before the official rejection because he was so stiff. But my tongue slicked across his bottom lip and moved him into action. Hands kneading their way down my back to my ass, pulling me close enough to feel his long hard cock straining to get out of his jeans. That’s what I wanted. He kissed me and stood up, sitting beside me on the sofa as he pulled me onto his lap, our lips never parting.