Page 50 of Single Dad's Hot Nanny

“I’m sorry, man,” he said between chuckles. “It’s just that the woman who you walked away from because you deemed her too young for you had to remindyouto be professional. That’s just…”

“Hilarious?” I said dryly.

I guess I got it right because he dissolved into laughter again. Letting out a deep sigh, I shook my head. I wasn’t offended by my friend’s amusement. He had every right to be shocked and amused. As he said, none of this was my usual behavior. Mia had to have cast some kind of spell over me. Her bubbly charm was fucking magical. The more time I spent around her, the more I found myself…loosening upas everyone had been telling me to do almost my entire life.

“Since you’re of no help to me,” I said, interrupting Lincoln’s chortling. “I’m going to hang up. Goodbye, Lincoln.”

“Hey, Mike, wait.”

My finger paused over theend callicon.

“You seem to really like this woman. I’ve never seen you so conflicted about anything. I know she’s working for you and that complicates things, but maybe it’s worth the risk…”

When I just stared at him without a word, he shrugged and said, “Think about it. Later.”

Long after he hung up, I sat there, thinking about it.Even if I was willing to jump into a hot affair with the nanny and risk losing her in the end, she seemed to have moved on. I scowled at my watch. She must have been having a hell of a time on that date…

As if thinking about her conjured her, I heard heels clicking on the tiles in the foyer. The footsteps sounded closer and closer,and I twisted on the sofa to watch Mia as she appeared around the corner.

She didn’t see me, and I hadn’t planned on letting her know I was there, but as if my mouth took on a life of its own, I blurted, “It seems you had a good time.”

Mia gasped and spun around. Her wide eyes landed on me in the dimly lit living room. “Michael…” She took hesitant steps toward me. “Why are you still up?”

“Work.” I snorted inwardly at my lie. I’d turned into the very thing I disliked, a fucking liar. However, I couldn’t tell her I was up torturing myself with thoughts of her going home with some other guy, could I? The relief I felt when I heard her arrive was ridiculous.

Mia swept the room and frowned. I suppose because she saw no evidence of the work I was supposedly doing. “Um… okay.”

“Well, did you?” I asked a little too darkly.

“Did I what?”

“Have a good time.”

Her mouth opened and closed as she watched me warily. “Well, I…” She let out a laugh that resonated with nervousness, and it hit me that I was making her uncomfortable. “This is weird…”

Giving myself a mental kick in the ass, I said, “Yeah… I’m sorry. That was an inappropriate question. It’s none of my business.”

She shuffled from one foot to the other as she stared at me. I did a slow sweep of her, taking in the way her dress molded her full breasts and clung to her flared hips. When I made my way back up to her face, her cheeks were crimson, and her teeth punished her lower lip. She looked ready to bolt, and I couldn’t blame her because, as she had said, my behavior was beyond weird.

“Good night, Mia,” I said.

“Night,” she mumbled and then took off.

Flopping back onto the sofa, I blew out a long breath and rubbed my forehead. When did I become this person? The jealous, creepy guy who made his nanny uneasy? I really needed to get a hold of myself.

21

MIA

I hesitantly walked into the kitchen, looked around, and let out a relieved sigh. Michael had already left. Of course, I immediately felt bad for being relieved that he was gone because this was his house. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see him. It was just getting increasingly difficult to be around him and ignore the tension between us.

I’m talking heavy, electric, impossible to ignore—no matter how hard I tried—explosive sexual tension. I couldn’t give into it even when he looked at me in that dark but incredibly hot way he did. He’d given me that look last week when I got home from my date, and I’d gotten so hot and bothered that I almost threw caution to the wind to dive back into bed with him.

It was clear that Michael entertained thoughts about sex between us because he’d stopped hiding it. Maybe we’d be in the middle of a hot and heavy sexual relationship right now if I hadn’t put a stop to things when we were in Minnesota. However,thatwas my problem. I wanted more than a sexual relationship. I wanted wholesome forever love like my grandparents had. It seemed Michael just wanted to possessmy body because the sexual chemistry between us was off the charts.

I doubted he’d want anything serious with me because he still thought I was too young for him. I didn’t blame him. Why would an accomplished, billionaire father of one want something serious with his twenty-one-year-old nanny who barely had her life together? The thought of us as a serious couple was laughable.

Swallowing the sadness that washed over me almost daily when I thought about it, I told myself that things were looking up. They really were. With Michael’s generous salary, I was almost out of debt… myex-boyfriend’sdebt, that is.

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