Page 19 of Bad Nanny

I put my hand on the top of her glitter-flecked head. “Daddy doesn’t understand how important it is for little girls to sparkle sometimes.”

Gabriel huffed a chuckle as he rubbed his jaw. It was one of those sounds that held a warning that I was pushing it, and he didn’t need to say anything for me to know that he wanted to rip me a new one for that comment. But with the way he was looking at me with heated eyes, I didn’t think that was necessarily a bad thing.

I knelt in front of Delaney. “Once the glitter touches you and you go into the sun, it becomes part of you. If you think you need some tomorrow, we’ll go outside, so Penelope can give you more.”

Delaney threw her arms around my neck. “You’re thebest nanny ever.” She let go a few moments later and skipped to her dad, taking his hand.

Gabriel’s lips pressed into a thin line, the twitch of his jaw not hiding his feelings. “We’ll talk later.”

The way he said it sent a shiver down my spine—it hinted at something more than a discussion about glitter. But that could have also been a trick of my brain, still high from our kiss.

Chapter 7

Puppet Kink?

Gabriel

I gently tuckedthe blankets around Delaney and watched her eyelids flutter shut. After I’d changed her out of her glitter-covered clothing, we’d gone for a walk around the neighborhood—something she was only recently comfortable with—and had dinner.

Our evening routine was always the same, and a new nanny hadn’t changed that. We’d watched an episode ofBlueybefore bath time, gotten her ready for bed, and snuggled while I read her a book.

She was exhausted after the excitement of the day, and so was I.

After going through so many nannies, I’d decided to not be as overbearing as I usually would on the first day. Besides responding to the text I sent at lunchtime to make sure everything was fine, Josie hadn’t reached out to me. I’d been so used to the previous nannies updating me and clarifyingthings in the binder, her silence put me on edge most of the day. So much so, I left work early.

I’d half expected Delaney to be anxious when I got home, but instead, I’d found her enjoying her afternoon with a smile on her face. Sure, she’d cried a little when she’d realized I was home, but she moved on from it so quickly, it gave me pause.

Covering any child in glitter would probably make them forget about their worries. I could still see small flecks in Delaney’s hair in the soft glow of the bedside lamp.

The thing about glitter is that, no matter how hard you try, you’ll never get rid of every fleck of it. Even if a house was torn down and the Santa Ana winds whipped through, ten years later, there would still be glitter.

It was exactly how I felt about that damn kiss.

“Daddy?” Delaney’s small voice pierced my thoughts.

“Yes, sweetheart?” I switched on her nightlight and turned off the lamp.

“I hope Josie doesn’t leave like the other nannies,” she whispered before yawning.

“I hope not, either.” I swallowed hard, a pang of guilt stabbing me.

My impossibly high standards and lack of patience were the reasons the previous nannies hadn’t worked out. Now, I was complicating matters further by acting on impulse and need. I couldn’t explain why I was reacting so strongly to Josie.

I hated to admit it, but my brothers might have a point about me never going out. Maybe that’s what I needed.

As Delaney’s breaths evened out, I left her room, shutting her door gently behind me. It was a little past eight-thirty,and Josie was supposed to meet me in the dining room to discuss the day.

We had a lot to discuss.

I strode down the stairs, expecting to find Josie ready for our discussion. Instead, I was met with quiet emptiness.

With a huff of irritation, I whipped out my phone and double checked the time before pulling up my earlier text to Josie to confirm I’d put the correct time.

She was late.

I marched toward the studio but stopped short of the door when I heard a muffled high-pitched voice coming from the wall where the walk-in closet was. Why on earth would she be using a puppet in her closet?

Curious, I got closer to the wall, my ear almost touching it. It had to be a puppet; there was no other explanation. A word stood out, catching me off guard, and my brows knitted in confusion.Cock?My mind raced to make sense of it; surely, I was mishearing. It could have very well been block, sock, tock.

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