Page 6 of Temptation at His Door

Ronan, knowing that he couldn’t keep acting like an idiot, told himself to pull it together. He knew how to talk to people, dammit; it was what he did for a living. He slid another smile onto his face and held out his hand.

Joa tipped her head to one side and put her hand in his. Ribbons of pleasure-pain shot through his fingers up his arm. Pleasure because her hand was soft and feminine, pain because he knew this was the only time he’d ever touch her.

He was married; Thandi was the love of his life. Love and loyalty didn’t die just because death separated them. Ronan and Joa exchanged polite inanities for a minute and Ronan noticed she seemed to be finding it difficult to break their eye contact.

Good to know this madness wasn’t one-sided.

Keely, bumping his arm with her shoulder, interrupted their eye-lock. “I’m so glad I caught you, Ronan. Where were you rushing off to?”

Ronan gave her a blank look. “I was rushing?”

“You stormed past Joa, you didn’t even notice her standing there,” Keely said.

He hadn’t? How was that even possible? And damn, why couldn’t he remember where he was going? Oh, that might be because his brain had just been fried by a thousand volts.

“Did you call the agencies to send you a new batch of nannies to interview?” Keely asked him.

Concentrate, Murphy.“No, Eli is working on that now.”

Keely grinned at him. “Tell him not to bother, I have another plan. A really good plan.”

“What plan?” Ronan asked, his tone wary. He didn’t trust Keely’s super innocent expression.

“Ro, Joa is going to be your new nanny. She needs something to do while figuring out the next phase of her life, so she might as well look after your monsters while she muses.”

Ronan felt like Keely had put a stun gun to his chest and pulled the trigger. Instinctively he knew there was no way he could allow Joa to step into his house; she wouldn’t make it three feet in before he kissed her. She was temptation personified.

There was no way she could work for him...

No. Damn. Way.

And, judging by Joa’s completely horrified response to Keely’s suggestion, she felt the same.

Shock flashed in Joa’s bright eyes and annoyance slid across her face. It was obvious that she didn’t appreciate Keely’s “throw it against the wall, see if it will stick” idea.

Joa held up her hands and nailed Keely with a hard look. “Will you please stop trying to organize my life?”

She asked the question as if Keely was even remotely capable of keeping her nose out of her friends’ business. “Joa, you’re going to be bored within a week. You’ll need something to occupy your time.”

“I’ve been on my own since I was a kid, Keely. I am perfectly able to arrange my own life,” Joa replied, her calm tone containing an undercurrent of annoyance. “And I’ve just come off a long-term contract. I do not want to jump straight back into looking after another set of kids.”

Joa’s eyes darted to his face and she forced a smile. “I’m sure your children are lovely but I don’t need a job right now and I’m looking to do something different.”

Fine with him. He couldn’t hire Joa, didn’t want to hire her.

Ronan rubbed the back of his neck. Before Thandi died he’d been super confident, completely convinced that the world was his oyster, and his lobster and his sushi, too. He made decisions on the fly, trusted his instincts, and easily sailed through any personal or professional storms.

Then Thandi died giving birth to Aron (something he hadn’t believed could happen in one of the best hospitals in the Western world) and the world, as he knew it, stopped.

When he’d finally pulled himself out of his soul-stopping grief, he’d acted like the confident and charming man he’d once been. But underneath his PR persona, he was now protective instead of passionate, cautious instead of bold. He constantly scanned his environment, warding off trouble, looking for danger.

And Joa Jones was both. He knew that like he knew his own face.

“He needs help, Joa,” Keely insisted.

“As one of the Murphys of Murphy International, I’m pretty sure he possesses enough skills to hire his own nanny, Keely,” Joa said, not bothering to hide her irritation.

“Not if you go on his history,” Keely snapped back before Ronan could respond. “He’s gone through six.”

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