Page 3 of Nanny for the Wolf Daddy

“Nox, call me Nox.”

“Mister Nox,” she continued. “We have a strict background check and matching process that works a lot like a dating service ...”

“I’ll pay you triple,” he nearly hissed. “I am in desperate need. I can pay you even more if you get her here right fucking now.”

“Mister Nox, I’m not sure ...”

“Just Nox,” he snapped. “None of thismisterbullshit. Please, I beg you, this situation is a damn mess.”

Well, she thought, triple the amount was very tempting, especially since she really wanted to take a vacation she’d been putting off for years. But she would never put a caregiver in the home of someone she hadn’t checked out thoroughly first. Perhaps she, herself, could help this Nox for a bit until he was vetted. She had, of course, been a nanny for years before creating her own agency, so taking care of a child would be a walk in the park.

She negotiated back and forth with him a few more times before agreeing to meet him at his mansion in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, only about an hour’s drive away.

She closed the agency and set her phone to work mode. She would do all the assigning and answering of acute concerns while on the job. A part of her was excited to be doing something so spontaneously, if you considered working in the field exciting.

It was the shifter that she wasn’t so sure about, but that uncertainty was titillating.

Puttering up the driveway of his gargantuan home was positively cinematic. Fog rolled in from a distance, misting the dark silhouette of the high gables with the vintage, castle-esque stonework. Kelli had to make sure she wasn’t pulling into a seasonal haunted house or a well-manicured cemetery.

She arrived at the roundabout and parked her car, which looked like a small bug compared to the home overshadowing it. Her heels clicked like a ticking clock as she made her way to the front of the house, using the metal doorknocker to inform of her arrival.

Through the door, she heard the sound of the shifter, who seemed to have his teeth permanently gritted.

“One minute!”

Kelli was a patient woman, as she had to be when it came to children. Approximately thirty seconds after knocking, an enormously muscular and gorgeous man with blazing green eyes, that nearly took her out at the knees, whooshed the door open.

“Kelli, I presume?” he said abruptly.

Kelli suddenly felt self-conscious about her suit, the skirt ending at the knee, the matching blouse and jacket too heavy to handle. She was holding a file folder in front of her chest, feeling like it was going to spontaneously combust.

“Yes,” she affirmed, making sure her voice didn’t shake. “And you are Nox?”

“Cookies!”

An adorable little child with chocolate smeared all over her face, wearing only a diaper that appeared to be put on backward, was literally attached to his leg.

“No more cookies!” he snarled down at the kid, who merely laughed at his attempt to sound threatening. “Come in, for fuck’s sake.”

Kelli stepped inside and noticed that Nox hadn’t been joking about the severity of his situation.

The interior of the house was not built for child habitation in the slightest. Matching with the exterior stone, the floors were lined with polished versions of the same ... an expensive design choice that he clearly was able to indulge in.

He trudged into the kitchen, the child attached to him like a leech. She giggled as he placed her down beside the table, giving her what looked like iced tea from a can.

“Now shush for a minute, Violet,” he snapped at her.

The little girl needed a bath, her hair tangled in sweet ringlets with dirt that shone in the glimmer of sunlight. The young one zipped her mouth closed like a much older child, then burst into hysterical laughter at her own pantomime.

“Fuck,” Nox grunted.

He leaned against a sleek, sage-green granite countertop while the child chugged down what was likely her third or fourth glass of liquid sugar. Kelli looked at him thoughtfully, doing her best not to betray her growing concern not only for the child but for her own attraction.

“What happened?” she asked earnestly

“Her father, who is my brother, went out for a run with his wife yesterday, and now they are missing,” he said, speaking quickly like he had somewhere to be. “I’m clearly not fucking father material, so I need someone to watch over her while I look for my brother.”

He obviously didn’t think he needed to calm the cursing around the baby, though she didn’t seem to be paying attention. Kelli glanced around the room that looked like a bomb had gone off in a quaint and luxurious hotel.

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