Page 17 of Falling for the Nanny

CHAPTER 10

DAVID

It had been a long time since someone had challenged me. I remembered why people had learned better as Cat persisted far after any other sane person would have stopped. It fucking infuriated me. It boiled my blood. It diverted my thoughts from whatever I should be thinking about into a five-point plan on how to destroy their argument, and then maybe their career.

But it was different with Cat. I was infuriated, and heat was spreading up my chest and heading dangerously to my head, but I didn’t want to destroy her. I wanted to shut her up, but not with cold, brutal logic. I could barely hear what she was saying; I could only watch her lips as they formed the words.

And a small, reasonable voice was whispering in the back of my mind: This was a bad idea. I’d known it from the start. It wasn’t because Cat was beautiful. I worked with beautiful women all the time. The world was filled with them. It was because, for some insane reason, I was attracted to her particular brand of beauty. Doe eyes that were soft and kind when she looked at Lily, then narrowed with frustration when she looked at me. Mahogany hair that looked like it had been steeped in gold, always pulled back in that sensible ponytail. A cupid’s bow of a mouth that could go from smiling to frowning in an instant. This was the kind of beauty I couldn’t ignore or admire from afar. It was the kind that put an itch in my palms. I wanted to cup my hand around the nape of her neck and see if her skin was really as soft as it looked. I wanted to trace the outline of her upper lip with my tongue. Taste her.

It was the kind of beauty I wanted to own.

“You–” she spluttered, a flush working its way up her cheeks as my words sank in, “you don’t own me. I’m an employee, not a house elf.”

I liked the way I could make her skin turn pink like that.

“What’s the difference?” I asked rhetorically and got exactly the reaction I wanted. I wondered if she knew that when she was pissed off, her eyes got bigger and her lips trembled with indignation in a way that did absolutely nothing to put me in my place. Quite the opposite.

“The difference is, I can leave any time I want,” Cat snapped, rising to her feet.

I raised my eyebrows and waited. Now some of the color drained from her face as she considered the possibility. She straightened hesitantly and set her chin, and I could almost read her mind. She was going to quit out of principle. I’d boxed her into a corner. Effectively, I’d won. Disappointment and relief filled me. If Cat quit, I’d avoid a whole shitstorm of problems. But if Cat quit–

Lily bounded back into the room, wearing shorts, a pink T-shirt, and a worried expression as she glanced back and forth between Cat and me.

Cat’s face slipped into an instinctively soft expression as she looked over at Lily. “Hey Lils,” she said, and there was a long pause while we all held our breath, wondering if she was about to say she couldn’t stay, something had come up, she was so sorry.

Lily’s lower lip slipped between her teeth.

“Hey, teeth,” Cat said, and suddenly the tension was broken. Somehow with that simple command, she was Lily’s nanny again, not on the brink of quitting. She refused to look at me, but she smiled reassuringly at my daughter. “Come on, let me help you with English and science. Your dad can help you with math later while I get dinner ready.”

Lily bounded over to the table, relief all over her face. She sent me a look as she settled into her chair that clearly said don’t mess this up for me, dad.

“I’ll be in my office if anyone needs me,” I said blandly. “Working like a house elf.”

Cat’s head came up at that, but she still refused to look at me.

That was fine.

We’d finish this later.

* * *

Cat surprised me. For the rest of the week, she somehow managed to be everywhere and nowhere. I could hear her laughing with Lily while I worked in my office, but she had a sixth sense for when I was done working. Every time I came into a room, she’d be on her way out of it. She’d make sure Lily was done with her homework and ready for dinner, which she prepared, but she invariably disappeared into the pool house when it was actually time to eat.

“You can eat with us, you know,” I told her on one of the few times I caught her on the way out. I’d been out checking on the pool as she was slipping through the patio door. “Mrs. Barnes always did.”

“Is that a command?” she asked sarcastically, clearly still pissed about my comment.

“Just an invitation.”

“Politely declined.”

She moved to brush past me, but I caught her arm. It was an instinctive gesture I regretted immediately because while it brought her up short, it also brought her too close. I let go immediately and took a step back.

Cat eyed me warily, taking her own step back.

“I feel like this isn’t working,” I said, clearing my throat. “We can’t coexist in the same house if you don’t want to be in the same room with me.”

Her hazel eyes widened indignantly. “Then maybe you shouldn’t go out of your way to make me feel unwelcome every time we’re in the same room.”

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