Page 23 of Falling for the Nanny

His lips twisted into a half smile. “If you wear that dress again, the deal is off.”

CHAPTER 14

DAVID

I’d fucked up with Cat. I knew that, but I didn’t know what I could have done differently. Fucking her would have been a mistake but walking away from her felt like shit. The only thing I could have done was go back in time and refuse to hire her. But the idea of anyone else sleeping in the pool house wasn’t right either. Lily loved her, and it was just too damn bad that I wanted her, too. It could never work.

I went inside, gratified to hear the sound of deep, even breathing behind Lily’s door. There was no way she and Mackenzie had snuck down for a late-night snack and seen what was happening outside.

I was too restless to sleep, but I went to my room anyway. It was safer than going into the basement to watch TV–I’d only be a hundred feet or so from Cat’s door, and that was far too close. I was grateful for the architect who had put the master bedroom facing out over the front lawn instead of the back yard. It meant I should have been able to get some peace once I shut the door behind me. Focused on anything else besides the last person I should be thinking about.

But instead, I saw her face everywhere I looked.

I stripped off my clothes, wishing I could see her doing the same. It wouldn’t take long. That little dress was so thin I could see the outline of her long legs all the way to their apex. If she hadn’t been wearing a bra, I could have seen where her breasts darkened and the peaks of her nipples. I went in the bathroom with the idea of taking a cold shower, then changed my mind once I was under the spray. I didn’t want to drive Cat out of my mind, I wanted to keep her there, naked and spread eagle beneath me. Bent over the footboard, looking back at me over her shoulder while I pounded into her relentlessly.

The image was so painfully exquisite that my cock, which had barely begun to soften, sprung to full mast again. I slid my hand down my torso and gripped the base of my manhood.

How many fumbling, inexperienced boys had she let inside her?

Had she ever had a real man to show her what lovemaking could be like?

I hoped not. I wanted to be the first.

I closed my eyes and let the spray beat down on my chest as I worked my hand up and down my shaft, imagining what I would do to Cat if she let me. If things weren’t so damn complicated. If she was really here, on her knees in front of me in the shower, I would have really taken my time. As it was, I came quickly, imagining her face beneath mine, eyes still blind with the impact of her orgasm, the way her tight pussy would clench around my cock as it rippled through her, and then the shuddering release of my own orgasm.

And then, as the tension drained away, I waited for satisfied disinterest to take its place. I thought that the world would click back into place and things would make sense again. Yes, Cat was beautiful, but this attraction sprung from the fact I just needed to get laid. Once I came, I’d remember that there were hundreds of beautiful women I could have without the unnecessary shitstorm that came along with fucking the help.

Instead, impossibly, I just wanted her more.

CHAPTER 15

CAT

If I thought the simmering sexual tension between David and me was tiring, the next week showed me that I’d had it easy. Now that it had risen to a full boil, it felt like landmines were everywhere. When I walked up the basement stairs to the main level, I might inexplicably raise my eyes and find him waiting at the top. Once he’d already been on his way down when I started up, and I didn’t realize until it was too late. Until we’d had to angle our bodies to slide past each other, and the faint brush of his shoulder on mine, the flash in his dark green eyes, had made it impossible to focus on Lily’s breakfast.

After I dropped Lily off at Flintrose, I either stayed out, running errands, or I snuck back into the pool house by way of the side gate. When we got home, David invariably found a reason to come into the kitchen while we had snack time and I helped her with her homework.

On Wednesday afternoon, I was helping her with English when he walked in. It was her weakest subject and my strongest. Her class was reading the junior novelization of a book about the food industry, and Lily hated it. I hated it, too, but it covered all the elements of nonfiction.

“I don’t understand the difference between theme and main idea,” Lily groused, uncharacteristically irritable. She’d just had to read about how red food dye was made from crushed bugs, and now she was grossed out. I didn’t blame her.

“Main idea is specific to the book, like girl goes on an adventure to save her kingdom and her sister. Theme is the message or moral of the story, like you can always count on family.”

“So what’s the moral of this story?” Lily poked at the book. “Don’t ever eat fast food again?”

“That’s what you have to figure out.”

Lily sighed dramatically. “I think the theme is that nothing that tastes good is good for you.”

David was watching her, his eyebrows furrowed. “Are you feeling okay, Lils?”

“My stomach hurts from reading about crushed bugs and e.coli in hamburgers.” She wrapped her arm around her stomach like it really did hurt.

David came over and laid a hand against her forehead. His eyes flicked up to mine in an instant. “Get the thermometer from her top drawer,” he ordered.

I ran up to get it, and when David hovered it over her temple, it turned red. The digital numbers flashed 101.6 on the screen. The corners of his mouth pulled down into a sympathetic frown. “You’re sick, kid.”

Though David had just confirmed it, I almost couldn’t believe it. She looked perfectly normal. I could see that there were faint blue bruises beneath her eyes, but those were always there. The poor girl was perpetually sleep deprived. Sure enough though, when I laid my hand to her forehead, I felt the heat pulsing against my palm.

---