Page 34 of Falling for the Nanny

“Rule number three is…” she tugged me down, and I caught her mouth in a kiss, cutting off whatever she was going to say. “Wait,” Cat murmured against my lips. “Rule number three is important.”

Reluctantly, I pulled back. I didn’t see how it could be all that important. It was already fucking happening. But Cat’s eyes were serious as they met mine.

“Rule number three is that we agree to walk away if it gets complicated. You help me get another nannying job, and I make up an explanation for Lily.”

“Is it not complicated already?” I asked. I didn’t like the idea of her leaving.

“Yes, but if we stick to rules one and two, it’s manageably complicated.”

“Manageably complicated,” I murmured, lowering my mouth to hers again. “I think that’s the perfect way to describe you.”

“Me?” Cat widened her eyes in mock outrage. “It’s the perfect way to describe you.”

She started to say more, but I cut her off with a kiss, and this time she didn’t resist.

* * *

It was just my luck that when Cat and I finally gave in, it coincided with my mother moving in. On Saturday morning, as I tried to eat breakfast across from Cat without letting on that I’d just left her bed a few hours ago, I asked my mother bluntly how long she was staying.

“Oh, as long as Lily wants me,” my mother said affectionately.

“Forever,” Lily said definitively. She loved having a grandmother around who was always happy to sleep in her room and sneak her ice cream.

“You didn’t book a return flight?” I asked. It wasn’t like my mother to plan an open-ended trip. She had a busy social calendar, and she liked it that way. Cat kicked me under the table lightly, interpreting the question as rude. Hell, maybe it was, but I didn’t care. It would be a lot easier to be with Cat if my mother wasn’t around.

It didn’t help that I was working my ass off as my company prepared for its annual spring convention. We flew everyone out to a resort hotel in Colorado where we were in meetings and product launches all day, followed by dinner and entertainment every evening. It was something I looked forward to every year, but the amount of work that went into it was bringing me into the office and keeping me there past dinner. There were some nights when I got home so late, I bypassed the house and went straight to Cat.

One night, Cat was sitting by the pool when I came through the side gate. “Oh,” she said, looking up at me, the blue shadows doing amazing things to her eyes, “so you’re allowed to use that entrance but I’m not?”

“I’m about a foot taller than you and have at least sixty pounds on you.” I cast a quick glance toward the back windows, and seeing no one, bent down to kiss her. “So yes, I’m allowed and you’re not.”

Cat tugged me down beside her on the lounge chair and pressed me back. “You think you’re so immune to kidnapping?”

I laughed as she kept her hand squarely in the center of my chest, as if she were trapping me. “I could get up if I wanted,” I warned her. When she raised her eyebrows challengingly, I proved it by pushing up and then hauling her onto my lap, trapping her against my chest. It was a dangerous thing to do, right here in the backyard, lit up in the blue glow of the pool, but I’d wanted to get my hands on her all day.

Cat playfully squirmed like she wanted to break loose, then relaxed and lay still. Beneath my arm, I could feel her heart beating fast. Both of us kept our eyes on the back windows of the main floor rather than on the serenely lit pool.

“We went swimming today,” she murmured. “Lily was so excited.”

“That kid is a fish.” I rested my chin on her head and interlaced my fingers with hers idly. I mildly regretted missing out on seeing Cat in a bathing suit, but the fact I was seeing her naked on a regular basis blunted the disappointment. “What else?”

Cat told me about their day–making sure I knew that the last-day-of-school awards ceremony was on Friday afternoon, and she had it on good authority Lily was getting one of those awards.

“Of course she is,” I said, unsurprised. “She’s brilliant.”

“I thought we should go out to celebrate after.” Cat angled her head back to check my reaction. Fridays were usually reserved for Lily and me, but I liked the idea of Cat being there, too. Besides, she would be a good buffer between my mother and me. Francesca liked her an inordinate amount.

“Let’s do it,” I agreed, and she smiled up at me.

“Now your turn. What went wrong today?”

I snickered. As much as I liked the conference, something did go wrong nearly every day of the planning process, now that we were in the final stages. “We had to change our block of rooms. A pipe burst on one side of the building.”

“At least it did it this week and not next.”

“Very true.”

“What else?”

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