The Nanny Proposal

Savannah wasn’t happy, far from it, but when she was around Kasey, she was more cheerful than he’d seen her in weeks. Both Savannah and Kasey were now living with him on a full-time basis. Sure, Savvie had been a frequent visitor to his house but it still felt strange to share his space with a woman and a girl, to find hair ties on his kitchen table and dolls on the floor. Kasey’s perfume floated through the house and there were flowers on the dining table and on the desk she used in the corner of his office. Music filled his house and his fridge was filled with girlie foods like low fat yogurt, frilly lettuce and hummus.

“Will you swim with me, Kasey?” Savannah asked, and Aaron tuned back into their conversation.

“Sure thing, sweetheart. I just need to check in with Aaron to see if he has any work for me,” Kasey replied.

Aaron saw the flash of disappointment cross Savannah’s face. With her dark brown hair and green eyes, she was going to be beautiful. Hell, if he discounted the fear and sadness, she already was.

“Nothing that can’t wait. Maybe I’ll join you two,” Aaron said, resting his arms on the railing of the balcony. Savannah’s head shot up and she managed a small smile before running into the house. Kasey stood in place, her arms folded across the cotton fabric of her sleeveless sundress. He could see the concern in her eyes, could read her thoughts as easily as he could the stock market.

“You don’t have to join us,” Kasey said.

“It’s fine. I’m hot and I need a break.” Aaron knew she worried that shedding most of their clothes would crack open the door that kept their mutual attraction under lock and key.

It was a swim, he wanted to tell Kasey. They’d have an almost-six-year-old to chaperone them. Aaron ran his hand across his face, reluctantly admitting that if he and Kasey found themselves in a pool alone, their clothes would be shed in world-record-breaking speed. They were that combustible.

Despite it only being a couple of days, living together in the same house was torture. They shared his office. They shared their meals. They were constantly in close proximity and, when he went to bed, he was deeply conscious that Kasey was across the hall in the bedroom next to Savannah’s. Every night he needed to talk himself out of slipping into her bed, of losing himself in her for an hour or two or most of the night.

He tried, he really did, not to think about her like that but at night, when the lights were off, he was ambushed by memories of how she felt...

God. Boss of the Year he was not.

Really, didn’t he have better things to do than fantasize about his employee? Aaron turned away and walked back into his cool study, dropping into his leather chair. He had too many responsibilities to allow himself to be distracted by Kasey with her endless curves and catlike amber eyes.

First and foremost, he needed to find out what the hell had happened to Jason. His gaze drifted to the silver frame on his desk: two little boys held fish up to the camera, their toothy grins wide and free. He and Jason were only a year apart and nobody knew his brother better than he did. Yeah, they’d fought and they’d competed—girls, sports, business—but they were brothers, and blood always, always, came first. He’d been Jason’s best man at his wedding, had handed him cigars and gotten him drunk when he’d become a dad. He’d kept his hand on his back and been a pillar of strength for him when he’d buried Ruth.

It had been more than two months since he’d heard from Jay and Aaron knew in his gut that something was wrong. Desperately wrong.

His brother was work obsessed but he’d never neglected Savannah. He was a good dad and, if Savannah was staying with Aaron or with Megan while Jay traveled, he made it a point to connect with his daughter every day, morning and night. Something terrible had to have happened because Aaron knew Jason would move heaven and earth to speak to his child.

Cole Sullivan, the PI his friend Will had hired, also believed that Jason was in deep crap. The note Megan had received—supposedly from Jason, stating he needed space to deal with Will’s death—had been proved, through handwriting analysis, not to be Jason’s.

Aaron could’ve told them that. Jason was a Phillips. They didn’t run away from their responsibilities. His brother would never turn his back on his daughter. He wouldn’t ignore his family’s entreaties to get in touch just so he could wallow in his own pain.

No, something was very, very wrong.

Aaron heard the door to his study open and Kasey walked in, heading for her desk in the corner. Instead of taking a seat, she bent from the waist down to peer at her monitor, her sundress perfectly delineating her heart-shaped ass, the same ass he’d slid his hands under to haul her against him as he’d lost himself in her eight months ago. He couldn’t help his eyes traveling down as her short dress rode up in the back, allowing him a look at her slim, tanned thighs. Those spectacular legs had encircled his hips, had been draped over his shoulders as he’d—

God, he needed to get laid. Eight months was far too damn long, but whenever he considered finding a date, Kasey’s face popped into his head. He didn’t want sex with some random female. He wanted Kasey. Which posed a problem, because the woman worked for him and was helping him, temporarily, to raise his niece. He couldn’t jeopardize either situation, or his honor, for sex. His neglected junk violently disagreed.

There was something—damn, what was the word?—homey about having his house and life invaded by two intensely girlie girls. Savvie’s occasional visits didn’t carry the same punch as having them here 24/7. The dolls and smells and music were comforting, and hearing feminine voices and the occasional trill of laughter made his house feel more like a home than the huge tomb he usually inhabited.

Aaron rubbed the back of his neck and reminded himself that this wasn’t normal. Normal was Jay back at home with Savvie, Kasey in her house, he in his. He couldn’t afford to get attached. All his relationships, romantic or not, tended to be messy and, as an added bonus, the people he loved tended to leave him. Sometimes both at the same time. No, it was better to stay emotionally detached.

But that resolve didn’t help him with his need-to-get-laid problem.

Kasey stood straight and Aaron quickly looked up, glad that his desk hid his arousal. There were certain things Kasey did not need to know and his craving for her was one of them. “Aaron, I’m falling behind.”

“How can I help?”

“Can you do Savvie’s ballet run? I could use that time to catch up here.”

Aaron nodded. It would do him good to get out of the house, away from the monitors and making financial decisions involving hundreds of millions of dollars. That took its toll and he could feel a stress headache building between his eyes.

Kasey opened the right-hand drawer to his desk and lobbed him a bottle of aspirin. “Take two and come for a swim, it’ll help you unwind.”

Aaron opened the bottle, shook the pills into his hand and tossed them into his mouth. He dry-swallowed the pills and ignored Kasey’s wince. “How did Savvie do at day camp today?”

Kasey picked up a pen and threaded it through her fingers, something she often did. “She was better, I think. She told me that some boy brought in his guinea pig and that some of the girls were scared of it, but she’d loved it.” Kasey sent him a look and he knew that something big was coming his way, something he might not like. “I think you should buy her a puppy.”

Yep, there it was. “Kasey, do we not have enough on our hands without adding a puppy to the craziness?”

“She loves animals, Aaron, and she needs something to love.”

“She has me and Megan.”

“Her mom and dad have both left her, so she doesn’t trust other adults not to do the same,” Kasey argued, stubbornness settling into her expression.

She was not going to let this go. Damn, they were going to get a puppy, sometime soon.

He thought he should at least try to change her mind. “She’s not old enough to handle the responsibility of looking after a dog, Kasey.”

“This isn’t about being responsible, Aaron. It’s about her having something in her life she can hold on to,” she reiterated. “Having something to love. Everyone needs someone or something to love and, God knows, dogs are a hundred times more reliable than humans.”

And didn’t that statement, Aaron thought as she walked out of the room, give him a glimpse into her soul.

* * *

Kasey stomped down the hallway and ducked into her room. Kicking off her sandals, she immediately walked over to the French doors and flung them open, allowing the heat of the hot Texas day to slide into her bedroom. For the last year or so she’d felt perpetually cold—a physical reaction to emotional pain—so she didn’t mind a little heat.

Kasey rested her head against the door frame and closed her eyes. She was exhausted, which was the only reason she’d allowed those revealing words to leave her lips. Everyone needs someone or something to love and, God knows, dogs are a hundred times more reliable than humans...

And wasn’t that the truth. Kasey looked at the small picture on her bedside table, her gaze focusing on the mixed breed she held in her arms. She’d found Rufus in Cleveland, the puppy half-starved, for food and affection. Because her parents were generally oblivious, she’d managed to keep him hidden until they moved to... God, what city came after Cleveland? Cincinnati? Boston? It was all a blur. But she did remember the screaming fight she’d had with her parents, that if they insisted on lugging her from place to place, school to school, then the least they could do was let her have one friend, even if it was a canine. Ru, like her, had endured the moves and loved the summer holidays at her grandparents’ house in Houston. All she’d wanted was a stable home life, a place to settle down in, and she’d found that for three months of the year, in Houston.

Years later she’d believed that she’d found her place, her permanent home with Dale. Yeah, that hadn’t turned out the way she expected it to.

Kasey walked over to the king-size bed covered in expensive, white Egyptian cotton and picked up her phone. There were two missed calls from Michelle, one from Dale. Knowing it was more of the same old, same old, she blew out a frustrated breath and tossed her phone back onto the bed.

Dale and Michelle were in a race to win her back. Both wanted to be the first to earn her forgiveness. They were both sorry...they’d made a mistake...could she forgive them?

Hell, no.

Their infidelity had not only left her unable to fathom being in a relationship again, but also riddled her with insane trust issues. She’d spent the last eight months rebuilding her life. She was starting to feel vaguely normal and she was so much stronger. She liked her job, she liked Royal and she liked not having to deal with their neediness and drama. At some point she’d have to meet with them, face them, but today wasn’t that day. Tomorrow wasn’t looking good for them, either.

“I’m ready, Kasey.”

Kasey turned and smiled at Savannah, who stood in her open doorway, dressed in a pink-and-purple swimsuit, her swimming goggles high on her head.

Savannah noticed that Kasey was still wearing her sundress and her expression turned to resignation, her face crumpling. “Okay, well...if you’re not going to swim, then I’ll just go to my room.”

So much pain, Kasey thought, her heart flipping over. Savannah was nearly six but she expected adults to disappoint her.

“Honey, I was just woolgathering. Of course I’m going to swim with you.” Kasey walked over to the dresser and pulled open the top drawer. Yanking out her swimsuits, she held them up. “The blue racer or the orange bikini?”

Savannah, because she was a mini fashionista, tipped her head, giving the question her complete attention. “The orange bikini.”

Damn, Kasey silently thought. The bikini was modest, but it was still four triangles and she didn’t feel comfortable showing Aaron that much skin.

A little too late, Monroe, considering the man once managed to kiss every inch of your skin.

But she wasn’t thinking about that, about him, about how his touch made her combust from the inside out... She remembered the taste of his mouth, his skin, how his fingers trailed over her—

No! Stop!

Enough. They’d had their one insanely hot night together and, as mind-blowing as it had been, it could never be repeated again.

She was permanently unavailable and he was her super-professional boss, so getting worked up about showing a little flesh was just...stupid. Apart from that kiss in her house days ago, Aaron never made any reference to what they’d done, how they’d done it and how hot it had been. He was so inscrutable that some days she even doubted that night had ever happened and she sometimes wondered whether Aaron naked was a very erotic, very sexy, figment of her imagination.

“Kasey!”

Kasey blinked and looked at Savannah, hands on her tiny hips, her green eyes frustrated. She clapped her hands and made a shooing motion. “You are wool-grabbing again.”

Kasey started to correct her but smiled instead. “You’re right, I am.”

God, she really, really liked this kid. She had to be careful. After her marriage imploded, she’d promised herself she wasn’t going to form emotional attachments again. She didn’t trust herself enough to do that. Because trust and attachment led to a shattered heart and hers was only just starting to heal.

* * *

Aaron sat on a pool lounger a few yards from the pool. Kasey and Savannah were sitting in the water, on the wide, first step of the massive pool. Nearly every doll Savannah owned was in the pool with them and Kasey was helping Savannah to teach them to swim.

Kasey, long-limbed and slim, flipped a chubby plastic doll onto its back to make it float. Savannah, sitting between Kasey’s legs, guided the doll through the water, her one hand on Kasey’s thigh. They were lost in their own conversation, oblivious to his presence.

At one point in his life, while he’d still been at college, he’d dreamed of this: a big house, money in the bank, a hot wife and a cute kid. He’d been happy to play the field, but in the back of his mind he’d always been on the lookout for “the One.” His perfect match. Instant recognition of his soul mate. God, for a guy who’d always had nerves of steel when it came to finance, he’d been such a damn romantic.

There was nothing romantic about being the direct cause of his parents’ car accident or having his fiancée run off with his client list six months after opening their investment firm together, nearly bankrupting him in the process. Kate had been six years older than him, sophisticated, and he’d hung on her every word. He’d believed her when she’d insisted he was bright enough to make it without completing his last semester of college, that he didn’t need his degree in finance and that he needed to concentrate on their business. So in love with her, he’d dropped out of college, breaking his parents’ hearts and ultimately causing their deaths.

Afterward he’d flung himself into their business, working crazy hours to get their company off the ground, to distance himself from the grief. How had Kate repaid him? The month after he’d made his first five-million trade, she’d visited every one of their clients and told them that she was the one reading the markets, that she was concerned about his emotional health, his youth. His clients, scared to risk their money on such a young trader, had moved their portfolios to Kate. He’d been left with the three clients she hadn’t been brave enough to approach: his brother, Will Sanders and Megan. He’d taken his life savings, Megan’s and Jason’s modest investments and Will’s larger investment, and made them all a damned fortune. His former clients, who had lost money with Kate, had reached out to him, asking him to manage their money again.

Because loyalty was everything to him, Aaron had refused. Besides, by that point—and thanks to Will’s word-of-mouth advertising—he had more, far richer, clients than he could handle.

God, if only his parents had trusted his decision. If only they hadn’t freaked and jumped into that car ten minutes after he’d told them he was dropping out of school. If only they hadn’t driven through the night to confront him at Berkeley. If they had trusted him, just a little...

His heart had splintered into a million pieces when his parents died and what was left had been decimated by Kate’s deceit. He would’ve given Kate everything. But she’d screwed him over, big-time, and, ten years later, his heart still wasn’t capable of giving or receiving love.

Did Savannah sense that? Was that why she was so reserved around him? Did she subconsciously realize that he had nothing to give? God, he hoped not. If Jason—God...if his brother didn’t come back, could he love Savannah the way she deserved to be loved, the way a little girl needed to be loved? He wasn’t so sure...

Dammit, Jay, you’d better be doing everything you can to get yourself back here! I can’t do this... Savvie needs you. She needs her dad.

And, hell, I need my brother.

He should be working, Aaron thought. There were markets to check, decisions to make. But he could take another five minutes to sit in the afternoon sun and soak up some rays. He tried to sit still but, feeling antsy, he reached for his cell and dialed Cole Sullivan’s number.

The private investigator had assured him that he was doing everything he could to find Jason. But surely there was something Aaron could do, as well? Because, sure as hell, sitting around in the sun while his brother was missing wasn’t it. Guilt, acidic and bitter, burned his tongue and the roof of his mouth.

“Sullivan.”

Aaron asked whether Cole had any news.

“Nothing concrete since the last time we spoke, Aaron.”

Nothing concrete... Did that mean Cole had found something? “Do you have a hunch about what happened?”

“I have nothing concrete, Aaron,” Cole repeated. “I make it a policy not to share my hunches or suppositions without anything to back them up.”

Crap. Aaron gripped the bridge of his nose and ignored the burning in his eyes. “What can I do, Cole? Just tell me. I need to do something...the waiting is killing me.”

“If there is anything, I’ll let you know. Hang tough, Aaron. I’m hoping to have some solid answers for you soon.”

“Okay. Keep me updated.”

“You will be the second person I call,” Cole promised him.

Aaron wanted to protest but remembered that Cole was working for Will. He wasn’t calling the shots, wasn’t Cole’s client, and that burned him. He liked being in charge, but he was somewhat pacified by the knowledge that he was in the loop, that he’d get the information as soon as Will did. Besides, he instinctively trusted Cole. He knew he was doing everything he could to track down Jason.

Aaron saw the tiny feet next to his size thirteens and slowly lifted his head to look into Savannah’s worried face. They shared the same green eyes, he thought, the Phillips chin.

“Were you talking to someone about my daddy?” Savannah demanded, fear and worry in her eyes.

Aaron felt like he was looking into his own soul. He thought about lying, then decided she deserved, and needed, the truth. “Yeah, Savvie, I was.”

“Is he coming home soon?” Savannah asked, her bottom lip wobbling.

Aaron took her hand in his and sat straighter. His gut clenched at the mixture of hope and fear he saw in her eyes. “I don’t know, honey. We’re trying to find him.”

“Something’s wrong, Uncle Aaron. Daddy always calls me and it’s been so long.”

Tears just made the green of her eyes more brilliant.

Aaron reached up and touched her cheek with the back of his knuckle. “I know, honey. I’m worried, too.” He gestured to his phone, conscious of Kasey standing a few feet behind Savannah, her body stiff with tension. Did she think he should be more upbeat? That he should be more optimistic? Was this one of those times when he should be lying his ass off?

He met her eyes and saw her concern for Savvie. She was clearly holding herself back, resisting the urge to sweep the little girl into her arms and soothe away her pain.

Aaron was grateful for her reticence. This conversation, as hard as it was, was the first real conversation he’d had with Savannah since she’d moved in full-time.

He picked up his phone and tossed it from one hand to another. “The man I was just talking to? His name is Mr. Sullivan, and his job is to find people who have gone missing.”

“Will he find my daddy?”

Aaron lifted his broad shoulders in a weary shrug. “He’s trying, honey. I just called him to ask him if I could help him, but there’s nothing I can do. I would if I could, but this is his job.”

Savannah moved so that she was standing between his legs. Aaron slid his arm around her, being careful to keep his touch gentle. His eyes burned when she laid her head on his shoulder. “Your job is to look after me... I heard you saying that to Kasey.”

“It is my job. Nobody is more important to your dad than you and he’d want me to make sure that you are safe.”

Savannah pushed her face into his neck and he felt her warm breath on his skin. “I miss him, Uncle Aaron.”

“I do, too, Savvie.” Aaron rested his cheek against her head and closed his eyes. God, Jay, where the hell are you?

He heard Kasey’s footsteps and lifted his head to look at her. Her expression was pure sympathy and he managed a quick, half-baked smile.

Kasey placed a hand on Savvie’s shoulder. “Hey, sweet pea, if you don’t run upstairs now to change, you’re going to be late for your ballet lesson.”

Savannah pulled back and her eyes widened. “And if anyone is late, Mrs. Pitman goes red and her mouth goes all funny.” Savannah made a face and both he and Kasey laughed at her squinty eyes and pursed lips. “I’m going to change real fast, Kasey.”

“You do that, Savvie. Aaron is going to take you to your lesson and he’ll pick you up, okay?”

Savannah looked at Aaron and, for a long moment, he thought she might demand that Kasey take her. “’Kay,” she said before running across the outdoor living area and into the house.

Aaron stood and looked at Kasey, who was wrapping a piece of gauzy fabric around her hips and looking thoughtful.

“Should I have patted her on the head and told her that everything is going to be okay?” he demanded as Kasey pulled a strapless T-shirt over her bikini top.

He was annoyed to find himself holding his breath, waiting for her answer. He didn’t want to mess this up and he didn’t want Kasey to think that he had. Why was he concerned about her opinion? He didn’t, generally, give a rat’s ass about what people thought about him. But he respected Kasey...

“I think you did the right thing,” Kasey said softly and his stomach unraveled an inch or two. “I’d far prefer that you hurt me with the truth rather than comfort me with a lie.”

Aaron sent a glance to the empty house. “But she’s so little...”

“Kids respect honesty, Aaron. You made progress with her by telling her the truth.”

“Honesty is a big deal for me,” Aaron said, looking into her lovely face.

“It’s a big deal for me, too,” Kasey replied, picking up the towel Savvie had left on the patio floor. When she straightened, Aaron caught the flash of deep-seated pain in her eyes, in the way her lips thinned, and wondered who’d lied to her and why. He opened his mouth to ask her but then remembered he had no right to go digging into her life. For eight months he’d managed—just barely—not to cross that line from business to personal, but since he’d kissed her in her bedroom, that line was out of focus and fuzzy.

Aaron picked up his T-shirt and pulled it over his head. “I’d better change.”

Kasey folded the towels she was holding, paying the menial task much more attention than it deserved. “And I need to catch up on my day job.” She turned away but Aaron caught her elbow and sighed at her soft skin, the scent of her perfume mingling with the chlorine smell of the pool. “Kase?”