Falling For The Nanny: The Billionaire's Baby SOS / The Nanny Bombshell / The Nanny Who Kissed Her Boss

“Soundly.” She glanced at the crib and smiled. At least something was going right. “In the four days I had her, she usually woke around ten. Since she slept past that, I think she’s happy with the new crib.”

He breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s good.”

Claire narrowed her eyes. If he’d been worried that the baby wouldn’t like the new crib, why had he insisted they buy one? They could have easily gone to his ex-wife’s home and retrieved Bella’s old one. So why had he argued?

He motioned toward his room. “I’ll just take a few minutes in the bathroom—brush my teeth and stuff—and I’ll check on you guys again.”

Once again telling herself that things about him and his life were none of her business, she simply said, “We’re fine. You don’t need to check on us.”

He nodded and left the room. But in the bathroom, he leaned against the sink. He could smell her. The scent of flowers saturated the entire room. It could have been her soap or her shampoo. It didn’t matter. Whatever it was, it swirled through his nostrils, tickled his senses and awoke needs he didn’t want to feel for a sweet woman like Claire.

He shook his head. Could she have picked more prim and proper pajamas? Pink like cotton candy, the pants went the whole way to her ankles and the top buttoned at her throat.

He might have thought she’d dressed so primly to make a point, but something in his gut told him pajamas like those were what she regularly wore to bed. She wouldn’t try to entice a man.

He frowned. She didn’t have to. For some reason or another her proper clothes were sexier to him than the slinky red and black cocktail dresses worn by women with long nails and big ideas for how to pass the time until dawn.

With Claire he’d be the one doing the seducing….

Groaning, he told himself to stop thinking about her. He stripped, showered and brushed his teeth in record time. He walked to the closet at the back of the room and rummaged until he found an old pair of pajama bottoms, a gift from Charlotte, and slid into them, along with a robe.

If she wanted to be proper, he would be proper.

He strode through his bedroom, to make one more check on them, but Claire only said, “Good night,” and rolled over onto her side.

Okay. Fine. She wanted to go to sleep; he would go to sleep. It was late. After eleven. He didn’t have a problem with that.

Still, he tiptoed toward the crib for one final look at sleeping Bella. Her lashes rested on her plump rosy cheeks. Her lips were bowed in a smile. He wondered if she was dreaming about her parents and his heart skipped a beat. Even with all the trauma in his life, he couldn’t imagine what she was going through. He prayed he would be a good dad to this poor sweet child.

Then he left the room, shrugged out of his robe and climbed into bed—his bed on a pedestal.

Unable to relax, he sighed, plumped the pillow. He’d slept in this exact bed for years, lots of years, and suddenly tonight it seemed wrong for him to be in this big bed, like some king.

He wasn’t a king. He was an outcast. An outcast who’d used his wits and education to best every competitor who came his way.

He’d won.

Yet, tonight it didn’t feel like he’d won. Caring for Bella made him feel ill-equipped and vulnerable. And merely considering breaking his promise to his sisters, Charlotte especially—the only person in his family he still spoke to—and not meeting the family he didn’t want to meet, had also put him on edge.

Which was probably why he’d let some things slip to Claire when she’d asked about his family. He’d never wanted to talk about them before. But suddenly, with her, it was so easy to spill his guts. He blamed it on nervousness over the upcoming trip and once again considered not going. He didn’t want to know these people. He was fine on his own.

But what about his promise? Was he bound by a promise he’d made to his sisters in a moment of weakness?

He flounced onto his side, annoyed with the direction of his thoughts. Especially when he began to consider all the possibilities for fights and backbiting when the Calhoun and Patterson clans got together. Technically, he was the oldest of the Calhoun children, but his “brother” Holt ran the family ranch, watched over the family holdings and “distributed” profits. With no will specifically naming Holt leader of the pack, Matt could come in and assert his rights. After all, who better to manage a family’s fortune than a man who’d made one for himself?

He didn’t want to think about how they probably planned to intimidate him into falling in line with Holt’s wishes. He’d rather think about Claire and her pretty pink pajamas not trying to seduce him but making him crazy with wanting her.

It was no wonder he’d kissed her.

Remembering the feeling of her soft mouth against his, the mating of their tongues, the intense heat that whooshed through him, he almost groaned. But she was in a bed only a wall away and, if he groaned, she might hear him.

And she would ask what was wrong because she was considerate like that, and God only knew what he’d say this time.

He pulled the covers over his head. What the hell was wrong with him? He never wanted to talk to anybody! Why did he suddenly want to talk to her?

He was letting her get too close. That was what was wrong. She was here to help him with the baby and he was out of his element, so in his vulnerability he was making mistakes. But no more. He would learn what he needed to know as quickly as he could so this unwanted vulnerability would go!

Bella’s crying woke Claire at around three. She’d slept an hour later than usual, which was good, but she hadn’t slept through the night.

Realizing all this was new to Matt and that some of it had clearly overwhelmed him, she rolled out of bed and sped to the crib.

“Shh. Shh.” She reached in and pulled out Bella. “I’ve got you! Give me two minutes to change your diaper and we’ll race to the kitchen to get your bottle.”

“I’ll get a bottle.”

Matt’s voice from behind almost made Claire jump out of her skin. She whispered, “You scared me!”

Matt headed for the door. “No need to whisper. With her lungs, Bella could have the whole household up by now…if anybody was here.”

She went to reply, but Matt opened the door and left before she could. No matter. She took the baby to the bathroom, found a diaper and had her changed before Matt returned with the fresh bottle of milk.

As he walked over to her, she sat on edge of her bed. But instead of handing the bottle to her, he took the baby. “We need a rocker in here.”

Shocked that he’d taken Bella and had arranged her on his arm to feed her, she gaped at him. “What are you doing?”

“Feeding her.”

“I can do it. You go back to bed.”

“I need to learn how to do this and I am.”

Respect for him rose up in her. Her father had passed everything to the various maids they’d had over the years. But Matt really wanted to care for Bella. She patted the bed beside her. “You’ll get a rocker tomorrow. Until then, you can’t stand to feed her.” She grimaced. “Well, you could. But it takes a few minutes for her to eat, so you’re better off sitting.”

He grunted, brought Bella to her bed and sat on the spot Claire had patted.

Bella gulped greedily and Claire laughed. “Are we a little piggy tonight?”

Bella grinned around the bottle’s nipple.

Matt slanted her a look. “Are we allowed to talk to her?”

“Sure. It’s like dinner conversation. It helps you to bond.” She paused, smiled at him. “Try it.”

He quickly glanced away. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Say anything.” She paused. “Why not tell her about the new family she’s about to meet in Texas?”

He rose. “She’s getting done really quickly. We don’t have time to talk.”

Disappointment skittered through her. It wasn’t good for Bella to have him running hot and cold. And when it came to family he was definitely hot and cold. So she moved them off the topic of the Texas reunion and said, “You should probably burp her.”

He spun to face her. “Burp her?”

His incredulous question made her laugh. “If you don’t burp her the gas will wake her up.”

“The first thirteen years of my life I heard nothing but don’t burp…now you want me to get her to burp.”

“Your mom probably never said don’t burp. She probably said don’t burp in public.”

He snorted a half laugh. “All right. Whatever. How do I burp her?”

She hoisted herself off the bed and walked over to him. Lifting Bella from his arms, she said, “You have to put her over your shoulder.” She arranged the baby on his shoulder and he quickly put one hand beneath her bottom and one hand on her back. Their fingers brushed. Electricity skipped up her arm, reminding her of their kiss, but she ignored it.

“There. See?” She took a step back and quickly turned to walk back to the bed, far too tempted to check his face to see if he’d felt the zing, too. “Now, all you have to do is pat her back until she burps.”

He patted and Bella burped loudly. “Well, that’s interesting.”

“That’s actually great. Now, give her the bottle again.”

Bella finished her bottle, burped again, then fell asleep.

Matt whispered, “So do I put her in bed?”

“Yes, but expect to get up again soon. She’s never slept this much before.”

Sympathy for Bella flashed across his face, and Claire looked away. He was far too handsome and she was far too attracted to him to let all the sympathy and empathy she knew he felt sway her. Combining his good looks and her attraction with appreciation for his love for Bella, it wouldn’t be long before she found herself genuinely liking him—and they’d already decided they weren’t going there.

With Bella in her crib, Matt returned to his room and Claire crawled under the covers on her bed again. She nearly got out her e-reader, expecting Bella to awaken soon and not wanting to fall asleep only to have to wake up again. But she drifted off to sleep and didn’t have another thought until the sound of Bella crying caused her to bounce up. Faint light peeked in at the meeting of the drapes. It had to be at least seven!

This time, she lifted Bella from her crib, took her into the bathroom and got her cleaned up for the day without waking Matt. She put her fingers over her lips to silence giggling Bella as they sneaked through Matt’s room to the bedroom door.

She was just about done feeding Bella some of the cereal that had been delivered the night before when Matt sleepily entered the kitchen.

“I told you I want to help. You should have gotten me up for this…and when she got up again last night.”

He wore the navy blue pajamas he’d worn the night before. A big navy velour robe hung loosely on his shoulders. Untied, the belt dangled to the floor and followed behind him like a thin train.

Still, with his hair sticking out in all directions and his eyes drooping sleepily, he was incredibly sexy. Sort of messed up like a guy who’d spent the morning making love. And much more approachable than the guy in the white shirt and handmade suit.

Knowing her brain had gone in a bad, bad direction, she turned her attention away from him and onto the baby as she answered his question.

“That’s just it. Bella didn’t get up last night. After her three o’clock feeding she slept until now.”

Halfway to the counter, he stopped, faced her. “She did?”

“Yes!” She lifted Bella off her lap and nuzzled noses with her. “Our girl had a good night’s sleep. In the four days I had her she barely slept four hours. With you, she’s sleeping.”

Matt’s heart about stopped. “That’s good?”

“That’s excellent!”

He swallowed the lump of emotion that formed in his throat. He might not be brilliant at parenting. Hell, he might not be ready to parent, but it seemed Bella trusted him. That gave him such an emotional high he could have happily kissed Claire, but everything that had happened between them the day before came tumbling back and his chest tightened.

He didn’t want to get involved with her. Worse, he didn’t want her to know how tied in knots she had him. So he headed for the counter and pulled out the coffee and filters.

“You still should have woken me when she got up.”

“There was no need.”

Pouring grounds into the filter, he said, “She’s my responsibility and I take my responsibilities seriously.”

To his complete surprise, she sniffed a laugh. “No kidding. A guy doesn’t get to be where you are by shirking his responsibilities.” She paused, glanced around. “Unless you inherited your money.”

“No. I didn’t.”

She only smiled.

“You’ve never heard of me, have you?”

“Should I have? Are you some kind of celebrity?”

He gaped at her. “Don’t you read the financial pages? See the most eligible bachelor section of any Boston magazine? I’m not a movie star but I’m kind of well known in Boston.”

“Never heard of you until we were contacted by Ginny’s attorney.” She lifted Bella and tickled her belly with her nose. “Look, I get it that you’re some big-deal financial guy. And that’s cool, but I don’t keep up on that stuff.”

He said, “Whatever,” brushing her off, but his heart beat out a strange tattoo. It was the first time since he’d gotten rich that he met someone who didn’t know the details of who he was. He might have thought it would be insulting. Instead, it felt strangely liberating.

“I’m going to take her upstairs while I change.” Light and happy, Claire’s voice drifted over to him. “Now that her tummy’s full, she may go down for a nap, which will give us time to call the nanny service.”

His stomach plummeted. The nanny service. That explained the happiness. As soon as he officially hired help, she got to go home.

Annoyance zinged through him, making him snippy. She might be glad to be leaving, but she didn’t have to be so obvious about it. “I guess I may be doing some apologizing since you hung up on the service I called last night.”

She rose with a laugh. “Or we could just call a different service.”

“I thought you said that was the best one?”

“That one’s the best, but the other two aren’t too far behind. We’ll decide which to call when I get downstairs.”

She left the kitchen and he found a bowl and a box of cereal. By the time she returned, he’d eaten and read the morning paper.

She set the baby monitor on the table. The small screen above the little speaker showed Bella sound asleep in her crib.

“I thought that needed to stay in her room.”

“The camera and microphone are in the room. The screen and speaker go where we go.” She sighed. “It took me a little longer to get her to sleep than I’d expected.”

He set the paper aside, trying to be nonchalant about the fact that the cute jeans she’d changed into had set his heart to humming again and her desire to go home annoyed him. He shouldn’t want her to stay. He should be glad she was going. So that’s how he acted. Cool. Casual. Unconcerned that she was leaving.

“Give me a minute to get into some clothes and we’ll call the nanny service.” He headed for the door, but stopped. Just because he was annoyed that didn’t give him license to be a bad host.

“Have you eaten?”

“No, but a cup of coffee will be enough.”

He frowned. “Really, Ms. Kincaid. A professional like you should know a good breakfast is necessary.”

She laughed. “Yeah. I should know. But I’m not much of a breakfast person.”

She turned, opened a cupboard, grabbed a mug and poured herself a cup of coffee.

Matt stood watching her, mesmerized. She was so casual around him, and his home, that the place didn’t feel so…sterile. Maybe that’s why he didn’t want her to leave? Even filled with people, his house never felt like a home.

He shook his head. Now where the hell were his thoughts going? He had to stop this.

He turned away from the sight of her sipping her coffee and left the kitchen.

In his closet, ridiculously, he stared at the clothes. She made simple jeans and a T-shirt look good. It wasn’t that he felt he needed to one-up her. He didn’t even feel he should be trying to entice her. But he had the strangest urge to look really good.

Irritated with himself for thinking such weird things, he grabbed jeans and a T-shirt and put them on. God only knew why this woman made him think like this. But he wasn’t falling victim. He refused.

He found her in the kitchen reading the same paper he had read while she was with Bella. “Ready?”

She snagged the baby monitor as she rose. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

Finally. A little sadness in her voice. Not that he wanted her to stay. He was sure he and Bella would be fine once they got a nanny. It was simply insulting that she was so eager to bustle away. He knew her sadness probably stemmed from not wanting to leave Bella. But that pleased him more than thinking she didn’t want to leave him. Bella was a baby who needed all the love and affection she could get. He was a grown man who could find himself a new sex partner and be happy—

He frowned. Now, why did that suddenly seem tawdry? Unappealing?

She met him at the door. Holding the baby monitor in one hand as she slid the other into the back pocket of her jeans, she looked up at him. “The business cards are still in the den?”

His mouth went dry. Putting her hand behind her back caused her breasts to punch out, just slightly. But enough to bring his gaze there. He followed the path of a neat little pink T-shirt that hugged her trim waist and fell short of meeting the waistband of her low-rise jeans, exposing an enticing strip of pink skin.

“Well?”

His gaze jumped to hers. “Huh?”

“The business cards? Are they in the den?”

“Um. Yes.” Praying to God she hadn’t seen the direction of his gaze, but knowing she’d have to be blind to have missed it, he pushed on the swinging door and headed down the hall.

In his office, she set the monitor on the desk between them as he picked up the business cards she’d given him the day before.

If it killed him, he intended to get his cool back. “Okay, agency number one is out for now, since you hung up on them.”

She sniffed and looked away.

“So we’re on to agency two.”

He dialed the first three numbers on the landline on his desk and suddenly a squawk came from the monitor. He glanced at the screen and saw Bella pulling herself into a sitting position as she sobbed.

Claire rose. Motioning with her hand, she said, “You keep going. I’ll get her. She probably needs a diaper change.”

He winced at the thought of changing a diaper, but replaced the receiver back in its cradle. “No. I’m taking advantage of as much time as I can to learn what I need to learn. I’m not sitting on the sidelines. I haven’t changed a diaper yet and while you’re here I’d like to do that.”

“I think that’s a great idea.”

In Bella’s bedroom, she held back while he approached the crib. Bella sobbed, her little arms raised as if begging for someone to hold her.

“I’m here,” he said, feeling the full weight of that. He was here. He would care for her. He would do this.

But when he lifted her into his arms, she didn’t settle. She wiped her wet face on the shoulder of his shirt, but still screamed as if the hounds of hell were chasing her.

“Shh. Shh. Bella, it’s okay,” he crooned, taking a few steps, rocking a bit to comfort her, but she kept crying.

Then she saw Claire. She stretched toward her, wailing like a banshee.

Claire caught his gaze. “May I?”

He levered Bella over to her. “Please.”

Bella wrapped her arms around Claire’s neck as if she’d found a lifeline.

“I guess she didn’t wake up because she needed a diaper.”

Claire sniffed a laugh. “No. I think she might have had a bad dream.” She rubbed her nose against Bella’s face. “Hey, sweetie. It’s okay. Don’t cry. I have you.”

Her crying subsided a bit, but she curled into Claire as if trying to get inside her skin. As if she was afraid of being left.

Matt swallowed. She was afraid of being left. She’d lost both of her parents five days ago. Then she’d been put into Claire’s custody and Claire had become her anchor.

Bella hadn’t slept through the night because she trusted Matt or even because she liked her new crib. She’d slept through the night because she was finally growing accustomed to Claire.

And Claire was leaving.

He scrubbed his hand across his mouth, unsure of what to do. He hated to see Bella cry but he also hated being dependent upon Claire. She had a life. She was leaving.

He stepped forward, took the baby from Claire’s arms. “Hey,” he said, then—against every male instinct in his body—he sucked in a breath and did what he had to do. He danced her around in a big sweeping waltz step. “There’s no need to cry.”

As if by magic, Bella stopped crying, but Claire laughed. “You’re dancing.”

No kidding. Humiliation and embarrassment buffeted him, but he ignored them. “It’s not a big deal,” he said, though he knew it was. He probably looked like an idiot. “We’ve done this before.”

“You have?”

“Yes. Yesterday, before you got here, I discovered dancing keeps her quiet.”

“I discovered it the first night I had her.”

A little more comfortable, Matt waltzed her around the room again. “She likes it.”

“Maybe her mom danced with her?”

He stopped. Sadness made his stomach plummet. “Maybe she did.”

She caught his gaze. “Don’t take that the wrong way. It’s nice for Bella to have that connection.”

“It’s good to remind her of her mom?”

“I don’t think she thinks of her mom. I think she associates the dancing with love.”

His heart froze in his chest. He looked from Claire to Bella and back to Claire again. “Dancing makes her feel loved.”

“That’s what I’m guessing.”

“Then we’ll dance.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

TEN minutes later, Claire carried Bella to Matt’s office, an odd feeling in her stomach. For as much of a big, strong, stubborn guy as Matt Patterson was, he really wanted to do what was right for this baby. He genuinely wanted to be a good daddy. He didn’t mind looking a bit silly. And he wanted to learn.

She sat on the chair in front of the desk as Matt dialed the number for the nanny service.

“Hello, this is Matt Patterson. May I speak with Mary Mahoney?”

He sat in silence, waiting to be transferred, while Claire straightened the collar on Bella’s pale green one-piece pajama. “You look especially pretty in green.”

As if she understood the compliment, Bella grinned at her, but her little blue eyes were red from crying and still watery. Claire’s heart twisted. In an hour or so they’d put her down for a nap again, then the temporary nanny would arrive, Claire would leave and Bella would wake up to two people she considered strangers. Plus, there was no guarantee that the nanny would teach Matt. Or even let him spend any quality time with Bella. Or let him dance.

If Matt knew more about babies, he could stand his ground with a stern nanny. But as unconfident as he was now, he’d let a nanny take over. And Bella would lose her daddy.

Suddenly Matt straightened in his chair. “Hello. Yes. Ms. Mahoney. I’m Matt Patterson. I recently got custody—”

She pressed her fingers on the button in the cradle for the phone receiver and disconnected the call.

He gaped at her. “Are you trying to make me look like an idiot?”

“No.” She hugged cuddly Bella to her, swept her lips across her downy hair. “But I think it might be premature to leave Bella with a nanny. I think what we need to do is have me stay another day so she can get more adjusted to you.”

He slowly replaced the phone receiver in its cradle. “You want to stay?”

Refusing to meet his gaze, she fussed with Bella’s pajamas again. “I wouldn’t say I want to stay, but I think I need to stay for Bella’s sake.”