Page 39 of The Billionaire's One-Night Stand Nanny
He’d sent his car for me.
I grabbed my tote bag and my coffee and rushed out of my apartment, down the stairs, and out onto the street, where a familiar face greeted me: Ryan’s driver.
“Miss Connelly,” he said, opening the back passenger door.
“Thank you, Mister… I’m sorry, I don’t think I know your name,” I said.
“Daniel,” he said. “Daniel is fine.”
I slipped into the backseat, smiling as Daniel closed the door after me, and grabbed my phone again.
Thank you.I hesitated, my thumb hovering over the heart emoji. I hit send instead and shoved my phone back into my bag, pulling out my book.
But I couldn’t read. I’d been in this car a few times before–when Ryan brought me home with him that first night. The night he almost kissed me in his kitchen. Yesterday, when he sent me home after our breakfast together.
It had never been as his nanny.
This car was taking me to work, sure, but it wasn’t for the nanny. It was forme.
My stomach warmed, and I smiled as I stared out the window. Itcouldn’tlast, but this–getting picked up from my tiny walk-up apartment and chauffeured to a job where I spent my day wandering Central Park and sampling every flavor at every ice cream parlor on the Upper East Side? Having a handsome man cook me dinner–and then breakfast after a night of the best sex I’d ever had?
Itcouldn’tlast–dreams never did–but what was the harm in letting myself enjoy it while it did?
Daniel opened my door for me in front of Ryan’s house and I floated up the stairs, letting myself in as I’d done Saturday evening.
Maddie ran upstairs to get her sunglasses–they were designer, a hand-me-down from her mother–and I looked to Ryan.
Would he kiss me, here in the kitchen, while we were momentarily alone? My stomach flipped, wanting to feel his suit-clad form against me, knowing it was a dangerous desire.
But he only said, with a slight smile, “Good morning, Flora. Enjoy your commute?”
“I did,” I said. “Thank you.”
“Good,” he said. “Daniel will be here for you when you leave tonight, and he’ll pick you up tomorrow morning, too. A little later, I think. I had to catch you before you left for the subway.”
“I’ll appreciate that when I can hit snooze one extra time.”
He nodded. “Sleeping in, if you can call fifteen extra minutes that,” he said with a wry smile. Then his eyes turned dark and mischievous. “Stay up fifteen minutes later,” he said. “One more chapter.” His tongue swiped across his bottom lip and my breath caught–
And then Maddie bounded down the stairs, all brightness and sunshine, and Ryan blinked and I swallowed down the heat rising in me. With a kiss to the top of his daughter’s hair and one last private smile for me, he was gone.
* * *
“I’m sorry,” Maddie said as we walked back home from the park that afternoon. We’d packed a picnic of turkey and cheese sandwiches and eaten next to the boating pond, watching the tourists rowing themselves around and hoping for a proposal. We’d seen two this summer already, and Maddie enjoyed making up stories about the couples. “I shouldn’t have gotten mad at you on Friday.”
“That’s okay,” I said, somewhat taken aback. I hadn’t expected an apology. Was this Ryan’s doing? “I knew you weren’t really that mad at me. You were just frustrated.”
“I practiced yesterday,” Maddie said. “I’ll show you when we get home. I made atonof lines; they’re super straight, and I backstitched and everything.”
“Hey, nice!” I said. “I was thinking, too–we should try that skirt pattern. I think you’re ready.”
“Really?” she asked, eyes wide as she looked up at me.
I nodded. “Sure. I’ll help if you want, but I’ll try not to step in until you need me. I know it’s important for you to do it by yourself.”
“Trial and error,” she said seriously.
“Something like that,” I said, just managing not to laugh. We walked in silence for half a block before Maddie spoke again.
