Page 100 of The Nanny and the Nerd
And that was a good thing because it meant his niece had her work cut out for her during a game of hide-and-seek. Searching each nook and cranny of the ship could take a while. And that gave him and his beautiful sea goddess a few stolen minutes to themselves.
During the day, Penelope played the part of the nanny, and he engaged in the role of benevolent, nerdy tech god. Okay, that might be pushing it. He played the part of the boss. But at night, after they put Phoebe to bed and said good night to Jerome and David, he’d slip from his stateroom and join Penelope in hers. Truthfully, he didn’t like sneaking around. But between Penelope’s position as Phoebe’s nanny and a Gale Gaming employee, it was a slippery slope.
He hadn’t said anything to Phoebe regarding his feelings toward her nanny—feelings he’d been grappling with for the last four weeks. But despite the fears that had lived in his heart since he was a boy, he knew one thing for sure. He didn’t want to lose her. He didn’t want to let go of what they had.
Sure, his life had been turned upside down, and Penelope had introduced a decent amount of chaos into his world. Case in point, she had him gorging on pizza and inhaling chocolate chip cookies once a week, for Christ’s sake! But there was something about this chaos, the beauty of it, the odd symmetry of not constantly requiring complete and unyielding control that, instead of eliciting a fight-or-flight response, grounded him. He’d never realized how exhausting it was to hold the pieces of himself together twenty-four seven.
Before Penelope entered his life, it was as if he were simply going through the motions. He was present but not fully there. He played roles and fulfilled duties, but he’d done it from behind a wall—an invisible shield held in place by his agonizing unease. He’d regarded his relationship with Phoebe as simply a provider of things—shelter, food, schooling. He hadn’t had the foggiest notion of what to do beyond that. But now, every night, he’d stand, hidden in the shadows outside Phoebe’s bedroom door, and listen in as Penelope helped the child prepare for bed. Phoebe’s bubbling laughter and Penelope’s gentle tone left him stunned, amazed he was part of their world.
He’d always loved his niece, but now, he knew her not as his ward or responsibility but as a pretty spectacular kid. How he wished he could tell Andrew and Melanie about her—about her persistent spirit, her quirky nature, and her abounding zest for knowledge. The last time he’d seen his brother and sister-in-law, it had been here on the yacht. His mother had urged him to take a little time off, and reluctantly, he’d acquiesced and invited his entire family to join him. Phoebe was a toddler then, wobbling around the main deck with a sippy cup in one hand and a seashell in the other.
Those days seemed a world away.
“Where did you go?” Penelope asked softly, searching his gaze. That’s what she did. He’d begin to slip back into his old coping mechanism of shutting down, and with just a word or even a look, she’d bring him back. That was her magic. She could do what no other sensory strategy could accomplish. She cut through the noise and the bullshit and spoke to his heart.
He pushed aside his spiraling thoughts and focused on the woman smiling up at him. He drank in her every detail. Then trailed his fingertips down the smooth skin of her back before twisting the strings of her bikini bottoms around his fingers. “I think you should always dress in bikinis.”
“Do you?” she cooed, caressing his hard length through his swim trunks in slow, steady strokes.
“Yes,” he bit out. It was hard to form complete thoughts while the woman who drove you insane with desire started in on the foreplay.
“I wonder how that would go over at Gale Gaming,” she mused playfully as she teased him.
Shit! He wanted this view to himself.
He shook his head. “Wait, forget the bikini at Gale Gaming. I know exactly how that would go over. Work would come to a grinding halt. I’d like to amend my request, if possible?” he replied before exhaling a tight breath. His blood supply was headed south in a hurry, and if he wanted to put a sentence together, now was his last chance.
“Amend away,” she purred.
“I’d like you to wear this style of bikini around the house. We can purchase it in multiples of every available color. Hell, you can wear it one day, then toss it out the next. I should buy the company that manufactures them. I could move their operations to Denver to ensure a steady supply.”
She cocked her head to the side, watching him closely.
Yeah, the bikini factory acquisition idea sounded better in his head. But God help him! Penelope Fennimore in a string bikini might literally leave him braindead.
“That seems like a lot of work,” she said, drawing her tongue across his collarbone.
“I like to work. You know that,” he answered, attempting to make a mental note to have Jerome look into the bikini factory purchase. But even that was asking a lot of himself under the circumstances. Between Penelope’s scent and touch, there was a good chance he’d screw up and send an email requesting Gale Gaming employees to dress in bikinis. And he did not want to see Boomer rocking a thong. No way!
“And what do you think Mrs. Sullivan will say about your bikini-only policy?” Penelope pressed.
He cringed as the blood flow to his crotch came to a screeching halt. “Let’snotmention the dear Mrs. Sullivan when you’ve got my cock in your hand.”
“What if I had your cock in my mouth?” she tempted, lowering to her knees.
And Christ, with those sultry sable eyes and dirty mouth, she’d be the death of him!
He tangled his hand into her hair as the other gripped the top of the steam shower. He steadied himself, watching with bated breath as Penelope tucked her fingertips into the waistband of his swimsuit and pulled it down an inch. Every muscle in his body tensed in sweet anticipation. He was oh so ready to feel her lips wrapped around his cock when the door to the gym swung open like SWAT had been ordered to clear the room.
The metal doorknob crashed against the wall, sending a discombobulating burst of sound echoing through the space. He barely had a second to react before Phoebe’s bubbly, singsong voice filled the silent void.
“There you are! I found you, Uncle Row!” Phoebe cried, barreling toward them.
He glanced down at Penelope. Her eyes looked ready to pop out of her head. Luckily, his niece hadn’t spotted the kneeling nanny. Thanks to the design of the gym, a shelving unit hid the lower portion of the steam shower, allowing Penelope to remain hidden.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have enough time to relay this information to her. Akin to one erupting from a giant cake, Penelope shot up and threw her hands into the air. “Surprise! You found the both of us!” she chimed, her voice rising an unsettling octave.
Phoebe stopped in her tracks. Her brows knit together, and his heart leaped into his throat. In what could have been ten thousand years or ten fleeting seconds, he and Penelope stood there, stock-still as Phoebe surveyed the scene.
