Page 30 of The Nanny and the Nerd
A lie.
She’d been a lot blocked—like a tanker truck chock-full of block.
Block City. Block Central. Last stop, Blocksville Junction!
“Then you should get out and find a cute coffee house to write in. I don’t know how you could get anything done at your place. Your roommates are the worst. It’s like Ganja Central in there!”
Penny crossed, then uncrossed her legs. “Actually, I won’t be living there—at least, for the next sixty days.”
“Why not?” Libby asked.
Penny swallowed hard. She hadn’t mentioned this part to Charlotte—or to anyone.
“The position is for a live-in nanny,” she supplied, and again, that titillating rush surged through her veins.
Libby’s jaw dropped as Harper and Charlotte exchanged a knowing glance.
“You’ll be living in the same house as this man?” Harper asked, turning the tablet to show a picture of a shirtless Rowen standing on the deck of what looked like one hell of a yacht. But who could focus on the boat with the man’s tanned six-pack and toned arms pulling her attention from the rest of the image?
“Yes,” she rasped as she envisioned encountering Rowen Gale in a darkened hallway while wearing a barely-there nightgown. Okay, she slept in sweats and a tank top while wearing her retainer, but she was a writer and could take fictional liberties and omit that slice of depressing reality.
“What was that, Penn?” Charlotte pressed with a glint in her eyes as she brushed a lock of auburn hair behind her ear.
Penny cleared her throat. “Yes, I will be living in the same residence as my boss. Mr. Gale is a busy man. He requires around-the-clock care for his niece.”
There! She sounded professional. No funny business here! She was a grown woman who could easily cohabitate with a hot nerd. No! Not a hot nerd! She could cohabitate with her employer.
Em-ploy-er!She tapped the syllables with her foot.
“Um, Penny,” Libby said gently, with a crease to her brow.
“Yes?”
Her friend’s gaze bounced back and forth, from the image on the tablet to the window.
“Holy shit!” H murmured, her eyes glued on whatever was out there.
Penny stared at her bewildered friends. “What are you looking at?”
“Notwhat, Penn. Who! Who is out there?” Charlotte answered, rubbernecking it out the window with disbelief written on her face.
“Who?” Penny repeated.
They had to be messing with her!
She craned her neck to see what everyone was looking at, then froze as that crazy tingle zinged through her body, and the temperature went up—way up. Her pulse hammered in her throat, and hello, boob sweat! She gasped, unable to believe her eyes. This couldnotbe happening!
Seven
Penny
It couldn’t be him—orcould it?
Penny blinked, but the smokin’ hot nerd standing outside the bar didn’t disappear. In fact, he met her gaze. His expression remained neutral as they locked eyes, and he stood there as if it were totally normal to chill out on the sidewalk and ogle women. But he wasn’t ogling women. He was only looking at her.
Goodbye, boob sweat! Hello, Tingle City!
The breath caught in her throat.
