Donna Clayton - Nanny and the Beast

His brows arched the slightest bit and he absently smoothed his fingers down the short length of his daughter’s milky arm. “Now there’s a good idea.” He nodded slowly, evidently liking the notion more with each passing second.

Her comment had been merely meant to assure him she honestly intended to find him the perfect nanny, and she wouldn’t stop trying until she’d succeeded. Apparently, he hadn’t taken it that way. Not at all. A sense of panic washed over her. “Mr. Taylor—”

“You’re certainly older than twenty-five,” he mused, his fingers toying with the edge of the baby blanket.

She bristled. He made her sound downright matronly.

“And the fact that you’re running your own business tells me that you’ve got intellect and common sense. Two important characteristics for the person I want caring for my daughter.”

He was clearly warming up to this surprising turn of events. She opened her mouth to speak.

“If you spend a few weeks getting to know Hailey,” he said, not giving her a chance to restate what she’d actually intended, “getting to know me, getting to know our situation and our needs, you’d be better equipped to find the kind of nanny I’m looking for.”

It was on the tip of her tongue to say “but…but,” to backpedal herself out of the tight space she’d inadvertently talked herself into. She couldn’t do this! She had a business to run. She wasn’t a nanny. She was the administrator.

Oh, she’d had all the proper training and she even took over childcare duties once in a while when the rare problem or an emergency cropped up, so she was fully capable of—

“I usually take dead silence to have negative meaning,” he said, studying her intently. “Should I assume you aren’t going to honor your guarantee? And that your motto of ‘no client left unsatisfied’ is simply a string of meaningless words?” He lifted a shoulder. “If that’s the case, then I have no choice but to cancel our contract as of this moment.”

“Wait. I’m not saying any of that,” she sputtered. “I’m also not saying I won’t do it. I’m just thinking things through. Working out the logistics.”

Her mind whirled; other than scheduling appointments with prospective clients and handling a few glitches that arose, there wasn’t a whole lot Sophia couldn’t take care of with her cell phone. And her assistant, Karen, had been asking—no, begging—to go full-time since coming to work for her, but up until now Sophia had only needed help in the office during the busy morning hours.

“I hope you’re thinking fast,” he persisted, “because I don’t have all day.” He tenderly shifted his daughter to his other arm and checked his watch. “In fact, I have to be at the office in forty-five minutes.”

Darn! He wasn’t going to give her an inch. She gritted her teeth. All he was worried about was himself. What about her business? What about the people depending on her?

But how else was she going to make Michael Taylor happy, at this point, other than to take over as his daughter’s nanny for the few weeks, as he was demanding?

Keeping him happy would mean keeping her pristine business reputation. That was very important to her. She prided herself on the fact that not one client, past or present, had a single grievance against her or The Nanny Place. Oh, there were small insignificant matters that surfaced from time to time between the nannies and their employers, but there hadn’t been even one instance where Sophia hadn’t been able to straighten everything out, and make everyone concerned content and happy. She refused to allow this man to mar her perfect record.

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll do it. If you’ll let me sort a few things out here, I can be at your place in forty-five minutes.”

“Excellent. Less than forty-five minutes, actually. I’ll head home and wait for you.” He turned toward the door.

“Hold it,” she said, an idea popping into her head. “Why don’t you just leave Hailey with me now? I can use your carseat to get her back to your place. That way you won’t be late for work, and I can take my time getting things settled here.”

Seemed like a perfectly good plan to her, but evidently he didn’t think so.

“Won’t work.” His tone brooked no argument. “We still have to go over the rules and Hailey’s schedule. They’re at my place. Typed out in black and white. I’d also feel more comfortable if I had the chance to show you around. Make you acquainted with where things are.”

That did make sense, she thought.

“You have my address?” he asked.

“Yes, of course.” She hurried around him and opened the door. This was happening much too fast. She followed him out to the reception area where she noticed that Lily stood stewing near Karen’s desk. Her hair was still damp from that ill-fated shower she’d taken this morning. Karen looked as if she expected something horrible to happen at any moment. Sophia quickly added, “I’ll have my assistant download driving directions to your home from the ’Net, Mr. Taylor. No problem.”

As soon as Sophia spoke the words, Karen’s head dipped and her fingers flew over her computer keyboard.

His back was to Sophia as he walked across the room and headed for the door. His pin-striped dress shirt accentuated his broad shoulders, and his navy trousers cuddled a firm butt. He paused and turned to face Sophia, and her gaze darted up to where it belonged—his face.

Again, he checked his watch. “I’ll see you soon, Ms. Stanton.”

She nodded once, and then he was out the door. She continued to stare as he stepped off the curb, her gaze inadvertently traveling down the full length of him.

Her spine straightened and she blinked. She was going to have to hustle to get everything done here at the office. She made a quick mental list; a short talk with Lily, then give Karen instructions, a couple of phone calls, a quick stop in the powder room and she’d be out the door.

“Lily said he fired her.” Karen’s eyes were wide.

“It was so unfair,” Lily chimed in.

Karen shifted in her chair. “Who are you going to send this time, Sophia? Do we have anyone left who isn’t afraid of that guy?”

“We most certainly do,” Sophia murmured, her gaze continuing to linger on Michael Taylor. The morning sunlight burnished his tawny hair. Why she was standing here wasting time baffled her, yet there was something about the man that made it hard to tear her eyes away.

“Well, who?”

Ignoring her assistant’s question, Sophia turned her attention to Lily. “What happened this morning? How could you get yourself fired after only three days?”

Lily’s chin tipped upward.

Sophia lifted her hands in frustration. “He said you showered late. That you couldn’t keep to the schedule.”

“This had nothing to do with his precious schedule,” Lily spat out. “This was about that stupid robe rule. I wasn’t wearing mine this morning.”

“He has a rule about wearing a robe?” Karen asked. “That’s a new one, isn’t it?”

“He added it the second day I worked for him. He has rules for everything,” Lily complained. “Rules for when his daughter eats, when she sleeps. What music is played in the house. What books are read and when. There are pages and pages of rules. And he keeps adding to them.”

Sophia had heard it all before from the other nannies who had cared for Michael Taylor’s daughter.

“And the ones dictating our dress code are the worst. I wanted to flip on the bitch-switch several times, Sophia. But I controlled myself.” Lily turned her eyes to Karen. “And even though it cost me that job, I refused to say I was sorry this morning. Heck, I was just being me.”

Obvious rebellion tinged Lily’s voice. Sophia crossed her arms. “And what exactly does that mean?”

Sucking in a long-suffering breath, Lily explained, “The baby had been up most of last night. I knew she wasn’t going to wake up anytime soon. I needed a shower so I could feel human, okay? I was tired. I forgot my robe. Why should it matter, anyway, when my room was right across the hall from the bathroom?”

Sophia’s patience thinned. “Okay, so you weren’t wearing a robe. What were you wearing?”

There was mutiny in Lily’s silence.

Karen softly sang, “Can you say scanty panties from Victoria’s Secret?”

Picturing the barely clad models in the famous lingerie catalog, astonishment made Sophia’s jaw go slack. “Lily! You didn’t. How could you? Why would you? You know he’s asked all the nannies to be covered from neck to knee. Why would you prance around halfnaked in front of the man?”

Lily pursed her lips, her expression a mixture of anger and insult. “I wasn’t prancing. And I was wearing a nightie.” Then she muttered, “The least he could have done was notice. I swear the man has ice water running through his veins.”

Only a nineteen-year-old would feel offended when her employer hadn’t seemed to notice her shapely figure even though he’d specifically asked not to see it.

“So you did it on purpose.” Sophia let her hands fall to her sides.

“Of course I didn’t do it on purpose,” Lily said. “I told you. I’d been up half the night with Hailey. I was exhausted. What I wear to bed is my business.”

Sophia rubbed at the dull ache thumping behind her temple. “Being caught in the hallway wearing skimpy pj’s shouldn’t warrant being fired.”

Chagrin made Lily balk. “It wasn’t the first time.” She grimaced, reluctantly admitting, “Or the second.”

Karen snickered, and Sophia silenced her with a sharp glance. She’d heard enough of Lily’s predicament.

“What you’re saying is that he had good reason for implementing a robe rule.” Remembering the ticking clock, Sophia’s irritation simmered over. “I don’t have time for this. Lily, if you can’t be more considerate of the people paying your salary, maybe you don’t deserve to work here.”

“But I need this job!”

“I know you do. That’s why I’m not letting you go. But I am putting you on probation. If you show me you’ve learned something from this experience—”

“Yeah.” Karen smirked. “Like maybe buying some flannel nightgowns and white cotton granny panties.”

“Hush, Karen.” Sophia had had all she could take. She looked at Lily. “You can fill in for Paula for today and Karen will work on getting you another full-time position.”

“I will?” Karen asked, clearly surprised. “But that’s not usually in my job description.”

“Your job description is changing as of right now.” The wake Sophia created as she breezed past Karen’s desk on her way to the powder room made several papers flutter. “You’ve been asking to go full-time, haven’t you?”

“You know I have.” Karen went very still and serious.

Sophia flipped on the powder room light. “Well, now’s your chance. You’ll be running the office for the next two weeks. It’s a big job. Can you handle the responsibility?” She glanced into the mirror over the sink.

Gathering her thick hair in her fingers, Sophia twisted it into a knot and secured it with a clip. She knew Mr. Taylor liked his nannies to keep their hair out of their eyes.

“Are you kidding me? You know I can handle it. That reminds me, Terry’s on her way to the Schaffers to cover for Isabel. I’ve already called Mrs. Schaffer to let her know Terry would be late. But what’s going on? Where will you be?”

“Yeah, Sophia,” Lily chimed in. “You going to tell us what’s up? You never said which lucky nanny gets to go work for The Beast.”