by Iona Rose
I liked all of her and her voice. “Okay, Ella. I didn’t tell you much about my daughter in the email. Her name is Molly and she’s five years old.”
She smiled and leaned forward enthusiastically. “Yes, I know she is five that is exactly why I wanted this job. My sister has a five-year-old daughter and she’s so much fun. I love them at that age.”
A sudden sadness washed over me. My Molly was anything but fun. I leaned back in my chair. “Well, Molly is a little different from other five-year-old girls. Since she lost her mom, she hasn’t been the same.”
Ella’s gorgeous green eyes widened and filled with sympathy. “Oh, I’m so sorry for your loss.”
I almost laughed at this. My ex-wife Penelope was alive and kicking. In fact, the last time I’d seen her, she had been on all fours getting fucked from behind on our bed by a strange man. After that, we have only spoken through the lawyers. “Oh, my ex-wife is not dead. She ran off with another man,” I said, my tone cold.
Women were all the same. Disloyal. I looked at Ella dispassionately. She probably had a boyfriend somewhere and I was sure I could seduce her. We hadn’t even been introduced and I caught her gaze on my cock. She had looked at it as if she couldn’t wait to put her mouth on it.
I almost groan aloud at the thought. I hadn’t had a woman in months. After Penelope left, I’d been like a wild man, sleeping with as many women as I could. Just sex. But sleeping with anonymous women lost its allure very, very quickly.
“I’m sorry,” Ella said.
I waved a dismissive hand. “It’s been a while now. The problem is Molly has not gotten over her mom leaving. First things first,” I said, barely glancing at the paper in front of me. “Do you have any health issues I ought to be concerned about?”
I’d had so many nannies in the year and a half since Penelope left that I had the interview questions down pat. I’d gone the formal way and hired nannies from an agency. They had been good on paper, but none managed to get Molly out of her shell.
Desperate to see my daughter come out of the world she had locked herself in, I decided to advertise on the internet, hoping for a different caliber of nanny. I never expected this, as my eyes were drawn once again to Ella’s nipples showing through her dress. I imagined capturing her swollen nipple in my mouth and sucking on it hard.
“None, I’m as healthy as a horse,” Ella said.
I dragged my mind away from her nipples and went through my check list of questions. She gave all the appropriate answers. The trouble came when we moved to her experience with children. It didn’t take long for me to decipher that she had zero experience. All the experiences she had listed which had caught my eye and impressed me were just glorified baby-sitting for friends and family.
If I were being straight, I was glad she wasn’t right.
True, Ella had a sunny disposition, something Molly solely needed, but she was too distracting. I’d want to fuck her all the time. Hell, I couldn’t even work with her in the house. It would be cold showers and hell on earth, sleeping a few doors away from her. “I’m sorry,” I said, putting regret into my voice. “But I really need someone with more experience. Someone… um, older.”
Someone less delicious.
Luke
Her face fell and she bit her bottom lip again.
My cock jumped and I felt happy I hadn’t hired her. There was no way I could wake up every morning to her in my kitchen.
“Okay, I understand… but sometimes children don’t need experience. They need someone who truly cares for them. If your child is missing her mother, she doesn’t need a nanny with a lot of experience, she needs someone she can confide in, trust… even come to love with time.”
I stared at her. I’d never even thought of that. But it suddenly occurred to me… she was right. This was what I had done wrong. I kept on getting the most professional nannies. Women who seemed more like nurses rather than warm, caring people a child could fall in love with.
Ella saw my indecision and went for the kill. “Look,” she said reasonably. “Why don’t you let me meet Molly and see how we get along? She might hate me…”
I stared at her. What if she didn’t? That would be terrible for me.
“You owe it to Molly,” she added persuasively.
A big, a very big part of me didn’t want her to meet Molly in case Molly liked her. Then I would have to hire Ella, but another part of me, knew I had to give her a chance. What if she was perfect for Molly and could bring Molly out of her shell. I would walk through fire for Molly. So keeping my dick in my pants and taking cold showers would be a small price to pay.
I stood. “Fine. Let’s go meet Molly.”
She stood and smiled at me. “Thank you for giving me this chance.”
I nodded and led her to the first floor where the playroom was. Molly was playing quietly on the floor, arranging her dolls against the wall from the shortest to the tallest.
“Pumpkin,” I said as we entered the play room. “I have someone I want you to meet. This is Miss Cooper. Ella, this is my daughter Molly.”
Molly looked up without changing her facial expression.
It tugged at my heartstrings that as her father, I couldn’t make her smile or laugh. I took full responsibility for this. I had brought my childhood into my own home and became my father all over again.
In the early years of our marriage, I worked like the devil to build up my architectural firm. Meyers Designers and Architects was one of the largest architectural firms in South Carolina. The cost had been high. My wife and I grew apart and I didn’t know my own daughter.
Molly had been almost a stranger.
I had been the distant dad who came home late at night when she had already gone to sleep and left early in the morning while she would be parked in front of the TV, watching cartoons on mute. When I think of the kind of man, I was... I cringe. I’d been so caught up with becoming the biggest and best, I lost sight of everything. I could have lived with regrets, wishing I had done things differently but I wasn’t that kind of person. I made mistakes, analyzed them, and did better the next time.
Reversing my mistakes with Molly was proving to be a difficult task. She had only known her mom and when she left, Molly stopped trusting everyone. Lost, as if her soul had been locked away somewhere without a key. But I was determined to get that key. I needed to bring joy back to my sweet daughter, no matter what it took.
Several times a week, I worked from home, and when I didn’t, I made sure to be back home by five in the evening. Not that it made a difference with Molly. She greeted me like the stranger I was, and nodded politely when I asked her a question.
“Hi Molly,” Ella said in her soft soothing voice. “Do your dolls have names?”
Molly said nothing, didn’t even look up. Well, here it was. I don’t know what I expected, but I felt disappointment. How would I ever get Molly to be a normal little girl again?
Apparently, Ella wasn’t giving up. She went and crouched beside Molly. “Is her name Winabanana?” Ella asked, picking up a doll.
I tore my gaze from her curvy ass and tried to concentrate on what she was saying.
A giggle floated out of my daughter!
I froze and stared unbelievingly at Molly. I wanted to tell her to laugh again. It had been so long since I heard her giggle. I took a step forward like a man in a trance.
Molly gazed at Ella with interest. “Her name is Penny,” she said softly.
My heart shattered into a million pieces... her mom’s shortened name.
“She’s beautiful,” Ella said.
“I know,” Molly said.
“I hope we’ll be friends.”
Molly didn’t reply. She went back to her silent, pitiful, lonely play.
My heart pounded as we left the playroom. I wanted to go back in there and hear my daughter’s giggles one more time. It had to be the sweetest sound I’d heard in a long time. “You’ve done something no one has been able to do, not even Molly�
�s therapist,” I said to Ella when we returned to the library.
“What’s that?” Ella asked as she sat down.
“You made her giggle. That’s all I want. A happy child. The job is yours if you want it.”
Ella was all wrong on paper, but she had trounced all those professionally trained nannies by making my daughter laugh.
A gorgeous smile came over her features. “Really?”
I nodded and smiled at her childlike enthusiasm. “Really.”
“Yes, please. When do you want me to start?”
“You do know that this is a live-in job, right? I need you here all the time for the times when I have to work late. I have a cook, and a cleaning service that sends maids to come in a few times a week, but I have no one to watch Molly.”
“I know and none of it is a problem,” Ella said.
“Good. You can move in immediately. I’ll show you to your quarters.”
Pleased with how everything had gone, I led Ella back to the first floor and showed her the room next to the playroom and Molly’s room.
“It’s nice,” she said as she took in the double bed and the matching furniture.
“There’s an en-suite bathroom as well,” I said to her and gestured to a door on the left.
“Thanks,” Ella said and then sat on the bed. Her breasts bounced along and her dress rode up her thighs.
My body reacted immediately. My cock formed a tent in front of my trousers. So, I immediately turned and left the room. “Find me downstairs when you’re done,” I threw over my shoulder.
I was sweating by the time I reached the library. How could I resist Ella while living in the same house? I wanted to grab her curvy butt and slam my cock into her sweet pussy.
The throb in my cock had become painful. I desperately needed relief, but I knew I wouldn't get it. Ella was now officially Molly’s nanny and out of bounds. More importantly, she had done something no one else had been able to do. She’d gotten a reaction from Molly.
I wouldn’t jeopardize Molly’s recovery because of how badly I wanted to fuck her nanny.
Ella
“I got it! I got the job,” I screamed into the phone.
Ruby laughed. “Hey, slow down and tell me everything.”
I gave her a rundown of everything that had transpired from the time I arrived at the house. I didn’t leave out how gorgeous Luke was either. I told her about the giggle.
“You got the job because you made the girl giggle?”
“Yeah, I used the same trick I always use to make my sister’s little girl laugh. I called her doll by a nonsense name. And it worked.”
“That was lucky. Now about the boss?”
“Oh, my God, Rubes. You cannot believe what a Greek god this man is. I mean I was fantasizing about his cock from the first moment I met him. I mean, when have you ever known me to do something like that?”
“Never!” she cried empathically.
“Exactly!” I cried back.
“Don’t mess this up though,” she warned.
“I won’t, but the funny thing is, I think he kinda gave me a hungry look too.”
“Work affairs don’t work,” Ruby said flatly. “Why would you want to mess up such a cushy, well-paying job?”
“If you saw him, you’d understand.”
“Are you actually planning on having an affair with him?” she asked incredulously.
“I’m not,” I admitted with a sigh. “I guess, I’m just being a bit silly. I need the job more than I need the sex.”
“Hey, I’m about to leave work. Want me to drop you off at your new place of work?”
“Yes, please,” I said gratefully. If I paid my rent tonight, there wouldn’t be much left in my account and an Uber trip might drain away the last remaining bit and even put me into the red. Until I got my first paycheck, I needed to live like a pauper. And even after that, I would have to squirrel away as much I could for the next rainy day.
“Be there soon,” Ruby said, and disconnected the call.
I glanced at the pile of clothes on the bed and got to work packing. I felt lucky that I didn’t have to stress over furniture and stuff. I had rented the house furnished and owned almost nothing in the apartment, apart from my clothes. Actually, the only things I valued were my clothes, my precious notebooks, and my Singer sewing machine.
Ruby came while I was struggling to shut the suitcase. “It would help if you folded the clothes neatly,” she said and proceeded to dump all my clothes back on the bed.
“Do you know how long that took me?” I protested.
“Relax, Aunt Ruby is here.” She folded my clothes one by one and arranged them neatly in the suitcase.
Every so often, she stopped to admire one of my creations. “I don’t get why you refuse to design clothes for people? Everyone is always complimenting the dresses you design for me.”
I didn’t want to talk about my lofty dreams. It was one thing to design and sew dresses for myself and Ruby for free but to charge for my designs would be impossible. I felt relieved when Ruby didn’t wait for a response.
“So tell me more about this Greek god. Is he someone you can have a little more than a physical relationship?”
I frowned. “No. He’s totally out of my league. Anyway, after Stan—”
She stopped folding clothes and whirled around to face me. “Every man is not Stan. He was nasty and you’re right to be careful, but you can’t judge every man by his standard, Ella. It’s not right.”
I shrugged. I didn’t expect Ruby or anyone to understand. I’d been with Stan for over a year and for the last five months, he had abused me in one form or another. The burns on my thighs had been the last straw.
After therapy, I’d come to a conclusion... the biggest mistake I’d made was allowing myself to be vulnerable. He had manipulated me into a situation where I felt responsible for all his pain and hurt and he had a lot.
When he hit me, then sobbed and said he was sorry, it hurt him more than it hurt me—I made excuses for him. Always in places where no one would see the bruises. At the time, I didn’t see how calculated his cruelty was. I still believed the horrible stories he told me of how his father had abused him. Mentally and physically.
It took a long time on the psychiatrist couch to understand how he had his way of manipulating people. Making them excuse his inexcusable behavior. It made me understand the one time I met his father, he struck me as one of the nicest human beings I’d ever met.
The story with Stan didn’t even end with the restraining order. There were anonymous phone calls. All I would hear was him, breathing down the line. Sometimes, I’d felt sure I saw him following me from afar. Then one day, he stopped. I found out through a mutual friend he had been arrested for starting a fight and beating a man outside a bar. No doubt, he’d picked out a wimp, but he’d chosen the wrong guy. Turned out, the wimp’s father was a rich criminal lawyer who made sure Stan got a prison sentence.
Once he was gone, I’d been able to analyze my relationship with him and I came to a conclusion. The way to never to get manipulated like that again, was to simply not open my heart to anyone like him again. Sure, I loved sex like any other healthy female did, and I wouldn’t deny myself that pleasure.
But my heart was mine and mine alone.
I quickly changed the topic, knowing Ruby would never understand what it had been like to live with a psychopath. Ruby had been seeing her boyfriend for as long as I could remember. He proposed every six months and each time, Ruby said she wasn’t ready. I never understood this and she never gave me a straight answer about it either.
“You’re a genius,” I declared, when we closed the suitcase with room to spare.
“Yes, I know,” she agreed, nodding with satisfaction. She looked around us. “Are we all set to go?”
I could see she was excited about meeting Luke. So was I. My sex twitched at the thought of seeing him again. Maybe the second-time around wouldn’t be so intense. Perhaps I’d le
t nervousness and my imagination run away with me and he was just like any other man.
He wasn’t.
“Fuck!” Ruby exclaimed when Luke stepped out of the front door. “Is he real?”
“Told you,” I said with a little nervous laugh. My stomach was already in knots. No, it hadn’t been better than the first time. It was worse.
“I wouldn’t mind a taste of that,” she said.
“You have a boyfriend,” I reminded her.
“If I didn’t,” she said with a chuckle, as she released the latch to the trunk of her convertible.
I hopped out of the car just as Luke came down the steps. He smiled and my legs weakened. He was that delectable.
“I’ll take that,” he said, reaching inside the trunk for my suitcase.
“This is my friend, Ruby,” I said and stifled a laugh at the way she kept gawking at him.
“Hi there, I’m Luke,” he said and flashed her a smile. The man had gorgeous teeth. His parents must have spent a fortune on them.
“Nice to meet you,” Ruby said, and licked her lips cheekily.
“Stop it,” I mouthed from behind him.
She winked at me.
I knew he could see her doing this. Quickly, I grabbed the box with my sewing machine in it. “All right then. I’ll see you soon. Thanks for the ride,” I called out to Ruby brightly before she could embarrass the both of us further.
She put the car into gear and with a cheery wave… she was off.
“You should have told me you needed a ride,” Luke murmured as we walked up the steps. “I could have sent my driver to collect you.”
“Thanks, but it was great to catch up with Ruby,” I said. I followed him up the stairs and to my room.
He put the suitcase on the dresser top at the far side of the room.
I set down my sewing machine box and faced him.
“If you need anything, let me now.” He gave me a nod.
I need plenty, I thought as I stared at his lips. My blood pounded in my ears when I realized his gaze was also stuck on my mouth. Unconsciously, my lips parted.