Nanny Wanted (A Bad Boy Romance)

by Mia Carson

  Several hours later, when the event finally came to a close, Reider left Micah to put Meredith’s number into his phone and headed for the front doors. At least he’d ridden with his parents; otherwise, he’d be calling a cab to get his sorry ass home. The whiskey helped dull the ache left behind from Johanna’s kiss but not enough to make him forget it happened, not even close. He would dream about her all night, and though it wasn’t what he wanted—he’d rather have her—it would suffice for the moment.

  His head down as he moved through the crowd, he didn’t pay attention to where he was going until he ran into a soft body. His arms shot out to catch her before she could fall, and he cursed when he saw Johanna’s face staring worriedly back at him.

  “Shit, I’m sorry,” he said quickly and steadied her on her feet. “Are you alright?”

  “What the hell are you doing, asshole?” Frank yelled from behind Johanna and charged forward. “Get your hands off my sister.” He shoved Reider back roughly and blocked Johanna from view. “Touch her again, and it’ll be the last thing you do,” he warned quietly.

  Reider glowered at him and straightened his jacket. He swallowed the snarky reply rising up in him and held his hands up instead as he backed away. “Sorry, won’t happen again.”

  “Damn right it won’t, fucking Marquette,” he snapped and turned to steer Johanna towards the door. She muttered angrily to her brother, but whatever she’d said, Reider couldn’t hear though it seemed to piss Frank off even more. He pointed, his face red, and Johanna stomped out the door.

  Fredrick and her parents followed a moment later, along with the young woman he’d spotted on the balcony. She glanced at Reider, wringing her hands before someone called.

  “Izzy,” Reider whispered. “Her little sister.” His heart pounding in his chest, he wondered if she had told her brothers what she’d seen, or if she’d even seen anything. The rest of the night, all he did was worry about who might have seen their kiss and if there was a chance they would share another one.

  Johanna seethed the whole way home. The second she was inside, she hiked up her skirts and hurried up the stairs as Frank and Frederick called after her. Their parents had driven separately with Izzy and had stopped by the store on their way home.

  “Hey, we’re talking to you,” Frank yelled as he followed her.

  “You’re such a jackass—both of you are,” she snapped. “There was no reason to be rude.”

  “To the Marquette? That’s what you’re upset about?” Frederick asked suspiciously.

  “No, I’m pissed because you expect me to actually want to date one of your friends,” she yelled. “They’re rude and conceited, and it’s not going to happen. Get out of my room so I can change.” She shoved on the door to slam it closed, but Frank put his foot in the way. “I said move.”

  “No. Brandon likes you and wants to go on a date. I gave him your number, so expect a call,” he informed her stiffly. “And I expect you to answer it.”

  “If I don’t?” she asked, her stomach clenching at the mocking smile he gave her.

  “You will, end of discussion,” he said and backed away.

  Johanna slammed her door hard enough to rattle the pictures on the walls. She screamed, frustrated she couldn’t just tell them about what happened out in the gardens. She’d found the man she wanted to date. But he was the one man she couldn’t have.

  6

  Johanna barely made it through the weekend without lashing out at her brothers, but she did manage to postpone any dates with Brandon for at least a month. She was swamped with class work, which wasn’t a lie. Because it was her senior year, Ashford wasn’t the only one piling on the assignments and tests.

  Sunday night, Izzy knocked on her door. Johanna called, “Come in.”

  “So at the charity event…” Izzy said, hopping onto Johanna’s bed.

  “What about it?” she asked slowly, spinning around in her desk chair. Izzy grinned and Johanna’s palms sweated. Did her sister see what had happened in the garden? If she knew, maybe someone else had seen it too. “Izzy, what’s going on?”

  “Nothing, I was wondering if you saw how handsome Reider Marquette looked,” she murmured innocently and, with a girly sigh, fell backwards onto the bed. “That tux clung to him like a second skin.”

  Johanna rolled her chair closer. “He’s a Marquette. Can’t have anything to do with him, and why were you checking him out to begin with?” She waited for her sister to drop the bomb that she saw them together, saw their kiss, but Izzy sat up and shrugged.

  “I went outside to grab some air, and he came up from the gardens, all broody,” she muttered. “That only made him even handsomer. Didn’t you notice him when he ran into you?”

  She pushed away again and rolled to her desk, turning her back on her sister. “I might’ve taken a gander, but he’s a Marquette, so it’s not like anything could happen with him for either of us, so don’t even think it,” she warned and pinned Izzy with a solid stare. “I mean it. It’s not worth the trouble.”

  Then why do you keep thinking that it would be? You enjoyed that kiss and you know it!

  “Jo? You alright? Your face is all scrunched up,” Izzy asked with a raised brow. “Is something going on you’re not telling me?”

  Johanna hunched over the packet of papers on her desk, scanning what she had written down for Reider’s answers before she continued typing up the latest assignment. “Absolutely sure,” she answered her sister, her voice light and fluttery until she coughed. “Wanted to be sure you’re not planning on doing something stupid like try to hit on him. It wouldn’t end well for either of you.”

  “Right, and are you telling me that, or yourself, sis?” Before Johanna could reply, Izzy hopped off the bed and walked to the door, a wistful grin on her face. She winked at Johanna. “I’m going to bed. See you in the morning.”

  Johanna sighed, leaned back in her chair, and stared at the ceiling fan. Her sister knew nothing. If she had seen the kiss, she would’ve said something and told Johanna to go for it, but instead, she hinted at what could happen with Reider. That, right there, was the question she was dying to ask. “Except your family and his family would explode and the city would erupt in chaos from the fallout.”

  She groaned and rested her head on her desk. She hated how twisted up inside she was over one damn kiss. It happened in the garden, and it would stay there—in the garden, where no one else would ever know about it except her and Reider. He would have to keep his mouth shut over it and his hands away from her, even though that was the last thing she wanted. In fact, she had wanted him the second he sat down in the coffeehouse and gave her brief glimpses into his real personality. Wanted him even more when he put his arms around her so easily in the garden to comfort her, how his voice rang with jealousy anytime mention of her dating or marrying someone else came up.

  Trying to make it through the remainder of the semester without another kiss would be a nightmare, but what choice did she have? She told Izzy it wasn’t worth it, but why was part of her screaming that it might be? She wanted a way out of this life, from where it was headed too quickly for her to stop. Instead of simply stopping the train, she needed to derail it completely.

  “No,” she snapped at herself and stood abruptly, pacing her room.

  But her fingers drifted to her lips, brushing across them as Reider’s lips had before the kiss had heated them, and she wished they weren’t in a freaking garden where anyone could walk by and see them. She wished they weren’t in a city where their families controlled everything, and she wanted more than anything for this feud to not matter as much as it did. It shouldn’t, and in that moment, she hated her brothers and blamed her parents more for how the feud affected their lives.

  Realizing there was no chance of completing any more work that night, she closed her laptop and fell into bed, hoping sleep would come with no dreams of Reider. As the sun rose and her alarm rang shrilly in her ear the next morning, she pulled her pillow ov
er her face and screamed into it. All night, all she had seen was his face, and as she sat up, the lingering touch of his lips drove her crazy with need.

  “This is going to be impossible,” she muttered and rolled out of bed. “Utterly and horribly impossible.”

  After a quick shower and failing to conceal the bags under her eyes, she snatched up her tote when her cell dinged. She dug around for it in her bag and when she checked the screen, recognized the number as Reider’s. Making sure none of her siblings were around, she opened it and read it quickly before debating what to send back.

  He wanted to meet that afternoon after class to go over some notes he couldn’t read from their last meeting. Johanna’s fingers twitched over the buttons, wondering if he were telling the truth or if he wanted to see her again.

  “Johanna? What are you doing up there? You’re going to be late,” Lucy called up the stairs.

  “I’m on my way down right now,” she yelled back and sent back a quick reply to Reider. Meeting him wouldn’t be so bad today. It was Monday, meaning Melody would be available for another alibi if she needed one. “Hey, Mom,” she said as she reached the bottom stair to find Lucy ready to greet her. “I have to study with Melody today after class.”

  “For what class? You seem to be studying a lot already,” she said and reached out to fix the stray curls around Johanna’s face. She bit her tongue to stop herself from a biting remark as her mom did it. “You know, this is exactly what I was talking about. Working so much, look at the bags under your eyes. Finding a nice boy would solve your problems, sweetie.”

  Johanna stepped away quickly, moving towards the door. “Senior year, Mom. I'm not going to throw it all away. I’ll text you when I’m on my way home.”

  “Johanna, wait,” Lucy called.

  Johanna stopped right at the front door. “Mom, I’m going to be late.”

  “Did you receive a call from Brandon? Frank said the two of you hit it off the other night.”

  “I did, but I’m so busy with school work right now, I told him we’d go on a date when I had some time in a few weeks,” she said, and, to ensure her mom wouldn’t keep asking, she turned, gave her a huge hug, and said she loved her before hustling out the door.

  Classes dragged by the entire day, and Johanna hardly listened to anything Melody talked about, too busy scanning the crowded campus for a glimpse of Reider, hoping to catch sight of his black hair or his intense green eyes. The way they had held her gaze before the kiss, and right after, as she freaked out about it, drove her mad, and seeing them again was the only thing on her mind. When it was time for Ashford’s class, she nearly ran to the lecture hall and hurried to sit down in the front row. Melody eyed her friend curiously, her lips twitching in a smile.

  “Before you ask, I can’t tell you yet, but I promise I will later,” Johanna whispered.

  “If I’m playing your alibi again today, you’d better,” she said with a wink and wandered off to find her partner for the class.

  Johanna grabbed her notebook and a pen from her tote and eyed the doorway closely, hoping she wasn’t bouncing in her seat. The second she heard his laugh, deep and loud, her body stilled and she sighed. He talked with a few of his friends, but when his head turned and his gaze landed on her watching him, his lips widened into a grin and his eyes glimmered with the same attraction she remembered from Saturday night.

  “I’ll see you guys later,” Reider told them and patted one on the shoulder. His gaze went from Reider to Johanna and back again before he mouthed something and his face scrunched. “Hey,” Reider said as he approached.

  Johanna smiled. “Hey yourself.”

  “I see you’re not ready to stab me with your pen,” he said quietly as he sat down, his shoulder brushing hers. “That’s good to know.”

  “Were you expecting violence?”

  He shrugged one shoulder. “After what happened, yeah, pretty much. Or for your brothers to be here instead, ready to rip my head off.”

  Johanna bit her tongue hard and winced. “I’d never do that to you,” she said quietly, staring down at her notebook. “I don’t think I could stomach watching them hurt you.”

  “Trying to hurt me,” he said with a laugh, but she felt him shift in his desk. “Johanna?”

  “Why are we doing this?” she asked, barely able to force the words out.

  “Doing what? Talking?”

  “Being nice to each other. What’s the point?” Every good feeling flowing through her mind and body during the day vanished in a shot at the mention of her brothers. He was right, and for some reason, the idea of her brothers finding out never crossed her mind, not after the dreams she had of Reider holding her again. “We can’t do this.”

  “I recall you saying that Saturday night, too,” he remembered, smiling slyly. “But what if I can convince you?”

  She lifted her gaze to his, and when the green pulled her in, her lips parted on a sigh. “Convince me of what?” she asked, breathless.

  His hand slid across his desk and rested beside hers. “Convince you that our families do not have to rule our lives. That kiss meant something, and before you try to lie and say it didn’t, you can’t lie to me. I saw your eyes afterwards, saw the way they darkened with the same desire that is trying to claw its way out of me.”

  Johanna’s heartbeat pounded in her ears, and she leaned closer as he did the same. “They’ll find out, and it’ll be over for both of us. You know that.”

  “Do I?”

  “Why would you risk anything for me?” she asked, knowing it could very well ruin the moment.

  Reider’s eyes darkened, and a twitch started near his lip, but before he could answer, the classroom door slammed and Ashford dropped his bag on the desk with a loud thud. Quickly, Johanna pulled away and chewed on her pen, looking anywhere but at Ashford. He raised his brow as his gaze landed on her and Reider—or the way Reider smirked next to her.

  “Right then,” Ashford said after a long moment and everyone settled down. “Let’s begin today’s lesson.”

  Johanna sank lower in her seat and scribbled a few random notes here and there. The rest of the class spoke and discussed the day’s lesson as the hour wore on, but her lips remained carefully closed. Reider didn’t speak either.

  “Now,” Ashford said loudly, and Johanna glanced his way. “You should be at least on the fourth page of your packets. I expect those reports in my inbox by Wednesday evening, and if they’re not there, then I will not count them towards your final grade. I don’t care if your printer runs out of paper or your dog eats it, or your cat, or an alien abduction happens,” he added to a few laughs. “This is no longer just a class. This is real life, so get used to it.” He glanced at the clock on the wall behind him and grinned. “Until Wednesday, everyone.”

  The others stood up and gathered their things. Johanna closed her notebook and was ready to ask Reider about meeting soon when Ashford walked over to their desks, his hands on his hips, and smirked.

  “So, I see you two are still alive and well.”

  Johanna hesitated, but Reider took the lead and scoffed. “Yeah, we’re still alive. Great for us,” he muttered and slung his messenger bag over his head. “It's not like we’re going to be friends, Professor.”

  “No one could ever be friends with a damn Marquette anyway,” she added and pushed hotly to her feet, shooting Reider a glare. “Probably hasn’t even typed up his half of the assignment yet.” It took everything she had not to burst out laughing when Reider’s eyes widened slightly and he glanced away, looking guilty as hell. “Don’t get your hopes up. We’re getting through this class, and that’s all.”

  She stormed out of the room ahead of Reider and heard him laugh sharply. “There she goes again, pretending she’s better than everyone in the damn place!”

  She shot a glare over her shoulder but kept walking until she reached a hall and turned, pressing her back against the brick. Pulling out her cell, she texted Reider and said that she woul
d meet him at the coffee house and that they could figure out a plan from there. When she stepped back out into the main corridor, Melody was there, shaking her head.

  “And I thought you two were actually getting along with how much time you spent talking the other day,” Melody said. “So, you need me still?”

  “Why do I feel like you’re going to tell me you can’t?” Johanna asked as they walked. When Melody held her books tighter to her chest, Johanna groaned. “Damn. Alright. It’ll be fine.”

  “Sorry. Work called, and I could use the extra hours,” she shrugged.

  “You know if you ever need money you could always ask,” she said seriously. “You’ve been my friend for over a decade, Mel. I wouldn’t mind helping you out when you need it.”

  “I know, but I’m not in that tight of a spot, not yet,” she promised and tucked her books away in her bag. “You sure you don’t need me? How are you going to pull this off if I’m not there?”

  Johanna fidgeted with the strap of her bag, itching to take out her pen and gnaw it to death. “I’ll think of something. Izzy isn’t busy today. I’ll text her and tell her to head to the coffee house and lay low there for a while.”

  Dragging Izzy into this mess wasn’t what she wanted to do, but she had to meet with Reider to work on the next pages of the assignment anyway, and if Melody wasn’t available, there was no one else who could cover for her. She got to her car and texted her sister, telling her she had to meet with a few friends, but their brothers wouldn’t approve because it was all guys so she needed Izzy to cover for her. Her sister texted her back quickly that she’d be there in an hour. She had a ton of homework to catch up on anyway, and Izzy was a closet caffeine addict. She’d be content for a few hours, except that meant Johanna and Reider had to be out of sight before Izzy showed up.

  Johanna started her car and let out a worried sigh, resting her head on the steering wheel. “This is ridiculous. What are we thinking?”