Joshua had made his way to the living room and was gathering his textbooks together for the library. "I went on a job interview." The instant the words left his mouth, a picture of Dominique flashed though his memory. She was smiling at him with those dark blue eyes full of desire. He shivered.
Now fully dressed, Heather flew into the living room, wearing her own white pullover shirt and a pair of blue jeans so tight he could have sworn she would have needed a cement mixer to pour her into them. She came to a halt right beside him. Her short blond hair was slicked back, the sides fastened in the back with a barrette.
"A job interview!" she exclaimed. Wrinkles formed across her forehead. "You never told me you were looking for a job. Why on earth are you doing that?"
"I wasn’t actually looking for one." Joshua lifted a should as he plopped down on the sofa. "I ran across the ad in the paper, called the number and had the interview an hour later. There really wasn’t time to tell you about it before."
"What kind of job is it?"
"Babysitting."
"Babysitting," Heather repeated for clarity, tilting her head. She folded her arms across her chest. Her stare was icy and intense.
Again, a picture of Dominique flashed though Joshua’s mind. This time, the way she had looked when he had angered her during the interview earlier that afternoon. The way she had folded her arms across her own full, soft-looking breasts. The aggravation and fury that had shown in her eyes.
His mind had been telling him the whole time to take the opportunity to turn around and run. He had been so taken by her--so aroused by her. But she was a bartender, and nothing in the world could make him travel that road again. She was bad news. Despite her beauty, he was confident he could fight the temptation. After all, he had only been after the job. Besides, he already had a woman and cheating was a game he absolutely refused to play.
Joshua slammed his eyes shut and reopened them again to erase the memory. "Yes, babysitting," he confirmed, regaining focus on the conversation at hand. "It’s a little boy named Kalvin. He’s precious, Heather. You should see him." A smile rose to his face when he thought about Kalvin.
"And his mother, I bet she’s real precious, too," Heather spat.
Joshua narrowed his eyes. "That was completely uncalled for."
"You’re right, and I’m sorry. But isn’t babysitting a job for teenagers or something?" Heather’s penetrating stare never lessened, never dropped, even though her voice softened. "And why do you need a job anyway? You have more money than most people ever dream of having in their lifetime."
"I know that," Joshua said in an irritated tone. One thing about it, she never hesitated to remind him how much money he had. And, though he never said anything about it, it bothered him. Sometimes he wondered if she was with him merely for his money. Pushing those disturbing feelings aside, he said, "But, the way I figure it, it will give me a chance to spend some one-on-one time with a child who’s not kin to me. It’s a chance to help someone, too."
"What about us? If you’re going to be working at night, when will we get to see each other?" Heather shrilled. She waved a perfectly manicured finger through the air from her chest to his.
Regaining his composure, Joshua held out his palms for her to place her hands in his. She did so, and he gently pulled her down to sit beside him on the sofa. "Heather, calm down baby," he said softly with a gentle squeeze of her fingers. "There will still be time for us. I promise. I guess I should have talked with you about it first, but there just wasn’t time. You do understand how great this time with a child will be for me, don’t you?"
"Yeah, I guess so," Heather said, almost in a whisper. Her gaze dropped to her lap where she fiddled with the belt loop of her jeans. "I know in some crazy way this job will help you with your psychology studies and that’s what you truly want."
"Exactly!" Joshua pulled her closer, brushing his lips across the tip of her nose. She was saying she understood, but he could tell from the tension that was still in the room, from the stiffness he felt though her skin, that she really wasn’t happy about his decision.
~ * ~
As it turned out, it was almost a week before Joshua’s first day on the job. It had taken that long for Dominique’s boss to get the schedule rearranged. Today, Dominique rushed from room to room in her apartment at top notch speed. It was after two o’clock already and if she didn’t get a move on, her new babysitter was going to arrive for his first evening of work to find his employer still dressed in her underwear!
If he got her message, he would be arriving any minute. Due to the hold on the schedule, she had phoned him the day after the interview and asked him to sit tight until she called again. The instant the new schedule was made, she had placed the call but had reached the answering machine instead. That masculine, sexy recorded voice that had picked up echoed through her mind for what had to be the hundredth time.
Refusing to allow herself to dwell on the good looks and magnetic attraction of her new employee, Dominique pushed all sensual thoughts out of her mind just as she had each time since she’d laid eyes on Joshua Divine. It hadn’t taken her long to learn the easiest way to ward off the sensual thoughts about Joshua was to simply remind herself that he was a man pushing thirty and still living in his parent’s home. What a real turn off!
It had struck her as odd, though, that no other member of his family had picked up the phone if he had all the brothers and sisters that he said he had, but she dismissed the thought. He probably had his own phone line or something. After all, he was almost thirty years old.
She stepped into a pair of blue and white striped shorts and slid on the sapphire uniform T-shirt with the Party Paradise logo on the pocket. Her next mental focus was the amazing sensation of relief that she had experienced when she had agreed to hire Joshua Divine. That sense of relief was still present in her bones.
"And you thought you were going to beat me. Ha!" she said aloud to her imaginary demon. "This time I win."
Still, there were other issues that remained and shook her with nervousness. For instance, leaving Kalvin for the first time with his new sitter. Joshua had convinced her that he was capable of handling Kalvin and showing him a great time in the process. However, he was still an unknown factor. He’d had no references for her to check out other than his family, and naturally they wouldn’t lie. All she knew about him was what he had revealed. Although she had to admit, she would probably have had the same nervous feeling or worse if she had hired Elva Noble instead--or anyone else for that matter.
Vigorously towel drying her long, dark hair, she walked through the apartment to the kitchen, stopping first by the stereo. Kalvin was in his room playing with his toys, and the front two rooms of the apartment were filled with an eerie silence which she quickly remedied with the fast drumbeats and screeching guitars of heavy metal music.
Earlier in the day, Dominique had made a mental list of everything she needed to leave in easy-to-find places for her new babysitter. Knowing that the numbers to the bar, her aunt, and even to the hospital, fire and police stations were suspended from the refrigerator door with a magnet eased her nerves a little.
There was plenty of food in the cabinets and plenty of liquids for them to drink. Kalvin’s favorite snack--gummy bears made with real fruit juice--sat on the counter top waiting for his little mouth to devour them. Everything seemed to be in order.
"Except me that is," Dominique grumbled. She was headed for the bathroom to complete her hair drying when that door-shattering knock blasted through the apartment.
"Guess he got the message," she muttered, making an about-face in the center of the hall.
The handsome figure that greeted her this day was more casually dressed than on the day of the interview. Joshua wore a black pullover shirt and a pair of jeans that fit so well they put cowboys in their Wranglers to shame. In his hand, he held a copy of The Sword and the Stone, just as he’d promised Kalvin.
An amused grin rose to Joshua�
�s face at the sight of her wet hair and pale face. "Am I too early?"
"N--no," Dominique stammered. Her pulse was beating ninety to nothing, and she had to take a few deep breaths to calm it down.
Why did this man have such a crazy effect on her? It was as if she had developed a crush on him the minute she saw him. But she was too old for that, wasn’t she? She was twenty-six years old, for heaven’s sake, and here she was acting like she was back in high school!
"You’re not too early. I’m just running late." She recovered, running her fingers through her wet hair. "I see you got my message," she said, leading him into the apartment.
"I was home when you called, but the ringer was turned off on my phone and the volume was down on the answering machine," Joshua explained, following her to the living room. "Thank goodness for the blinking light on the machine. I wouldn’t have known you had called. I don’t know who messed with them."
Sure you don’t, Dominique thought. Be honest. You wanted privacy. And why? Well, we know what you were doing, don’t we?
That irrational pang of jealousy surged though her at the thought. Even knowing that he lived with his parents didn’t help. It only disgusted her that he could do something like that under his parents’ roof. How grotesque!
A siren of caution went off in her head. If he was the type to do that sort of thing in his own parents’ house, what was to stop him from doing it at hers?
The promise he’d made to not allow his girlfriend over, perhaps. Maybe even that love for children he said he possessed. Yeah, that was it. The knowledge that Kalvin was there would be enough to stop him. Hopefully.
"Joshua!" Kalvin’s high pitched squeal ripped through the apartment. "You brought it." He pulled the movie from Joshua’s hands and began examining the cover.
"Of course I did. I promised you I would." Joshua smiled, ruffling the boy’s hair with his palm.
"I appreciate you coming early," Dominique said, grabbing the stereo remote from the end table. She turned off the blaring music and tossed the remote aside. Moving slightly, she balanced herself with a hand on a nearby wall and slipped her feet into a pair of shoes. "I wanted to show you around the apartment a little and let you get comfortable with everything before I leave." She glanced at her wristwatch. "But first I have to go dry my hair."
"This looks really cool," Kalvin was saying as Dominique walked toward the bathroom.
Placing one hand on the doorframe, she stopped just outside the bathroom and watched them. Joshua was explaining something about the plot of the movie, and Kalvin was all ears.
He was really good with kids. That relieved awareness returned. Then Joshua’s gaze moved down the hall and their eyes locked. He flashed her a sexy, sensual grin. Dominique’s breath caught in her throat. She returned his smile and disappeared into the bathroom.
As she blow-dried her hair, she thought of Joshua and Kalvin. Seeing the two of them together, the delighted statement he brought to Kalvin’s face, was beginning to make her really glad she had hired Joshua. Despite the fact he was a man almost thirty years old and still living with his parents, she was starting to feel he could be a good influence on Kalvin, too. Heavens knew the boy needed some man that he could look up to. His father almost never showed his face, and now his grandpa was so angry with her that he wasn’t speaking to either of them.
Her chest heaved in a sigh. At least maybe Kalvin had a new friend who would be there for him.
Four
Joshua couldn’t shake the sultry, arousing sensation that whizzed through him when he caught Dominique watching him and Kalvin from the bathroom doorway. She had looked so sexy, so alluring, leaning against the doorframe in her blue and white striped shorts that displayed a pair of long, smooth, silky-looking, slender legs. On impulse, he had smiled, hoping that the sudden yearning he felt for her wasn’t evident on his face, but it was the way her sumptuous, full lips had curved into a smile in return that had really sent his pulse on a rapid race.
"Let’s watch the movie when Mommy leaves," Kalvin was saying, jerking Joshua from his reverie. "Wanna see my room?"
"Umm…sure," Joshua answered absentmindedly. His eyes still glued to the bathroom doorway where Dominique no longer stood, he allowed himself to be pulled by Kalvin to his bedroom.
"I have lots of toys." Kalvin grinned from ear to ear. "Look." He bounced to a small table across the room. "Do you like Harry Potter? I have all the toys from the new movie."
Joshua took a few steps closer to the boy and perched on the end of his twin size bed. "Have you seen the movie yet?"
"No." Kalvin’s disappointed gaze dropped to the floor. "Not yet. Mommy said we should wait till it comes out on video. That way, I can watch it whenever I want."
Joshua nodded as he looked around the room. For a single mother who, on first impression, seemed to be so conservative with her money, she appeared to spare no expense when it came to her child. He guessed there had to be somewhere in the range of close to a thousand dollars worth of toys, books, and other items surrounding him. Anything and everything a boy Kalvin’s age liked, and then some.
"I have all the Harry Potter books, too," Kalvin continued, moving to sit on the bed beside Joshua. "Mommy reads them to me every night." Suddenly a crestfallen look of longing and unhappiness overtook his precious smile.
Joshua instantly stiffened. "What’s wrong?"
"It’s just that Mommy won’t be here every night to read to me anymore." His bottom lip eased out into a pout. "She always reads me to sleep."
"I’ll read to you," Joshua said quickly. An empty space in his heart seemed to fill instantly. Reading to his brothers and sisters before bedtime had been one of the highlights of his childhood. Then he had to grow up and move out of the house. Still, every so often, he made sure he stayed around his parent’s house until his youngest brother’s bedtime just so he would get the chance to read him to sleep.
Joshua placed his arm around Kalvin’s shoulders and pulled him closer. "I know it won’t be the same as your mommy reading to you, but it’ll be better than nothing at all, huh?"
"You’ll do that?" Kalvin’s face brightened.
"Of course I’ll do that. You can count on it."
"Is he driving you crazy yet?" Dominique kidded, poking her freshly dried head into the room.
"Not at all!" Joshua allowed his arm to fall from Kalvin’s shoulders. "We’ll play some more in a few minutes. Okay?"
Kalvin nodded, hopped off the bed and began playing with his toys.
Joshua stood, eyeballing Dominique. Completely dressed and ready for work, she looked so fragile, almost like a teenager. She had applied a touch of makeup to her already shimmering, slightly tanned face, and her long, dark hair now hung in a glossy stream around her face and down her back.
Joshua pushed his fingers through his own hair. Man, she’s beautiful.
A pang of jealously speared through him, startling him to the core. It was the thought of her standing behind a bar in less than an hour being admired by dozens of drunk, sex-driven men that did it. Worse was how he knew she enjoyed every minute of it. Oh how he hated it! But there was nothing he could do. She was a grown woman, and what she chose to do with her life was her decision, as long as she didn’t allow it to affect Kalvin’s best interest. That, he had decided, she obviously held as a priority above her own personal desires.
Dismissing all negative thoughts of Dominique, Joshua stepped toward her. He stopped beside her and took another glance at Kalvin. "He’s a wonderful child. You’ve obviously done a great job at raising him."
An statement of sheer shock flashed across Dominique’s face and was quickly replaced by a glimmer of maternal pride. "Th--thanks," she stammered. "I’m going to be leaving soon, but I wanted to show you a few things before I do."
Leading Joshua to the kitchen, she continued. "There’s hot dogs in the fridge and buns in the microwave. You can fix that for supper. Kalvin only eats ketchup on his. Oh, and there’s frozen French f
ries in the freezer or, if you don’t want to cook them, there are several bags of chips in the cabinet. I usually feed him dinner around five and he gets a snack at six. He prefers these gummy bears," she instructed, picking up a sealed individual packet off the counter, "but sometimes he wants something different. As long as it’s not chocolate I don’t care."
She pulled a scrunchie from her pocket and expertly pulled her long, dark hair into a high, tight ponytail as she spoke. "Bed time is at eight-thirty. I know it sounds early, but if he doesn’t get to bed by then, I’ll never get him up for preschool in the morning."
It occurred to Joshua that the boy should be in kindergarten, but in the next heartbeat he answered his own question. Kalvin’s birthday had to fall in the wrong month for starting at the age of five.
He glanced at his wristwatch as he listened. It was three-thirty-five. She said she had to be at work by four, didn’t she? Raising a finger, he opened his mouth to alert her.
"Hang on a minute." Dominique threw a hand in the air. "If I don’t get this all out while it’s on my mind, I’ll forget something."
Joshua lifted a shoulder and returned to listening, but he couldn’t prevent the amused grin from rising to his lips. She looked so…cute, standing in the middle of the kitchen racking her brain for instructions, all the while unknowingly making herself late for her first night on the swing shift.
"I usually give Kalvin a bath before bed, but you don’t have to do that if you’re not comfortable. I can do it before he goes to preschool in the morning." Spinning on her heels, she headed for the refrigerator. "Here’s a list of numbers in case anything happens. The number to the bar is right here on top. I’ll be the only bartender working tonight, so I’ll be the one answering the phone. You can call me for anything, no matter how piddly you think it might be. I don’t get in trouble for personal calls, so don’t be worried about that. My Aunt’s number along with the numbers to the police station and fire department are on here, too." She turned back around to face Joshua and rubbed her hands together. "I think that’s it. Any questions or concerns?"
The Devine Babysitter Page 4