Hired by the Unexpected Billionaire

by Susan Meier

  The elevator door closed, and they headed down.

  Staring straight ahead, Danny said, “You do look amazing.”

  Unwanted pleasure poured through her, and she had to work not to groan. What was wrong with her? It would be so wrong for her to get a crush on her boss.

  Oh, who was she kidding? She already did have a crush on him. She was simply wise enough not to act on it. Not only did she have an odd past—a secret—but Danny was rich, smart and funny. He could have his pick of women, and someone like her would not be at the top of his list. She wouldn’t humiliate herself by taking anything he said as romantic.

  “Thanks. I’m not one of those women who typically worries about appearances, but I didn’t want to stand out.”

  “Oh, you’ll still stand out.”

  The pleasure turned to a hiccup in her chest. It was impossible to miss the approval in his voice.

  She chose to believe it was his way of saying she wouldn’t embarrass him in front of his friends and glanced down at her dress. “In a black dress and pearls? Half the women there will be in a black dress.”

  The elevator door opened. “You’ll still stand out.” He peeked down at her. “You’re stunning.”

  Happiness rose again, breath stealing and fierce. Their gazes locked. His dark eyes glowed. The attraction she’d been fighting wasn’t one-sided.

  She swallowed hard. Even as her happiness turned to radiant joy, her stomach plummeted. She couldn’t have him. If she ever fell in love, it would be with a normal guy, someone whose life wouldn’t be affected by her kind of secret. But there was a more immediate issue. How the hell would she be able to work for this guy for years if they were attracted to each other?

  She had to defuse this.

  CHAPTER SIX

  DANNY DIRECTED HER out of the elevator into the lobby, wrestling a case of desire so strong he reached up and loosened his collar.

  He shouldn’t have told her she was stunning. No. The stunning part was fine. It was the eye contact that had nearly done him in.

  With her auburn hair pulled off her face, her eyes were a sharp, alluring green that almost made him stutter... If he’d been able to speak. But he’d held the contact so long, he could tell he’d unsettled her.

  She frowned. “Was I that bad before? I know ponytails and yoga pants are comfortable, but I guess I looked like a slob.”

  He laughed and strode out of the building into the beautiful summer night, not only maintaining a discreet distance between them but mimicking her light tone. “No. You didn’t look bad. You just look different tonight. You’re going to be a big hit.”

  “I thought we were keeping this low-key?”

  “That was the plan until you—” he motioned toward her dress “—got all fancied up.”

  She sniffed. “I’m telling you, there are going to be thirty women dressed exactly like this.”

  There weren’t thirty. But there were enough women in black dresses that Danny had to admit defeat. Which made her laugh. Proving they’d succeeded in overcoming the awkward stare after he’d told her she looked stunning.

  The gallery had been decorated with white lights and beach decor—wood that looked like it had washed up on a shore, pictures of the sun rising over the Atlantic, beach balls and seashells scattered around—but still it somehow looked posh and dripping with money.

  She glanced around. “This is so beautiful.”

  He could relate. Six months ago, if someone had brought him here, he’d have reacted the same way. But right now, he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her. He told himself that was because she was clearly enjoying herself. So it was okay to notice the sparkle in her eyes.

  “The woman who owns this gallery is known for her displays.”

  “Wow. It’s amazing how the paintings match the displays.”

  * * *

  She laughed again, but the farther they walked into the gallery, the more her chest tightened. Her father had always been drawn to the glamorous life. He could be here.

  But a quick sweep of the area didn’t find him.

  Or Roger. Or Roger’s dad or mom.

  Her shoulders loosened. Danny grabbed two flutes of champagne from the bar. “To your introduction to the world of investors.”

  She drew in a long breath. With the fear of running into someone from her past eliminated, she relaxed and took the glass he handed her and clinked it with his.

  Everything was so elegant. Men in tuxes. Women in cocktail dresses. And for once she fit.

  Of course, it didn’t hurt that she was on the arm of the final Hinton heir.

  No. Danny Manelli being a Hinton heir was irrelevant. He was without a doubt the best-looking guy in the room.

  Out with her.

  She felt all shivery and blamed it on the champagne, but she knew it was the night—with him.

  He put his hand on the small of her back, directed her to another room of paintings, and she closed her eyes and savored. Wishes flurried through her brain like snowflakes on Christmas Eve. She wished she belonged here. That her dad hadn’t deserted her but had brought her up in this world. She wished Danny would look at her again the way he had on the way to the limo. She wished she was free enough to turn and slide her arm beneath his, to walk nonchalantly from painting to painting, enjoying them. Enjoying him.

  The last wish suddenly didn’t seem so far out of line. No one from her past was in the gallery. She’d seen her dad once, on the street, on his typical Saturday morning jaunt to get a paper. She might not be free, but maybe she wasn’t as ensnared as she believed.

  Danny turned suddenly and they were face-to-face, so close that every cell in her body blossomed. Oh Lord. What would it be like to be allowed to flirt with him, to lure him to kiss her—

  He pointed beyond her. “If we really want to make this a good trip for you, I need to introduce you to some people.”

  He stepped around her, easily heading toward a group closer to the door.

  “Come on.”

  And just like that her moment was broken. She drew a long breath. That was probably a good thing.

  Wasn’t it?

  She worked for him. She had a complicated past. Plus, she had her eye on a good future.

  But, oh, what would it be like to be Cinderella, to catch the Prince’s eye and have one glorious evening—

  Smoke and mirrors. That’s what. She needed this job. Needed to start her own company to make enough money to change her life. She did not need a romance.

  * * *

  Danny introduced her to the McCallan clan, Jake and his wife, Avery, Seth and his wife, Harper, and Sabrina and her husband, Trent.

  “Marnie is nanny for my son, Rex,” Danny said casually. “She’s thinking of starting her own nanny service in a few years.”

  Marnie picked up the cue. “It will be a little bit more of a boutique service. Maybe a service that doesn’t actually nanny as much as provide a few afternoons a week of specialty services like art and music appreciation.”

  Beautiful blonde Sabrina McCallan Sigmund sighed. “So, our nanny could get an afternoon or two a week off?”

  “Yes.”

  Sabrina’s dark-haired, dark-eyed husband, Trent, said, “Interesting.”

  But Jake’s gorgeous red-haired wife, Avery, laughed. “Our nanny would kiss your feet for coming up with something that would give her time off.”

  Marnie chuckled, and the conversation turned to the paintings around them and eventually all the McCallans drifted away.

  Walking through the exhibit, admiring the paintings and displays, Danny introduced Marnie to a few other donors, older couples who didn’t have kids and weren’t quite as attuned to her idea as the McCallans. Still, Marnie’s face shone. Her smile couldn’t have been any wider. Starting a business clearly meant a lot to her.

  Th
e feeling returned. The click of rightness between them that reminded him of how well their lives meshed. She was smart and beautiful, everything he wanted in a woman. The perfection of it started a tingling in his chest. Every time he realized how well they fit, he took the leap from friends to more. And with it came the desire to hold her hand, to lean in close and laugh with her, to steal a kiss—

  He fought to ignore it. “I told you there was no reason to be afraid.”

  She raised her eyes until their gazes connected. His chest tightened even more. Desire swam through his blood.

  “These were just introductions. Everybody was being kind.”

  He wished he could kiss her. Wished he could tell her she was the most beautiful woman in the room.

  He swallowed. “Speaking from experience, I can tell you that anyone with a child and a career isn’t being kind about appreciating childcare.”

  “I suppose.”

  They’d looked at every picture. Had their fair share of champagne. Chitchatted with everyone he knew. And there was nothing else to see, no one else to meet...

  But he didn’t want the night to end. She looked glamorous and happy. It didn’t seem right to whisk her home. He wanted to take her to dinner. To walk down Park Avenue on this warm night with the bright moon. To hold her hand and enjoy the city.

  Wrong thoughts. Wrong wishes.

  He shoved his hands in his pockets. “I guess it’s time to go.”

  She set her champagne glass on the tray of a passing waiter. “Yeah. I’m feeling a little bit like Cinderella, and my coach is about to turn into a pumpkin.”

  The words to ask her to dinner sprang to his tongue. He bit them back and led her to the door. “Did you just call my limo a pumpkin?”

  She laughed, but she glanced behind her longingly.

  The urge to continue the night rippled through him.

  Just twenty more minutes.

  But he couldn’t do that. He’d said they’d stay an hour. They’d stayed two. He hadn’t mentioned dinner in his original invitation. He couldn’t add it now—not when everything in him was warm from champagne and buzzed from the first fun outing he’d had since he’d discovered he’d been adopted. The emotions flowing through him were razor-sharp, as sexual as they were romantic, and probably wrong. The woman was his nanny. Not a date. His nanny. Someone he was helping.

  The driver opened the limo door and they slid inside. The ride to his building didn’t take long, and they exited quietly, walked through the lobby without a word and rode the elevator in silence.

  Charlotte and Jace were waiting for them. Marnie hadn’t met Charlotte’s fiancé. Danny introduced Jace, who had thick dark hair and a build like a tank, then he offered him and Charlotte a drink, but both refused.

  Charlotte snickered. “Jace has a big meeting in the morning with a rock star. They’re the only ones able to get him out of bed on a Sunday. Even though he grouses about guarding them.”

  “They pay top dollar,” Jace grumbled, but his ears turned red as he pressed the button for the elevator. It opened and then they were gone.

  Danny and Marnie stood staring at the doors, alone in the suddenly silent space.

  She pivoted to face him and said, “Good night. I had a great time. Thank you.”

  And everything inside Danny froze, except his brain, which spun out of control.

  She sounded like a date, thanking him.

  He felt like a guy who’d just had a great night with a woman he more than liked.

  He did more than like her. Everything about her appealed to him. She loved his son, fit in his world and was so pretty his heart sat up and begged for him to kiss her.

  Her eyes flickered and he suspected it was with the same recognition he felt. Forget the fact that she was his nanny. Something more was happening between them.

  The need to kiss her expanded into a fireball in his chest. He could imagine the feel of her soft lips, the smoothness of her cheek—

  Seconds ticked off like hours. A debate raged in his brain—

  Then the puppy raced up the hall, his nails clicking on the hardwood. Fat and eager for love, he slammed into Danny’s ankles, bounced off and rolled ten feet back.

  Marnie burst out laughing. “Oh, Wiggles,” she said, walking over to pick him up. He licked her face a million times. “You have to get control of those paws.”

  She handed him to Danny. “I think he wants to go out.”

  Danny held her gaze, not quite able to shift gears from imagining the feel of her skin, the taste of her lips, to taking his dog out for a walk.

  She smiled softly. “You might want to get a move on before he does something neither one of us will like.”

  That brought him back to reality. He had a child, a dog, more money than he needed and a weird father. Getting romantic with his nanny would only be trouble.

  But, oh, he wanted to.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  MARNIE WOKE THE next morning at five, the alarm on her phone sending soothing music to her until her eyes opened and she shut it off.

  She always got up early, showered and dressed for the day before Rex woke at six. This morning, after that heart-stopping moment with Danny by the elevator, she’d stayed in bed a few seconds, the memory of it tiptoeing through her brain, not so much as pictures but as feelings, a shower of tingles as time spun out between them. Breathless anticipation. Fierce need, the likes of which she’d never felt.

  Her common sense had told her to look away...walk away. But the fanciful part of herself that she’d believed to be long dead pleaded with her to stay. To wait. To see if he would kiss her.

  She thought of her secret and shook her head. What difference did her secret make? If he’d kissed her, it would have been once and only because the night had been so romantic. It wasn’t like they’d start something.

  And even if they did? No one had been overly interested in him the night before. The press in attendance had flocked around the McCallans, sponsors of the event. The artist, Sally McMillen, never came to her showings. So the sponsors got the spotlight.

  She and Danny Manelli had just been two attendees.

  She hadn’t seen her dad. Or Roger. Or his parents.

  Another piece of her fear drifted away. And maybe it was time? Her bad past was a decade behind her. Something inside her yearned for a normal life. A life where she could be herself. Be loved—

  Finally loved.

  Which was exactly what had gotten her into trouble the first time. The life she’d had with her mom in the apartment in Brooklyn had been spare and sometimes lonely. She’d just wanted to belong again—

  And that had ended disastrously.

  She rolled out of bed, showered, dressed and walked into the kitchen to get things ready for Rex, but suddenly the sound of his crying made its way from his room, up the hall, to the kitchen area.

  She dropped his sippy cup to the center island and raced to his room. Turning on the light, she said, “Hey, buddy. What’s wrong? How come you’re up early?”

  He all but leaped into her arms when she reached for him. She squeezed him tight before laying him on the changing table. Still, he sobbed. She took care of his diaper, leaving his pajamas on. In case he spilled some breakfast, these were already dirty, and his daytime clothes would be safe.

  She pulled him from the table into her arms again. “It’s okay.”

  “Why is he crying?”

  She turned at the sound of Danny’s voice and her heart tumbled. Whiskers covered his chin and cheeks. His hair was sexily mussed. Pajama pants hung on his lean hips. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, showing off a perfect chest. The kind of chest a woman could lay her head on while she listened to the slow beat of his heart.

  “I’m not sure.” Her words came out breathless, and she hoped Danny thought she was whispering. “Go back to bed. I’ll t
ake him to the kitchen for breakfast. Maybe he’s just hungry.”

  “I’ll help.” He reached for Rex. As he leaned in to take him, their gazes met and all the air whooshed out of her lungs. Her mind went back to those few minutes in front of the elevator the night before. A sense of unfinished business skimmed her nerve endings.

  His dark eyes flashed. Rex flung himself into his father’s arms.

  He caught him just in time. “Hey, buddy. What’s the matter?”

  He only cried louder and harder, but he snuggled against his father’s shoulder.

  Danny headed for the kitchen. “How about some milk?”

  Marnie raced to the kitchen before them, grabbed the sippy cup and filled it, then handed it to Danny. He gave it to Rex, who tossed it on the floor. When the cap popped off, milk flew everywhere.

  “I think this kid likes seeing milk on the floor.”

  Marnie laughed with relief at the joke. “If he won’t take milk, there’s something wrong. I’m guessing he’s getting a tooth. Let me feel along his gums.”

  As soon as she ran her finger along his gums, Rex settled. She felt the bumps of a molar. “Yep. It’s a tooth.”

  Rex sniffed.

  Danny snuggled his son. “What do we do?”

  “First, let’s see if eating something will help him. Sometimes chewing numbs the gums. If not, we can use some over-the-counter pain reliever.”

  Danny squeezed his eyes shut. “His mother told me about this. I forgot.”

  “Did she by any chance send over some pain reliever?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then we’re good. We’ll feed him, maybe take him to the park for a walk to distract him, and just play with him hard-core to keep his mind off things.”

  Danny sighed. “Okay. Seems like a plan.”

  She took the toddler from his arms. “You go change out of your wet clothes and get the pain reliever. I’ll see if I can get him to eat a banana or some oatmeal. We don’t want to give him meds on an empty stomach.”

  “Okay. Good. I’ll be right back.”

  Rex ate the banana and some oatmeal, while Marnie cleaned up the milk mess. They gave him a dose of the pain reliever and Marnie changed him into a T-shirt and board shorts with little tennis shoes for their trip to take Wiggles outside.