by Skye Jordan
“I can handle him. But I’m starting to wonder if you can handle the kid.”
Everly heaved a sigh and turned to fully face him. Fuck this covert bullshit. She was taking some control back. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You like her. The little imp has wormed her way under your skin, hasn’t she? Kids. They have a way of doing that.”
“I hate you.”
His brows dipped as he scanned her face. “Or is it him?”
“Enough.”
In truth, it was both. And, yeah, that pissed her off. She hadn’t wanted to leave the house today, and now she wished Bella was with her. Everly kept finding so many things Bella would love here—the local crafts, the colorful food, the friendly vendors and customers. Bella would have thrived here. And after a week of Bella twenty hours a day, she missed the kid. But she’d be damned if she was going to admit that to Ian.
“You work with Sam on the alarm,” she said. “I’ll try to find a time to get into the office.”
He was still wearing that annoying smirk when she went her own way. She started back toward Decker, who slipped into an alley. After picking up a few more things, she continued on, turning into the narrow space where Decker was lurking. He wasn’t in plain view, but Everly only had to pass a few doorways and peer around a few corners to find him hiding inside a storefront, behind the open door.
When she pivoted and put her body between him and any escape, the look on his face was a priceless combination of what the fuck and you’ve got to be fucking kidding me.
“I thought I saw you.” She smiled and held out one of the bags. “I picked these up for you and the guys. Pineapple empanadas.” When his suspicious gaze darted between Everly and the bag, she lifted it toward him again. “Thought it might sweeten you up.”
He exhaled and took the bag, then offered a contrite, “Thank you, ma’am.”
“Everly,” she corrected.
“Thank you, Everly.”
“You’re welcome. I was just heading home. Since you’re following me anyway, why don’t we go together? You can save me cab fare.” She paused a second, then added, “Unless you wanted to grill that guy flirting with me in the market.” She hooked a thumb over her shoulder. “By all means, I’m sure you can still catch him. He’s trolling for a hookup.”
“Bienvenudo. Welcome.” The shopkeeper’s heavily accented English cut into the tension. “May I help you?”
For the first time, Everly glanced around the shop and its eclectic mix of gift items and souvenirs.
She offered the shopkeeper an overzealous “Hel-lo.” Then gave Decker a negligent wave as her gaze zeroed in on vibrantly painted, beautifully handcrafted wooden puzzles. “Never mind. I want to look around. I’ll take the cab.”
“What guy?” Austin gritted his teeth, annoyed as hell. Worse, he was annoyed that he was annoyed.
“He was gone when I went back to find him,” Decker told him. “She gets her share of attention. This guy just mustered up the guts to approach her.”
“Seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez, veinte, treinta…” Bella sat at his feet where he’d stopped on the stairs to take Decker’s call. Everly had clearly been teaching Bella to count in Spanish beyond the first five numbers she already knew. He was sure that had been noted on her daily reports, but he’d been so distracted, he usually skimmed them.
“Have you ever seen him before?” he asked.
“No,” Decker told him. When Austin didn’t immediately reply, he asked, “What are you thinking?”
He was thinking his emotions were overriding logic. Irrational emotions. Absurd, unwarranted, erratic emotions. He was thinking he was an idiot for being both jealous and suspicious. He was thinking the best thing for him would be to let her go.
“Cuarenta, cincuenta, sesenta…”
But it wouldn’t be the best thing for Bella. He’d seen a definite change in his daughter since Everly had been with her. Bella was more focused, sat still longer, didn’t interrupt as much, and slept better, among other things. Today, she was following him like a tail, which made him realize how free he’d felt since Everly had taken over Bella’s care. Free to work, free to think, free from guilt. At least guilt about his time away from Bella. But now he had a new guilt—lusting after the nanny.
The nanny, for God’s sake.
“I’m just looking for ghosts,” he admitted. “If you see him again, get his story, would you?”
“Will do. She’s on her way back to the house. Oh, I got a call from the neighbors a few minutes ago,” Decker added. “They trapped Kujo last night. They’re relocating him in the mountains.”
That news brought a sliver of relief. The thought of a predator like that so close to his morsel-sized daughter was always in the back of his mind. “Fantastic.”
Just as they disconnected, another call came through—from Cooper, the guard on the ground in Africa. Austin answered, desperate for something to snap Everly Callaway out of the realm of fucking sainthood.
“Coop,” he answered. “What have you got?”
“Her mother’s not dead,” he answered immediately. “I’ve spoken with the US embassy here and searched all the death records in both Kenya and the US. There’s no sign of a Gwen Callaway passing away in the last year in either location.”
There was the first lie. The first thread. The rest would unravel from there. “Is Gwen Callaway even real?”
“I’m checking into it. The rest of Everly’s information is coming up spick-and-span.”
Why would she lie about her mother?
The front door opened. Bella stopped counting in Spanish and gasped. Grabbing his pant leg, she craned her neck to see down and into the foyer.
“Everyee!” She’d managed to get all the syllables into Everly’s name, but was still using the y for an l. Bella jumped to her feet and raced down the stairs.
“I’ll try to get some answers on my end too.” He disconnected with renewed irritation.
“Hi, monkey. Having fun with Daddy?” Everly smiled down at Bella and ran a hand over her hair. The tender gesture and her use of Austin’s nickname for Bella created an intimacy that tugged inside him.
“Yeah.” She pulled at Everly’s hands. “Go swimming wif us?”
“Yes,” Everly corrected. “Will you go swimming with us?”
“Will you go swimming wif us,” she echoed, but still missed the “th” sound.
“Not right now,” Everly answered. “But thank you for asking.”
Bella peeked into the bags, tugging at the plastic. “What you have?”
Everly pulled the bags out of reach. “What do you have?”
“What do you have?”
“Perfect.” She tapped Bella’s nose. “I have presents.”
Bella gasped and darted a look over her shoulder. “Daddy, presents.”
“I heard,” he told Bella. Then to Everly: “You’re back early.”
She pushed to her feet and fished in the bags as she climbed the stairs to meet him. “I missed you guys.” She spoke to Bella, who danced around Everly’s legs. “I picked up some coffee for Daddy.”
She pulled a silver pouch from the shopping bags and handed him a bag of his all-time favorite coffee. Coffee he rarely drank because Lucia couldn’t find it at the big grocery store where she shopped and never had time to go to the local farmer’s market. Everly was clearly talking to the staff more than he realized.
He looked at the coffee’s label with more emotions joining the tangle. “That was nice of you.”
“Me, me, me,” Bella chanted.
“Bella,” he chastised.
“Of course you.” Everly crouched on the stair in front of Bella and drew a wooden board out of a bag and presented it to Bella, who gasped. “It’s a puzzle.”
Bella ran her fingers over the vibrant paint.
“It has layers,” she told Bella. “The sloth is in the background, the monkey is in the middle, and the toucan is in the front. So you take out
all the pieces, then put the sloth together first, the monkey second, and the toucan last. I’ll teach you how after dinner.”
“Wow.” She lifted it toward Austin. “Daddy, look.”
Everly glanced up at the same time. With her hair in a braid and her dimples flashing, she threatened to take his breath away. Austin pried his gaze from her pretty face and looked at the puzzle.
“It’s great,” he told her.
“And…” Everly drew out some fabric and shook it out, holding up a traditional Costa Rican dress. It was white muslin, the top and skirt edge embroidered with colorful flowers. “I thought you’d look beautiful in this.”
Bella clutched the puzzle to her chest and reached out to touch the fabric. “So pretty.”
“What do you say, Bella?” Austin said.
“Thank you,” she told Everly before falling into her for a hug.
The sight reminded him of just how quickly Bella had attached herself to Everly. And Austin had mixed feelings over that.
Everly laughed and patted Bella’s back. “You’re welcome, sweetie.”
“Why don’t you go change into your bathing suit?” Austin told Bella. “I’m going to talk to Everly a minute, then we’ll swim.”
“Okay.”
She turned away, but Everly called her back. “Bella.” She pulled a mass of flowers from her bag. “These are for Lucia and Renalda.”
She tucked her puzzle under one arm, the dress under another, then grabbed the flowers before hopping down the stairs, calling, “Lucia, Renalda, presents!”
Everly Callaway was too fucking good to be true. “Let’s talk in my office.”
Austin’s frustration toiled inside him until he was annoyed to irrational levels. He wasn’t going to mince words. If she needed to get out of their lives, she had to do it now before Bella—before both of them—grew any more attached to her.
“I want to talk to you too.” She rested her bags on the corner of his desk and faced him. All the lightness she’d shared with Bella was gone, a new seriousness sobering her expression.
He set the coffee on the corner of his desk, asking his questions before she took the conversation in a different direction. “Tell me about your mother again.”
She frowned and shook her head. “What about her?”
“The truth about her. I know she’s not dead.”
Everly’s eyes narrowed. “And how would you know that?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me.”
“My security figured it out in the routine background check.”
“I’m the employee. My mother’s status hardly falls into the realm of due diligence.” She took a step toward him. “And there’s nothing routine about you having me followed on my day off. So what’s this really about?”
He matched her step, getting too close. Way too close. “It’s about lying. It’s about what those lies could lead to. It’s about Bella’s safety.”
“Bullshit,” she said, walking away from him. “This is about you. You and all your fears.”
He grabbed her arm and spun her back to face him. The second he touched her, he knew he’d gone too far. “I told you I have a zero-tolerance policy. I told you to read the contract before you signed it, which demanded truth in your statements. Why did you lie about your mother?”
She jerked her arm from his grasp, but instead of moving away, she stepped into him, toe to toe, and met his gaze in a way that threw him back to his military days. To arguments he’d had with other soldiers—just like the one he was having with Everly now.
“Because, like I told you, we don’t get along. She’s been putting me through hell since I was barely older than Bella. After our mission in Kenya, I’d had enough. She was poisonous for me, so I made the purposeful decision to take my life in a different direction. It was easier to just say she’d passed away than tell the whole story.”
“You have a fucking answer for everything,” he bit out.
“I have an answer because it’s true.” Those blue eyes of hers sparked with the same frustration brewing inside him. “If you really can’t trust me, I shouldn’t be here. If you can’t see from the last week alone how Bella is benefiting from having me here or how much work you’re getting done because I’m taking care of things, then you should fire me.”
Fuck. She’d called his bluff.
He moved before he thought. He gripped her arms and pushed her back against the wall. She sucked in a breath and tensed, but instead of fear, the unmistakable spark of challenge brightened her eyes.
“How’d you spot Decker?” he demanded. “He was special forces for two decades, trained in surveillance.”
“He’s also over six feet tall and black. He’s not exactly invisible. And I was a female aid worker in the world’s most violent shit holes. I know how to protect myself, which means staying aware of my surroundings.” Her voice hovered a notch below yelling. “Ever consider Decker’s getting rusty?” Then her body relaxed, and a genuine spark of humor danced in her eyes. “You should have seen his face when I cornered him. Priceless, I tell—”
His good sense evaporated in the heat between them, and Austin lowered his head, kissing her hard. He knew the instant their lips touched, it was a mistake. Knew he was out of control.
She tensed, and a sound of surprise ebbed from her throat. A moment lingered between them. A moment filled with what-the-fuck shock. He kept hoping she’d freak out and push him off. Then, if she didn’t quit, he could fire her, and this would all be an ugly memory.
Only, she didn’t freak out. And she didn’t push him off. She tilted her head, closed her eyes, and kissed him back with the same force. Her hand curled into his T-shirt, her lips parted, and she kissed him again.
Everything inside Austin coiled and heated. Lust gushed through his bloodstream and drowned the little voice screaming warnings in the back of his mind. He met her force but kept his hands on her arms. Half his brain was telling him to sink in; the other half was telling him to push away. Austin was caught in the middle with her lush mouth searching for more.
It was a brutal kind of attraction. A passionate snap between two people who’d been holding their desires back. With his mouth on hers, he couldn’t think. He couldn’t remember how they’d jumped from an argument to a kiss quickly sizzling out of control. But as soon as her tongue brushed his lip, all Austin’s arguments evaporated.
He leaned into her and sank into the kiss, stroking his tongue into her mouth. She moaned, and her body bowed, pressing every perfect curve against him. His hands slid down her sides, fingers clenching and releasing her waist. She felt even better than she looked. And the way she kissed shot his mind straight to the bedroom. Aggressive yet teasing. Urgent but languid. Her mouth was hot and wet and willing.
He wrapped one arm low on her back, pulling her up against him hard as he stroked his tongue against hers. She moaned and rocked her hips like it was the most natural thing to do. The pressure against his erection shot a streak of white light across his closed lids.
This was so damned electric. So insanely hot. He could already imagine sex between them. Off-the-fucking-charts sex.
“Daddy, I ready.”
Bella’s voice tossed ice water over Austin. He pulled out of the kiss and froze, fighting to get his bearings.
“Daddy?” A little knock sounded on the bottom half of the door. The knob rattled. “You there?”
He finally focused on Everly again. She had the fingers of one hand pressed to her swollen lips, her big blue eyes dazed.
“Yes, baby.” His voice came out rough, and he cleared his throat. “Wait in the kitchen with Lucia. I’ll be right there.”
Everly remained still as Bella counted her way—in Spanish—down the stairs to the kitchen. Reminding him how far she’d come in the short week Everly had been there.
Pulling away from her was painful. But he slid his arm out from behind her and stepped back, rubbing his face. “Wow. That was wr
ong on so many levels.”
“Excuse me?” Her tone made him wince.
“I didn’t mean it the way—”
“It sounded?”
He opened his eyes and found Everly scowling. The hand that had been pressed to her lips lay against her chest.
“That’s good,” she said. “Because it sounded harsh.”
Fuck me. “I’m sorry. I think we got caught up in the argu—”
She fisted his T-shirt and hauled him forward, pushing up on her toes to meet him, mouth to mouth. She kissed him hard, then dropped back and gave him a shove. “Don’t ever apologize for kissing a woman, you idiot.”
She turned, pulled the door open, and cut a look over her shoulder. “You know where I’ll be if you want to fire me.”
7
Everly made her way outside with her sketchbook. She took a seat on a lounge near her room at one end of the pool. Her head and heart bathed in Bella’s incessant giggles. The girl had been laughing and squealing for over an hour, thrilled with her Daddy time.
Austin was patient and sweet with Bella. In fact, to date, Everly hadn’t heard him say one wrong word to the girl, even when Bella pushed limits or ignored direction or deliberately disobeyed. And he was fun, playing all kinds of games in the pool when most adults would have done little more than sit on the sidelines. Even the people she knew who liked kids didn’t spend that much one-on-one time with them.
She eased back on the lounge, still angry with the way he’d pushed her away earlier. The anger helped her deal with the bizarre sensation of hurt. She never put herself in a position to be hurt, at least not emotionally. And now she remembered why—it sucked.
But it was also a sign she’d pushed the boundaries of their relationship too far. A reminder that she needed to collect herself and focus on what she’d been tasked to do. Then she found herself speculating over the possibility of Bella getting the same quality attention and love from a working, traveling, social couple in their sixties, living in DC’s concrete jungle, and a new angst filled her gut.