I bite my lip, scandalized at my own thoughts. Why do I suddenly care so much about how I look while working? Clean and appropriate is my usual go-to. Could it be that…that I’m attracted to my boss? Attracted to the male who looks like Satan himself? The male I got one look at, screamed and fainted? Oh gods, no.
I shift on my feet, trying to relieve the heat and wetness between my thighs.
How unprofessional can I be?
Never, not once have I felt desire for one of my employers, or even for a coworker. I’ve been bounced from assignment to assignment and I’ve worked with many different families and their extensive household staff and I’ve never had any feelings like this. Friendship, yes. Attraction? No.
Aegir is so freaking scary-looking. All of the Hyrrokin are like this, with red skin, silver-tipped claws and shiny black horns. And they all have black barbed tails that flick in the air behind them. And dear gods, they breathe fire. I’m going to be taking care of babies that breathe fire.
But now, in just a short time, seeing Aegir amongst his family and with his two infants, I know this man’s outside does not match his inside. Well, I’m the only one on this planet who remotely thinks his outside looks are terrifying. I caught the way the Hyrrokin female in the transporter room stared in awe at Aegir and discretely fanned herself as he strode by.
When I woke up in Aegir’s arms I was scared again, but then I calmed down and realized this male had caught me. He stepped forward, making sure I didn’t drop to the ground and held me in his massive arms. Me, in a top that bared my arms. Normally I arrive at the first day of a new assignment already in my scrubs. I introduce myself to the employers and meet my client dressed in the manner in which they will see me as I work. I only wear “civilian clothes” on my days off, while hanging out in my own quarters or when spending time with other household staff—usually off-premises. I’ve never, ever interacted with an employer as…myself. This is a first. I remember how his eyes drifted down to my cleavage and them back up, trying to play off the fact that he was checking me out, but of course I noticed.
One thing I realized about these Hyrrokin as we drove to Aegir’s house—not only are they all red-skinned with black horns, eyes, claws and scales—with forked tongues and barbed tails, but they also are very thick and strong. Even Bestla and the other females I saw walking around on the city streets were thick and curvy.
I’m tall and pear-shaped with a waist that nips in and wider hips and ass. My boobs are always a bit much. My weight never seems to get in the way of my health or vitality, but being among this species of huge, powerful beings is going to be kinda nice. Next to them I’m small and tiny, which would be a fun change of pace.
I finish unpacking and I change into a long, comfortable, fitted purple T-shirt with a deep V-neck and a pair of black leggings and grey socks. That should be comfortable enough for padding around the house and taking care of the babies. I can see already it’ll be pointless to dress nice while trying to tend for them. I’ll end up with scorch marks on my nice new outfit.
I think again of the babies who are now in my care. A boy named Loge and a little girl named Kari. Their last name is Touchstone. They’re tiny reproductions of their father and I was doing my best to suppress tiny squeaks of terror at the black smoke that wafted from their nostrils.
Should I admit that I normally work in geriatrics? Would Aegir sweep that aside as easily as the agency had?
I take a deep breath, glance at the clock and pick up my tablet. The babies are still down for a nap, so I’ve got a bit of time. Females of every species give birth with little knowledge of how to care for their own infants and then learn on the job. If they can do that, then so can I. Well, except I’ll have two of them. I bite my lip. This is going to be hard. But I’m actually pretty good at learning stuff on the fly. “Self-taught” is my specialty.
Time to start in.
I lift my glass tablet—the best piece of equipment the agency ever gave me—where I have the information of the entire four sectors at my fingertips, and I get going. I skim through pictures and explanations of Hyrrokin physiology and discover I already know a lot about them from the questions I’ve asked and when I was busy staring at the city and the beings striding down the streets. I confirm something I’d already guessed—that Hyrrokin don’t wear shoes and none of them have any hair on their bodies.
Then I spend time watching a video of a Hyrrokin mother named Rykeil changing the diapers on her Hyrrokin baby. I appreciate how she’s created her own vid channel and takes the time to show all the basics in infant care. She’s an amazing mom with tons of vids she’s made from her own home and daily life on all aspects of baby care and feeding. Score! I learn from her that the most important thing is getting a baby on a feeding and sleeping routine and then to work towards helping them sleep through the night. Also, now I know that Hyrrokin babies grow at a faster rate than human babies.
Okay, then.
It’s funny, these Hyrrokin and their babies don’t look nearly as scary to me as they did before. In a matter of hours, I’m already acclimating to their features. In the vids Rykeil’s children regularly puff out fire and smoke and she chuckles and takes it in stride like it’s nothing. All of them flick their barbed tails and smile, exposing those sharp fangs and it seems…not at all scary anymore. She praises her baby girl, encouraging her to breathe more fire. I see there’s lots of vids I can watch in her playlist on how to safely teach a baby to be a firestarter and fire-proof your home. I’m definitely going to watch those! Is it terrible that I’m finding myself thinking how Kari is way cuter than Rykeil’s baby? I can’t help it. I screenshot a sample feeding/sleep/play schedule Rykeil uses for her infant who’s about the same age as the twins. I make sure to subscribe to her vid channel because this is going to come in handy.
It turns out the agency was right (which kills me)—the skills I learned in geriatrics really are transferrable. Beings at the beginning and also at the end of their life cycles both need their environments set up for success. They thrive on routine. I’ll need to try and anticipate wants and needs and do my best to keep the babies’ days interesting and full of activities.
I put down my tablet, feeling ready to get started, armed with some basic knowledge.
I glance at my watch. Uh oh. If the babies nap much longer, they’re never going to sleep through the night. I need to check in with Aegir and find out what their routine is so I can pick up from where he left off.
I step into the hall and find a quiet house. I make my way downstairs out to the front room and find Aegir asleep on the couch. I smile at the sight of this gruesome, horned, Satan-looking male. At rest, he looks adorable. I’m actually really lucky to be working for this man. If I’d been placed with someone I didn’t like or got bad vibes from, I’d be out of here. I don’t care about the bonus that much. And that damn contract I signed has an out clause just for that type of scary situation. The only thing keeping me here is my own free will. That’s always been important to me my whole life—do I want to be in this situation?
I take a few silent steps closer to get a better look. Aegir still isn’t wearing a shirt. This whole time he’s been bare chested. His brother, Bergelmir, doesn’t wear a shirt either. In fact, not a single Hyrrokin male I’ve seen was wearing a shirt. Young, old, it doesn’t matter. And all of them have buff red-skinned torsos.
I glance down at my own T-shirt with the elbow-length sleeves. The windows are all open because the weather here is warm and pleasant. The vegetation outside is lush and flowery. Rykeil, on the vid channel, wore a green tube top with a logo of some kind on it. The females I saw on the street also wore variations on the same tube-top style. Bestla wore a black tube top. Their coverings on the bottom were different—pants, skirts, shorts. But they all had their arms bare. I’m going to need to get some of these tube tops for myself. They looked super cute and comfortable.
Aegir is so tall, his feet fall off the edge of the couch. He’s easily s
ix feet, five inches tall. He’s a powerful male with a wide chest. His red feet are huge, and because none of the Hyrrokin wear shoes I can see he’s got silver, pointy-tipped toenails. Silver glints on the claws of his rough hands. The end of his barbed tail is resting on his thighs. As he sleeps, smoke puffs out of his nostrils.
I bite my lip, suppressing a laugh.
The way he’s lying on the couch, one hand resting on his firm abs, the other draped along the side of the couch—it’s causing his legs to splay and his dark trousers are now perfectly cupped against his crotch—highlighting the outline of his epic package.
Wow.
Is he hard? It sure looks like it. There’s a long pipe trailing down his leg.
Heat again gushes between my thighs. I turn around and rush out of the room and I fan my face as I return up the stairs. I stop in front of the nursery and take a deep breath to get my head on straight. I need to take my mind off the father and focus on these babies. I’ve been hired to tend to these children and that’s what I’m going to do. These poor babies were given up by their own mother and their father desperately needs help taking care of them. I can do that.
Jeez. Lusting over my boss is not part of my job.
I open the door to the nursery that the babies share. I was given a tour of this room earlier. It had been a chaotic time—puffs of fire, baby tears and cuddling from three different adults. Finally, finally after lots of crying and cajoling the babies had gone into their cribs for sleep.
There has to be a better way.
I step inside and check out the infants in their individual cribs and find them both still deeply asleep. On New Earth it’s common to dress a girl in pink and a boy in blue, but Loge is in green and Kari is in purple. In their closet and dresser half the clothing and bedding are green and the other half purple. I like this, the colors look good on them.
I step closer and stare at their tiny faces. They’re twins, but I can already tell them apart. Loge has bigger horns and he’s longer and sturdier than his sister. Kari is smaller and her horns are more delicate. I walk up and touch one of Kari’s horns with my finger. It feels blunt at the tip. I guess I don’t have to worry about her scratching me. I test the tips of her tiny claws too and find them also blunt.
I continue to watch them, mesmerized by how freaking adorable Hyrrokin babies are. When I first met Loge and Kari, I was stunned by the fact that they breathed fire and smoke floated out of their tiny noses. But now that I’m watching them, all I can think is how they’re fierce and adorable at the same time. Like hissing kittens. I’m loving their tiny red-skinned bodies. The best part are their tails that twitch even as they sleep. Their tiny outfits have holes in the back to allow exit for their dark, barbed tails.
I force myself to move away so I can inspect their nursery, seeing what they have and where it’s stored. I’ll take an inventory tomorrow and make sure these babies have all the supplies they need. I do this with all my assignments—I assess what’s there and what’s needed. Having the environment set up to make my client comfortable always makes me feel better. How can I help if I don’t have what I need, or what they need? I don’t know what babies need, but I’ll find out.
I’m pleased to see that there’s the latest diaper pail—the kind that immediately incinerates disposable diapers. The mother on the vid channel had this exact type of diaper incinerator. And the nursery seems very safe and secure. There’s little symbols on everything denoting fire-retardant materials. Good thing. Looks like the Hyrrokin know how to think ahead when it comes to babies that are indiscriminate fire starters.
“You need help?” a deep voice asks.
I turn to find a bare-chested Aegir standing right behind me. Oh dear gods, how am I supposed to live with this shirtless man in my vicinity? He’s not even wearing shoes. He’s going to be walking around like this all the time with only a pair of trousers?
And he smells terrific.
Both the babies start crying at once.
“Sorry. It’s my voice,” he explains. “It wakes them up every time.”
I laugh and move over to pick up Kari. “That’s okay, they need to wake up anyway. Oh no,” I say, feeling the heavy wetness of the baby’s diaper. “This one isn’t very fresh. She needs a change.”
Aegir picks up Loge. “This one too. I’ll change him. You change Kari.”
“Okay.”
I twirl around, trying to figure out where to go. I end up following Aegir over to the side-by-side changing tables that are set up underneath an expansive window. I set Kari down at the one with purple trim. This is literally the first time I’ve ever changed a diaper in my life. Not that I’m going to tell Aegir that, although I suspect baby Kari knows she’s being handled by an amateur. She’s a bit fussy while her brother is perfectly quiet, sucking on a finger while his daddy swiftly changes his diaper with the bored look of a professional. If Aegir wasn’t right here, I’d pull out my tablet and turn on the vid again of the Hyrrokin mother changing her baby. I manage to fumble my way through, remembering what Rykeil said on her vid and watching what Aegir does.
“You’re really good at this,” I tell him.
“Thank you,” he answers gruffly. “I’d never been around babies or changed one before I met my offspring.”
Me neither, I think to myself. “You’re a pro already.”
“I guess I am,” he chuckles. “I had to be. It was that or let them suffer.”
I can’t imagine this male ever letting his babies suffer.
“I need to get used to being able to do this by myself,” I say. “I have to be able to take care of both of them without help. If I make their bottles first and bring them in with me before I wake them up from their nap, that will be smarter,” I grimace. “That way I can give Kari a bottle while I change Loge and vice versa.”
“Oh, that’s a good idea.”
We each carry a baby in our arms and go downstairs into the kitchen. Aegir shows me where he keeps the formula and how to prepare it. The kitchen is large and spacious. I’ve learned that kitchens across species in the four sectors aren’t all that different from each other. Tastes differ, but the modern conveniences are the same. Aegir’s house has large windows everywhere and even skylights. I glance over at two windows that are open, without screens to keep out bugs. What kind of bugs are on this planet? I shiver at the thought.
Eventually two bottles are made, and we end up on opposite couches in the living room, both with a baby in our arms that we’re feeding. Feeding the baby isn’t hard, basically I put the bottle gently in Kari’s mouth and she does all the work. I lean back in the couch and we chat a lot about the babies. It’s nice listening to his deep, melodious voice as he explains his life with his infants.
“I can tell that Kari is more patient and Loge is more active,” I say.
“Really? You can already tell a difference in their personalities?”
“Yes.”
He opens up and tells me every detail about what it was like for him the last two weeks. All the trials and tribulations of having two tiny infants dumped on a single male with zero baby skills and a home originally devoid of baby paraphernalia. I have a feeling this male is grateful to have someone to talk to about this besides his brother and mother. I can totally be that being for him. He deserves it.
“I want to apologize to you again for how I behaved when we first met,” I finally say. “That was ridiculous and unprofessional. I’m so sorry. I screamed and fainted and you had to…”
“I caught you.”
“Yes, you saved me from hitting the floor. Thank you for that. I want you to know I’ve never fainted in my life. I didn’t know I’d react that way.”
“I still don’t understand why you were scared.”
Heat flares in my cheeks. I can’t tell Aegir that he looks like the devil. I can’t. “I don’t know why either,” I lie. “Maybe the atmosphere here is different?”
He shrugs and I quickly change the subject.
> The hours fly by. He gives me a tour of the entire house and we go through all of the baby supplies, gear and clothes so I know where everything is. “Tomorrow I’ll start figuring out if there’s anything to be purchased,” I say. “I’ll take over all of that for you, so you won’t have to worry about making sure that the babies have what they need.”
“Okay, and I’ll give you access to my Hyrrokin shopping account so you can order what you feel we need.”
“Thank you.”
Eventually I see that it’s getting late and I assume Aegir wouldn’t mind getting rid of me. We’ve actually spent a lot of time together. I always try my best to be super sensitive about giving my clients their alone time.
“Where are you going?” he growls.
“To my room. I was going to give you time alone with your children. When would you like for me to return to put them to bed?”
“Time alone?” he answers, like it’s the most foreign concept to ever enter his mind.
“Yes. I don’t want to intrude on your time with your offspring.”
“Stay and eat with us,” he orders.
“I…”
“Sit.”
Jeez. Okay. When he talks with that booming voice and that smoke wafting from his nostrils, how can I resist?
We end up using his expensive, high-grade food dispenser to create an amazing meal and we eat dinner together. I have Kari on my lap, and he has a happy Loge, who is busy sucking on a cleaned animal bone pulled from the rack of meat Aegir is devouring.
I chat with my new boss about his home world, trying to learn everything I can about his species. I learn more about how the Hyrrokin breathe fire. He explains to me that yes, his infants lit the couch on fire, but that was only because it was their first flame. And there were two of them, so his mother was caught off-guard. But that normally there won’t be many baby flames. Mainly babies are “smokers.” The worst time, he says, is when a Hyrrokin is a teenager. That’s when they fully come into their firestarter abilities, but they don’t have the control of an adult.
His Human Nanny Page 3