by Leslie North
“Don’t. This is my fault. I’ll clean up. You don’t worry about a thing.”
“No, it’s fine. It’s mostly my fault.” He handed her a towel and grabbed one for himself. “See? We can both do it.”
She smiled wryly at him, knotting her towel in the dip in her breasts before heading over to the bathtub. She pulled the drain, the bubbles creating a vortex as they swirled away.
“I don’t mean to keep you from whatever you have going on,” Jackie said, glancing at him shyly. He thought he caught the faintest tinge of pink in her cheeks. So tough girl Jackie was secretly embarrassed beneath the façade. Somehow, it all added up to an impossibly sexy equation.
Not just because she was all woman, with enough tattoos to make him want to spend a few hours scrutinizing them. But because she’d somehow managed to attract him through little notes over the past six months…and then wasn’t afraid to defend herself in the nude with a Grecian urn.
Little things like that made him think Jackie was the type of woman he could enjoy spending some time with.
But it was a non-option.
Daniel was smart enough to know that he didn’t have the time for anything more than a fling. And Jackie, well…
Jackie was his house sitter. And that’s how she needed to stay.
2
Jackie wasn’t sure her heart would ever stop pounding.
It was the worst mixture of everything. Shock at being found in the most vulnerable position—nude in the water—combined with humiliation at the person finding her being her technical boss. What made it all worse—like extra super double worse—was the fact that Daniel Trent was easily the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen from within a hundred-foot radius.
And that was even counting the time she saw Trent Reznor, her girlhood crush, from the fifth row at a concert.
Every inch of her tingled with awareness the longer Daniel wiped up the floor at her side. And dammit, she was still technically naked. It was like Daniel had read her thoughts, because he got to his feet and tossed the towel in the wicker laundry basket nearby, saying, “I’ll let you get dressed. You must be wanting to put some clothes on.”
Not unless you’re willing to take yours off. She rolled her lips inward, like it might help prevent the thought from escaping in spoken form. She shouldn’t think of her employer like that, but his handsomeness made it hard not to. His business look, with rumpled khaki dress pants and light blue button up under sexily tousled dirty blond hair, spoke to her in a way she didn’t entirely understand.
As a full-time house sitter and a full-time student, she didn’t have time for dating or romance. And it was not like Daniel would ever want either of those things with her. He was the type of wealthy that meant he probably wiped his ass with people like her—the unfortunate souls who had to house-sit to make ends meet. People who, in fact, had to house-sit just to have a place to lay her head at night. Since it was a full-time job for her, there was no point in paying for an apartment. She just had to schedule things carefully so that she went straight from one job to the next.
But now that Daniel was home early, well…she was formally homeless, yet again.
“I guess I’m just glad you burst into my bath time at the tail end as opposed to the beginning,” she said, trying to feign a level of casual she absolutely didn’t feel. “Then I would have really felt slighted.”
Daniel laughed as he left the bathroom. “I’ll be out in the living room. Just come find me whenever you’re ready.”
“Sure thing. Thanks.” She waved at his retreating figure, then scolded herself as he tugged the door shut. What is your problem, Jackie?
At least that was done with. Now she could definitely say she had a new worst moment of her adult life. Being walked in on during a luxurious bath wasn’t bad enough—no, it had to be the bathtub’s owner, who she’d nearly attacked with a vase. She was lucky he was giving her time to get dressed before kicking her out. But he would be kicking her out, and even if he did it nicely, it wouldn’t change the fact that she had nowhere to go.
She had no idea what to say once she finally went out there. The truth wouldn’t hack it—Hey, all my housing plans were sort of depending on this monthlong house-sit you booked with me—and she wasn’t sure how much room for casual conversation a situation like this required.
But one thing was certain. She needed an emergency backup plan, immediately. Once she was back in her black skinny jeans and a silky black tank top—standard fare for attending classes, which was all she did anymore—she hurried to call one of her best friends, Geri.
Geri picked up on the third ring, but Jackie’s hurried and hushed plea—"Please let me crash at your house tonight and possibly for the next three weeks, pretty please?”—was met with a negative: Geri’s boyfriend’s brother was already sleeping on their couch after some sort of eviction crisis, and they didn’t have the space for another couch surfer.
Jackie was determined not to freak out. Yet. She called another friend, Marie.
No answer.
She called another friend, Leslie.
Another negative. Leslie’s new roommate refused to have random people spend the night.
By the time the last name on her ‘closest friends in the world’ list was called—Tiffany, a classmate she’d connected with during freshman year of undergrad—she still had nowhere to go for the foreseeable future.
And hell if her bank account had any wiggle room. A hotel was definitely out of the question.
Jackie scooped up the rest of her things and started packing as quietly as she could. She’d gotten so used to house sitting that it no longer felt awkward to be in spaces that weren’t hers—but it was a whole different story when the actual owner was within a twenty-foot radius. She felt uncomfortable and out of place, like she’d intruded where she wasn’t meant to be.
Poor homeless girl, pretending to belong everywhere you go.
Daniel was lounging on his huge black sectional—a couch she had independently verified as the most comfortable thing in the entire world—when she came out of the master bedroom, backpack slung over her shoulder.
“Sorry,” she called out, feeling slightly more put together now that her pussy wasn’t on full display. Still, though, the darkly curious part of her wondered if he liked what he saw. “I got all my stuff packed up now. If it’s okay, I want to do a final sweep around the house. Just to make sure I didn’t miss anything.”
Daniel’s face fell slightly, though she wasn’t sure why. He nodded. “Yeah. No problem.”
Jackie swallowed a knot in her throat and headed for the kitchen. For sure she had some soy milk in there, as well as a random handful of almost-too-ripe avocadoes she’d picked up on sale the other day. Just as she was checking the pantry, her phone rang.
Marie was calling.
“Hey, girl!” Jackie tried to sound chipper. “Thank you so much for calling me back.”
“No problem, I heard your voicemail, and man, that sucks!”
“I know.” Jackie heaved a sigh. “It was a surprise, trust me. And hey, it’s okay if you can’t take me in for the whole next month, even just a week or two would be fine—”
“Girl, I’m looking for a place myself right now,” Marie said with a groan. “My apartment has an infestation.”
“What?”
“Yeah. Some sort of wild insect problem. They’re going to begin fumigating for this Friday. Less than a week’s notice for us to pack up our shit and find a temporary solution. I don’t even know what I’m going to do myself!”
Jackie gnawed on her bottom lip as she tried to cheer Marie up. Now they were both up shit’s creek, and Jackie felt like she should dedicate her time to finding Marie a place to stay too. As soon as she hung up, she snatched the soy milk from the fridge and turned to leave.
And ran right into the hard wall of Daniel’s chest.
She gasped so hard she choked. Her hand shot to her mouth as a cough rocketed out of her. She doubled
over, Daniel rushing to her side.
“Jesus, that’s twice now that I’ve spooked you,” Daniel said, gripping her by the sides of her arms as she coughed a few more times. “I’m so sorry. Are you all right?”
“Yes,” she finally croaked out. “You just surprised me, and I swallowed all that surprise down the wrong pipe.”
Daniel grinned, searching her face. From up close, he was even more handsome. He looked like the grown-up version of those Abercrombie models she always used to secretly fawn over in high school, even though the punk pixie she was back then technically shouldn’t have liked guys like him. A hint of his cologne reached her—sandalwood and musk, mixed with something that made her ovaries jolt. It was too good. It probably cost a thousand dollars a drop. And maybe it was actually worth that, with how immediately her senses reacted.
“I didn’t mean to snoop. I was passing by when I heard the end of your conversation. And I had an idea.”
Jackie swallowed hard, unable to move her gaze from his face. It seemed wrong to stop looking at such perfection. His straight nose, ice-blue eyes, full lips that wouldn’t possibly be as soft as they looked if she were ever to kiss them…
“What is it?” she forced out.
“You need a place to stay,” he said, though it sounded like a question. “And, I’m not sure if you noticed, but you’re already staying in a place.”
She blinked a few times. “What?”
“You don’t have to leave. I have a guest room. I have four of them, actually. You could pick whichever one you like—or alternate between them, whatever you want.”
She felt her cheeks flaming again. This somehow seemed worse than imposing on any of her friends—one of her clients taking pity on her. “No, no, you don’t have to do that.” Even though if you don’t take him up on that offer, you’ll be sleeping in your car tonight. “I don’t want to intrude on your space. This is your home. I—”
“Jackie.” The way he said her name made a shiver race up her spine. “I promise you. This is fine. I know what it’s like to have things change last-minute. And if you were counting on staying here, and my dumb ass doesn’t tell you about the change of plans…I get it. Let me make it up to you. For coming back early, and for also almost scaring the piss out of you twice in a half hour.”
Jackie fought to hide the smile that threatened to cover her entire face. God, he was too nice. Could someone that handsome also be that nice?
“And besides, here’s the other part. I still need you to stick around for the last half of the original time block I booked you for.” This little detail made something tight inside her finally unclench. “I’m only going to be here for the rest of this week, and then I have to go to Napa for my best friend’s wedding. You saw him—the one who was here earlier. My original plan was to go straight from Seoul to Napa, but I came here instead. After the wedding, I’m heading straight off on another business trip. So we’d only be sharing a kitchen for the next six days, until I leave again for two more weeks. Of course, you’ll be paid for the full month—that was what you agreed to when you accepted the assignment, and it’s not your fault my plans changed.”
Jackie found herself nodding without even realizing. The hard, proud side of her wanted so badly to not take up him on his gracious offer, but the rest of her was dissolving with relief that she could still count on this penthouse for both a home and an income source for the three weeks.
“That sounds perfect,” Jackie said, offering a grin.
Daniel’s grin nearly sent her tumbling to her knees. “Great. It’ll be nice to have someone else around here for a change. I’m a pretty easy roommate. All I do is work and order takeout.”
“Sounds like my kind of time,” she said.
Daniel nodded, and they locked eyes for a long while. Longer than what felt normal.
But it was hard to look away. From the second she’d started coming into his home, she’d been so eager to know more about the man who decorated only in grays, blacks and neutrals. The man whose aquarium spread alone could have funded her entire last year of college. The man who actually included in his house-sitting profile, “Please talk to my fish.”
The man who she could have sworn was flirting with her via the infrequent notes they’d leave behind after house-sitting gigs.
Six days of cohabitating with this man—and then it would go back to business as usual. Which meant that he was going to go be model-grade hot somewhere else, somewhere far away from her, in his life that didn’t include a late-blooming, big hearted, homeless social worker.
There had been enough unprofessional incidents between them in one day to last a lifetime, so she didn’t need to tempt fate anymore by adding a rejected sexual advance or a withering innuendo on top of everything else.
So she’d just be quiet, normal, and keep to herself for the next six days.
Piece of cake.
3
“Finally, Delayed Daniel shows up!”
Daniel smirked as his friends ribbed him. He smoothed down the front of his dress shirt as he approached the table for three on the covered patio at one of San Francisco’s most elite country clubs. It didn’t have the same charm as the diner where they’d planned to meet two nights earlier when he’d just gotten back into town, but at least he wasn’t afraid to look at the health rating of this place.
“I’ll have you know, I made it on time today,” Daniel said, his chair scraping as he eased into the padded seat. The table was already laid out with oysters and sparkling water, sunlight filtering through the trendy thatched roof of the patio and casting beautiful shadows on the white tablecloth.
“Yeah, but you totally missed our Stanford dinner two nights ago, so you deserve some harassment. Even your dad got here today before you did,” Blake said.
Daniel sighed, glancing around the patio. “My dad’s here too?” He saw enough of his father at the office, but then again, they ran in similar circles. This wasn’t the first time they’d chosen the country club for lunch on the same day.
Blake turned to Grayson, jerking his chin. “Pay up.”
Grayson narrowed his eyes, making a big display of checking his watch. “I’m calling it late. We said twelve thirty and it’s…”
“12:34. Don’t forget, buddy, we got here early,” Blake clarified.
“So you were betting on if I’d be late again?” Daniel asked, smoothing his napkin over his lap before reaching in for an oyster. “Typical.”
Grayson sighed as he dug for his wallet.
“How much are you out this time?” Daniel said before slurping back an oyster.
“Five hundred,” Grayson grumbled, then slapped five crisp hundreds into Blake’s waiting palm.
“If I’m late, or if I’m early…either way, someone’s not happy,” Daniel cracked. The server approached then and took their orders. As this was another regular haunt of theirs, nobody even glanced at a menu before ordering their regular fares. For Daniel, it was a half portion of salmon with a fancy kale salad he never ended up eating but loved the look of it.
“As long as you’re not late next week,” Grayson said with an accusing finger at Daniel.
“I would never,” Daniel promised. And this time, he meant it. He’d never do anything to risk messing up the events Grayson and Mila had planned leading up to their wedding. Despite having arranged the wedding in under two months, they’d still managed to make an entire week of it—and have damn near their entire families participate. It was going to be the wham-bam affair of the century, tucked into a picturesque villa in Napa Valley that they’d rented exclusively for their wedding week.
“Are you planning on bringing your cute little bathtub lover?” Grayson asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Blake interjected. “Daniel, I’m pissed at you. You didn’t tell me you had a bathtub lover. Grayson had to tell me when he got to the diner the other night.”
Before Daniel could correct his friend and explain that there was nothing going on between him an
d Jackie, Grayson barreled on. “Why would he tell you? His flings don’t last more than a couple weeks.”
“Exactly,” Blake said, narrowing his eyes at Daniel, assessing him. “So it all depends on where he’s at in the fling cycle with this one. If he’s nearing week three, then he’ll be broken up with her before your wedding week even starts.”
“It’s not like that—” Daniel started, wanting to set the record straight. But his father walked into view then, his business grin pulled tight with his hands stuffed into his pockets, and heading straight for their table. “Here comes my dad.”
“Good old Mr. Trent,” Blake murmured, glancing over his shoulder. Daniel’s dad was practically a celebrity at this place, and damn near every other business establishment he went to. As he headed their way, he waved to or nodded at practically everyone he passed.
The man was a business shark, as evidenced by his multiple mansions across the world, his insane collection of sports cars, and bespoke suits that he wore to every occasion, whether it was church, the boardroom, or the dentist’s office.
“Hello, boys.” His father’s gruff voice made Daniel tense. The way he spoke to all of them always reminded Daniel and his friends of their position—the kids at the table. Daniel had fought tooth and nail to be accepted by his father as a capable businessman, but even still, there were frequent lapses when his father treated him like he was a twelve-year-old playing soccer in the backyard.
“Hey, Mr. Trent,” Blake said, sounding overly friendly.
“Good to see you,” Grayson chimed in.
“Hi, Dad,” Daniel said, shifting in his seat. They’d missed each other at the office since he’d gotten back from Seoul, so he was sure this was more of a business drop-in than a friendly visit.
“Hatching up another plot for world domination?” His dad squeezed Daniel’s shoulder, a satisfied smirk on his face.
“You know it,” Grayson chimed in. “Actually, I was just about to propose an interesting offer to your son.”