Her Billionaire Single Dad (Her Billionaire CEO, #8)

by Allen, Jewel

  “Thank you,” she said. “I look forward to it.”

  After Lara hung up, she sat there, stunned. She’d just agreed to be a nanny. On an African safari. With a gorgeous billionaire.

  She still stood by what she told Isa. She wasn’t looking for romance. But this little nanny gig would certainly be an adventure.

  Chapter 3

  JFK International Airport, New York, a week later

  Michael walked across the tarmac to his private jet. His long legs had him moving at a fast clip, which was just as well because they were already late.

  “Uncle Michael,” a boy’s voice piped up behind him. “Wait up!”

  Michael slowed down, feeling bad he’d forgotten his two charges had little legs trying to catch up with him.

  He turned and watched six-year-old Mick and four-year-old Lizzie make their way the best they could. Mick, who had been named after Michael, shortened to Mick, had blond hair like his dad. Lizzie was a cutie pie, with her mop of dark curls, taking after her mother, Jane.

  Never in a million years did Michael think he would outlive his brother. Jim had enjoyed good health. Why couldn’t Jim have gone out of this life doing the daredevil things he’d done over the last few years rather than on an everyday drive? For example, this safari was Jim’s idea. Michael could very well afford it, enjoying success in his ophthalmology practice, as well as parlaying his investments into billions, but he would have come up with excuses to not do it.

  Now both Jim and Jane were gone. Michael had sole guardianship for these two young ones.

  He wasn’t doing very well with this fatherhood thing, especially getting two children ready for an international trip. When he first received guardianship of the two children, Michael hired a great live-in nanny, but she had to quit because her mom was diagnosed with cancer. Michael could have canceled the safari, but Lara was able to fill in at the last minute.

  He pictured Lara Cannon the last and only time he saw her, at Alejandro and Isa’s wedding a little over a month before. He had wanted to get to know her more but chalked it up to fate that he had to leave.

  And then he got her surprising call in the middle of the night a week before. Offering to be his nanny.

  For some reason, the thought of this very attractive woman being his nanny made him want to break out in hives. A beautiful woman always left him tongue-tied. Hopefully, the children would give them something to talk about.

  “I’m here!”

  Behind the children, Lara was running and waving, wearing jeans and a frilly purple blouse. Her hair was pulled back in a cute ponytail accentuating her sparkling brown eyes and heart-shaped face.

  She was even more beautiful than he remembered.

  For one moment, he was afraid he’d made a huge mistake. She was nothing like a typical nanny, whatever that was. Shouldn’t a nanny be someone her employer wouldn’t want to date? For the first time in a long time, he would have to interact with an attractive woman on a daily basis.

  He channeled the nerves of steel he used when he was performing eye surgeries and failed miserably.

  How could they possibly get along? She was so full of life, and he was a fuddy-duddy. His parents taught him to be on the even keel. Keep your head down and just quietly do what you’re good at. No need to attract attention to yourself. He’d raked in his billions not on flash, but on slow and steady investing work.

  She ran up to him, breathless. “I’m not late, am I?” she asked. Her eyes glimmered with excitement.

  “No, not at all,” Michael said. “We’re just getting here ourselves.”

  She exhaled a deep breath. “Good. Because traffic was horrible.” She turned her attention to the children and bent down to their eye level. “And these must be Mick and Lizzie.”

  Mick shook her hand, looking solemn. Lizzie blinked and looked at the ground.

  Lara smiled. “Are you as excited as I am to see elephants and lions?”

  The children’s eyes lit up.

  “‘lephants!” Lizzie said.

  Mick nodded with a bit more life.

  “Thank you for agreeing to this,” Michael said, his voice gruff. “You’re a lifesaver.”

  Lara stood and gazed at Michael. Something seemed different about her. She still glowed with happiness and life, but there was a hint of somberness. A gravity that hadn’t been there at the wedding reception. “You are very welcome. I’m glad Isa suggested it.”

  Again, Michael felt that tug of attraction to her. It might have been the sun, but he felt light-headed.

  Lara linked hands with the children and led them up the stairs to the jet.

  Michael watched her with admiration. She seemed such a natural with children, unlike Michael who didn’t know what he was doing.

  Michael smiled wryly to himself. As he hurried this morning, he’d given Lizzy the freedom to choose her own socks, which were not matching. Her blouse was tucked in halfway, and the back of her hair had been missed by the brush.

  This parenting thing was so hard. But it seemed even more so while someone else was watching.

  Mick turned at the top of the steps. “Are you coming, Uncle Michael?”

  Michael shook himself out of his thoughts. “Yes, yes I am.”

  Michael was grateful for the private jet. Already, the children were roaming the aisles, the cupboards, and the bedroom on their own adventure. He could only picture how it would have been trying to corral these kids on a commercial flight. The waiting in line, the cramped spaces between strangers, trips to the bathroom, plugged ears...on and on, it could have been bad.

  Michael settled in a seat and stretched his long legs, and in the leather chair across from him, Lara leaned back and sighed contentedly.

  “I haven’t been on real furniture for a few days,” she said.

  “You miss the courtroom, do you?” he teased.

  She gazed at him with that steady expression. “I’ve been working at a refugee camp in Greece.”

  He blinked, all the hedonistic Grecian experiences he’d imagined her having disappearing into thin air. “Really?”

  She nodded, hurt flashing in her eyes. “You look shocked.”

  “Not shocked, exactly. Surprised, yes.” He rubbed his nape. “How was it?”

  She hesitated, glancing at the children. “It was unspeakably...bad.”

  Silence fell between them. She fiddled with the flap of her pants pocket. “And yet I felt as though I was living close to heaven.” Her eyes shone. “Those children...” She let her words trail off. Her face glowed, transforming it to practically incandescent.

  “I believe it,” he said. “That’s why I wanted to be a doctor. I especially loved helping children. You seem to be great with kids.”

  “I guess. I just care so much about them.”

  He was surprised by the ferocity of her voice. “Is that why you agreed to be a nanny?”

  “You mean other than the chance for an all-expenses-paid African safari?” she teased.

  He grinned and nodded.

  “I couldn’t say no,” she said. He thought he noticed her lip trembling. She smiled. “Isa made you sound pretty desperate.”

  “That, I was.”

  Her smile faded. “And I wanted—”

  “Vroom!” Mick ran between them, and Lizzie chased after him.

  Lara tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

  “What did you want?” Michael prompted.

  Lara studied him, as though she was considering whether or not she should finish her thought.

  Chapter 4

  I wanted to see you again.

  But of course, she couldn’t possibly admit this.

  Even looking at him now, he was nothing like men she was usually drawn to—dark-haired, virile, maybe even had a bit of a bad-boy streak. The kind you didn’t take home to your folks for Sunday dinner. Perfectly inappropriate. Easy to break up with.

  She was confused by the prompting herself. She wasn’t on the lookout for love. E
specially with a man with two instant children. However adorable they were. However adorable he was, respectable but skirting the edge with his scruff, that intense gaze, a lower lip with a mysterious scar she wanted to rub her thumb over, and that tall, tall drink of a body.

  Lara averted her eyes. “I welcomed the change. I might not have another chance to travel for this long, depending on the job I find.”

  “Why’d you quit law anyway?”

  “Honestly? I found myself wanting to sleep all the time.” She grimaced. “But since I couldn’t...”

  Michael raised an eyebrow. “Through the judge’s ruling?”

  She shook her head. “In the mornings, I hated getting up for work. I would lay there, playing a game. Get up and you can have a chocolate bar.” She groaned. “I hate chocolate to this day. It still triggers bad memories.”

  “But the money,” he teased.

  “I know, right?” She smiled. “I was earning all this money, but I had no time to spend it. I hardly took vacations. I couldn’t, not according to my boss who was one of the senior partners.”

  The children returned with a tub of toys and dumped them by their feet. It reminded Lara that this was why she was here, to be with the kids. Not to pour out her soul for Michael to dissect.

  Lizzie got restless and walked over to grab a book from another tub. She held it up and stood by Michael, blinking at him.

  “You want to read the book?” he asked the little girl.

  Lara was grateful for the distraction.

  Lizzie nodded enthusiastically.

  “Three little kittens...” Michael began.

  Lizzie tucked her legs close to her chest and read along. She had thick, curly black lashes, like a doll. Michael’s lashes were thick, too, but blond tipped dark brown at the roots.

  He raised his eyes, catching her staring. A fire flickered in their depths.

  Lara involuntarily sucked in her breath, a delicious warmth cascading through her body.

  “Uncle Michael,” Lizzie said.

  He cleared his throat and looked at the page. “...lost their mittens.”

  Lara dragged her gaze to Michael’s large hands cradling the book and Lizzie.

  Mick tugged at her hand, pointing at the Legos on the floor. Lara sat beside him on the floor to build a fort while keyed into Michael’s voice. The rhyme hypnotized her, syllable beats in his low, husky voice.

  He read that story and another. A sweet background to her and Mick’s adventure with marauders and soldiers.

  Hours passed, with the fort transforming into a corral and then a palace. They rotated games, read stories, and ate snacks. Then it was back to the palace.

  “Good evening,” Lara said on behalf of a little doll figurine to a dashing prince.

  She sensed Michael studying her profile. Storytime was over, and Lizzie had scooted off his lap. Lara flicked a glance at him and found his eyes were filled with amusement.

  Which only served to make her feel more discombobulated.

  Whew, it was going to be an interesting next two weeks.

  Mick knocked over the Lego palace and laughed. He got up from the floor and chased after Lizzie. Apparently, Lego time was over too.

  As Lara picked up the pieces, Michael joined her on the floor. She reached for a pile at the same time Michael did, and their fingers brushed against each other. Each piece clattered noisily in a bright blue bucket as they dropped them in, punctuating the quick beating of her heart from Michael’s touch.

  “Thank goodness for a private plane, huh?” Lara said.

  Michael looked around as though seeing the plane for the first time. “I guess.”

  “I meant for the kids.”

  “Oh, yes. Definitely.”

  “But, yes, the plane is swanky too.”

  “I really like this plane a lot. I fly so much that it’s almost a second home to me.”

  “That sounds almost sad,” she said. “What are you running away from?”

  “Running away from?”

  She dimpled. “Just teasing, Doc.”

  He smiled wryly. “It’s not like I’m just traveling for the fun of it. I go to different parts of the world to help my clients.”

  “Yes, Isa told me you’re an eye doctor. A well-renowned eye doctor. You’ve done well for yourself. I saw that write-up of you as a billionaire investor in Forbes.”

  “Ah, yes. Half-truths and a lie.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “They were just lying?”

  “You know,” he said, shrugging, “they write things up to exaggerate or make their point. Even if it means elevating someone on a pedestal they don’t deserve.”

  “I didn’t say that you came off like some god,” she said. Her smile brightened her face, and he remembered that the first time he saw her at Isa wedding party, happy. Carefree.

  He chuckled at her candidness. “You got that right,” he said. “No one should canonize me because I’m no saint. I like to help people, but at the end of the day, I just want to be left alone.”

  “That article talked a lot about you as a bachelor.” She eyed him curiously. “It made you sound like a happy hermit. Is that true?”

  “For the most part,” he said. “I can’t change my circumstances, so I make the best of it. And you? How come you’ve stayed single?”

  “I didn’t have time to date, not with my past career.”

  “How did you even get into law to begin with?”

  She rocked back on her heels. “Sheer audacity. Begged, borrowed, and just short of stole.” Her eyebrows drew together at the memory of those hard-scrabble times. Many one-meal days. “I had to put myself through college. My parents were divorced, and my mom could hardly put food on the table. But I did it. You bet I did it.”

  She noticed the admiring expression on his face and blushed. Just a moment before, she had gotten caught up in the fierceness of that memory.

  “I think that’s amazing,” he said quietly.

  He was close enough to touch. He had a piece of Lego in his hand, and he tipped it into the bucket where her hand rested over the rim. A tingle shot up her arm as his hand closed over hers briefly. His touch was warm and reassuring.

  Her stomach flipped at his smile, coupled with that arresting silver gaze.

  At the same time, this intimacy scared her. It brought on a claustrophobic feeling that closed up her throat. She pulled back, her eyes skittering away.

  Don’t get too close. This is just a temporary gig.

  As if a reminder, the children ran past, giggling.

  “Why law?” he asked.

  “I wanted to make oodles of money,” she deadpanned.

  “Good choice, then.”

  “I just wish I loved the job more.” She shrugged. “Who knows. Maybe I’ll go back to it someday.” Casting her glance at him, she asked, “How about you? Why’d you become an eye doctor?”

  “Well, I wanted to be a doctor. Just what, I didn’t know. At labs and classes, I was fascinated by eyes, so I volunteered at an eye clinic...and was hooked.”

  “And now you travel the world.” Lara gestured in the air.

  “I tell myself how fun it is to go to different parts of the world, but I hardly take time to enjoy those places. Usually, I fly somewhere, see a patient, and fly back. Or fly to my next appointment.”

  “Except for now?”

  He smiled. “Except for now.”

  Cleanup was done. The kids were playing happily behind them. Lara was almost sad to have no excuse to sit on the floor with Michael, chatting about nothing and everything.

  It was even better than a date.

  Of course, he couldn’t exactly look at her romantically. She was his nanny now. That meant certain boundaries. That meant...

  Crash!

  Lara turned, sucking in her breath. Mick had gotten into a cupboard and pulled out a porcelain container. A very expensive-looking container that was now smashed on the carpet.

  Without thinking, she seized up, her he
art revving, her chest tightening in anger. In a white heat.

  Just like her mother.

  Chapter 5

  Mick whimpered, raising his little arms.

  The haze of anger in Lara’s mind cleared, replaced by the horror that she’d made him think she was going to hit him.

  Could she blame him? She thought she was too.

  The irrational moment passed. For several seconds, Lara eased back into her normal self. The self who had vowed she would never, ever be like her mother. And yet look at her now.

  Her anger was a slumbering monster.

  “Oh, sweetie,” she said, her cheeks warming with humiliation. “Did I scare you?”

  Lara helped Mick pick up the porcelain pieces from the carpeted floor. Luckily, neither of the kids had gotten hurt.

  Michael gaped from his seat.

  Whatever chances Lara had with him had disappeared, she was sure.

  Mick gave her another scared glance, and she just wanted to hug him. But before she could do so, he got up and darted away. He and Lizzie huddled in a corner and stared at her with big solemn eyes.

  Scratch that thought. They weren’t looking at her. They were looking at Michael.

  She glanced at her employer and could understand their distress. He was glaring at her.

  Back to the task at hand, she finished her chore and stood.

  “Can I talk to you in private?” Michael said.

  Swallowing the lump in her throat, Lara nodded.

  “I’ll have one of the attendants watch the kids,” he said.

  Once Michael arranged that, he marshaled her into one of the private cabins. As though she were headed for a court trial.

  The room had a nice bed with a satin coverlet and all the amenities. But Lara hardly noticed details; her heart was pounding hard and drowning out everything else.

  He closed the door, and she was hyper-aware of his height and how he stood so close to her. His silver-gray eyes studied her as though she were a specimen under a microscope.

  “If you want to fire me,” Lara blurted out, “you can.”

  “What?” he asked, blinking.

  “Back there,” she said, covering her face with her palms. “I got so angry at Mick...”