Bad Nanny (The Bad Nanny Trilogy #1)(58)

I smile when she calls him uncle, this stupid sloppy smile that I wipe quickly off my face lest Zay sees it. Ugh. I don't want him to think I'm going to go all crazy virgin on him and start professing my undying love. Even if he is adorable with my niece. And good in bed. And silly and funny and sexy and brimming with personality.

Um.

I stand up quickly and brush my hands down the front of the shirt. It's one of Zay's and it says Too Kewl For School. Heh.

“It wasn't a banshee,” Zayden says with all due seriousness. “Aunt Brooke just stubbed her toe.” He lifts up his fingers and gives her a salute. “Scout's honor, Bella, I swear it. I actually activated an anti-banshee spell around the perimeter of the house. We're all safe here.”

I smile another dumb lumpy smile as Zay glances over his shoulder. He totally sees that one and I feel the blood drain from my face. Great.

He turns back to Bella and reaches down to ruffle her dark hair.

“Even if it was Brooke, I can't sleep now. I'm too awake.” Zayden nods for a moment and then snaps his fingers.

“I got it. You want to go downstairs and bake some midnight cookies? Midnight cookies actually taste better than regular boring old day cookies. You game?”

Bella's face lights up and she claps her hands together, nodding her head vigorously and giving Zayden this adorable grin with her teeth showing and her eyes squinched shut.

“I'll go get the sugar and flour out!” She disappears down the hall before I can say anything.

Zay looks back at me and holds out a tattooed hand.

“You want in on this?” I nod and move over to take it, gasping a little when he pulls me into his arms and … hugs me? Zay squeezes me tight and breathes against my neck, letting go only when he hears the sound of a door opening.

It's Kinzie.

“You down for midnight cookies, squirt?” he asks as she blinks at him and rubs sleep from her eyes. Her smile, when it does come, is slightly less cynical than usual.

“You're not going to ruin them this time, are you?” she asks and Zay laughs, holding out a hand for her to take. I watch them start down the steps together, voices low and gentle in the early morning dark.

And then I feel something deep stir inside my tummy.

I don't know it at the time, but it's the beginning of my love for Zayden.

How cliché is that? The master of the house falling in love with the nanny?

I really am a crazy person.





When I wake up in the morning, I am so totally confused. First of all, I'm wondering why there's hot air blasting me in the face. My first thought is that the A/C is broken. I try to roll over and shake my date awake—because let's be honest, I always have a lady friend over—when I realize my arm is trapped behind another body.

Hmm.

I'm not saying I've never had two chicks in my bed before, but I feel like it's something I would've remembered. Then I notice a third warm body across my lap and finally blink myself awake.

I'm sitting on Brooke's shitty inherited couch with my feet propped up on the coffee table. The heating vent in the ceiling is spouting hot air like a politician, and the three bodies around me finally make sense. I've got Kinzie curled up on my left side, Bella on my right, and Brooke with her head nestled riiiiiiight up against the warm bulge in my sweats.

My morning erection solidifies into stone as I carefully try to extract myself from the pile of people around me, cringing as a hiss explodes in my ear and a claw lashes me across the neck.

“Goddamn it, Hubert you little cocksucker,” I snap as the useless cat grumbles and moves away from his position curled against the back of my neck. As the three ladies moan and snore in their half-sleep, I ease myself up and away from them. It's totally great to have Brooke's hot breath against my dick, but not with the f*cking kids on either side of me. That's just goddamn gross.

I tiptoe over to the downstairs bathroom and release the chihuahuas, tripping and stumbling over the panting, hopping little bodies as I struggle over to the back door. As soon as I let them out, Dodger comes ripping down the stairs and explodes out into the yard behind them.

“Useless rats,” I snort as I yawn and scratch at my belly with tired fingers. When I check the bathroom out, I find that the little shits have crapped and pissed all over everything. Great. Perfect way to start the morning.

“Zayden?” Brooke says as she sits up and leaves the two seven year olds sprawled out across the sofa. “What time is it?”

I check the clock and find that it's kind of freakishly early.

“Um, ungodly?” I joke as I peek in the crib and find Sadie wide awake and sitting up all by herself. She has a pink stuffed bear that I grabbed for her at the store, the end of one of its legs shoved into her tiny mouth. I smile and wink at her, reaching in to pinch her cheek as she laughs. “You want some breakfast?”

Brooke shrugs her shoulders, wrapping her arms around herself and looking so f*cking ridiculously sexy in my t-shirt that I kind of want to toss her over the kitchen table and screw her right now. Damn. If only we were alone …

I pick up one of the blue sugar cookies we made last night with food coloring and shove it into my mouth.

“I can make pancakes. I think. At least, I once had this ex-girlfriend who was obsessed with them. I used to cook them for her in little heart shapes.” I use both of my pointer fingers to draw a heart in the air as Brooke wrinkles her nose at me. Stupidly, I can't stop thinking about how cute that is, too. Like, I'm completely and utterly obsessed with this girl. I wasn't even this crazy interested in anyone in high school. And that's what I'm acting like right now, like I'm in f*cking high school or something.