Just a Bit Dirty (Straight Guys #10)(12)

Caldwell steered him into the room.

It was large, beautiful, and very bright. There were toys all over the room, every type one could possibly imagine, so many that the room looked like a toy store. A very expensive toy store.

For a moment, Miles thought the housekeeper must be mistaken and the kid wasn’t actually in the room.

But then he saw him.

A tiny boy was peeking out from behind a huge toy garage, his blue eyes wide and wary, a mop of dark hair framing his pale face. He was adorable. The cutest thing Miles had ever seen. And the air of vulnerability and uncertainty about him tugged at Miles’s heartstrings in a way no other child ever had.

Miles found himself walking forward and dropping to his knees in front of the boy. “Hey there,” he said softly.

The boy—Liam—stared at him.

He had his father’s eyes, Miles thought distantly as he smiled at the kid. “My name is Miles. What is your name?”

The boy didn’t say anything. Just stared at Miles. Another thing he had in common with his father.

When the silence stretched and it was clear that Liam wasn’t going to react to him in any way, Miles felt more disappointed than he probably should have.

“I told you it wouldn’t work,” he said over his shoulder at Caldwell and got to his feet.

Or tried to.

A tiny hand grabbed his arm.

Caldwell inhaled sharply, his body tense. Don’t fuck it up, his expression said.

Miles dragged his eyes away from the man to the child clinging to his arm.

“Ma-ma?” the boy whispered uncertainly, his words barely intelligible.

It about broke Miles’s heart.

Swallowing, he opened his mouth to say that he wasn’t the poor thing’s mom, but a hard hand gripped his shoulder in warning.

“Yes,” Caldwell said. “Your mom is back, Liam.”

Miles froze.

He glowered at Caldwell over his shoulder, but the man’s cold gaze made it clear that if Miles dared to contradict him, there would be hell to pay.

Before he could say or do anything, Miles had a lapful of a small boy crying against his chest.

Great.

Bloody fantastic.

***

It took Liam a while to finally fall into an exhausted sleep against Miles’s chest. When they put him into his bed and left Liam’s room, Miles immediately rounded on Caldwell. “What the fuck was that? Are you insane?”

Caldwell grabbed his wrist and tugged him into the nearest room. Closing the door, he turned to Miles, his jaw set. “That was the first time in months my son initiated physical contact. The first time he said anything in over a year. You’re out of your mind if you think I’m letting this chance slip by.”

Miles looked at him, at a loss what to say.

“I get that,” he finally managed. “But I’m not the boy’s mother. He’ll just be traumatized again when I don’t come back!”

Caldwell sighed, raking a hand through his hair. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. The important thing is to get him over whatever mental block he has now, make him open up, more sociable. Until he does, even the best psychologists can’t help him. Right now he’s afraid of people, even me. Things might be different when you leave in a few months.”

“In a few months?” Miles repeated, puzzled. “I’m your PA only for a few weeks until your PA gets back to work.”

“Obviously, you won’t be my assistant anymore,” Caldwell said dismissively. “You won’t have time for that. My son is a handful.”

Miles started to feel like they were having two separate conversations. “Wait, you want me to be your son’s nanny?” He laughed a little. “Are you out of your mind? I have no clue what to do with kids!”

“You did well enough with Liam just now,” Caldwell said, looking unconcerned. He glanced at his Rolex. “I’m giving you the rest of the day off so you can grab your things and move into the house.”

Miles didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. This man was the personification of every horrible overbearing trait Zach possessed, multiplied by Caldwell’s natural haughtiness and assumption that people would always do as he said.

“I don’t recall agreeing to any of this,” he said. “I’m in America on holiday, not to work as a nanny!”

Caldwell stared at him as if Miles was a strange, alien creature speaking a language he didn’t understand. “I’ll pay you ten thousand dollars a week.”

A laugh left Miles’s throat. It probably sounded a little hysterical, but bloody hell, he’d never met a man who exasperated him as much as Ian Caldwell did.

“It must be nice to be so rich that you’re willing to pay a guy you barely know ten thousand dollars a week for the privilege of living in your house, eating your food, and playing with your son.”

Caldwell’s lips twisted into a sardonic smile. “Don’t tell me you aren’t tempted.”

Miles chuckled. “Of course I’m tempted. I’m broke. But listen, I’m not going to lie to that poor kid and let him think I’m his mother. That will only confuse him further. All the money in the world won’t make me do it.”

“You won’t have to lie about that,” Caldwell said, shrugging again. “My son isn’t stupid. He will realize that you aren’t his mother soon enough on his own. It’s kind of hard to miss that you don’t have a pair of tits. Even a three-year-old will eventually notice that. All you’ll have to do is provide a familiar face for him. It will be the easiest money you’ve ever made.”