Club Wicked 2: My Wicked Nanny (16 page)

And Carol would have loved Anya. Despite their physical
differences and personalities, there was a streak of sweetness in both their
souls. Anya had a gentler spirit than Carol, and that worked out well with Mark
and Teddy. God knows they tried his patience in the way only little boys could.
They weren’t bad; they were…active.

Very active.

Carol would have also loved Anya’s plan to go to Paris for
the summer, and would have encouraged her every step of the way.

He turned the car toward the main house, driving out from
beneath the black walnut trees that showed bright green buds all over in the
sunlight. The stately manor Carol had fallen in love with at first sight stood
on the top of a gentle rise, the undulating ribbon of the river flowing in the
distance. He’d found himself thinking of his wife a lot lately. Instead of it
being the usual sorrowful memories or thoughts of what they wouldn’t have
together, it was of the good times they’d had.

Paving stones crunched beneath his tires as he pulled up to
the front of the house and put the Jag into park. Hopefully Anya was home with
the boys. He knew from the pictures she sent him at work every day that she
liked to take them out, to expose them to other children and new things. Much
better than their last nanny, who’d been a bit of a hermit and hardly ever took
the boys anywhere.

After taking off his suit coat, he slung it over his
shoulder and tried to tell his body that just because he was going to see Anya
didn’t mean anything was going to happen. He prayed she would take the olive
branch he was offering and open up to him. Last Saturday he’d wanted nothing
more in the world than to take her home with him, to have her in his bed and in
his arms, but she’d driven home alone and so had he.

All because of a stupid lie.

He went inside and tossed his briefcase next to the antique
coatrack in the foyer and looked down the two hallways branching off. From
somewhere to the right he could hear their voices, and he followed them, a
smile tilting his lips. Anya hadn’t realized it, but last night, she’d used her
normal voice with him at the atrium and thereafter. Anger ghosted over him at
how shaken up she’d been after her encounter with Bryan, and he resolved to
have a word with the other man.

Turning the corner, he came to the entrance of the kitchen
and stopped, his heart doing a painful thump in his chest.

Teddy, the younger twin with flaxen blond curls, was
standing on a stool next to the big slate island in the middle of the kitchen.
To his right, his brother, Mark, with his amber-blond hair, was cutting a
cookie from a rolled-out piece of dough. Anya was leaning over him, helping him
press down into the dough. A foil-covered baking tray lay nearby, and half a
dozen misshapen cookies lay on it.

Anya wasn’t wearing her ridiculous glasses. She still wore
the frumpy sweatpants, but the matching sweatshirt lay over the back of a chair
at the kitchen table. Dressed in a pink T-shirt that showed the magnificent
swell of her breasts, she presented a picture of sexy domestic tranquility that
should have been odd but wasn’t. How a woman could at once be nurturing and
sensual was part of the feminine mystique that had baffled and entranced men
since the beginning of time.

Hating to break the comfortable domestic atmosphere, he
cleared his throat. “What are we making?”

“Daddy!”

His boys both raced over to him and gave him hugs that
covered him in bits of dough and flour. He scooped them up, grunting and amazed
anew at how quickly they grew, and watched Anya dash across the room and throw
her sweatshirt on, inside out and backward.

“Hello, Mr. Shaw. I didn’t expect you home so soon.” Her
voice had a slight tremble to it, and she avoided his gaze.

Bemused, he walked toward her with a boy on either hip. She
started to back up, her beautiful blue-gray eyes finally meeting his and going
wide, but he stopped before he reached her. He had to remind himself that in
Anya’s mind, he was still the clueless boss who didn’t know her real identity.
Now he had to walk a thin line between getting her to open up to him and not
coming on too heavy. Fuck, he hated when things got complicated like this, but
real life was never easy.

Hefting the boys on his hips, he asked them, “Who can tell
me what Anya did wrong?”

She blanched and turned to reach for her glasses on the
kitchen table. Before she could put them on, Teddy reached out and grabbed the
tag on her shirt, pulling it. “Anya put her inside on her outside!”

Mark giggled and slid out of his arms. “Anya, you’re silly.
Your backside is on your front side.”

Giving the boys a relieved smile, she pulled out the neck of
her shirt and looked down. “I guess I did.” She straightened and held her
glasses so tight her knuckles turned white. “I’ll just leave you guys—”

“Actually, I was hoping you could stay and help me out.”

She chewed her bottom lip, moving quickly past him to pluck
Mark off the counter before he could grab an unbaked cookie off the sheet.
“With what, Mr. Shaw?”

“Call me Jesse.”

She froze, then cleared her throat. “I don’t know if that’s
appropriate.”

He laughed while Teddy slid out of his arms to join Mark at
the counter, the boys standing on stools and cutting out different cookie
shapes. “Anya, it’s fine. I promise I won’t fire you for using my name.
Besides, I need you to help me out today.”

She kept her back to him, a slight tremble running through
her shoulders as she rolled out the dough. Damn, he hadn’t meant to throw her
this off-balance. He needed to calm her down, but the only way to do that was
by making her get used to his presence.

He lowered his voice to a dramatic whisper. “I need to take
the boys to pick out a birthday present for their cousin, Neil.”

She paused in her rolling. “To a t-o-y-s-t-o-r-e?” He
nodded, then realized she couldn’t see him and came over to the island, putting
himself on the other side. “Yeah. I’m sure you understand why I don’t dare
attempt this alone. Usually my mom comes along, but she’s out on a hot date.”
He made a gagging sound.

Anya giggled but still wouldn’t look up at him. “Your mother
is in her fifties, not dead.”

“True, but I’d rather believe she has lived a chaste life
all these years.”

“Then how did you come along?”

“Immaculate conception.”

Now she did laugh, and it was her real, true laugh. The one
he pulled so easily from her at Wicked. Inappropriate thoughts to have around
his children flashed through his mind, and he quickly moved closer to the
island so she wouldn’t see the growing bulge in his pants. “I’m going to go
upstairs and wash up and change. Do you think you and the boys will be ready by
the time I get done?”

“Sure, these cookies need to chill before we bake them
anyways.” She gave him a shy glance. “We’ll be waiting for you.”

* * * *

The next day Jesse spent the afternoon with Anya and the
boys at the local park, and he was amazed anew at her energy and vibrancy. The
day after that, they took the boys to the Smithsonian, and the next spent at
home at the stables. A new foal had been born, and the boys thought the little
horse’s antics were the funniest things ever. His heart had melted a million
times over watching Anya explain the world to his boys, helping them navigate
its dangers without being overbearing or harsh. He knew part of her aptitude
with children came from having helped her own single father raise her brothers,
but most of it was just her.

She seemed to make the world brighter by being in it, and
keeping his cool was getting harder and harder. He knew she’d caught him
looking at her a couple of times with something more than friendship in his
gaze. He sure as shit had caught her staring at him with longing. He’d had to
wear his T-shirt untucked whenever he was around her, because everything about
her turned him on.

Now they were both tucking the boys into bed after spending
the day with them at an indoor arcade. Full of pizza and exhausted, for once,
Mark and Teddy went to bed without a complaint. The way they both hugged Anya
without reservation made him wish he could do the same. She wore her hair in a
long braid tonight, and it hung down over her shoulder, tickling Mark’s arm.

The boys blew him a kiss, and he told them good night,
shutting the door after Anya with a sigh.

“I need a drink.”

Anya giggled and slumped against the wall across from him.
“Thank God they wanted you to do that dance game with them and not me.”

He grimaced at the memory of her laughing until she cried as
he tried to emulate the dance moves his five-year-olds did with such ease.
Okay, so dancing might not be his thing, but he knew other ways of moving that
would blow her mind. Lust flared through him, catching as easily as gas-soaked
rags tossed into a bonfire. She was so close, all warm and soft. Fuck, he could
even smell her.

Her laughter died away, and she wet her lower lip with a
sweep of her tongue. He’d give anything to know what she was thinking right
now. Was she looking at him as a sleazy guy who hit on his nanny while he had
sex with another woman on the weekends, or was she seeing him as her Master?

She cleared her throat. “So, uh, want me to get you a drink?
You’re a vodka-tonic man, right?”

To his knowledge he’d never had her make a drink for him,
except for the vodka tonic she’d brought him at Wicked. The thought of kissing
the raspberry from between her plump lips had him gripping his hands into fists
to keep from grabbing her and tongue fucking her mouth until she told him the
truth.

But he couldn’t. She had to be honest with him. She had to
make that first move.

Please, God, let her make that first move.

Giving her a confused look, he nodded. “Yeah. How did you
know that?”

Scarlet flooded her cheeks, and she shrugged. “Your bar is
stocked with it downstairs, and you usually have a small glass after work.”

Disappointment twisted through his stomach, and he wished
just once she would trust him enough to admit her lies. “Well, I can’t exactly
order you to go get one, can I? I mean, you’re my nanny, not my slave.”

She stared at him, the whites of her eyes showing. “No, that
wouldn’t be proper.”

Brushing past her, wanting to shake her and tell her he knew
she was Dove, he smiled at her. “Probably not. You going to join me?”

Shaking her head, she backed away so fast she almost ran
into the small table against the wall in the hallway. “I want to, but…it’s
just…no, that’s not a good idea.”

Clenching his jaw, he nodded. “Okay. Good night, Anya. Thanks
for all the help these past few days. I can’t remember when I’ve seen my boys
so happy.”

She mumbled something and fled, leaving him with an aching
dick, an empty heart, and disappointment.

This shit had to stop.

Anya smiled at Sunny and adjusted the dress she’d altered
for her friend. “There. That looks much better.”

Sunny gave a weary sigh and nodded. “Thank you so much. I’ve
lost a bunch of weight recently, and my clothes are hanging off of me. Thing
is, I don’t want to lose it, but I have some kind of freakishly high
metabolism. It seems to have gone into overdrive lately.”

Looking closer, Anya noticed the circles beneath Sunny’s
eyes. “You look tired.”

“I am tired. School has been kicking my ass, and I’ve had
these awful stress headaches. Plus my mom… Well, let’s say she hasn’t been
making things easier.”

“I hear you on that one. Well, spring semester is almost
over, right?”

“Yes, thank God.” Sunny took a deep breath and grabbed her
makeup brush off the dressing room table. “You look very pretty tonight.”

Anya ran her hand over her flowing white dress, loving the
way it glimmered with her every breath. Two sheer gatherings of the iridescent
cloth attached to the bodice in the valley between her breasts, and the skirt
was short enough to show her cheeks if she bent over. “I hope Master Jesse
likes it.”

“I think you could wear a sack and he’d like it. That man is
gaga over you. I’ve never seen him show this much interest in anyone. Usually
it’s the submissives that are perusing him, not the other way around. Mark my
words. He’ll probably offer you his collar sooner than later.”

She flushed and fingered her hips where the bruises from his
big hands gripping her while he fucked her had almost faded away. “Yeah, well,
we’ll see.”

She didn’t want to reveal her secret to Sunny. Having the
other woman know what a slimeball she was being wouldn’t help anything other
than increasing her own self-loathing. Shoving her conflicted feelings away,
she stood and adjusted the strap of her top.

“Time to go. You ready?”

Sunny made a face in the mirror and dabbed at her crimson
lipstick. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

* * * *

It was the last fifteen minutes of her shift, and Jesse had
yet to appear. Her good mood had slowly sunk like a deflating balloon. Oh, the crowd
was as nice as ever, and she’d met a group of submissives who had been very
friendly and answered a lot of her questions, but she missed him. Without Jesse
watching over her, she felt vulnerable. Everything wasn’t quite as fun as it
had been when he was here. After spending so much time with him this week, she
was in danger of falling head over heels with him. In fact, she already liked
him way more than she should. Enough that she considered telling him the truth,
and enough that she couldn’t take it if she did and he hated her.

A Mistress thanked her for the drink, and Anya curtseyed,
having learned the woman liked it and would tip better if she did. She filled
her last drink order and wandered back to the bar. Sunny gave her a strained
smile while rubbing her temples. “Shit, I thought this night would never end.”