How To Wife Your Nanny A Billionaire Single Dad Romantic Comedy- Melinda Minx Page 0,27

For how big and spacious the rooms were, the door narrowed into this tiny little corridor that barely had room for two people. We were suddenly so close to each other, and the ceiling even got low enough that Noah had to take care not to bump his head.

“She goes to bed at 7:30,” he said. “She’ll fight you on that.”

I nodded. “Does that mean she doesn’t—”

“You get her ready and into bed by 7:30, but she won’t be down until 8:00. It’s a battle. You’ve gotta win the battle tonight though. Beat her bloody so she respects you. If you let her squeeze out another fifteen minutes tonight, you’ll never get those fifteen minutes back.”

“I got it.”

We were staring at each other now. It felt like so many unsaid things hung in the air between us. He couldn’t take his eyes off my body. He was barely even trying to hide it anymore. For my part, I wanted nothing more than to just fall into him and rest my head against his chest. To tug at the buttons on his crisp white shirt and feel his bare chest. To bask in his warmth and smell his masculine scent wrapped all around me.

Instead, we just stood there and stared at each other like two dopey 7th graders in a bowling alley.

“You, uh,” he said, “you do look nice.”

“Thank you. You do too.”

“Sorry,” he said. “That was inappropriate for me to say, since I’m your boss.”

I bit my lip. I didn’t want to tell him that I liked it, but I didn’t want to agree with him that it was inappropriate, because I didn’t want to scare him off from saying something like that to me again. My heart was pounding just from hearing him say it. The skin on my ear tingled. I could still remember vividly how it felt that first time he touched me. I reached up and rubbed at my ear. I hit the earring a little bit so it jangled. I knew I was being stupid. I was intentionally trying to get him to think about our first meeting, and to think about the way he’d touched me.

“Those are the earrings you wore the first time we met,” he said.

Fuck. Why did he have to point that out? I was trying to be subtle.

I smiled and nodded. “Oh, are they?”

“You just happened to wear that pair? Of all the pairs you own?”

“First of all, I’m poor. I don’t own a closetful of earrings. Second of all, it’s total coincidence. I had them with me when you texted me. I didn’t even have time to go home and get my stuff, remember?”

“Why did you reach up and touch the earring just now?” he asked, leaning dangerously close to me.

I could see each individual grain of stubble on his chiseled jaw now. I could smell him overpowering me in that tiny little corridor. I wanted so bad to just reach out and touch him, but the pesky million-dollar contract suddenly felt thick between us. I couldn’t touch him. I needed to fight this.

I backed up, even though I only had about an inch and a half behind me before my back pressed against the wall.

“You wore that dress knowing you were just going to be with Naomi all night,” he said, smirking. He leaned a bit closer, making me lose the tiny bit of space I’d just gained.

“I just picked out at random from the suitcase,” I lied.

“And that makeup just exploded out onto your face too? I’ve never seen you wear any makeup.”

“You’ve only seen me twice. You barely know me, Mr. Black.”

“I think I know you well enough, Miss Lacey Larsen. And what did I tell you about these earrings?”

“Huh?”

He reached up and put a hand on my shoulder. The fabric of the minidress covered most of my shoulder, but his thumb pressed against my bare skin, where my shoulder met my neck. With his other hand, he reached toward my ear. He touched me again, just like the first time we met, and he slowly worked at the earring. He leaned in closer to me as he worked. I tried to hold my breath, but my heart was racing, and when I finally took a breath, it came out hot and heavy, right on his cheek.

He looked up at me as soon as my breath hit him, and his eyes told me that he knew. He knew exactly what he was doing to me, and