Millionaire Dad, Nanny Needed!

Telling herself she was simply hypersensitive to him because she’d had a crush on him for so long, she said, “It’s like this.” She displayed the diaper’s two sticky tabs. “These two tabs go at the back.” Holding Joshua’s ankles in one hand, she slid the diaper beneath his bottom with the other. “You slide the diaper under him like this, and then pull the front part up to cover him. Then open the sticky tabs on the side and pinch, pinch—” She pressed the tabs into place on the front. “And voilà, you’re done.”

Dominic leaned in, as if examining the diaper, but his upper arm brushed against her as he did. Her breathing shimmied in her chest. All her muscles tightened. She desperately wanted to shiver, but fought it.

“Looks simple enough.”

He pulled back, his arm sliding against her again, setting off the same chain reaction he’d ignited when he’d leaned in. Except this time she couldn’t stop the shiver.

He smiled at her. “Cold?”

“No.” Because her voice came out like a breathless whisper, she cleared her throat. “No.”

Reaching for the T-shirt she’d laid out for Joshua, Dominic jutted his chin in her direction. “Do you own pajamas?”

All right. Now she could officially be embarrassed about her sleepwear. “No.”

“You look like you belong in a college dorm.”

She laughed. “Probably, since these things are leftovers from my dorm days.”

A few seconds went by in silence. Glad the topic of her sleepwear had died, Audra took a sip of coffee as she watched Dominic carefully pull the T-shirt over Joshua’s head. He might not have done this before, but he obviously understood he had to be gentle with small bones and soft arms.

“I see you as a pink lace kind of girl.”

She nearly spit out her coffee. “What?”

“Pink lace. You’re not the red or black satin pajama type. You’re more pink.”

She gaped at him.

“Oh, okay. Maybe lace is too scratchy?” He looked back at her with a grin. “How about pink satin?”

He seemed so darned interested in her potential taste in pajamas that Audra’s heart hammered. He could simply be talking about the first thing that came to his mind to give them a distraction while they performed simple tasks with the baby. But when he’d said pink lace, she’d seen a sexy little teddy and she’d bet her last dollar he had too. She sucked in a breath. She knew he was teasing, but what if he wasn’t? Seriously. What would she do if he was genuinely interested in her?

The answer came quickly. Easily. She would do nothing. Getting left at the altar once by a guy just like him was plenty. She didn’t want to go through that a second time. Plus, he should be focused on the baby, not her.

“Since Joshua’s our top priority, I can’t think of a reason in the world why we’d need to be discussing my sleepwear.”

He laughed. “Come on, Audra. I’m just trying to lighten the mood.”

Feeling like a shrew she said, “All right.”

He peeked askance at her. “But you have to admit we do have a bit of chemistry.”

“Unfortunately.”

“Oh, that’s right. I forgot that you lump me in with your ex.”

Not about to argue that, Audra said nothing. Dominic finished dressing Joshua, lifted him from the table and handed him to Audra.

“But I still think you’re missing out.” He touched the tip of his finger to her nose and then headed for the door. “I have a few things to do today. I might not be back.”

Audra stared at the door. Her lungs had frozen. Her head was spinning. He could reduce her to a puddle just talking about the fact that they had chemistry.

And once again he was gone.

CHAPTER FIVE

ON MONDAY morning Audra left Joshua in the capable hands of her mother and the staff, drove down the tree-lined lane of the Manelli estate and headed for the bank. Her functional black leather purse contained a check for fifty thousand dollars paper-clipped to a deposit ticket—the first half of the money to save Julie’s wedding.

Or not.

Right now she wasn’t sure what she should do.

She hadn’t seen Dominic since he’d left her and Joshua on Sunday morning. She knew he had been around the house, mostly in his office, but he’d never returned to the nursery, not even to check up on Joshua. On Sunday night she’d heard through the staff grapevine that he’d gone out with friends.

Because he trusted her…so much that he didn’t feel the need to peek in on Joshua to see if he was okay, and that wasn’t good for Joshua. If she put this check in the bank and stayed on as Joshua’s nanny, she ran the risk that Dominic wouldn’t spend enough time with the baby. On the other hand, every time he came into the nursery, he reduced her to a quivering mass of attraction.