Bad Nanny (The Bad Nanny Trilogy #1)(37)

“Me? Oh. No.” She waves her hand in my direction. “Zayden has other kids he watches. He's … kind of staying here for the week to help me out.” When she looks at me, she smiles and the expression is genuine as fuck. Screw Rob, that dickhead. This is totally worth it, my good deed of the year or whatever. Lord knows I'm kind of a selfish fuck. Maybe I owe the universe this?

“Ah, cool, cool.” Dude looks back at me and I meet his dark gaze. Silent man communications are sent. He's digging Brooke; I'm telling him to eat shit. I let my smile simmer wide and hot and when Brooke isn't looking, I flip the guy off. He gapes at me as I turn back to Sadie and lift up a spoonful of applesauce.

Brooke can do whatever she wants with this douche when I head back to Vegas, but this week … this chick is so mine.





“Don't think I didn't see what you were doing in there,” I say as I close the door behind Dan and lean against it, watching Zayden as he pauses in the middle of the living room, wearing a t-shirt that says I Would Pierce the Fuck Outta You. I don't quite get it, but okay. “Trying to scare that guy off. You're not very subtle, you know.”

He lifts up his hands, palms out, and flashes me the tattoos that start at his wrists and go all the way down to his elbows and beyond.

“Nah. Subtle isn't exactly my cup of tea, Miss Overland. I didn't like that guy. Did you see his ink? It was some fake tribal shit he probably got off of the internet.” I raise my brows and stand up, pausing near the back of the couch to pet Hubert. God, this is an ugly cat. But, at the same time … it's a little bit cute. Not at all like Dodger. I pause and listen to the chorus of yaps coming from the backyard. Hopefully we don't get any noise complaints. That'd really get me to the end of my rope.

“He's just a study partner. I met the guy like three days ago.”

Zayden shrugs his sexy shoulders at me.

“So?” He grins at me. “You also met me three days ago.” I purse my lips at him and give the hairless cat a scratch near the base of his tail. His sweater today is red with a black guitar on the back. It's the dumbest thing I've ever seen in my life.

“Five. And I don't exactly make a habit of sleeping around. Virgin, remember.”

“Um, not a virgin anymore,” Zay says with a massive grin that I pretend I don't find at all charming. The thing is, he's super charming. Crazy charismatic. It scares me a little to be honest. I almost wish he was more of a dick. “Anyway, that guy has ulterior motives. Big time. I can smell it.”

“Like you don't?” I ask with a laugh as Zay moves around the couch and gets up close and personal with me. I'm not even sure he realizes he does that, gets up in other people's personal space like that.

“I never tried to pretend I didn't. See, that's the difference between that guy and me. I'm telling you exactly what it is that I want.”

“Which is?”

“Well, of course, it's you, Smarty-Pants.”

I take a step back, but Zay follows me in, pausing for a moment as the baby gurgles and then sighs softly in sleep. My heart is pumping furiously, my body tingling as I feel the warmth rolling off of him. I can still remember the way it draped across me, that heat, that hard hot body. I suck in a breath.

“I thought you said this was a casual, no strings attached sort of a deal?” Zay grins and brushes some hair away from my face with his tattooed hand.

“It is. Look, this is a perfect arrangement, don't you think? You can experiment with me, get all those virgin mistakes out of the way early on, and then in a week and a half, I'll be gone. Boom. Back to Vegas, baby. No worries at all, no awkwardness, no crossing paths.”

I narrow my eyes at him, but inside, I'm going completely crazy. I can feel butterflies and tingles and this weird sort of buzzing that I've never felt before. I guess I'm having some kind of … sexual awakening or something. I feel hot and squirmy with need. I'm aware it's all basic human chemistry and hormones and pheromones and all of that … but damn.

“You're offering to … teach me or something?”

Zay snaps his fingers and leans in close, the piercings on his face winking at me in the weak sunshine.

“Yeah, sure, why not? What do you have to lose?”

I look up at him, at this stranger that I let into my sister's house, that I let take care of her kids … that I let take me to bed. Why do I feel like I can trust this guy? I'm not stupid. I'm completely and utterly aware that I don't know this man at all, but God, I want to say yes. I want to stop being the Brooke that does everything right all the time, but that no one notices.

My sister, Ingrid, was always one step ahead of me. If I got an A in chemistry then she got an A+ in AP chem; if I got an after-school job, she had two; if I made the team, she was the captain. But now, here I am, trying to pick up the pieces of her mess. I feel like a background, a side character, a pawn on a chessboard.