Bad Nanny (The Bad Nanny Trilogy #1)(52)

I blink stupidly a few times and lift my hands to my hair, pulling it all away from my back so I can lean against the car's seat without it yanking my scalp off.

“Sure.” Now that she's mentioned Dan, I'm thinking about Zayden's words. My claim on you. Claim? What claim? That's just stupid guy talk, and I hate it. I won't listen to it. “Why?”

“Because he's my ex, and I just wanted you to know that he sleeps with anybody he can get his hands on.” A pause as the girl steps back in her tight black jeans and tank top. “Anybody. Basically, he's a slut.”

I raise my eyebrows.

“Right. Okay. I wasn't planning on sleeping with the guy, but thanks for the heads-up.”

“No problem,” she says as she takes another step back and watches as I climb into the car and shut the door. I turn on some metal music and let the angry sounds wash over me. Something about all that chaos keeps me calm in a way Zayden's pop music never could.

I push my glasses up my nose and buckle myself in, pulling out of the space and noticing as I do that the blue-haired girl is watching me and smiling. Huh. Doubt I'll ever see her again, but still, that was weird, wasn't it? Totally weird.

I head home and pull into the driveway next to Zay's minivan, straightening out the boring gray tank I wore to class, wishing I'd taken the time to put on makeup before I'd left.

“Not that it really matters,” I mutter under my breath, running my fingers through my hair before I climb out and head inside, opening the door to blaring Eminem/Rihanna as I move into the kitchen and cross my arms over my chest. Zayden's rapping to the baby in her high chair as she bounces and laughs at him.

When he sees me, he winks and starts singing Rihanna's portion of the song, completely unashamed of how stupid he looks.

I seriously cannot fight that smile.

“Sing it with me, Smarty-Pants,” he says as he spins in a theatrical circle on the soles of his knee-high Converse. They're black and white, covered in straps studded with bits of metal. They look … devastatingly sexy with his black skinny jeans and his red tank. When he puts his hands together in a prayer position and gestures at me with them, I feel a warm heat between my thighs. “Come on, baby. Let's do this thing.”

He reaches out as Eminem spins his melodic rap, taking my hand and spinning me in a circle this time, wrapping his arm around my waist and turning me around the kitchen as Sadie giggles and screams in joy, bouncing in her seat.

When Rihanna starts singing again, Zay puts his lips against my ear and whispers the lyrics with his warm breath tickling my throat. I swear, I can still feel his hands there, pressing gently against the sides of my neck and face. Chills skitter through me as the song peters off and I take a step back, thighs bumping into the small round table that sits in the center of the kitchen.

When a silly pop song starts pinging in the room, I curl my fingers around the wood and watch Zayden as he whisks a bowl of cereal from the counter and puts it in front of Sadie, still doing a stupid little jig that's really not all that stupid in that outfit with those tattoos.

Hmm.

His hair is spiked up on the one side, the stars freshly shaved back into place. With the slight layer of stubble around his soft mouth, the piercings on his lips and nose, his eyebrow … I'm deep in lust before I can stop myself from feeling that way.

“Look at that,” he says as Sadie picks up the puffy bits of cereal with clumsy hands and shoves them in her mouth. “She's got this all figured out.”

“Glad to see you're enjoying yourself,” I say as I force myself to stand up straight and shove some hair back from my face. “For somebody's who's barely taken care of a child in his life, you're kind of good at it.”

Those white teeth flash at me in a grin.

“Right? Maybe I should quit piercing and become a full-time nanny? How do you like them apples? Because they taste nice and juicy to me.” Zay slaps his hands together and even though I have no clue what he's talking about, I smile anyway. But then he looks over at me, really looks at me and I start thinking about the feel of his hands gripping my ass, the spicy scent of sweat, the heat of his breath against my skin as he came. “You know what else looks nice and juicy right now?”

“That better not be a reference to me,” I say as Zay smiles and I point at the baby. “There's a kid in here.”

“So?” Zay looks down at Sadie. “Don't you think Brooke looks smoking hot today?” Sadie gurgles and pats the cereal in her high chair tray. Zayden looks back up at me. “She agrees, so if she agrees and I agree, then it's pretty much an unarguable point.”

“I haven't forgotten about that whole claim line you laid on me this morning. In fact, the more I think about, the more it annoys me. Has anyone ever told you that? That you're annoying?”