Michelle glanced at the pale freckled hand against her darker one. Mrs. Hayes had known her from the moment she was pulled from her mother’s womb. The woman knew her, maybe better than she knew herself. “Okay means I’m not doing as well as I should be. I finished college, landed a great job, but lost it due to the failing economy. I haven’t been able to find another one. I’ve been temping ever since.”
“Oh dear,” Mrs. Hayes mumbled, patting her hand. “What kind of job are you looking for?”
“I’m trained in Human Resources, but anything permanent would do. What?” she added, eying her friend with hope. “Do you know somebody who’s hiring? You used to have a lot of clout back in the day when you operated your cleaning business. You got a lot of kids in our neighborhood summer jobs with some of the most prominent companies in Manchester. Some of them still work for those companies.”
Mrs. Hayes shook her head sadly. “I’m afraid I’ve lost my clout, my dear. With takeovers, sellouts, buyouts, and the likes, I don’t know who owns what anymore.”
Michelle tried to smile through her disappointment. She should know better than to hope. Hope had ceased being her friend since that fateful night, two years ago. Or maybe she’d never met Hope. After all, her mother had died giving birth to her. Seems like she’d been cursed since the day she was born.
“Cheer up, my child,” Mrs. Hayes said, placing her hand against Michelle’s cheek. “The Lord isn’t done with you. Maybe He hasn’t even begun working on you, yet. Who knows?”
CHAPTER ONE
One month later:
Erik frowned as a young woman hopped out of the cab that had just pulled into his driveway. His frown deepened when she hauled a suitcase out behind her, raised her hand to shade her eyes against the noonday sun, and gazed speculatively up at his house.
“They have got to be kidding me,” he muttered. He’d distinctly requested an older woman—no younger than fifty, who had experience taking care of young children.
Someone from the agency had called to say that the scheduled candidate had canceled due to a family emergency, and that a Michelle Carter would be coming instead. Was it okay if she brought her credentials with her?
Although the agencies conducted investigations, Erik ran his own background checks before interviewing potential employees. He could never be too careful when it came to the welfare of his only child. Today, he’d trusted Ready Nanny Agency because there was no time to check, and look what they sent him—a girl barely out of her teens.
Her hair was cut too short for a woman. She was too skinny and too tall. Her jeans were fitted too tightly, and the seductive sway of her narrow hips was unequivocally too provocative. Despite his objections, and the fact that he handled women’s naked bodies on a daily basis, Erik felt a poignant stir in his loins.#p#分页标题#e#
After ten years as a gynecologist, he’d learned to channel his sexual energy elsewhere when he walked into an examination room to see a patient. It was all professional. The woman walking up his driveway wasn’t his patient, and the images running through his head were anything but professional. They involved tangled sheets, soft sighs, harsh moans, musky odor rising from damp smooth skin...
Shaking the libidinous thoughts from his head, Erik tightened his jaws and moved away from the window. He’d been without a woman for too long. Yes, that was definitely his problem. It had been two years since his wife’s death, and since that fateful night, he hadn’t looked at any woman twice, much less bedded one.
At the chime of the doorbell, Erik stepped into the hallway and caught up with his housekeeper. “Mrs. Hayes, tell the young lady that I was called to the hospital, and—um—that I will contact the agency with a new date for an interview.”
“Yes, Doctor.” Mrs. Hayes threw him a speculative stare at the blatant lie.
Erik marched down the hall to his study. He closed the door, dropped into the chair behind his desk, and stared at the painting of his wife hanging above the fireplace.
As usual, he tried to shift his sexual interest in other women to memories of lovemaking with her, but as hard as he tried, there was no shifting for him today. As he stared into his wife’s brown eyes, the only images Erik saw were those of the young girl sashaying up his driveway.
“Come in,” he responded to the knock on the door. “Is she gone?” he asked when it opened behind him.
“No. She isn’t gone. She’s still here.”
Erik swiveled around at the sultry voice. His heart did a triple take, and lust like he’d never experienced crawled through his belly and settled into his groin. At a loss for words, he took a hard, close-up look at the one hundred and thirty pounds of temptation heading his way.