This, while exciting, thrilling, even arousing, was wrong. Very wrong. Knowing that, she got to her feet as gracefully as she could, which wasnt very, and backed away. I have to go.
His arms and chest and belly flexed as he pulled himself out of the pool. He wore dark blue swim trunks that fit him like a second skin, molding his contours, hisshape in a way that made cohesive thought a distant memory. It didnt chime midnight, he said, teasing in the face of the panic he couldnt possibly understand. And anyway, running will do you little good. I know where you live.
But he didnt, really. He couldnt. She needed to be in her room with the door locked. She needed to pull off the itchy wig, needed to dump the glasses and contact lenses, needed to haul off the too many layers of clothes and give herself a good hard look in the mirror to remind herself who she really was.
Princess Carlyne Fortier. On vacation from her life. On a mission to find herself.
Im sorry, she whispered and, grabbing her boots, turned and ran.
Unlike Cinderella, she didnt leave anything behind.
SEAN WOKE AT DAWN to find Melissa sprawled across his feet like an orphaned puppy, fast asleep.
So were his legs.
It was like a bad nightmare. He couldnt escape her. For a moment he lay there and debated with his conscience. Now that hed checked out Carlys references and shed been approved by both himself and Melissa, he wanted to get to his office. But he could only imagine the fit Melissa would pitch when she woke up and found him gone, even with Carly just down the hall.
He showered and dressed, making as much noise as possible, but when he was ready for work, Melissa was still asleep, totally at home, smack in the center of his bed with his pillow and all the blankets.
A bed hog in the making.
With a sigh, he scooped her up and headed down the hall. In front of Carlys door, he shifted the dead weight in his arms and knocked.
Melissa stirred and snaked her arms around his neck. Back to bed, she commanded gruffly.
Im going to work, he said, awkwardly patting her back. Im bringing you to Carly. Carly? he called through the door.
Uh Just a second. Her voice was oddly frantic. There was lots of rustling, and then athud? Coming!
Finally, she opened the door. She had her thick makeup on. Her glasses were askew on her nose, and her hair looked as if it had exploded around her head during the night.
She looked rushed, unnerved andoddly adorable.
But definitely not thrilled to see him.
Ive got to get to my office, he said. And Melissa here just woke up, so-
Without a word, she took Melissa.
Ill be back tonight-
The bedroom door shut in his face.
Okay then, he said to no one. Bye. Feeling more relieved than he should, he made his escape and headed to his car. Driving to his office for the first time since his sister had dumped Melissa on him.
He felt a twinge of guilt thinking of Melissa that way, as if she was an unwanted piece of luggage, but work waswell, his life. And it felt good to get back to it.
The first person he saw was Nikki, his secretary. Hi, honey, Im home, he said, skipping into his office. Feeling great. Feeling alone and loving it.
Nikki glared at him, which assured him that everything was, indeed, back to normal.
By noon, hed dug himself out of the piles of work on his desk. He made a note to raise Carlys salary for saving his life. He met with clients without having to excuse himself to help one little four-year-old in the bathroom, and he vowed to also give Carly a big, fat hug to go along with her big, fat raise.
And when he clinched the deal with Sam, finally, after working on the plans forever, he decided Carly should have a kiss to go with that hug.
A friendly kiss, of course. Just a little thank-you-for-saving-my-life kiss.
And it had nothing to do with the fact shed given him a peek at her panties. Much.
It had been an inadvertent peek, sure, but hed enjoyed it all the same. From his vantage point in the pool, hed gotten a front-and-center view of her plain white bikini panties, cut high on the thigh, with enough material to cover her mound, but that material had been rather sheer. It had been dark, too dark to tell, but hed imagined them wet.
It had made him hard then.
Hell, he was hard now. All those layers of clothes, hiding the best set of legs on this side of the Rockies. Not to mention what lay above those legs.
Why did she hide herself behind thick makeup and horrible glasses? And all those clothes? He wished he knew.
No. No, he didnt. That would mean he was thinking of getting involved, and he wasnt. What his nanny thought or did was none of his business, as long as she took good care of Melissa and left him out of it.
Way out of it.
Invigorated by this reinforced decision, he engrossed himself in work and was deeply involved with a new design when there came a light rap at his door.
And then another.
And another.
A continuing series of knocks, never letting up.
Nikki wouldnt dare do that, nor would anyone in the building, which made Sean groan, because he only knew one person, one little person, one little nightmare person, whod start knocking like that and not stop.
Melissa.
From the other side of the door came Carlys voice. Stop. Im sure he heard you.
I heard you, all right, he said after hed opened the door, torn between irritation at the interruption and a surge of pleasure he didnt want to analyze.
Carly stood there, huge glasses covering most of her face, her clothes baggy and shapeless as usual. Hi.
White panties, came the unbidden thought. Wet white panties. He wished like hell he could get them out of his head.
She held Melissa, who wriggled and wriggled until she was set free.
Uncle Sean! Beaming from ear to ear, Melissa threw herself at him, flung herself in the air, leaving him no choice but to catch her before she hurt herself. I missed you!
Suffering her exuberant and very wet kiss, he glanced at Carly. He had a million things to do, but his nanny had a look he distinctly recognized.
High-level stress.
Come home with us now, Melissa demanded, cupping his face in her little hands, forcing him to stop looking at Carly and to look directly at her. I want you to be with us.
I cant. I have work. Work was good. Work was great. Work was what he wanted.
Carly smiled apologetically. The neat woman from her interview yesterday was gone. Her hair looked ravaged. Her clothes were wrinkled. And she seemed to be wearing a good part of Melissas lunch. But most curious, was her barely subdued sense ofpanic?
Everything okay? he asked.
Yes. Im sorry. Carly looked embarrassed. We had a long day and-
We burned the toast, Melissa announced, helping herself to the jar of chocolate kisses on his desk.
Breakfast, Carly murmured. Didnt come out too good.
Neither did lunch, Melissa added.
We didnt burn it, at least. Carly gave a tight smile. The cake collapsed, thats all.
Yep. Calaps, Melissa told him, pleased to be in the know. But dont worry, we had clean-up time. And then we made play dough from itch.
Scratch, Carly corrected.
Scratch. It stuck to the pot. Set off the fire alarm. Melissa sent Sean a chocolately smile. Mrs. T called the fire department, and two big trucks came! So then we drove here. She grinned and spread chocolate on some of his papers. Carly said we could.
Quite the day, Sean murmured to Carly, who bit her lower lip and pressed her thick-rimmed glasses to her face.
Yes, she agreed. Its been a long one.
He might have commented further but caught sight of Melissa climbing on his desk. Try to keep those chocolate fingers off the plans, okay?
Okay! But she had to lean over them to grab more of the kisses, which meant at least two more handprints.
Sean gritted his teeth and rolled the plans up.
I hope you dont mind us showing up, Carly said as Nikki came into the room to offer drinks. But
But she was exhausted, that was clear. Sean took pity, because he knew better than anyone the kind of exhaustion Melissa could provoke. Hed been living it for days before Carly had showed up to save his life.
But he did have to wonder at his supposedly experienced nanny. She had a résumé and references he had checked out, yet she wasnt acting so experienced.
Still there were those huge blue eyes of hers, magnified by those glasses. Its okay, he heard himself saying. I dont mind visitors.
Nikki stopped short of opening a soda and gaped at him. Since when?
I could use a break, he said raising his eyebrows in such a way as to tell his nosy assistant he was trying to spare Carlys feelings.
You hate breaks, Nikki said.
At Seans glare, she rolled her eyes and vanished.
Sean? You sure? asked Carly.
No, he wasnt sure at all, but she looked sodesperate. And that little doubt came back, just a little niggle of it, but it was enough to disturb him.
Who was she, really?
Very uneasy that maybe she hadnt been completely honest with him, he took a big mental step back. His ex hadnt been honest, and that had nearly destroyed him. Now he had Melissa to think about, though what else could he do? He had very carefully and thoroughly checked Carlys references.
It had to be his attraction to her that bothered him.
Uh-oh, Melissa said suddenly from the corner. Shed punched too many buttons on the fax machine, and paper started spitting out of it.
While he and Carly went closer, Melissa backed away. She fed Seans discarded sandwich to the computer through its disk drive.
It started to smoke.
The fire alarm went off.
Not again! cried Melissa, covering her ears.
Dammit! Sean roared brilliantly.
Nikki came racing in, took one look at the disaster zone and brought her hands to her mouth to cover her shocked laugh.
I can fix it, Carly assured them, fanning air in front of the smoke detector until it stopped. Then she bent to the disk drive, which was making a funny noise.
Melissas bottom lip continued to quiver. Then she opened her mouth and let out a sharp, earsplitting wail.
Sean struggled with his temper, overcome with the urge to strangle his sister for putting him in this position in the first place. Melissa belonged with her mother, not with him.
And then there was his nanny, who at this very moment was bent over his computer, glasses slipping down her nose, her huge sweater nearly falling off her creamy shoulders as she worked on his computer.