Alessandro and the Cheery Nanny

‘The best of both worlds?’

She shrugged. ‘I like to temper the Ernie days with the Julian days. Both workplaces let me have permanent shifts. No weekends, no night duty. Two days at St Auburn’s gives me my hospital hit, keeps my hand in, let’s me know I’m alive. Three days at the crèche restores my sanity. It keeps me Zen.’

Alessandro considered her statement. How many years had it been since he’d felt Zen? Definitely not for the last five years at least. Definitely not with her keeping him constantly off balance. ‘Do you have child-care qualifications too?’

She narrowed her eyes. Why did this suddenly feel like a job interview? ‘I’ve done my certificate and have a child health qualification.’ She cracked open the lid on her can of soft drink and eyed him over the top as she brought it to her mouth and took a swallow. ‘Why?’

Alessandro noticed the sheen to her lips and the way her tongue slid between them, lapping at the lingering moisture. He wondered what guava-and-mango-flavoured Nat tasted like.

Inferno! Concentrate, damn it!

He cleared his throat. ‘I think I have a solution to your eviction situation.’

Nat felt his gaze on her mouth as if he had actually pressed his lips to hers. Her eyes dropped of their own volition to inspect his. They were generous, soft. Lips made for kissing, made for whispering.

‘Oh, yes?’ she said cautiously, dragging her attention back to his eyes. Eyes that told her he knew exactly where hers had been.

‘You can stay with me.’ He watched her pupils dilate and her glance encompass his mouth once again. ‘And Julian.’

The canteen noises around them faded as his suggestion stunned her. Live under his roof? A man who, fully clothed, grim faced and utterly inaccessible, made her heart flutter like an epileptic butterfly? What the hell could he do to her in his own place, where the pretence of professionalism didn’t exist? Where he’d be all relaxed and homey and…wearing less. What did he wear to bed? She had the feeling he’d be a nothing kind of guy.

‘Just until you’re unit is built, of course.’

Nat blinked as her mind shied away from images of Alessandro in bed. Naked. ‘But…why? I barely know you.’

Alessandro shrugged. ‘I have the room, you need a place. And you’d be doing me a favour, helping with Julian. I haven’t been able to find a suitable live-in nanny and Julian adores you.’

She frowned. ‘You want me to be a…nanny? I already have a job. Two, actually. Which, by the way, I love.’

Alessandro shook his head. ‘No. I don’t expect you to give up your jobs. Julian can still go to the crèche but he could go and come home with you, which means he wouldn’t have such long days there. And he wouldn’t have to go on weekends and when I’m called in at night.’

Nat listened to his plan, which sounded very reasonable. So why did it seem so…illicit?

‘I’d pay you, of course. And it would be rent free.’

Of course. Nat reeled, her brain scrambling to take in his offer. She looked at him all big and dark and handsome and completely macho Italian with the added grimness that made him heart-breakingly attractive. She didn’t know much right at this second but she did know saying yes to Alessandro Lombardi was a very stupid idea.

‘No.’

Alessandro’s brows drew together. ‘You’ve had another offer?’

Nat contemplated lying. But it really wasn’t her way. Already her cheeks were growing warm just formulating a falsehood. ‘No.’

He shrugged. ‘Then it’s settled.’

Nat looked at the haughty set to his jaw and bristled at his arrogant assumptions. ‘No.’

‘I don’t understand. What’s the problem?’

The problem was that Alessandro Lombardi was a very attractive man. The mere thought of sharing a living space with him was breathtakingly intimate and already her pulse raced at the thought. She knew enough about herself to know she had a soft heart. And he was still in love with his dead wife. And she wasn’t stupid enough to get herself embroiled in that kind of scenario again.

‘Ah,’ he said as she averted her eyes from him. ‘You worry about what people will think? You have my word I have no ulterior motive. I have no…’ He searched for the right word, looking her up and down with as much dispassion as he could muster. ‘Agenda. Your virtue is safe with me.’

Because it was. His attraction was just physical, a combination of libido and abstinence. Easily tamed.

Nat felt his gaze rake her from head to toe and obviously found her wanting. She felt about as attractive as a bug. One of the really ugly ones. It wasn’t something she was used to. ‘Gossip does not bother me.’

‘Then what?’

She stared at him exasperated. The man was obviously not used to hearing no. ‘I don’t have to account to you, Alessandro,’ she said testily, placing her packaging back on her tray and rising. She wished she had any other reason for turning him down other than his irresistible sex appeal.

But she had nothing. ‘I’m sure you’re quite unused to hearing the word no. I’m sure you just snap your fingers and women fall all over themselves to do your bidding. But I’m not one of them. The answer is no. Just plain no. No equivocations, no justifications. Just no. Get used to it.’

Alessandro couldn’t believe what he was hearing. She was right, once upon a time he had been a finger snapper but that had all ended with Camilla. She turned to leave and he reached across, grabbing her arm. ‘Wait. I’m sorry, Nathalie, I didn’t mean to be so…’

Nat shivered. She didn’t know if it was from his touch or the way her name sighed from his lips like a caress. She turned back. He seemed so perplexed and she felt her anger dissipate as quickly as it had risen. ‘Italian?’