A Nanny Named Nick

A Nanny Named Nick
Miranda Lee

NANNY WANTED Single mom seeks experienced live-in carer for baby boy. Immediate start. Fly-by-nights need not apply. Nick Joseph was every woman's fantasy: darkly handsome and great with kids. Linda just couldn't say no when he offered his services as temporary nanny to her baby boy. Soon she was as attached to Nick as little Rory was.But Nick had made it clear he was not a marrying kind of man, so how could Linda tell him that she wanted him to look after her , and not just Rory, permanently? What's more, how would Nick react when he learned that he was caring for his own son?NANNY WANTED! They need a nanny - and look what they get!

Excerpt (#u1b924d2f-b098-5bfc-908e-db724a8b91e0)Letter to Reader (#u7b50873b-8bbe-5e3a-9137-d4815a64822e)Title Page (#u0e4b61ab-57ba-5a90-a82d-993257831120)CHAPTER ONE (#u4de42e8e-8e5c-566f-aa72-cabb9d0f59a7)CHAPTER TWO (#ub5d7506c-81e5-5c29-afd1-7ac3754e6640)CHAPTER THREE (#u1ac6ab04-3c6b-5479-a091-0d5a3fe6ffe8)CHAPTER FOUR (#u33735c88-a2eb-529a-b797-7853463164de)CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

“You need a nanny for Rory. I’d like to apply for the job. ”

Linda didn’t know what to say. She would not have been human if she weren’t tempted. It would be every woman’s fantasy come true to have a man like Nick to come home to every night. But only the very naive would simply accept his proposition at face value.

“Have you returned for a job minding Rory, or to worm your way back into my bed?”

Dear Reader,

A perfect nanny can be tough to find, but once you’ve found her, you’ll love and treasure her forever. She’s someone who’ll not only look after the kids, but who could also be that loving mom they never knew. Or, sometimes, she’s a he and is the daddy they aspire to.

Here at Harlequin Presents, we’ve put together a compelling new series—NANNY WANTED!—in which some of our most popular authors create nannies whose talents extend way beyond taking care of the children! Each story will excite and delight you and make you wonder how any family could be complete without a nineties nanny.

Remember—Nanny knows best when it comes to falling in love!

The Editors

A Nanny Named Nick

Miranda Lee

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

CHAPTER ONE

FROM the street outside came the low rumble of a motorbike as it burbled into the kerb. Thirty seconds later, the bike’s owner appeared in the bar doorway, his tall, broad-shouldered silhouette momentarily blocking out the noonday sun.

Dave glanced up from where he was sitting alone at a table, cradling a schooner of beer. His eyes widened as recognition struck.

Good Lord. Nick! Nick was back from wherever it was he’d disappeared to nearly eighteen months before.

Dave wasn’t sure if he was pleased or not. He liked Nick. A lot. He enjoyed his company more than that of any man he’d ever met. But there had been a measure of relief in having his nephew’s biological father vanish off the face of the map.

Dave had known right from the start that he should not have allowed Linda to coerce him into finding her a suitable sperm donor for the baby she’d suddenly been determined to have.

But he’d been afraid that if he didn’t do what she wanted his headstrong kid sister would simply go off and sleep with someone highly unsuitable.

Her long-term live-in lover had just been tragically killed while on a photographic assignment in Cambodia, and Linda had decided to fill the great hole in her heart and her life by having the baby that Gordon had always promised her but never delivered.

Not just any old baby, of course. She’d wanted her child to inherit the sort of genes that Gordon would have passed on if he’d lived. Consequently, the sperm donor was to be nothing short of a creative genius. And a perfect physical specimen as well. She’d seen some damned programme on TV about an American clinic which had ‘smart’ sperm to give to women who wanted good-looking, gifted children and she’d thought the concept quite wonderful!

Naturally, there wasn’t such an advanced-thinking clinic in Australia. Neither had Linda’s foray to Sydney’s sperm bank found even a remote match to her prerequisites for the prospective father of her ‘gifted’ progeny.

So she’d turned to her big brother—which she only did in moments of dire need—flattering his male ego by saying he must know of someone in his circle of smart, sophisticated friends who would fit the bill. Some clever, creative, unconventional fellow who had looks to burn and no qualms about giving some unknown woman the seed of his loins.

Dave had immediately thought of Nick.

Though most wouldn’t have.

He smiled wryly to himself as the man in question strode further into the bar, bringing his not inconsiderable physical assets under the overhead lighting.

Tall. dark and handsome was hardly an adequate description. It did fit, superficially. Yet it was far too bland to encompass the complex man Dave had found Nick to be.

When people—and especially women—first looked at Nick, they never associated him with either intelligence or creativity, except of the most basic kind. Dave could appreciate their mistake. It was difficult to see past that incredible body to the real man inside, or past the highly sexual gleam in those brilliant black eyes to the brains behind them.

Nick was not what he seemed. Aside from his well-disguised IQ he also looked a damned sight younger than his thirty-five years, which meant he could get away with wearing collar-length hair, skin-tight jeans and a black leather jacket with a fierce-looking eagle emblazoned across the back. Dave was barely two years older than Nick, but knew he’d look damned stupid in that get-up.

‘Okay if I use the piano, Hal?’ Nick asked the barman.

Hal nodded, and those who weren’t long-time regulars stared in amazement as this macho-looking bikie walked over to the battered upright piano in the corner, slapped his leather gloves down on the lid, sat down at the scratched wooden stool and began to play a Chopin polonaise.

His long, lean fingers flew over the keys, passionate and note-perfect in their execution. The hotel patrons grew silent as they listened, amazed and intrigued. Classical music might not have been the usual fare offered in this setting but they recognised the brilliance of the player and the contradiction in terms of what they were seeing and hearing.

Nick’s fingers flew faster till finally the climax of the piece was reached in one last dramatic, flamboyant flourish of notes. For a few moments, he bent over the keyboard as though exhausted, eyes closed, his unruly black hair falling forward.

But then he straightened, pushed back his hair, closed the piano, stood up and gave a mock bow to his partially stunned audience. Dave began to clap, soon followed by the rest of the Saturday afternoon drinkers.

Nick turned to smile at his friend, then indicated he would get a beer before joining him.

‘I see you haven’t lost your touch,’ Dave complimented Nick when his friend scraped out a chair and sat down.

Nick laughed. ‘You’ve got to be kidding. Rusty as hell, I am. There again, I haven’t touched a piano since I was last here.’ He lifted the beer to his lips, drinking deeply. ‘Ah,’ he said appreciatively as he wiped the froth from his top lip. ‘That hits the spot. It’s damned hot outside for early November.’

‘Long time no see, Nick,’ Dave said, trying not to sound accusing.

‘Sure is,’ Nick agreed. ‘You’re looking well, Dave.’

Dave smiled ruefully at the lie. He’d once been a handsome young man, but life now found him overweight and his light brown hair was thinning. Not that he cared too much; his life didn’t revolve around his looks.

‘Where’ve you been?’ he asked his friend.

‘Around and about.’

Dave shook his head and sighed. ‘I see you haven’t changed. Just as communicative as ever.’

Nick grinned. ‘Come now, Dave, that’s not true. You and I have had some of the longest chats in history at this very table. We’ve discussed everything from A to Z. We’ve theoretically solved the world’s environmental problems, picked every politician alive to pieces and critically analysed just about every book worth reading!’

‘That’s not what I’m talking about and you know it. Damn it all, Nick, you could have at least had the decency to inform me before you just took off for destination unknown. I thought we were mates.’

‘We are. But you know me. Never stay anywhere for long. I get bored.’

Dave wasn’t quite sure how long Nick had been a regular here before his disappearance. Only a few weeks, he supposed. It just seemed longer. Nick was a very interesting man to talk to. He’d been to so many places, had seen so many things. He’d done a myriad of jobs as well, from oil-rig worker to short-order cook, from chauffeur to brick-layer. You name it and he’d done it.

‘So how long can we expect to have the privilege of your company this time round?’