Curvy Nanny for the Nerd

7. Brady

Chapter 7

Brady

T he doorbell rang and I jumped to my feet, rushing out of my office and to the front door before Toni could see my team arrive, and before Layla could let my identity slip. Why it mattered that she didn’t know who I was, I couldn’t quite say, except I liked that Toni treated me like just another man. She didn’t defer to me because of my wealth, hell she didn’t even defer to me based on my status as her employer. And I liked it.

A lot.

I yanked open the door to see the heads of my major teams. Sierra, the head of marketing, was a thirty-something year old woman with hot pink hair. Cal, my creative director, wore black thick framed glasses, hoodies and jeans just about every day. Tori the lead designer, was the most normal of the bunch in jeans, a button up shirt, and occasionally a jacket.

“Morning guys, come on in.” I waved them in quickly, looking over my shoulder like a teenager having guests over when he wasn’t supposed to.

Sierra stepped in first. “Mr. Winsome,” she began and I cut her off.

“Call me Brady,” I spoke over her before she could say anything else.

Sierra’s brows knitted into a frown but she shrugged. “Sure, okay Brady . Whatever you say. Where should we set up?”

“Follow me,” I instructed, glad that I was the boss. No one said anything about my insistence on keeping things informal today, and if they thought it was odd, they kept it to themselves, a fact for which I was grateful. I kept my head down and powered through the living room, but the keen scent of warm butter brought me up short in the middle of the kitchen. “Dammit,” I whispered more to myself than the group behind me.

“Oh hey, you’re just in time for…oh, a party.” Toni flashed a stunningly wide smile at the group. “Good morning…people. Anyone hungry?” She aimed a spatula at my employees, still smiling.

“I could eat,” Cal said automatically, no doubt hypnotized by the sight of Toni in black leather leggings, a dark blue shirt with a delectable vee and bright blue sneakers. Or maybe, like me, he was taken in by the painted red mouth.

“Me too,” Tori added with a surprised smile.

“I can always eat,” Sierra offered with a smile before her gaze landed on me. “Or…not?”

“Nonsense,” I added, trying like hell to keep the anger out of my voice. “Eating now means we can power through for a few hours.” At least for them. My mind, however, would be firmly stuck on the sight of Toni’s curves in those damned leggings.

“Cool.” Toni didn’t miss a beat, pointing towards the table where Layla sat quietly reading on her tablet. “That’s Layla.”

Layla looked up as if she suddenly realized the kitchen was full of adults. “Oh, hi. Good morning. Who are you?”

They all laughed before introducing themselves one by one. “We work for, um, with Brady.” Cal frowned as if the words felt strange on his lips before he shrugged and sat.

An hour later everyone had full bellies and wide smiles as they profusely thanked Toni for breakfast, and—finally—we departed for the confines of my office.

“No wonder you’re so relaxed,” Cal joked the minute the door closed behind us.

“She’s the nanny,” I growled, shutting down any hint of gossip before it could get started.

“Right,” he muttered under his breath. “A hot rich nerd ends up with a nanny like that and keeps it strictly platonic. And I’m Elon Musk.”

I glared at him while Tori and Sierra roared with laughter. “Funny. Put that creative thinking towards the game.”

Cal snickered to himself and shrugged as he fired up his laptop and started working along with the rest of us.

For the next few hours we worked like a well-oiled machine, only stopping to collaborate on this item or that, making more progress in six hours than we’d made in the past three months. I was glad for the marathon work session even though it didn’t keep my mind off the distracting nanny.

Did she have to be so fucking bubbly and bright? She was hard to ignore. And those curves? Was I some sort of warlord in a previous life and she was my punishment in this one? Her and those mouthwatering curves that seemed to go on forever. I couldn’t even sleep knowing she was just a few doors down, wondering what she slept in? Did she wear those skimpy lacy things women thought men wanted, or was she a straight to the point woman who slept in the buff? “Fuck,” I growled.

“Something wrong, boss?” Sierra didn’t even try to hide her smile, and even though it annoyed me, I bit back my words and focused on my monitors.

“Nope. Nothing,” I shot back quickly, refusing to think about the sleepless nights caused by the nanny and the long showers where I imagined her doing all manner of filthy things to me, and me to her. “Nothing at all.”

“It’s good to know he’s human,” Cal offered with a sympathetic smile. “I’d have a hard time concentrating with a beauty like that around. Red hair is my weakness,” he admitted, never taking his eyes off his own laptop.

I frowned but it wasn’t with anger or even embarrassment. I felt like one of the group, as if we were—in a way—commiserating over something universally relatable. “She works for me.”

Sierra sighed. “Considering how much most of us work, where the hell else are we supposed to meet people?”

That was a good point, one I hadn’t considered. Thankfully the sound of a small but powerful knock on the office door stopped that line of conversation.

“Enter.” I steeled myself to see Toni again, but it was Layla who poked her head in.

“Hi. Lunch is in the kitchen if you’re hungry!” She ducked out and the sound of her fading footsteps was all that was left of my niece.

“Cute kid,” Sierra said. “No wonder you’ve been distracted. There’s a lot going on here lately.”

“I’m working on it,” I bit out harshly.

“No judgment,” she offered. “It’s a lot to take on, and now it makes sense. We all thought you were burnt out maybe. Glad to see it’s just normal life shit.”

I frowned. “Why didn’t you just ask?”

She laughed. “You’re not exactly the sharing personal deets kind of guy, Brady. ” Her emphasis on my name wasn’t lost on me.

Had I really not told my employees that I was now guardian to my niece? That my sister and brother-in-law had died? Most of the time I work in my home office, leaving my COO to run the office. It was an arrangement that had worked well for years, so I had never needed to share much of my personal life with the staff before now. But maybe I sold myself short as well as them? “Let’s break for lunch,” I said and glanced down at my phone. “Or an early dinner.”

“Food anytime of day is good,” Cal replied with a smile as he made a quick exit.

There was no hint of Layla or Toni in the kitchen. I found a note written in neat cursive telling me they’d gone to the park for some outdoor time and that Layla helped make the sandwiches. There were more sandwiches than four people could eat, plus chips, cheese puffs, salad and a platter of antipasto.

“Whoa, fancy stuff here,” Sierra laughed and plucked a sundried tomato from the platter, groaning as she chewed it. “I say we make this a working lunch,” she began with a conspiratorial smile. “To make sure we make the most of their hard work,” she added with a laugh.

I ignored the pang of disappointment that washed over me when I read Toni’s note, clutching it in my hand like it was a Dear John letter. “Yeah, a working lunch sounds good.”

We worked through lunch and the early evening. I was satisfied that we were all caught up and back on track when I closed the door behind my team.

Progress .

It felt good to finally have some semblance of control over at least one aspect of my life.

Since I had not one fucking iota of control over my thoughts where a certain fire haired nanny was concerned.