Daddy's Toy-Box (A Daddy's Best Friend Romance) Read online

  “Twenty minutes?” I said, glancing anxiously at the clock. I’d timed things perfectly in the hopes of getting to the interview right on time, so this was a real spanner in the works.

  “Yeah. Might even be more. Sorry.”

  He walked away, and as if the universe were conspiring against me, the heavens suddenly opened up, and it began to pour with rain.

  “No!” I said out loud, tapping one hand against the steering wheel. “This can’t be happening!”

  No doubt the rain would extend the road works even longer, and to confirm this, the man I’d just spoken to looked over at my car and gave me an apologetic shrug.

  Dammit. I was going to have to walk if I wanted to get there within the next hour.

  I looked in the back for an umbrella, and then I grabbed my bag, locked the car and started to make my way up the road, being careful not to trip on the wet sidewalk in my low heels. If I walked quickly enough, I could still make it in time. Maybe.

  Almost as soon as I had that thought, I slipped and fell like some sort of idiotic cartoon character, landing face-down on someone’s front lawn. I groaned as I stood up and brushed myself off. I was practically soaked through from the wet grass, and I looked like a complete mess. Not only that, it was ten past two now, so I was already late. I thought about calling Melinda and telling her what happened, but I figured it was just ten minutes. I’d be there in another five, and being fifteen minutes late wasn’t the worst thing in the world. No one was ever on time for anything these days, anyway, right?

  When I finally arrived at the address I’d been given, I took a deep breath as I stared up at the colossal house. Creeping ivy trailed through the crevices of the old wall surrounding the property, and tall poplars lined the short driveway which led up to a beautiful garden filled with pink and white flowers. Beyond that lay the house itself; a white Colonial-style mansion.

  This place totally belonged in one of the fairytale books I used to read as a child.

  With trembling hands, I clutched my purse close to my body and stepped up the driveway, hoping the client wouldn’t be too angry that I was late and covered in wet grass-stains. All I had to do was explain about the roadworks and the rain, and surely he’d understand.

  I rang the doorbell, and two minutes later, a man finally opened the door. He was tall, very tall, and clad in a grey suit that brought out his tan and rippled over his perfectly muscular form. Not that I noticed or anything. This was a job interview, not a reality dating show—it didn’t matter if he was hot or not. It was just a guy who was possibly hiring me to be a nanny for his kid.

  But when I got a proper look at his handsome face, I bit back a gasp.

  This wasn’t just any guy. It was Jacob Baldwin.

  Chapter Three

  Jacob

  A petite blonde stared up at me from my front doorstep, and I widened my eyes slightly as I took her appearance in. She was young. Very young. Couldn’t be a day over nineteen, possibly even younger. She was also wet and covered in stains, and her wide eyes displayed her abject fear of me. Poor girl looked like she thought I was going to bite her head off.

  “You’re from Melinda May?” I asked with an arched brow, wondering why the agency would send someone so young and clearly inexperienced.

  The girl nodded timidly. “Yes.”

  “You’re late,” I said.

  She nodded again and looked at her feet. “I know. I’m so sorry, sir, I—”

  I didn’t hear the rest of her excuse. I was too busy concentrating on how she’d called me ‘sir’. I liked it. Really fucking liked it. So many young people these days had no respect at all, but this pretty thing on my doorstep obviously did, and the idea of hearing that word spill from her plump lips again made my cock stir.

  I noticed her shivering, and I gestured behind me. “Please, come in. It’s going to be raining for a while.”

  She nodded and slipped inside, peeling off her wet cardigan. Her big blue eyes opened wide as she looked around the expensively-decorated foyer, and then she looked up at me through her long eyelashes. “This is a lovely place, Mr. Baldwin,” she said softly.

  I couldn’t help but smile. “So you know my name, do you?” She blushed and nodded, and I took a step closer to her in order to take the sodden cardigan off her hands. “And what about you? Do you have a name?”

  Her eyes widened again, and she nodded. “Yes. I’m Vanessa. I’m so sorry; I’m normally not this rude. I’ve just had a…”

  “Rough day?”

  “Yes. I didn’t plan on so many things going wrong at once.”

  Welcome to adulthood, sweetheart, I thought, but I didn’t say it out loud. She seemed so naïve, so innocent. I didn’t want to start making cynical comments around such a sweet little thing just yet. Innocence was a virtue, especially in this day and age.

  “How old are you, Vanessa?” I asked.

  “Eighteen,” she replied, her blush deepening.

  Jesus, eighteen? Did the agency pick her straight out of high school or something? When I contacted them about sending someone new to help out with my six-year-old nephew Tommy, I hadn’t expected them to send a girl who was barely over a decade older than him. She seemed nice, but how qualified could she possibly be at such a tender age?

  “Again, I’m so sorry I’m late,” she said hurriedly, mistaking my silence for anger. “I had to walk part of the way, and it was raining.”

  I frowned and wondered where her parents were; why they hadn’t driven their daughter straight to my doorstep instead of making her get here on her own in the rain.

  “There’s a bathroom down that hall. First door on the left. You can go freshen up a bit if you want,” I said, pointing to the hall. “I’ll go put this cardigan in the dryer for you. Can’t have you catching a chill.”

  Vanessa smiled. “Thank you,” she said. I saw that she was still shivering, so I pulled my suit jacket off and placed it over her shoulders.

  “Sorry, I don’t have anything else that would come close to fitting you,” I said with a gentle smile.

  The girl’s face was bright red now, and she simply smiled, whispered ‘thank you’ again and scurried down the hall toward the bathroom. After heading to the laundry room to put her wet cardigan in the dryer, I briskly walked to the kitchen to make Vanessa some hot chocolate to warm her up. Yes, she’d been late today, but that didn’t mean I had to be an ass to her—she’d obviously had a hard day, and I didn’t want to be the old bastard who made such a sweet thing upset.

  Thirty-eight wasn’t exactly old, I suppose, but I was still twenty years her senior. Christ, that made me feel ancient.

  She emerged from the hallway again five minutes later. She’d done her best to scrub the grass-stains off her skirt, and she’d twisted and secured her wavy blonde hair in a bobby pin to neaten it up. My jacket was hanging over her arm now, and I could make out the contours of her petite body underneath her blouse. For such a tiny little woman, she had amazing curves in all the right places. She was perfection.

  I held out a steaming mug to her. “Hot chocolate,” I said.

  “For me?” Her brows shot up as if I’d offered her a free Bentley, and I wondered what kind of life she must’ve had to be so shocked at someone simply offering her a hot drink.

  “Yes. Thought it might help you warm up. Do you want to sit down, and we can talk about the nanny position?”

  “You’re actually giving me a chance after the awful first impression I’ve made so far?” she said with a weak smile.

  I smiled back. “I believe in second chances. Come, sit.”

  I directed her to one of the bar stools that sat below the counter, and she took a long sip of her drink. “This tastes great,” she said.

  “Thank you. It’s quite easy to make. Just melt some chocolate in a saucepan with some milk, maybe add a hint of vanilla or cinnamon if you feel like changing it up a bit. Tommy loves it.”

  “Is that your son?” she asked.

  I sh
ook my head. “No, he’s my nephew. He’s six. Lives here with me.”

  “Oh, I see.”

  I liked that she didn’t prod me to tell her why Tommy lived with me. My brother George and his wife Tina were killed in a terrible car accident a year ago, and I didn’t like to talk about it much, although that didn’t stop most people from prying into my life and asking for details when they discovered that I no longer lived alone.

  Tommy was George and Tina’s only child, and it had fallen to me to take him in when he was orphaned. Of course it was no trouble; I absolutely loved him. Unfortunately, I needed some help—with the heavy demands of my career, it wasn’t easy to balance all the responsibilities of parenting.

  “Do you have any children of your own?” Vanessa asked, peering at me with that innocent gaze of hers. It was hard not to notice how pretty her big blue eyes were, and I tried to ignore the twitch in my pants as her tongue slid across her lips, licking up a stray droplet of hot chocolate.

  I shook my head. “No. It’s just me and Tommy.”

  “And you said he’s six. So he must be in school?”

  “Yes. What I’m looking for is someone who can get him ready in the mornings and take him to school, because I’m usually needed at the office quite early, and the housekeeper—her name is Frida—has other duties she needs to attend to in the mornings rather than babysit him. And I also need someone to pick him up in the afternoons, bring him home, play with him, and make sure he does his homework. So it would only be about five hours of work a day, spread out, sometimes more if I’m late home from the office.”

  “That sounds decent. Does he need care on weekends?” Vanessa asked.

  “Sometimes. But I try to spend as much time with him as I can on weekends, to make up for being so busy during the week.”

  She smiled. “That’s good. It sounds like you’re a great dad to him…sorry, I mean uncle.”

  I sighed. “I try. Anyway, I just need to find someone we can both tolerate. The last nanny I hired broke her NDA and tried to sell information about me and my company to a damn magazine. And the two nannies before that didn’t get along with Tommy very well.”

  Vanessa wrinkled her forehead. “Why not?”

  “I’m not sure. He tends to get obsessed with certain things, and I think they found it annoying. Then he picked up on that annoyance and started acting out toward them.”

  “It’s amazing what kids can pick up on,” she said in a sage tone. “And lots of kids have funny obsessions. Those last girls might not have been quite right for a job in this industry if they didn’t realize that.”

  “So you have experience with kids, then?” I asked, wondering exactly how much work experience someone her age could even have. I tried to think back to what I was doing when I was eighteen, but I could barely remember. I’d headed off to college that year, but lord knows what else I’d been up to. It was so long ago.

  “I helped out a lot with my best friend’s younger siblings when I lived with her. There were three of them, ranging from a baby to an eight-year-old. So I guess I have a bit of experience. Enough for the agency to agree to hire me, anyway,” she said with a smile.

  “Fair enough. Why were you living with your friend?” I asked.

  Her smile faded. She bit her lip and looked down at the counter, and I knew I’d struck a nerve. “Oh, just….family stuff,” she finally said.

  I cleared my throat, not wanting to make the same mistake of making her feel awkward again. “Would you like to meet Tommy? He’s just upstairs playing. We could see if you two get along first, then continue the interview afterwards.”

  Vanessa’s eyes brightened again. “I’d love to meet him.”

  I excused myself and went upstairs to get Tommy. My little redheaded nephew was playing with his dinosaur toys, as per usual, and he brought one of them with him as he followed me downstairs.

  “Tommy, this is Vanessa. Say hello, please,” I said, squeezing his little hand.

  “Hello, Vanessa,” he said shyly.

  Vanessa crouched down to his level. “Hi, Tommy. It’s so nice to meet you. You can call me Nessa if you want, because that’s what my friends call me, and I’d love to be friends with you.”

  Tommy held out his toy. “This is my T-Rex. Do you like dinosaurs?”

  Vanessa nodded. “I do. That’s how I know you’re trying to trick me,” she said with a cheeky grin. “He’s really a triceratops, isn’t he?”

  Tommy giggled. “That was a test! Uncle Jake, Nessa really knows about dinosaurs!”

  I grinned. “That’s wonderful. Maybe you can show her your entire collection.”

  Tommy nodded enthusiastically. “Can I show her now?”

  “Of course.”

  Vanessa smiled at me, then followed Tommy upstairs. I trailed behind them, too far back to be in their way but close enough to monitor their interaction and see how well they got along. Tommy was really a sweet boy, albeit a bit naughty at times, and it was a shame the last couple of girls from the agency had quit.

  While Tommy showed Vanessa his dinosaur toy collection, I checked my emails on my cell phone, trying to find my most recent conversation with Melinda May. Ah, here it was—she’d forwarded Vanessa’s résumé and police clearance to me earlier. I had read through them when she first sent them, but I’d completely missed how young Vanessa was, so I hadn’t known till she told me her age upon arrival. Now that I was reading it again, it stood out starkly on the top of the police clearance page: Vanessa Ryan, born October 2nd 1998.

  Christ….1998. The same year I started college.

  “Why don’t I leave you two alone for a while?” I suggested, glancing up at Vanessa and Tommy. I wanted to see how they got along when it was just the two of them—for all I knew, Tommy was only behaving so well because I was here watching.

  Vanessa nodded and returned to perusing Tommy’s dino collection with him, and I headed downstairs and into my home office to check some things on my computer. I tried to concentrate, but I ended up sitting back with a sigh, rubbing my temples with my index fingers.

  Why the hell was I still picturing Vanessa in my mind’s eye, on her knees and begging for me? It was entirely inappropriate. She was being considered for a job at my house; a job which included taking care of my young nephew. I couldn’t be thinking of her in a sexual way, especially considering her age. It wasn’t right. A girl like her needed someone to take care of her, not take advantage of her.

  I pushed the thoughts aside and returned my attention to the computer screen. Fifteen minutes later, I headed back upstairs to find Tommy sitting quietly at his desk, filling out some sheets while Vanessa watched. She heard me come back in, and she smiled and stood up.

  “He’s just doing some homework,” she said after quietly padding over to me.

  “You managed to get him to do homework?” I said with raised eyebrows. She was a miracle worker.

  “I asked him what he wanted to do when he grows up. He said he wants to dig up dinosaur fossils. So I told him he needs to study hard to get that kind of job, and he suddenly seemed to remember that he had homework in his school bag.”

  “That’s the first I’ve heard of it. He told me he didn’t even get any today, because it was just a half-day at school,” I said with a grin. “I can’t believe I never thought to use his love of dinosaurs to inspire him to do schoolwork. Silly me. Maybe you should be a teacher.”

  Vanessa smiled shyly. “I’m actually starting college soon, and I’ll be studying teaching.”

  “Ah, so that’s why you need a part-time job. To work around your classes.”

  “Yes.”

  “What makes you want to be a teacher?” I asked.

  She cast her eyes down, looking uncertain, and I suspected that no one had ever taken such an interest in her future career choice. “I guess I just love kids, and I want to be able to teach them. I think it’s a very important job.”

  “You’re right; it is.”

  “My parent
s weren’t always….present. My teachers at school were the ones to inspire me. So I want to do for kids what my teachers did for me,” she blurted out. She shook her head. “Sorry. I don’t know why I just told you that. Too much information.”

  So the impression I had earlier was right. This girl had never been paid the kind of attention she deserved at home, never been taken care of like she needed. The thought triggered something deep inside me, something primal. I was far too old for her, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t do my part to help her out. An eighteen-year-old girl all on her own in a pricey city like this…well, she could probably use all the help she could get.

  “I’m glad you told me, and I’m glad you feel comfortable enough around me to talk to me,” I said. “It’s important for an employee to feel comfortable around her boss.”

  Her eyes widened. “Wait…you mean…”

  I nodded and extended a hand to her. “Yes. Tommy seems to love you already, so if you want it, the job is yours, Vanessa. All yours.”

  She hesitated for just a second, and then she accepted my hand and shook it. I didn’t miss the spark that shot up my arm as her fingertips came into contact with mine, and my gaze connected with hers. I felt something pass between us, something deep and powerful as I stared into her baby blues, but I kept my expression impassive. “I take it that’s a yes?” I said.

  She nodded. “Yes. Thanks, Mr. Baldwin. Thanks so much. I promise I won’t let you down,” she replied.

  “You don’t have to call me Mr. Baldwin. It makes me feel old.”

  A shy smile turned the corners of her lips up. “I don’t think you’re old.”

  Too old for you, though, I thought grimly.

  “Should I call you ‘sir’ then?” she continued.

  There it was again. Sir. My throat tightened and my cock stiffened and twitched as soon as she said it. If it was any other girl or woman, I would think there was some kind of intent behind the word; some devilish attempt at seduction. But Vanessa was so fucking innocent. Too innocent. I could tell she had no idea about the sort of effect she had on men like me, and she honestly thought it was normal to call a new boss ‘sir’ or ‘madam’.