“I thought I’d let you know I was going so you didn’t come looking for me.”
Her fogged brain finally picked up that he was leaving. As in going out. As in not going to be paying any attention to Joshua on his first night in the house.
So much for brooding Heathcliff.
“You’re going?”
“Yes.”
“But it’s Joshua’s first night here!”
“And if I hadn’t hired you I couldn’t have accepted the invitation.”
Relief and understanding merged, and Audra’s tense muscles relaxed. “Oh, it’s business.”
He flashed her a smile. “Monkey business.”
His cocky attitude reminded her so much of her ex that any attraction she might have had to him flew out of the nearest window. She turned and walked back to the smallest of three stainless-steel refrigerators. The one she’d commandeered for all things Joshua.
“Dominic,” she said his name using the scolding tone her mother had used with her when she wanted to go out on a school night. “You have a son now. You can’t be going out just because the spirit moves you.”
“First, Joshua is not my son. He’s my nephew.” He stepped into the kitchen, took an apple from a bowl on the first island and tossed it into the air, then caught it. “Second, having someone to stay home with the baby is why I hired you.”
“No, you hired me to be a caretaker, not the love giver. Playing with Joshua, nurturing him, is your job.”
He tossed the apple into the air again, ignoring her.
“I’m serious.”
He didn’t reply, and a horrible realization hit Audra. He didn’t intend to nurture this little boy. Her heart caught with disbelief. Why would he refuse to be a dad to this adorable baby?
She glanced at blue-eyed, curly haired Joshua and decided Dominic simply hadn’t spent enough time with him. Once he had, he wouldn’t be able to help falling in love with him, and being a real dad would come naturally. And there was no time like the present to begin the process.
“Here.” She handed Joshua to him. “Can you hold him while I warm a bottle?”
Having no choice, Dominic awkwardly took the confused baby. From the expression on his face as he fumbled to settle Joshua on his arm, Audra guessed that part of his sudden need to get out of the house might be his own fear.
“I can help show you how to care for him,” she said, setting the bottle in the microwave and not looking at him, trying not to make a big deal out of it so he’d relax.
“I’m fine.”
“Not really.” She didn’t think it prudent to mention that not being able to even hold the baby was a clear indicator that he wasn’t fine. “I’m not talking about giving you actual baby lessons. But if you hang around us, especially while I’m here to help you bridge the gap, you could get to know Joshua by the time the permanent nanny gets here.”
“I already know him.” Struggling to contain the baby, whose confusion had become discomfort in his uncle-turned-father’s arms, Dominic glanced over at her. “He’s six months old. I’ve chucked his chin. I’ve said good-night to him when Marsha brought him into my brother’s den before he went to bed. He was with us on boat trips and family stays at the beach house. The real problem between me and old Josh here,” he said as he continued to wrestle the little boy, “is that I don’t have a whole hell of a lot in common with a baby and he doesn’t have the verbal skills to tell me about his day.”
Audra couldn’t help herself; she laughed. He was right. He and the baby didn’t have a lot in common. Still, what baby and daddy did?
When the bell rang signifying the bottle was warm, she took it from the microwave and set it on the counter, then clapped her hands together and said, “Give him back.”
Dominic was struggling with the baby, so Audra walked over to take the little boy. When she reached Dominic, simple, normal breathing brought the scent of freshly scrubbed adult male and spicy aftershave to her nostrils. Though tempted to inhale a long breath to catch the wonderful scent completely, she resisted the urge, reminding herself that playboys were nothing but trouble.
But in the shuffle of clumsily handing a squirming six-month-old baby between them, fingers touched, arms brushed, and her chest tightened with the same tingle of anticipation she’d felt when she was twelve and she’d found him hiding in an obscure room somewhere in the family mansion. There was something about him that had called to her since she was old enough to realize the differences between boys and girls; and, whatever it was, it was powerful.
Still she ignored it. He wasn’t the kind of guy she should be attracted to. Intent on getting them back to the conversation about Dominic spending time with Joshua to learn how to care for him, Audra pulled away with a smile. But when she caught Dominic’s gaze and saw the smoky look in his eyes, she froze.
“Why don’t you come out with me tonight?”
She swallowed. Oh, Lord.
“It’s a premiere.” He grimaced. “An action-adventure movie, but the star is a friend. I couldn’t refuse.” He stepped close, caught her free hand and caressed it. “We’ll cut out early, grab dinner and maybe go dancing.”
Audra pulled her hand from his. “Forget it, Prince Charming. I’ve had my fling with a playboy. I was engaged to a guy just like you. I won’t be going that route again.”
“You were engaged?”
“And he left me at the altar.” She lifted the baby to Dominic’s eye level. “But even if I didn’t have that history, I have a better reason to stay here tonight.”
Reminded of the baby, he winced. “Right.”
“Just as you said, I’m here to help you with Joshua.”
She said it crisply, evenly, sounding like a professional nanny. Or at least she thought she had, until Dominic leaned against the island, looking sexy, sophisticated and like a man who didn’t believe a darned word she’d said.
“So, we’ll postpone going out until I hire a permanent nanny.”
She gaped at him. “I just told you I nearly married somebody like you and for my trouble got left at the altar. I eventually figured out that I pushed him into something he didn’t want, but that only makes me know unequivocally that you’re the last person I should go out with.”
He chuckled, pushing away from the counter and stepping close. “Actually, Audra, I think that makes me the perfect guy for you to go out with.”
Though his nearness caused her pulse to skyrocket and her leg muscles to turn to rubber, her brain had jumped to full operating capacity. She gaped at him in disbelief, but before she could counter, he said, “Even you admit your mistake wasn’t dating a playboy. It was thinking he would settle down.”
She snorted a laugh. “Exactly.”
“I think you missed your own point. You must have had good times with him.” He caught her hand, lifted it to his lips. “Before you tried to tame him, that is.”
She swallowed. A wispy trail of sensation danced along her knuckles, up her arm and flew straight to her heart. If a light kiss on her hand could make her insides shimmer with warmth, what would those lips do to her if they kissed her on the mouth?
“And didn’t those good times make you happy? Maybe decrease your stress? Maybe help you forget your long week of work?”
“Yes.” That was actually why she’d fallen in love with David. He was the first guy to make her forget everything. Let logic go. Leave her troubles on the dock as