So, yes, she definitely kept her dreams uncontaminated by reality. And this job was far better than anything she could have dreamed up on her own. If she got it, she would owe Daniel for recommending her, more than she could ever repay.
"I'll check your references tonight." He tapped the list she'd given him. "But after what Daniel said, it all looks good. I'll give you a call tomorrow."
Please, she silently prayed as she grabbed her bag, hire me and make this dream real. "I really like Noah. He's a great kid."
"I'm lucky to have him." Love filled Matt's voice when he talked about his son. "And he obviously likes you. I hope you have time to see his latest Lego masterpiece before you go."
"Of course."
They stood at the same time, suddenly close beside each other at the edge of the coffee table. For the briefest of moments, she let her eyelids drift shut as her senses drank him in--that fresh rain scent, the heat radiating off his body, the gentle wash of his breath across her hair.
Noah was so cute, and the setup was amazing. But Matt? Well, he was the cherry on top of her sundae.
And if she got this job, she would make sure nothing screwed it up.
Chapter Two
"You sure you don't mind me hijacking her from your San Jose store?" Matt asked Daniel over the phone.
"It's a great opportunity for Ariana."
Ariana had a lilting quality in Daniel's voice. But she'd told Matt to call her Ari.
"She's always been more interested in child care than moving up the ladder at Top-Notch," Daniel continued. "She worked her butt off getting through college. The scholarships I sponsor are open to all my employees worldwide, but every year, Ariana aced the essay submission and earned the Bay Area scholarship."
"She told me she graduated last May."
"With honors."
She hadn't told him that. In fact, she'd almost downplayed her degree, maybe because she understood that a degree was worth a heck of a lot more with practical experience to back it up. In that, they were alike. He'd graduated and jumped in feet first. And Ari'd had eight years of experience working with kids while she was going to school. She'd be a huge asset for Noah, with both her experience and her education. There was so much to admire about her.
For his peace of mind, there might actually be too much to admire.
"It's a win-win, Matt. You're going to love her."
His friend didn't mean it in the sexual sense, but Matt couldn't stop remembering the vision she'd made sitting on his sofa, the end-of-day autumn sun setting her golden hair on fire. He'd wanted to--
Damn it, he had to stop thinking about what he wanted. She would be here for his son.
"Noah already loves her," Matt told Daniel. "All she had to do was admire his latest Lego creation and he was putty in her hands."
Ari had handled his son's interruption brilliantly, teaching Noah a lesson without getting angry or annoyed. Considering that the women Ari babysat for couldn't say enough good things about her, Matt knew he had to have her.
For Noah, of course.
"The kid takes after his old man, always coming up with new inventions." Daniel's tone was laced with affection. As godfathers, each and every Maverick adored Noah. "And Ariana has more patience than a saint," Daniel added, "which will help when taking care of a five-year-old boy with boundless energy."
"My only concern is that she's so young." That was a lie. He was also concerned about how boundlessly tempting she was.
Matt was always in control of his emotions where women were concerned, especially after what had happened with Noah's mom. Yet Ari kept sneaking under his defenses, entering his thoughts far too often. He had to put a stop to it. He was a decade older, for God's sake, and about to become her boss.
"We were already out there trying to make our mark at twenty-four," Daniel pointed out, "but she's still hands-off to you."
Humor laced Daniel's warning, but Matt's guts jumped like a guilty man facing the witness stand. "Of course. She's Lyssa's age." To all the Mavericks, Lyssa was still the kid sister they needed to look out for.
"And Ariana's had a pretty rough go of it too."
As a foster kid, she'd been alone in the world. At least he'd had the Mavericks. And if Daniel suspected Matt was imagining anything unprofessional with Ari...
"I won't screw this up with her," Matt said, as much to remind himself as to reassure his friend. "I've been through so many nannies that I'm not sure where else I'd look if things didn't work out this time."
Matt had caught the last nanny screeching at Noah for spilling a glass of milk. It had been all he could do not to throw her bodily out of his house. He'd experienced enough of that crap when he was a kid and didn't put up with anyone treating Noah that way. Ever. He'd handled that problem immediately. Which meant that he and Noah had been going through nannies at the rate of two or more a year.
Yes, Matt was picky where his son was concerned, but half the problem was Noah's mother. Irene had a knack for creating havoc in her wake. She flew in and out of Noah's life like a firefly, lighting him up, then letting him down. Matt still hadn't figured out how to best deal with Irene--and the way she always let Noah down made Matt feel like he was letting his kid down too. Maybe a young, enthusiastic nanny would help counter Irene's bad influence.
"Then take her," Daniel said. "She wants this."
Ah hell, why did his friend have to use those words, forcing Matt to battle images of Ari on his bed, her hair fanned out across his pillows, her skin creamy...
He jammed his brain the way a copier chews up a scrap of paper, crumpled the fantasy, and threw it in his mental trash bin.
No more fantasies. He needed Ari for Noah.
Every other need had to go.
"I'm offering her the job."
"Then you can finally relax. Because she'll be the best nanny you've ever had, guaranteed."
Matt already knew that. It was his need to put this crazy attraction behind bars that had him on edge.
*
Ari's heart missed a couple of beats when she read the caller ID on her phone. It was only nine p.m., but she had an early shift at the store in the morning, and she was already beneath the sheets. She slept on a Murphy bed that came out of the wall. It was the only way to get a sofa and a bed into her small studio apartment at the same time.
"Hello?" She couldn't keep the breathlessness out of her voice.
"Ari, it's Matt Tremont. You've got the job, if you want it."
"Thank you." She tried to sound cool and calm even though she was about to burst with joy. "I'll do my best for you and Noah." He was entrusting his son to her. "I'll treat him like he's my own."
"The ladies you work for had wonderful things to say about you."
She snuggled deeper under the covers, ignoring the spring poking her back, and in the dark his voice was smooth, deep, and soft, as if he were whispering naughty things. She'd had two lovers, so she wasn't totally inexperienced, but no one had made her feel the things Matt did, even with a few simple words that weren't the slightest bit sexy.
"Their kids adore you," he continued. "You're never late, and you're always willing to stay longer if they need you." He paused, letting her take in the glowing praise. "Not one of them had a single complaint."
The compliments warmed her. She'd taken care of some of the kids for years, from diapers to kindergarten. And she was going to miss all of them.
"Daniel says I'd be stupid not to jump on you." Dead air followed his statement. As if the call had dropped, or he was holding his breath.
Yes, please, jump on me. But she wouldn't mess this up. Especially when the words didn't have a double meaning for him--it was just her one-sided sparks going off again.
"I'd be honored to take care of Noah. Would Sunday evening be okay to start so that I'd be there to get Noah ready for school in the morning?"
"Good idea. We can slip you right into the routine. Can you make it by dinnertime?"
"Depends on what y
ou're serving."
She made the joke before thinking, but thankfully Matt laughed and said, "Tell me what your favorite is."
Her favorite would be licking Rocky Road ice cream off him. A wave of heat rolled through her, and her legs moved restlessly as she tried not to breathe heavily.
"As long as it's not SpaghettiOs or chicken nuggets, I'm good." She said it with a laugh, but all joking aside, those had been her diet staples as a kid.
"There's not a single SpaghettiO or chicken nugget in the house."
"Thank you," she said softly. "I'll see you on Sunday."
Once they'd hung up, she relived the conversation like the silly teenager she'd never been, weaving it into a crazy, sweet fantasy. Come Sunday, she'd be nothing but professional.
But tonight, she would let herself dream...
Chapter Three
Seated beside Ari at the dinner table on Sunday evening, Matt realized just how exquisite torture could get.
"This is definitely not SpaghettiOs," she said with a laugh as she sliced into the moist salmon filet.
"What's spaghetto?" Noah asked.
Matt dragged himself back onto the same spatial plane as his son, feeling yet another kick of guilt at his overtly sensual thoughts. The three of them were seated in the dinner nook, an annex off the kitchen with a swing door between. The formal dining room could seat thirty-six, but he used it only for holidays and business parties.
Ari was the first nanny who'd wanted to join them for dinner. The others preferred the hour off from their duties.
"SpaghettiOs are little round Os of pasta and sauce in a can," she explained.
"Can I have some spaghettos?" Noah's speech was exceptional for his age, with no childish lisp even on difficult letters, but he couldn't seem to wrap his tongue around the word.
Matt sure didn't plan on eating canned spaghetti. He'd left that kind of food behind when he'd gotten the hell out of the rough part of Chicago. Ari had left it behind too. But SpaghettiOs and chicken nuggets said a lot about where she'd grown up. The same kind of place he had. He could only hope it was nowhere near as bad.
"Well," Ari said, scooping up more broccoli, salmon, and rice pilaf. "Spaghetti is a lot better with homemade sauce that has good things in it like bell peppers, mushrooms, and onions."
Noah screwed up his face. "Onions are yucky."
Ari dropped her jaw, and her pretty hazel eyes went wide. Matt was as caught by the slashes of topaz in the depths of her irises as he was by her scent, something light and floral.
She shook her head in amazement. "Onions make everything taste better. And garlic."
"Ewww." Noah wrinkled his nose with disgust.
"Don't you like pizza?"
He nodded. "Cookie makes pizza the best."
"Our cook," Matt explained. "She's Russian with a pretty complicated-sounding last name. So she asked us to call her Cookie."
Giving Matt a little smile of thanks for the explanation, Ari turned back to Noah. "I bet Cookie puts onions and garlic in her pizza sauce."
"Really?" Noah raised his eyebrow in a gesture that should have been too old for a five-year-old boy to pull off. But he was rather advanced, if Matt said so himself.
"Yep. Now you better finish your yummy salmon. Because it's so good." She forked another bite, savoring it with a purr. "Eat up."
While Matt could barely keep his libido under control from just sitting at the same table with her, Noah did as he was told, making yum-yum sounds the way she had.
When Ari laughed, delight sparkling in her eyes, Matt knew he'd been an idiot to think he had things under control. It didn't matter that she was sweet and innocent and ten years younger than he. His thoughts weren't brotherly, fatherly, or even boss-y. Everything she said captivated him and mesmerized him, as easily as she charmed Noah.
Desperate to get his mind off her charms, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a new smartphone, setting it by her plate. "I'd like you to use this." When she didn't immediately reach for it, he added, "You said you can't get texts on your phone, but if I'm in a meeting where I can text but not talk, I need to be able to get hold of you when, where, and however I can."
She finally picked it up. "I must be the last person in Silicon Valley who doesn't know how to use one of these."
"I'll show you," Noah offered.
She grinned at him. "Thank you."
"You can switch your number over and transfer your contacts," Matt added. "Of course, you're free to use it for personal calls as well."
"Thank you," she said again. Then she waggled the phone at Noah. "We can use this on our adventures to look up the names of birds and check out maps. Cool, huh?" Noah nodded enthusiastically.
Matt liked that she didn't take anything for granted. He'd known plenty of people who took without even a thank-you, but she was unique in so many ways. God help him, he wanted to explore her uniqueness in every way he could...
Daniel was going to kill him for his thoughts. And Matt's foster mother, Susan, would be appalled.
"So, Noah," she said, "I've been planning all the fun things we can do together. Have you ever seen a dinosaur?"
"In a movie. It was real scary." Noah's eyes were wide and round.
"Movie dinosaurs can be scary because they roar." She roared and Noah laughed.
Matt's heart squeezed. Watching his son laugh always made him catch his breath with wonder. He loved the kid so damn much.
"There's a dinosaur skeleton at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park that is so awesome, you're going to fall in love with dinosaurs." She looked at Matt. "It's kind of expensive, but the membership is tax deductible."
He couldn't believe she was actually considering his expenses. Didn't she know just how much money he had? It wasn't like when he was a kid and he went to the museum only on the rare days when they opened it up to the public for free. But he realized that she'd probably used the free days too. "A membership is great. But you don't have to worry about ticket prices. I have enough money for whatever activities you think Noah would like."
"That doesn't mean I should waste it when it makes more sense to get a family membership we can use for a year."
Family. Matt knew how lucky he was to have Noah and the Mavericks as his family. Will, Sebastian, Evan, and Daniel were his blood brothers not by birth but by adversity. Bob and Susan, Daniel's parents, had taken them all in as teenagers when they needed it most, providing the love and nurturing none of them had found at home. There was Lyssa too--something told Matt that she and Ari would become fast friends. Will had fallen in love with Harper and her brother, Jeremy, and Sebastian was head over heels for Charlie and her mother. Only Evan's wife, Whitney, had never felt like family. Nor had any of Matt's nannies. But he could see Noah falling under Ari's spell.
Matt couldn't allow himself to do so as well.
Pushing his plate away, he propped his elbows on the table, fingers laced. "What else do you have planned?" None of the previous nannies had suggested outings.
Ari mimicked him, pushing away a plate so clean that not even the parsley garnish on the salmon was left. "Do you like the zoo, Noah?"
He bobbed his head, trailing his child-size fork through the remains of his salmon and broccoli. "Gorillas are my favorite."
"Me too." She grinned. "How about mummies?"
"Aren't they scary?"
"No, at least not the ones at the mummy museum. And later in the year we can visit the elephant seals at Ano Nuevo."
"Is it safe for kids?" Matt had heard the giant bulls could move amazingly fast.
"The docents keep you out of the way of the fighting males." She patted his hand to put him at ease, and though the touch was light and easy, heat spread like wildfire through him. She didn't seem to notice his reaction as she asked Noah, "Have you ever walked across the Golden Gate Bridge? We could even ride bikes."
"Noah's still got his training wheels," Matt cautioned as Cookie barreled through the swing doors to
remove their empty plates.
"That was delicious, Cookie. Thank you."
The matronly woman's lined face creased in an answering smile. She'd been with them since Noah was born. "You are welcome, miss. We have ice cream for dessert."
"Yes!" Noah enthused in his little-boy voice.
Ari laughed and Matt joined her, her humor infectious. She was like a fever heating up beneath his skin.
"I will be right back." Cookie marched out in her soft-soled shoes. Noah jumped up with his usual enthusiasm and, almost on Cookie's heels, ran into the kitchen to help.
"Does she live in too?"
"She's got a huge family, and her husband wouldn't hear of it." He didn't have a maid staff either, just a cleaning company that came in once a week. Which meant it would be just the three of them. All alone. With only Noah's bedroom between his and Ari's.
Every cell inside Matt burned hotter.
"It might be fun if Noah met my friend's little boy sometime. They could play together. Is that okay with you?"
He glanced at the swing door, the sound of Noah's laughter seeping through the crack. "I should explain a bit about Noah. He's shy around new kids. He's a cerebral boy, likes books and building Legos."
"I loved books when I was a kid. I still do. That's a good thing."
"I loved them too." Books had saved him in a lot of ways. But his bookwormish ways had also left him prey to other kids, and to his father. As a kid, Matt had been belittled for his brainiac ways. It was one of his worst fears that the same thing would happen to his son. "Not all kids understand that."
"Jorge's a great reader. They'll have a lot in common."
"Yes, but--"
She put her hand on his, as easily as she had when she'd reassured him about the elephant seals. It had the same effect, like a charge shooting through him, lighting up his body. But this was about Noah.
"Did something happen that has you worried?"
Matt had always been careful to hold his cards close to his chest when it came to personal information. But maybe telling Ari about the incident would help her appreciate why he was so intent on protecting Noah.
"It was in preschool last year." He'd just lost another nanny, and he'd picked up Noah that day. "I thought at first he was reading in the classroom with the other kid since they both had their hands on a book." He'd hung back out of sight, glad that Noah was making friends. Then, in barely a blink of his eyes, it turned ugly. "The kid slapped the book out of Noah's hands, making fun of the story he was reading."