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I gave a single nod, swallowing hard and not pointing out that I already knew his name and had used it, in fact. “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. DeMilo.”
“Oh, Christ…no. Just call me Luca. I mean…unless there are rules. Do I have to call you Ms. Crane?” His gaze dropped to my hands, the left mostly hidden as I held them casually before me while we talked. “Mrs. Crane?”
“No, Luca.” I grinned, using his first name for emphasis. “No rules of address, and there’s no Mr. Crane. But don’t call me Emerson. Call me Em.”
“Em,” he repeated in a near whisper.
Three
Luca
“Let me show you your room. Did you bring your things with you?” I asked, already heading out of the living room. As if I’d immediately developed a sense for her, I felt her following me. I hadn’t experienced a sensation like it in years, and strangely, it reminded me of home. Not just my hometown, but my childhood house. Weird.
But having her following me, the light measured taps of her sensible black shoes on the parquet behind me, felt comfortable.
“No, I didn’t bring anything. This was just an interview.” Her melodic voice wrapped around me, confusing me and distracting me from the task at hand. Momentarily, I forgot she’d arrived for Noa. I wanted her here for me.
Selfish, but my dick didn’t care. I headed for the guest room my mom had used while she’d helped me before her trip. It still amazed me that she’d packed up the home where I’d grown up and moved into an apartment after my dad passed away. And then she’d just left that behind, found me a place then moved in with me until she’d left for her month-long cruise this week. When she got back… Who knew? But I wasn’t going to have her give up her life by coming here to raise my daughter.
I stopped outside the room that would be Em’s and swung open the door. “Right. Right… Well, we’ll come with you to get your things.”
Yeah, I sounded a little desperate, and this beautiful woman—no, she wasn’t just beautiful. She wasgorgeouswith her alluring, tawny eyes and silky dark hair that cascaded in a cloud to her mid-back. Thisgorgeouswomanwas going to save me from the mess I’d landed in. Not that I regretted my situation or my daughter. But nothing could make a person feel more helpless than an infant. And the tiny four-month-old girl Em had placed in the portable playpen a few minutes ago had turned out to be my kryptonite.
“Okay. But you don’t need to. I’ve just been staying at a hotel because I was in between assignments. I only need to run in and grab my bag then check out—”
“You can go up and pack, and I’ll check you out.”
She looked startled at my pronouncement. “I… What? You don’t—”
“Call it a signing bonus. I can’t say this will be the easiest job you’ve ever had.”
She chuckled. “Oh, that sweet baby? She’s an angel. Are you telling me that you’ll be a demon to work for?”
I sputtered. “No, my staff loves working for me. We’ve been rated as one of the best places to work since the year I opened Demi-Tech—that’s the name of my business. And thanks to you, I’ll be able to get back to being the awesome boss they expect.”
She nodded, and I got the feeling she already knew about my work. Of course, she did. The agency she was with had done a thorough check on me before they even considered a contract. They’d probably given her a dossier on me before sending her over, like we were in some spy game or something.
“This is your room,” I said, indicating into the neat space. My mom had decorated it to be feminine and welcoming. She’d ordered me to get a modest vase of flowers for the side table before the nanny got here. I wasn’t sure when she thought I’d have that sort of opportunity, what with taking care of a baby 24/7 and trying to sleep, shower and eat during “hour twenty-five”.
I’d ordered something from the local florist.
The past week had been a wake-up call and a train wreck. I may have begged the owner of Care-Co to send me someone, anyone, to help me. I may have thrown out a bribe offer, that the woman had graciously rejected, but she’d promised to find me someone. I’d grasped onto the lifeline of hope she’d tossed me, a dying man seeing his only salvation.
Okay…dramatic?
What could I say? My life worked like the video games I’d grown up conquering. Right now, I was on my last life with my vitality almost to zero.
When Noa had been born, my mom had swooped in and just taken over. A help but it also hadn’t done me any favors. Now she’d abandoned me to take a trip. Which was fine. I was glad she was going and living her life. I needed to learn to be a dad on my own, but… I also had a company to run and a staff to keep employed. I’d been working remotely for the past four months, but that was coming to a head, too.
“It’s pretty. Thank you.”
“My room is the next one down. Noa’s is across the hall from you. And that next door is the other guest bedroom. There’s a bathroom there.” I pointed to the door before hers on the long corridor that ran the length of the house. “But you have your own en suite bathroom, too.”
Which lessened my chances of seeing her in a towel.
I mentally smacked the side of my head. I had to stop thinking like that or my thoughts might play across my face. Then she’d think I was some skeevy dad she had to run away from. The last thing I wanted was for her to quit.
We stood in stilted silence for a long moment. For all the growing up I’d done since I was a teenager filming myself playing video games in my parents’ basement, my default mode was still awkward as fuck around people I didn’t know well.
