Read Online Prince Daddy & the Nanny by Brenda Harlen - Free Book Online Page A

what she was communicating.
    â€œActually, my name is spelled like this,” she said, and wrote H-A-N-N-A-H in the sand.
    Riley studied the word for a moment, and when it washed away, she wrote it again, a little further from the waves this time. “Your name is the same backwards as forwards.”
    Hannah nodded. “It’s called a palindrome.”
    â€œAre there other palindromes?”
    â€œThere are lots, not just words—” she wrote R-A-C-EC-A-R in the sand “—but phrases and even complete sentences.”
    â€œDo you know any sentences or phrases?” Riley challenged.
    N-E-V-E-R-O-D-D-O-R-E-V-E-N.
    â€œThat’s pretty cool,” the princess admitted. Her gaze flickered back toward the house. The prince was pacing on the terrace, his phone still attached to his ear.
    She took the stick from Hannah again and wrote D-A-D.
    â€œGood job,” Hannah said, then winced when the little girl crossed the word out with so much force the stick snapped.
    â€œDo you want to go back inside?” she asked gently.
    Riley shook her head again. “I need to wash off this sand.”
    Â 
    Michael had just ended his call when he spotted Hannah and Riley coming out of the water. Obviously he’d missed the opportunity to join them for a swim, and he was as sincerely disappointed as he knew his daughter would be. But as she made her way up the beach with Hannah toward the lounge chairs where they’d left their towels, his attentionand his thoughts shifted from his little girl to the woman with her.
    He hadn’t expected that she would swim in the shorts and T-shirt she’d worn down to the beach. Truthfully, he hadn’t even let himself think about what kind of bathing suit she had on beneath those clothes. But it wasn’t the bathing suit that snared his attention so much as the delectable curves showcased by the simple one-piece suit of cerulean Lycra.
    He didn’t feel the phone slip from his fingers until it hit the top of his foot. With a muttered curse, he bent to retrieve the discarded instrument—and smacked his head on the rail coming up again. This time his curse wasn’t at all muted.
    Rather than risk further bodily injury, he remained where he was, watching through the slats of the railing as the nanny helped Riley dry off. After his daughter’s cover-up had been slipped back on, Hannah picked up a second towel and began rubbing it over her own body. From the curve of her shoulders, down slender, shapely arms. From narrow hips, down endlessly long and sleekly muscled legs. Across her collarbone, dipping into the hollow between her breasts.
    There was nothing improper about her actions—certainly she wasn’t trying to be deliberately seductive. But like a voyeur, he couldn’t tear his gaze away.
    She tugged her shirt over her head, then shimmied into her shorts, and Michael blew out a long, slow breath, urging the hormones rioting in his system to settle down. But he now knew that, regardless of what she might be wearing, he would forever see the image of her rising out of the water like a goddess.
    It was a good thing he would be going out of town for a few days.

Chapter Five
    B y the time Michael joined his daughter and her new nanny, Riley was packing sand into a long rectangular mold. She glanced up when he lowered himself onto the sand beside her, but didn’t say a word. She didn’t need to say anything—he could tell by the reproachful look in her big brown eyes that she was displeased with him.
    He could handle her quick mood changes and even her temper tantrums, but her evident disappointment cut him to the quick. He was trying his best to be a good father, though it seemed increasingly apparent to him that he didn’t know how. Every time he thought he was getting the hang of things, the rules changed.
    â€œSorry I missed swimming,” he said, tugging gently on a lock of her wet hair. “But