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

that was a really important client.”
    â€œThey’re all really important.” She turned the mold over and smacked the bottom of it, perhaps a little too hard, with the back of a plastic shovel.
    She was right. And she certainly wouldn’t be the first person to suggest that he might be too focused on his company. But his work was at least something he understood. In his office, he was competent and capable and completely in charge. With Riley, he often felt helpless and overwhelmed and absolutely terrified that he was going to screw up—as if he hadn’t done so enough already.
    He glanced over at the nanny, to gauge her interpretation of the stilted exchange with his daughter, but Hannah’s eyes were hidden behind dark glasses so that he couldn’t tell what she was thinking. He decided he would wait to tell both of them of the meeting that would take him back to the city on Monday.
    â€œWhat are you making?” he asked Riley instead.
    â€œWhat does it look like?”
    He wasn’t pleased by her sarcastic tone, but he knew that she wasn’t pleased with him at the moment, either, so he only said, “It looks like a sand castle.”
    She didn’t respond.
    â€œIs it Cinderella’s castle or Sleeping Beauty’s?” he prompted.
    â€œUncle Rowan’s.”
    He should have realized that a child who had run through the halls of an authentic castle would be less fascinated by the fairy-tale versions. He should also have realized that she would be as methodical and determined in this task as with any other. Riley didn’t like to do anything unless she could do it well. As a result, she quickly grew frustrated with any task she couldn’t master.
    Though Hannah didn’t say anything, she pushed a cylindrical mold toward him with her foot. He let his gaze drift from the tips of her crimson-painted toenails to the slim ankle, along the curve of her slender calf—
    She nudged the cylinder again, with a little less patiencethis time. He tore his attention away from her shapely legs and picked up the vessel.
    â€œBuilding a castle is a pretty big project for one person,” he said to Riley. “Do you think maybe I could help?”
    She just shrugged, so he picked up the small shovel and began filling the receptacle.
    â€œYou can’t use that sand,” she said impatiently, grabbing the mold from him and tipping it upside down to empty it out. “You need the wet stuff, so it sticks together.”
    She looked to Hannah for verification, confirming that this castle-building knowledge had been recently imparted by the new nanny, and was rewarded by a nod. Then she demonstrated for him—showing him how to pack the container with sand, then turn it over and tap it out again.
    There were a few moments of frustration: first when one of the walls collapsed, and again when she realized the windows she’d outlined weren’t even. But Michael patiently helped her rebuild the wall and assured her that sand-castle windows wouldn’t fall out if they weren’t perfectly level. That comment finally elicited a small smile from her, and he basked in the glow of it.
    While he remained outwardly focused on the castle-building project, he was conscious of the nanny watching their interactions. He was conscious of the nicely rounded breasts beneath her T-shirt, and of the long, lean legs stretched out on the sand. He noticed that her hair had dried quickly in the sun and that the ends of her ponytail now fluttered in the breeze.
    She could have passed for a teenager who’d skipped school to hang out at the beach with her friends, the way she was leaning back on her elbows, her bare feet crossed at the ankles and her face tipped up to the sun. And his immediate physical response to the sexy image was shockingly adolescent.
    Dios, it was going to be a long two months. Especially if,as he suspected, he was going to spend an inordinate amount