In fact, minutes later, a stout woman who looked around sixty-something strode through the door with an umbrella in her hand. “I’m Mrs. Heidelkin from Nanny Finders. Are you Miss Montague?”
“I am. Please come in. Willy’s just waking up from his nap,” Delilah said.
Mrs. Heidelkin eyed her watch. “That’s much too late for a nap. You’ll have a difficult time getting him down for the night. Babies require a strict schedule.”
“I’m sure you’re right. We’re in a transition phase right now,” Delilah said as she scooped up Willy and put him in her newly purchased high chair. She pulled out a jar of baby food green beans.
Mrs. Heidelkin turned up her nose. “I make the baby food from scratch. More nutritious.” She saw the cookies on the counter. “And no cookies. Terrible for their teeth and makes them hyper.”
Delilah slid a sideways glance at Benjamin.
“Is this Mr. Montague?” Mrs. Heidelkin asked.
“Mr. Huntington,” Benjamin corrected the woman. “I’m Miss Montague’s neighbor.”
Mrs. Heidelkin nodded. “I’m glad I won’t have to deal with any men. Men don’t know anything about child-rearing.”
Delilah met Benjamin’s gaze again and her lips twitched. “You have some definite opinions.”
“Years of experience. Years.”
“Tell me about your experience,” Delilah said as she spooned the baby food into Willy’s mouth.
“I raised three of my own children and have been nanny to two other children for ten years each. I thought about retiring, but Nanny Finders told me you don’t need someone to stay overnight. I can’t abide working with men though. I don’t like them.”
“Would it bother you that Willy is male?” Benjamin asked, finding the woman’s antipathy toward men grating.
“Oh, no,” she said sweetly. “This way I get them young and teach them the right way. My boys are just as obedient and docile as the girls.”
“It’s getting late. Did you want to ask Mrs. Heidelkin anything else?” Benjamin asked Delilah, but gave a slight shake of his head.
She paused. “You’re right. Thank you so much for coming, Mrs. Heidelkin. I’ll be in touch with the agency if I have any further questions.” Delilah passed the baby spoon to Benjamin, then led Mrs. Heidelkin to the door.
“You can’t hire her. She’s a man hater.”
“I know. She might chop Willy’s weewee off if I leave him alone with her. This nanny’s agency isn’t putting out like I’d hoped.”
Benjamin was still stuck on Delilah’s colorful description of Willy’s potential emasculation. He tried to imagine those words coming from his former fiancée’s mouth and couldn’t.
“Maybe I should place a classified ad?” she said, taking the spoon from Benjamin. “Help wanted: Mary Pop-pins reincarnated. Must change cloth diapers.”
“Only in Disneyland,” Benjamin murmured. “Does the job require perfect pitch and a four-octave range?”
She nodded. “And a magic umbrella.” She met his gaze. “Thank you for helping out today. You can leave now.”
He blinked at her abrupt dismissal of him. He had the sudden understanding of what yesterday’s garbage felt like. She was pushing him out the door. Curious, he pushed back. “I’m not in a rush. I can help you all night if you like.”
“I don’t,” she said, studying the green beans. “Like,” she added and met his gaze. “I think you should leave.”
“Why?”
“Because Willy is my responsibility and I need to get used to it.”
She didn’t bat an eye, but he sensed she wasn’t telling the truth. “And the real reason is?”
She scowled. “I don’t know. You ask too many questions. You won’t let me give Willy cookies. You make fun of Mary Poppins.” She made a huffing sound. “You show signs of being a control freak. It’s like I’ve always said, wealthy, controlling men are a pain in the butt. And they have no sexual creativity.”
She shouldn’t affect him. She wasn’t his kind of woman. He shouldn’t feel the urge to beat his chest, howl at the moon, rip off both their clothes and make love to her until she couldn’t think straight. Particularly in front of a six-month-old eating green beans.
Benjamin counted to ten then did the only thing he could. He pulled the jar of green beans and spoon from her hands, set them on Willy’s high-chair tray and dragged Delilah outside the kitchen. Shoving her back against the wall, he slid his knee between her legs and lowered his mouth to hers.
“What on earth are you doing?” she whispered.
“I’m sick of hearing your ignorant assumption regarding sexual creativity and wealthy men.”
“Oh, yeah, and what are you going to do about it?”
“I’m going to shut you up,” he said and kissed her.
Getting a man’s attention is like holding a hot auction on ebay. A little competition and they’re off to the races.
—D
ELILAH’S
D
ICTUM
H
e flicked his tongue over her lower lip then dipped it inside with a seductive, sensuous stroke. Heat flicked to life and roared up from her feet to her cheeks. He sucked her lip into his mouth, coaxing, daring her to respond. His kiss said
give it to me, baby
.
She instinctively slid her tongue into his mouth and felt him draw it deep inside. Her nipples turned to hard buds against his tight chest. Suddenly lightheaded, she waved her hands, reaching for something solid and stable. She found his arms and wrapped her fingers around the bulge of his biceps.
He gave a low growl that vibrated inside her while he rubbed his hard pelvis against her and she felt her blood pool in sensitive places.
Her body responded to his with hair-trigger speed. Fast, hard, dizzy.
What is this?
she thought, confused. She wasn’t accustomed to being out of control unless she decided it was time to roll with it. She was accustomed to being the one in control. What the—
She pulled her mouth from his and sucked in a breath of air. “If you don’t move away from me, I’m going to rearrange your family jewels.”
“You didn’t like me kissing you,” he said in disbelief and lowered his hand to touch one of her rigid nipples.
She swallowed a moan.
“Tell the truth.”
“I can honestly say I don’t like what you did to me,” she said in a voice that needed far more oomph to be convincing.
“I’m teachable. What didn’t you like?” he asked, lowering his open mouth to her throat.
How easy it had been for him to put her into do-me mode
. She inhaled a quick breath to clear her mind, but caught a draft of his aftershave instead. Her body was begging to be very bad, but some weird sense of self-preservation was screaming to back off.
Gritting her teeth, she shifted her position slightly and jerked her knee upward into his hardened crotch. Benjamin stiffened and not from pleasure.
He swore and stepped back. “Okay,” he said, dark arousal draining from his eyes. “I somewhat deserved that.”
“I warned you,” she said, surprised that she still felt hot and bothered.
“Yes, you did,” he said speculatively. “But you kissed me back.”
Uncomfortable with the truth, she shrugged. “It’s been a while.”
He raised his eyebrows in surprise as if he couldn’t imagine her going for more than two days without sex. “Really?”
“Really. But you’re
really
not my type.”
“You’re not mine either,” he said. “Makes you wonder what would happen if we both went against type.”
Delilah could almost hear the crackle of a brush fire. She’d avoided wealthy, overeducated men due to her mother’s experience, although she’d harbored a forbidden curiosity.
Something thumped on the floor in the kitchen, followed by a happy shriek. Willy, she thought with a wry smile. Her sex control switch. She and Benjamin rushed around the corner to find his face and hair covered in baby green beans as he played with a scoop of the strained vegetable on his tray.
Benjamin chuckled. The sound was low and sexy.
Delilah ignored her reaction to it. “Gross,” she said, heading for the paper towels. “He’ll definitely need a bath.”
“Have fun,” Benjamin said.
When she scowled at him, he hooked his thumbs in his jeans, drawing attention to his pelvis. “I gotta apply some ice.”
As she dampened the towels, Delilah rolled her eyes. “I didn’t knee you hard enough to cause pain, just enough to get your attention.”
“It’s the first time I’ve been kneed by a woman, so I’ll have to see.”
Her lips twitched. “So I was your first? I think I like that.”
“Yeah,” he said dryly. “You can say you bring out the worst in me.”
“If that was the worst,” she began, then broke off. She glanced at Benjamin and knew she’d been caught. Well, damn.
“Who knows?” he taunted her. “I might could have gotten a lot worse if we’d continued. Night-night, Miss Delilah.”
She told herself not to watch as he walked through the hall toward the door, but she couldn’t resist stealing a peek. Benjamin had a very nice backside. She wondered what it looked like naked.
Benjamin had been summoned to his father’s home office for a critical consultation session with his brother Robert and his father.
His father, whose fit broad-shouldered body belied the fact that he was knocking on sixty, pulled three cigars from his desk humidor and gave one to Robert and another to Benjamin. Benjamin didn’t light his. He didn’t like cigars all that much. He did, however, accept the good scotch.
“You have everything going for you,” William Bradford said to Robert. “But one thing would cap it off. An engagement. You need to settle down.”
This was one of the many reasons Benjamin had wanted to escape Texas. He looked at his brother’s expression of discomfort and knew he could be standing in Robert’s shoes if he hadn’t gone east for his education. In fact, when he’d first returned, his father had suggested that Benjamin take another look at politics. Benjamin had firmly rejected the idea.
“I don’t know, Dad,” Benjamin said, throwing his brother a lifesaver. “Robert has probably gotten a lot of mileage out of being one of Houston’s top-ten bachelors.”
His father tossed him a glowering look as if to say he’d been brought here to support his father’s agenda. “Nonsense. The voting public likes a stable, settled man. And an engagement would bring some sparkle to the campaign. Especially an engagement to a woman like Lilly Bradford. Her father was rough around the edges, but her mother was pure Texan until she remarried and moved to New York a few years ago. Plus Lilly’s loaded.”
Robert moved his shoulders as if fighting a tight feeling. “Lilly’s nice, and she’s pretty, but—”
“But what?” William demanded. “What’s not to like?”
“I don’t know if I love her that way or not.”
William gave a rough chuckle. “You don’t have to love her now. You can grow to love her. And if you don’t, then you can break the engagement and we’ll find somebody else. After the election, of course.”
Robert frowned and set down his cigar. “I don’t know, Dad. Lilly’s not very experienced. If we got engaged and I dumped her, she might have a hard time with it.”
Benjamin was relieved to see Robert exhibit a modicum of consideration. It was a sign that their father hadn’t completely corrupted his thinking. Robert had been polished by their father so much that Benjamin almost hadn’t recognized his brother when he’d arrived home. During their growing-up years, Robert had been labeled a geek and Benjamin had gotten into more than one fistfight in his defense. It was hard to believe that Robert had once been a shy, gangly, self-conscious boy who’d buried himself in his studies and the History Channel. Once Benjamin had left, their father had turned his full attention to Robert, and an amazing transformation had taken place. Benjamin just hoped the transformation wouldn’t turn out to be similar to that of Frankenstein’s.
William put his arm around Robert’s shoulder. “If you end up breaking the engagement, she’ll get over it. They all do.”
“I’m not ready to make this kind of commitment.”
William gave the infamous heavy sigh designed to trigger guilt. “Robert, a lot of people have worked hard for you. You’ve got to be willing to make some sacrifices too.”
“But marriage? I want to marry the right woman.”
“Lilly is the right woman, trust me. A campaign donation from her could do wonders for the coffers.”
“Did you marry Mom for her money?” Benjamin asked quietly.
William shot him a sharp look. “Of course not. I had to fight through a dozen of her boyfriends to win her. You know that.”
“So you were in love with her?” Benjamin continued.
“From the first time I rescued her from a drunken Romeo at a party.”
“That’s what I want,” Robert said. “I don’t feel that way about Lilly. What do you think, Ben?”
Benjamin downed another swallow of scotch, relishing the burn. “I think if you can live without her, then you shouldn’t marry her.”
William made a sound of disgust. “You can’t pay attention to him.” His father turned away from Robert and mouthed,
you’re supposed to be helping
.
Benjamin shrugged and took another swallow of scotch.
“He’s jaded because his engagement just fell apart,” William said, pointing at Benjamin. “And look at the bruises on his face. He doesn’t even have the sense to move in with his mother and me while he gets his act together. Instead he’s living in a neighborhood where he gets beat up by thugs.”
Benjamin knew he was living in one of the safest neighborhoods in Houston, but because he wasn’t living in the same neighborhood as George Bush, Sr., his father thought he was living in the slums. He rose to his feet. “I’ve imparted about all the wise counsel I can,” Benjamin said. He patted Robert on the back. “You’ll do the right thing,” he assured his bewildered younger brother. “I know Dad wouldn’t want to manipulate you into doing something that goes against your values,” he said more for his father than for Robert.
“No need for you to rush off,” William said.
“I’m not rushing. I’m just leaving,” Benjamin said, setting his empty shot glass on the tray on his father’s desk.
“Let me walk out with you,” William said. “I’ll be back in a minute, Robert.”
Benjamin could have found the front door with his eyes closed, so he knew his father must want to say something to him privately.
William closed the door behind him. “Are you sure you won’t reconsider running?”
Benjamin looked at his father as if he’d lost his mind. “I can’t do that. You’ve gotten endorsements from groups who have pledged to support Robert. On top of that—”
“They would prefer you,” William said, lowering his voice. “Everyone talks about how much they’d hoped you’d go into politics. Robert is struggling. He just doesn’t have your combination of brains and backbone.”
Benjamin felt nauseous. “Robert is the candidate. I’m not. I don’t want to run. I never wanted to run.”
“Well, what are you going to do instead? Teach?” he said in disdain. “You could do so much better. You could have been president.”
Benjamin groaned, grateful he would be out the door in three more steps. “I don’t want to be president. I’m not running for political office, Dad. Ever.”
William wagged his finger. “Never say never.”
“I didn’t,” Benjamin said. “I said ever. Not that you’re listening. Ease up on Robert and he might surprise you. I’ll see you around.”
“Be careful in that parking garage. Your face looks like hell.”
“Thanks, Dad. You too,” he said, knowing his father would catch his ambiguous insult in a moment. He closed the door behind him and was halfway down the front steps when he heard his father’s voice.
“You smartass. You just told me my face looked like hell, didn’t you?” he said with a rough chuckle. “You’re a smart one. You would have had them at your feet in politics, boy.”
“I’ll leave that to you and Robert. Take care, Dad.” As he got into his car, he tried not to let his father’s taunts stick in his craw. But the truth was he’d been nursing his wounds for a while. It was time to figure out what he wanted to do next.
Lilly stood outside Delilah’s office, listening to her talk with her assistant.
“Two nanny applicants down the toilet. All I want is a modern-day Mary Poppins. Is that too much to ask?”
Sara chuckled. “I can keep Willy in the evenings sometime if you like.”
Lilly cocked her head to one side in speculation. Nanny? It sounded like Delilah was planning on keeping this kid around for awhile. She frowned, wondering why. Delilah didn’t seem the nurturing type at all. She was too busy seducing sugar daddies like her father.
Anger hardened her heart and she lifted her chin. She was here to check on things.
Just because she could.
She stepped closer, listening to the women talk.
“I’m not letting you sit home with a baby. You’re a free woman now, Sara. The world is your playground. You need to get out and meet men. You need to get out and let them chase you. Men love the chase,” Delilah said in a confiding tone.
Lilly paused.
Men love the chase
. Robert didn’t have to chase her. She was always waiting for him.
“It’s strange as Hel—sinki, but first you have to be available and then you have to be not as available,” Delilah said. “Otherwise, they take you for granted. And definitely keep more than one on the string. It’s like an auction on ebay. The perceived value of an item skyrockets if more than one person wants it.”
Lilly wrinkled her nose. Delilah’s words were cutting too close to the bone. Shrugging them off, she strode into the office. “Hello, I’m here to check on things.”
Delilah blinked as she jiggled Willy on her hip. “What things?”
“Business,” Lilly said.
Delilah exchanged a long-suffering glance with Sara. “Okay. Step into my office. What would you like to know?”
“For starters, I’d like to know if your assistant is using company time to take care of that baby,” Lilly said.
The baby smiled at her and Lilly had to purse her lips to keep from smiling in return.
“Sara is helping me just until I make other arrangements,” Delilah said. “You don’t need to worry about it.”
“If your personal life is affecting your performance at the spa, then I should be concerned about it,” Lilly retorted.