Alien Pilot Needs a Nanny: Alien Nanny Agency #2 Page 2

  April tore her eyes from his just in time to see a tiny girl, covered in purple paint, streak toward them.

  3

  KHALL

  Khall stared at the new nanny, feeling completely blown away.

  She was so beautiful that it almost hurt to look at her, so beautiful it made him angry.

  Before he really had time to process any of it, a piercing scream warned him of the imminent arrival of Bo.

  That was probably a blessing in disguise. She needed a new nanny a lot more than he needed a hard-on for a young girl.

  Sure enough, his high-spirited daughter pounded into the room, her face streaked in tears and purple paint.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked Bo, not kneeling down or talking to her in that condescending, too-sweet voice people always used on little kids.

  Bo’s little eyebrows were pinched, and he half-expected steam to come out of her ears.

  “There’s no more purple paint,” Bo growled.

  “Probably because you’re wearing most of it,” he pointed out.

  That only got him a fresh bout of furious sobbing.

  Classic Bo. She had a temper on her, just like her daddy. Secretly, he felt a little hurt every time she was labeled a problem. She was just like him.

  But honest anger wasn’t accepted from little girls the way it was for boys and men. At least it wasn’t accepted by pre-schools and nannies.

  When she grew up, his money would insulate her from other people’s judgment.

  Until then, he hoped the exquisitely beautiful new nanny had a high tolerance to tantrums. She looked like a damned holo-film princess, so hopefully her temperament matched.

  “Maybe you’re not really out,” the nanny said to Bo, in a low, calm voice. “Let’s go look.”

  “I am out,” Bo insisted. “I am.”

  “Show me,” the new girl said.

  Bo stomped off toward her room and the girl followed, her lush golden curls glimmering in the last light of the two setting suns.

  This was exactly the kind of job a nanny should handle, but somehow, Khall found himself trailing after the two of them.

  Bo’s room took up one corner of the flat. It was spacious and filled with warm light.

  It was also incredibly messy. Khall couldn’t resist bringing her home lavish gifts from all over the system each time he came home from a run. The poor kid had to grow up without a mother, and with her dad gone all the time. A few extra toys wouldn’t spoil her.

  But she wasn’t great about putting them away, and he had to choose his battles.

  She was already sitting at her art table, showing her paints to the nanny.

  “No. More. Purple,” she said, slamming the empty purple container on the table with each word.

  “Maybe not in that container,” the girl said calmly. “But look, you’ve got these.”

  She pulled out red and blue from the box.

  “That’s red paint and blue paint,” Bo yelled. “I don’t want red and blue. I’m painting grass. I want purple.”

  To her credit, the nanny didn’t try to argue about the purple grass. She simply nodded once in a businesslike way, put her duffel bag on the floor, and began mixing the paints.

  Khall noticed that she moved very slowly and deliberately. Her measured pace was almost hypnotic. Even though he knew what the two paints would create, he still found himself leaning forward with bated breath.

  “Oh,” Bo said in a surprised way as the blue and red swirled together.

  “Now if you want a pinker purple, you can add more red,” the girl told her. “Or more blue if you want it bluer. And if you want a lighter purple, you can add white. Then it can be just the right purple for you.”

  “I want to do it,” Bo demanded imperiously.

  The nanny handed off the container and brush she was using.

  Khall expected her to grab her bag and head off with him, since she had just bought herself a few minutes of peace.

  But instead of beating a quick retreat, she leaned in to talk with Bo a little more.

  “Bolynne, you can mix paints, but not all of them,” she said. “Can I show you a few more things before you get started?”

  Bo looked up at her, curiosity winning out over the suspicion in her dark eyes. “Okay.”

  “You have beautiful paints, and we don’t want to ruin them,” the girl said. “So, you should know you can only mix certain combinations.”

  “Why?” Bo demanded.

  “If you mix them all together it will just turn into kind of a brownish color,” the girl explained. “Like a stew. But if you want colors from the rainbow, you can mix blue and red, or you can mix yellow and red, or blue and yellow. Only these three, and only two at a time.”

  Bo watched as the nanny set aside the three primary colors.

  “What colors will they make?” she asked.

  “Don’t you want to be surprised?” the girl replied, sounding a little scandalized.

  Bo’s eyes lit up. She did like surprises.

  “Who are you anyway?” Bo asked.

  “I’m April,” she said. “I’ll be taking care of you when your dad can’t be here.”

  Bo chewed on that idea for a minute. Khall swore he could see the gears turning in her head.

  “You’re not like the other ones,” she decided, turning her attention back to mixing her paints.

  April nodded once, not asking any follow-up questions.

  They watched as Bo dipped her purple paint brush and began painting grass again.

  “I have to show April her room,” Khall told her. “Okay?”

  Bo only frowned and leaned in closer to her painting.

  “Come on,” he said gently.

  April bent to grab her bag and straightened, glancing up at him as if to invite him to lead the way.

  But when their eyes met, he got that feeling again, the same one he’d had in the kitchen, as if he could taste her loneliness and desire.

  But she was young and beautiful. He was obviously just projecting his own issues onto her.

  Maybe the years apart from female company were wearing on him at last.

  “Your name is April?” he said politely, wrenching his eyes from hers as he headed back into the hall.

  “Yes, Mr. Rivvor,” she said in that same low, gentle tone.

  The way she said Mr. Rivvor had all his synapses firing, but he was determined to ignore his caveman reaction to her.

  “You can call me Khall,” he told her.

  “It’s good to meet you, sir,” she said. Her tone was polite, and he couldn’t help but notice she hadn’t used his name.

  There was something endearingly old-fashioned about her good manners. It was certainly refreshing compared to the last nanny, who had come in calling him by his first name without an invitation, and flirting shamelessly with him until he made it abundantly clear he wasn’t interested.

  He knew that he was good-looking, but he didn’t flatter himself. She had been interested in nothing but his money.

  Still, he found himself wondering what it would be like to find this nanny lounging in his bedroom wearing nothing but a filmy negligee after Bo’s bedtime…

  “You have a beautiful home,” she said softly.

  Who was he kidding? He had known April for five minutes and he already knew there was no way she would ever do anything inappropriate. He felt like he was showing his house to the Duchess of Sono-12.

  “Thanks,” he said, thoughts of his wife sobering his tone a bit. “We decorated it ourselves. Xteniya always wanted a country house. I guess it makes us feel close to her when we buy all this crap.”

  “I’m so sorry for your loss,” April said with a simple sincerity that was impossible to doubt.

  A lot of people seemed to throw those words around like they were the punchline to the awful joke that had lost him his life as he knew it.

  But April said them like she meant them, like maybe she’d had enough loss in her own life to underst
and.

  “Thanks,” he said gruffly. “This is your room.”

  He tapped on the doorframe, not quite ready to end their oddly intimate conversation.

  “But you’re free to spend time in the rest of the place, even when you’re off duty,” he told her. “Help yourself to whatever food you can find.”

  He was rambling. He cut himself off and rubbed the back of his neck. Did they even have any food in the house?

  They’d been eating cereal and ordering in Bergalian dumplings for so long that he honestly couldn’t remember.

  “The doorman mentioned that I can use your credit in the building,” April ventured. “What about at the shops? I don’t mind picking up the groceries for you. It will give Bo and me something to do.”

  Now that was considerate.

  “It’s not in the nanny contract,” he hedged. He seemed to remember that there was strict verbiage about limits of duties.

  “I’m happy to handle it as a favor,” she told him. “I get restless, and a walk will do me good. But only if you’re comfortable with me handling your credits. We can wait until you know me better, if you prefer.”

  “I would be very grateful if you would do grocery shopping, if and when you have the time and the inclination,” he told her. “Here.”

  He held his hand out for her wrist.

  April extended her hand to him. For a moment, her innocent blue eyes fixed on his, and he felt a sudden wave of emotion that had him almost snatching his own hand back, like she was a fire and he was afraid to get burned.

  When was the last time he’d felt like that?

  “Mr. Rivvor?” she breathed.

  He grabbed her hand and touched his bracelet to hers, depositing a breathtaking amount of credits into her account.

  “If you run out just ask for more,” he murmured, uncertain if he wanted to impress her or, if it was just his caveman side coming out again, desperate to protect and provide for her.

  “Thank you,” she told him, not even looking at her bracelet to see what he had given her.

  She was looking at him - like she was starving, and he was a feast.

  Sun Gods, protect them from each other.

  He knew he was overreacting, but surely, he wasn’t imagining the hunger in her eyes…

  “Do you want to see your room?” he asked, wrenching his gaze from hers.

  “Yes,” she said quietly, stepping back slightly so that he could open the door.

  Khall moved closer and turned the handle, trying not to let the fragrance of her hair drive him insane.

  She’s here to work. She’s here to work. She’s here to work…

  4

  APRIL

  April’s breath caught in her throat as the door swung open to reveal the coziest space she had ever seen.

  Though the whole back wall was a single pane of glass revealing the sharp planes and spires of the city skyline, everything else was a picture of softness.

  There was a fluffy pink area rug covering most of the polished concrete floor. A big white sleigh bed blocked most of the terrifying view, and a matching white bookcase and dresser were on the right-side wall.

  The left wall had double doors in it. Khall was already striding over to open them.

  “This is your closet,” he told her. “Unfortunately, you’ll have to share a bathroom with me. This room doesn’t have an attached bath, and there was a roof leak, so mine’s being renovated.”

  “Oh,” she said, still looking around, unable to believe her eyes. Was she supposed to expect her own bathroom on top of all of this?

  “Is it okay?” he asked. “You can get new things for it. This was Bo’s nursery. I didn’t really change anything but the bed.”

  “I love it,” she told him, turning so he could see how much this meant to her. “I’ve never had such a beautiful room.”

  He smiled at her, the green of his complexion fading slightly so that it was the color of new spring leaves budding on an old tree.

  She dragged her eyes back to the room before she could start daydreaming about him again. She was out of hand, and there was no excuse. She’d had a bit of a dating dry spell. Heck, her whole life had been a bit of a dating dry spell. But that was no excuse for lusting after a poor man who had lost his wife and just wanted someone to care for his child.

  “Let’s go see the rest of the house,” he suggested, his voice low and little rough.

  Was he angry again? It was so hard to tell.

  She followed him meekly, keeping her eyes off his big form in the hopes that she could avoid the onset of anymore inappropriate impulses.

  “This is the bathroom,” he said, pointing to a door beside hers.

  She peeked her head, and although at this point nothing should have impressed her, she was impressed anyway.

  The stall shower was formed from a single glass cell. And the massive copper soaking tub had a view of the whole city through the back wall.

  “Wouldn’t you want curtains?” she wondered out loud.

  “The glass is one way,” Khall laughed, the sound echoing off the tiles.

  “Just in this room, or all of it?” she asked.

  “All of it,” he said. “You could walk around the whole place naked, and no one out there would know.”

  She tried desperately not to imagine him stalking around this place naked.

  He clenched his jaw and strode down the hall.

  Crap. Was he an empath or something?

  Admittedly, she knew next to nothing about Jordraaki culture, but she thought the agency would have warned her about something like that.

  “This is my room,” he told her, pointing at a set of double doors. “In case you need anything.”

  Anything?

  “Thank you,” she said softly, willing herself not to see a double meaning in his obviously innocent statement.

  He headed past another closed door and into the living space. She figured that last door was maybe an office or spare room. The place was certainly big enough that they wouldn’t need all of it.

  “The balcony is through the glass,” he told her, pointing to the back wall of the living space. “You can relax out there. Or if you need to catch an airship, that’s where you would wait for it.”

  She repressed a shudder. She would never want to ride on an airship, and she would certainly never relax on the balcony. If she had her way, she would avoid that wall entirely. She wondered if it might be possible to just put up some nice curtains, but figured she should probably not ask about that right away.

  “We keep a family calendar on that wall because I travel a lot,” Khall went on, indicating a small holo-disc on a side table. “If you can’t remember the schedule, just check it out. And if you make any plans with Bo, be sure to enter them there. It automatically feeds to all our bracelets.”

  She moved over to the table and bent over the disc to activate it.

  Sure enough, a little calendar floated into view in front of her. There were icons of little aircrafts as well as mentions of Bo and someone called Minerva.

  That must be the girlfriend. Naturally, a guy as beautiful as Khall Rivvor would have a girlfriend.

  She could only be ashamed at the bitter taste of her thoughts. He was older, wealthy, and in a different place in his life - so far out of her league that it didn’t make sense to feel any way but happy for him that he had a woman in his life.

  “Neat, right?” a female voice asked from right beside her.

  April was so startled that she let out a little scream.

  She turned to see a teenage girl folded into a massive armchair, a holo-reader streaming text cupped reverently in her palms. She had long, dark hair in a braid and she wore a simple black shift.

  “That’s Minerva,” Khall said. “My older daughter.”

  “Sorry,” Minerva said. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “Hello, Minerva,” April said, trying to readjust her head around the situation. She was sure the agency hadn’t
mentioned a teenager. “It’s very nice to meet you. I’m April. What are you reading?”

  “Hi April,” Minerva said politely. “I’m just getting a jump on Bergalian lit, for next semester.”

  “Minerva is very studious,” Khall said proudly. “She’s always reading.”

  “That’s fantastic,” April said. “I love to read, too.”

  Minerva grinned and her beautiful green skin deepened slightly in color.

  April made a note to herself to look deeper into the meaning behind Jordraaki coloration. It seemed like Minerva’s color intensified when she was pleased. But when Khall’s color had deepened earlier, she thought it was in anger.

  “I’ll show you the kitchen,” Khall offered.

  She winked at Minerva and followed him to the massive kitchen space once more.

  “It’s a pretty basic set-up in here,” he said, waving casually at the nicest kitchen she had ever seen.

  She was definitely going to have to learn how to use all that equipment.

  “You won’t really need to use much of it except for yourself,” Khall said. “Bo doesn’t eat anything except jam sandwiches.”

  That was a problem. April made a note to herself to try and help with it.

  “What about Minerva?” she asked.

  “Oh, you won’t have to worry about her,” Khall said. “She’s sixteen standard years old, going on thirty. She doesn’t really need a nanny. She basically never comes out of her room - she practically lives inside that holo-reader and her computer. I’m surprised she was out in the living room at all just now.”

  “Maybe she was curious about a new person living in the house,” April offered.

  The idea of the teen closing herself up in her room and not needing an adult sounded really lonely.

  “We’ve had so many nannies in and out,” Khall said, shaking his head and looking up at the ceiling. “There’s not much left to be curious about, other than how long they’ll stay.”

  Wow.

  “Sorry,” he said quickly. “It’s just that Bo can be a challenge. I don’t mean to disparage your colleagues.”