“I didn't say bad. I said amateurish. Totally different thing. But you know what? Tonight you really took it like a champ. I have to say, excellent hip movements. Good doggy style form. Total pro moves.”
“Yeah, sure,” I say as he sighs against my skin and goose bumps break out all over. “Nice lines. Do those work on every girl?”
“What do you think?” he whispers against me, reaching down to lift my chin up, tucking my head under his. “Is it working on you?”
I smile and open my mouth to answer him when the doorknob jiggles and I hear Bella's voice outside the hollow core door.
“Aunt Brooke, I heard somebody screaming, and I'm really scared. I can't sleep.”
I look back at Zayden and he gives me a sad half-smile, standing up and grabbing a pair of black sweats from the floor. I watch his tight ass as he drags them over his hips and tosses me a baggy t-shirt and my kitty cat pajama pants.
I kick my legs over the edge of the bed and tug them on quickly, waiting on the edge of the mattress as he opens the door and Bella throws her arms around his waist.
“Did you hear that?” she whispers ominously. “It was a banshee. I learned about them from YouTube. They come in the night and scream when you're going to die. Am I going to die, Uncle Zayden?”
I smile when she calls him uncle, this stupid sloppy smile that I wipe quickly off my face lest Zay sees it. Ugh. I don't want him to think I'm going to go all crazy virgin on him and start professing my undying love. Even if he is adorable with my niece. And good in bed. And silly and funny and sexy and brimming with personality.
Um.
I stand up quickly and brush my hands down the front of the shirt. It's one of Zay's and it says Too Kewl For School. Heh.
“It wasn't a banshee,” Zayden says with all due seriousness. “Aunt Brooke just stubbed her toe.” He lifts up his fingers and gives her a salute. “Scout's honor, Bella, I swear it. I actually activated an anti-banshee spell around the perimeter of the house. We're all safe here.”
I smile another dumb lumpy smile as Zay glances over his shoulder. He totally sees that one and I feel the blood drain from my face. Great.
He turns back to Bella and reaches down to ruffle her dark hair.
“Even if it was Brooke, I can't sleep now. I'm too awake.” Zayden nods for a moment and then snaps his fingers.
“I got it. You want to go downstairs and bake some midnight cookies? Midnight cookies actually taste better than regular boring old day cookies. You game?”
Bella's face lights up and she claps her hands together, nodding her head vigorously and giving Zayden this adorable grin with her teeth showing and her eyes squinched shut.
“I'll go get the sugar and flour out!” She disappears down the hall before I can say anything.
Zay looks back at me and holds out a tattooed hand.
“You want in on this?” I nod and move over to take it, gasping a little when he pulls me into his arms and … hugs me? Zay squeezes me tight and breathes against my neck, letting go only when he hears the sound of a door opening.
It's Kinzie.
“You down for midnight cookies, squirt?” he asks as she blinks at him and rubs sleep from her eyes. Her smile, when it does come, is slightly less cynical than usual.
“You're not going to ruin them this time, are you?” she asks and Zay laughs, holding out a hand for her to take. I watch them start down the steps together, voices low and gentle in the early morning dark.
And then I feel something deep stir inside my tummy.
I don't know it at the time, but it's the beginning of my love for Zayden.
How cliché is that? The master of the house falling in love with the nanny?
I really am a crazy person.
When I wake up in the morning, I am so totally confused. First of all, I'm wondering why there's hot air blasting me in the face. My first thought is that the A/C is broken. I try to roll over and shake my date awake—because let's be honest, I always have a lady friend over—when I realize my arm is trapped behind another body.
Hmm.
I'm not saying I've never had two chicks in my bed before, but I feel like it's something I would've remembered. Then I notice a third warm body across my lap and finally blink myself awake.
I'm sitting on Brooke's shitty inherited couch with my feet propped up on the coffee table. The heating vent in the ceiling is spouting hot air like a politician, and the three bodies around me finally make sense. I've got Kinzie curled up on my left side, Bella on my right, and Brooke with her head nestled riiiiiiight up against the warm bulge in my sweats.
My morning erection solidifies into stone as I carefully try to extract myself from the pile of people around me, cringing as a hiss explodes in my ear and a claw lashes me across the neck.