Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Flora
“Buggery bloody bollocks!” I cried as I dropped onto the sofa. After stammering and spluttering at him in the kitchen, nearly calling him Maurizio and then almost falling on my face, I didn’t know how the hell I was ever going to talk to him again.
I was not a naturally clumsy or bumbling person, and yet, around Maurice, I was becoming very much that way.
Why? I had no clue. I mean, he made me nervous, not in a scared or fearful kind of way.
He was a nice man, friendly, funny, and had gone out of his way to make me feel nothing but welcome since I’d arrived.
A nagging voice in my head persistently reminded me that he was gorgeous, his height making me envision all the ways he could lift me.
He was a wonderful father, and that was always a turn on when it came to single men.
I couldn’t even allow myself to think about how he smelled.
I wasn’t sure I had sufficient adjectives to describe his aroma, even to myself.
“So much for not thinking about his smell.” The sound of those words aloud rather than in my head spurred me into action.
What was happening to me? I pushed all thoughts of crushes and attraction from my mind because that would be ridiculous, wouldn’t it? I hadn’t been a teenage girl for a long time and needed to stop acting like one.
I got to my feet, intent on sorting dinner, having a shower and spending the night in front of the telly. Maybe I’d phone Maddie and catch up. That would take my mind off thoughts of my boss and making myself look a prat.
Or maybe it wouldn’t because we all knew what the topic of conversation would be when it came to my sister.
I ate a dinner of spaghetti hoops on toast and before a shower I phoned Maddie. She answered on the first ring.
“Hey there baby sister! How are you? Are you okay?”
I laughed at the panic I detected in her voice believing that I was calling because there was a problem. “I’m fine, I just thought I’d call for a chat.”
“Ah.” She sounded awkward, as though she wanted to give me the brush off but didn’t quite feel entirely able to.
“Are you okay?” I suddenly became concerned that she may be the one with a problem.
“Yeah, yeah. Sorry. Now’s not a good time.” Her voice turned into a whisper. “I have a date.”
I laughed, assuming her date must be there if she was whispering. “And is that your way of him not hearing you telling me that you have a date?”
She laughed herself. “Yes, now bugger off. I’ll call you tomorrow night and we can have a proper catch up.”
“It’s a date. Maybe not as active as tonight’s but a date, nevertheless. Have fun and be careful.”
“Yes, Grandma,” Maddie replied with something between a huff and a laugh.
As a gossip with Maddie was postponed, I changed my shower for a bath and a large glass of wine.
The water was nice and hot and the bubbles high enough to hit my nose.
I cautioned myself with the consuming of the wine, just in case drowning by bubbles was an option.
I had lit a couple of candles, savouring the large bath that allowed me to lie at full stretch whilst sipping my wine and listening to an equally well chilled playlist of tunes I’d found listed as Beach Spa.
It was tranquil, sleep inducing potentially and made me think of far off sunny climes.
Lying submerged in the water wasn’t something I did often, but when I did, I enjoyed it.
My mind kept returning to Maurizio and my departure from the kitchen earlier.
My initial horror had now faded and although I still felt a bit of a knob, I was able to laugh about it.
The biggest problem that I faced was this ridiculous crush I had.
Even if my attraction to him, my inability to coordinate my limbs and failure to string a sentence together served as some kind of amusement, I wasn’t sure how long that would last, so I needed to get over it, and quick.
I came up with a quick, get over him, rather than under him, list.
No more thoughts of how handsome he was.
No imagining him naked.
No thinking about how it would feel for him to lift me before pushing my back against a wall and…
Finally, certainly no fantasies of said wall or how his kisses would infuse fires across my lips and body.
I needed to get a grip, grow up and see Mr Walker, Maurice, for what he was. My boss. Only my boss.
Looking down at my hands, I could see they were shrivelled like prunes and with the water beginning to cool, I drained the wine from my glass, got out from the bath and wrapped myself in freshly laundered towels with a renewed determination to make my life here, my work, a real success.
The following morning, I woke early and was already in the family kitchen before anyone else was awake.
With my fresh determination from the night before still going strong, I felt good about the day ahead and the days that would follow.
I would not be the silly nanny, acting like a schoolgirl with an adolescent crush on my boss, who was somehow incapable of stringing together coherent thoughts or words.
I would be professional, an adult. I was almost thirty, not thirteen.
I switched on the kettle and got out the breakfast things for the children so that when they arrived with their father, they could pour cereal into their bowls.
Maurice called a cheery good morning, a greeting I returned.
I could do this. I could keep this professional and rather than friendzone him I could ‘bosszone’ him, like Maddie had said when she had figured my attraction to him, well, that’s what I told myself and believed it until he brushed past me to make some tea.
The feel of his body briefly and accidentally making contact with mine had me doubting whether any zone would be secure enough to contain him.
My whole body heated from the outside in, and I was sure my heartrate had increased along with my breathing.
I found I was doing something of an internal chant.
Calm down, calm down. Rein it in, rein it in.
He’s just your boss, he’s just your boss.
The strange little mewl that left my partially parted lips suggested my chant was flawed and totally ineffective.
And then there was the divine aroma that was all him. God, he smelled amazing. Good enough to eat.
Shit!
This was going well!
The thought of eating him would ensure that he was naked and aroused, and those thoughts were enough to have me wondering what would happen next.
His mouth on mine, working its way down my body, devouring every inch of me until he was lapping at my core.
While he may have missed the low mewl I had made at the feel of his body touching mine, albeit briefly, there was no way he couldn’t have heard the louder moan I uttered with thoughts of his mouth all over me and the way I would consume him with greed until we both came undone because of each other.
He moved back behind me, pausing to give me a cup of tea. I opened my mouth, preparing to utter the words thank you but no sound beyond a deep moan came out. Amazing. Now, when I needed to put the letters together to make normal words, all I could do was murmur sex noises. Great.
“Morning.”
The jolly cry from Bea entering through the back door broke the moment, thank goodness, and allowed me to regain the power of speech and normal breathing. Who knew how quickly that ability would be taken from me again.