Chapter Four
DARCY
I admit I had second thoughts about my decision for most of the day.
There are reasons I hadn’t found another au pair position, and none of them were lack of available jobs.
Only the flashes of frustration and concern on Mr. Wolf’s—Linc’s—face when he talked about finding someone to understand and be there for his daughter convinced me to go through with the meeting.
Especially after he walked into work this morning like a black cloud.
I wondered if something happened with Gracie last night, but then he spent an hour in conference with some of the guys that work for Citadel.
Clara heard they were working on something big.
Whatever it was, it doesn’t look like things are going well.
Linc didn’t say much until he left to pick up Gracie.
Then he pulled me aside to make sure I’d be there.
How could I say no when I could feel the stress coming off him in waves?
Besides, he and the others who work for Citadel gave me a chance.
A job when I didn’t have any experience as a barista and put up with my clumsiness.
I owe them. Maybe I can repay that by helping him with Gracie.
I don’t know her yet, but from his description, I already feel for the hurting little girl who doesn’t understand the devastating changes in her life.
“Here you go,” the Uber driver says as he pulls to the curb outside a house on a quiet street.
I open the car door and stop. “Here? Are you sure?”
“It’s the address you gave me,” the young man replies.
My second thoughts just morphed into full-grown misgivings.
I step out onto the sidewalk in front of a mansion in the Garden District.
One of those old homes worth a couple of million dollars.
The ones movie stars live in. I’ve worked for families with money before.
I just didn’t realize that my hot, tatted up, ex-military boss was loaded like this.
I guess the coffee business is good in the French Quarter.
Hiking up the bag of groceries I bought, I walk up to the gate and press the intercom button.
“Darcy?” Linc’s half growl sends a shiver of awareness through me.
“Hi. I’m here.” As if he didn’t realize that. Oh my god, Darcy, pull it together.
There’s a second buzz, and the smaller door by the gate opens. “Come in. I have someone interested in meeting you.” There’s a girlish whisper in the background, and when he speaks again, I hear the smile in his voice. “She’s more interested in what you brought.”
I look up and around, but I don’t spot any cameras.
He must have them. From what little I know of him, he spent time in the military in Special Forces.
Citadel Securities is built upon protection.
Otherwise, how would she know I brought something?
I pass through the door onto a brick driveway and walk up under the portico.
Linc opens the door and steps out to greet me.
He’s still wearing the black Arcane Brew T-shirt from earlier, but his five o’clock shadow is coming in, and there’s a tiredness about his eyes that I want to soothe.
“Thanks for coming, Darcy.”
Before I can reply, a little golden angel attaches herself to his leg, peering up at me from around it. Her hair is braided in two braids, but much of it has come loose, and big, baby blue eyes watch me. I smile at her.
“I’m happy to.” Now that I’m here and have seen her, my nerves have settled. “It’s nice to meet you, Gracie.”
She ducks behind Linc’s leg. A second later, she peeks back around the side and bares her teeth at me with a tiny growl. Except instead of little girl teeth, she has those cheesy plastic vampire teeth in. It startles a laugh out of me. “I will be very careful around the vampire.”
Linc shakes his head. Gracie ducks behind him again, and this time, I hear a little giggle. It’s the sweetest sound I’ve heard in months. I’ve missed this, being around a family. Even if they’re never really mine. It’s nice to pretend for a little while that I mean something to someone.
Linc holds the door open, moving awkwardly with a four-year-old attached to his leg. “Come in.” His warm palm lands on my lower back as I pass, gently guiding me. It’s intimate and sends a little frisson of pleasure through me.
The portico leads to a kitchen bigger than the apartment I live in.
It’s light and bright, with white cabinets and gleaming granite countertops.
Like a kitchen picked straight out of my dreams. “It’s gorgeous.
” I set my groceries down on the island and look around, seeing a cozy living room with the classic masculine leather furniture and a big television.
Except there are two baskets of toys tucked against the wall and a fuzzy pink blanket with a unicorn shaped pillow on the couch.
“Gracie, this is Miss Darcy. She’s come to meet you,” Linc says.
He’s holding Gracie in his strong arms, the full sleeves of tattoos flexing as he holds her close. Gracie looks at me with big eyes, then ducks her head into her dad’s neck.
“I’ve come to play with you,” I correct.
That earns me a peek. “Want to know what’s in this bag?
” She gives a barely perceptible nod. I wink at Linc, then make a show of digging through the contents in the grocery bag.
“Hmm, what would she like to see first? That? No, maybe that. Oh yes. Definitely that.”
“What is it?” Gracie whispers.
I pull out a bag of colorful M&M’s, which Linc said were her favorite, then the chocolate chips I brought.
Her eyes light up for a few seconds, then she shuts back down and frowns at me.
I can see the distrust, the fear of wanting to like me, and my heart breaks a little.
“Would you like to help me bake some chocolate chip cookies, Gracie? It’s my favorite thing to do. ”
“Can we eat them after?”
“Of course. We wouldn’t want yummy cookies to go to waste, would we?” She shakes her head “no”, wiggles out of Linc’s arms, and bunny hops to the counter to look at the bag of candy.
Linc makes a soft noise, and when I turn, there’s an expression I can’t quite read in his eyes as he looks between us.
He swallows, throat bobbing, then nods. “You two girls have fun. I’m going to get some work done.
I’ll be in my office.” He points down the hall.
As he passes me, he ducks his head and whispers, “Thank you, Darcy. I haven’t seen her like this in months. ”
His lips brush the shell of my ear, sending a flood of heat through me.
I want him to whisper sexy, dirty things in my ear as he hovers over me, hands stroking over my body.
The moment I become aware of the desire, I shut it down.
Falling for my boss is a bad idea on so many levels.
I’ve been telling myself that for months.
Maybe it will sink in now that I have Gracie to focus on.
“Wait, daddy! You have to help!” Gracie runs around the island to grab his hand.
“Gracie, I?—”
“Please,” she begs. “Please, daddy.”
“We’re adding the M&M’s,” I tell him, shaking the bag. His resolve breaks when he sees Gracie looking up at him so hopefully.
“Alright. I’ll help a little. Let me grab my laptop while you get started.”
Whatever hope he had of working didn’t last long.
I showed Gracie how to measure the ingredients and let her add some.
It wasn’t long before it turned into a flour fight with tons of giggles and us wearing more flour than went in the bowl.
Gracie’s cheeks are dusted with it, and Linc’s shirt is more white than black.
Hearing them both laugh? Pure magic. I’d clean this kitchen a hundred times to hear it again.
His laugh lights up those smokey green eyes, turning him from gorgeous to mouth-watering.
Gracie was shy for the first two minutes, then started up an almost non-stop stream of questions about the baking and ingredients, how the oven worked, and why cookies were called cookies.
The timer on the oven beeps with the last batch.
Linc pulls the baking sheet out of the oven and sets it on the counter next to the other two dozen we baked, minus the one Gracie stuffed in her mouth when our backs were turned.
I laugh when she grins around a mouthful of cookie.
“Does that mean they’re good?” She nods.
“I think you need a second opinion,” Linc says, reaching for his own cookie. “Jesus. These are delicious. Where did you learn to bake?”
My heart dips to my stomach. The question comes as a surprise, even though I should have expected it.
Of course, he would want to know more about the woman he’s inviting into his home to watch his daughter.
But how much do I tell him? That I had to learn to cook just to survive on more than peanut butter and jelly while my mom worked two jobs?
I don’t want his pity, and that’s what I’ve received from the few people I’ve told.
I want him to see me as strong, not pathetic.
Opting for a partial explanation, I reply, “I found my grandmother’s old recipes as a teen and was curious. ”
Linc watches me closely, finishing off a second cookie. I don’t know what he sees but his regard makes me squirm a little. “Thanks for sharing it with us, and for teaching Grace.” He captures her little wrist in his big hand as she reaches for another cookie. “Dinner first.”
Gracie sticks her lower lip out dramatically and rolls her eyes.
I bite back a grin. The love and tenderness between this single dad and his little girl are setting my lady parts ablaze. He’s hotter every second. I clear my throat and reach for a washcloth, wetting it at the sink to distract myself. “I’ll clean up.”
“No. I will. Gracie, why don’t you show Miss Darcy your room?” Linc takes the washcloth from me.
“But I?—”
“Come on, Miss Darcy!” Gracie grabs my hand and drags me toward the hall.