Curvy Nanny for the Grumpy Single Dad: A Grumpy Billionaire Sunshine Romance, page 1
Curvy Nanny for the Grumpy Single Dad
A Grumpy Billionaire Sunshine Romance
Piper Sullivan
Copyright © 2024 by Piper Sullivan
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Enjoy Spicy Romances?
Download Safeguarded for FREE Now!
Contents
1. Lucy
2. Dante
3. Lucy
4. Dante
5. Lucy
6. Dante
7. Lucy
8. Dante
9. Lucy
10. Dante
11. Lucy
12. Dante
13. Lucy
14. Dante
15. Lucy
16. Dante
17. Lucy
18. Dante
19. Lucy
20. Dante
21. Lucy
22. Dante
23. Lucy
24. Dante
25. Lucy
26. Dante
27. Lucy
28. Dante
29. Lucy
30. Dante
31. Lucy
32. Dante
33. Lucy
34. Dante
Epilogue ~ Lucy
Preview: Curvy Fake Wife for the Player
1. Alex
2. Sasha
3. Alex
4. Sasha
Also by Piper Sullivan
About the Author
Chapter 1
Lucy
“Thanks for driving today, Luce. My head hurts like a son of a bitch.” My friend and temporary roommate, Toni Stafford, gripped her head, and I could tell she was wincing even behind giant black and gold sunglasses.
I laughed and shook my head. “Drank a little too much last night?” Toni liked to have a good time when she wasn’t working, and for the past week we had both been between nanny jobs.
Toni nodded, her red ponytail bounced and she froze, clutching her head once again. “It was ill-advised I know, but the Hissy Fits were playing last night, and the last two times they were in Texas I was busy working,” she explained. “The only good thing about Ethan starting fifth grade is that I finally caught a live show.” She’d been taking care of Ethan since he was three, but now that he was ten years old, his mom had decided that he no longer needed a nanny.
“I have painkillers in my purse. Take two and chug that bottle of water you haven’t even opened yet. Serenity will flip if you show up looking hungover.” Serenity Majors was our boss at the Elite Nanny Service which catered to rich parents who didn’t have time for the day to day duties of parenthood. She was a good boss, but she had her limits.
Toni laughed. “I can be hungover as long as I don’t look it, and that’s why I made sure to look good today.” She ran a hand over her ponytail. “Except the hair, I couldn’t be bothered.”
“You look fine,” I assured her. Toni was curvy, borderline voluptuous, and she rocked it in her standard uniform of skintight jeans, plain t-shirt or tank top, and her leather jacket. She was a tough girl through and through and gave off a don’t fuck with me vibe that I admired. “Better than fine, and you know it.” Ours was an unlikely friendship, but when my last nanny job ended I had needed a place to stay, and Toni offered up her extra bedroom.
“Thanks babe, you’re the best.”
“I try,” I assured her with a smile as traffic slowed up ahead. “Is there another event in town or something?” Our small town of Lucky was on the outskirts of Houston, so the traffic wasn’t what you’d expect for a small town, but we were headed in the opposite direction of the city and traffic was still atrocious.
“Not that I know of. Probably road work, or maybe the cows or horses broke free from one of the nearby ranches.”
I let out a sigh and relaxed into my seat, because one thing I learned from my time in Texas was that the animals rushed for no one. No amount of honking or wishing would get a stubborn four legged creature to move if he or she didn’t want to be moved.
“All right, then. Did you meet anyone at the show last night?”
“Plenty,” she grunted. “Not one of them quality material. In fact I think I need to reconsider my love of the Hissy Fits if that’s the kind of men their music attracts.”
I laughed and shook my head. “Or maybe those guys want the kind of girls the Hissy Fits’ music attracts.”
Toni groaned. “That makes it worse, I think.”
I smiled and laughed as traffic crawled forward while Toni recounted her night of being hit on by Crypto Bros, Finance Bros and her least favorite of the bunch, thisclose to hitting it big wannabe musicians.
“But none of them were hot enough for a night or two?”
“That’s the worst part,” she scoffed. “So many of them were absolutely delicious, definitely worth a night between the sheets. But after a few minutes of one-sided conversation, I knew naked time would be just as one-sided.”
“Too bad.”
“What did you do last night?”
I shrugged. “I made egg rolls and fried rice, curled up on the sofa and watched…are you freaking kidding me!” A luxury red SUV crossed double lines to cut me off and then brake checked me. My abrupt stop caused the car behind me to rear end me. “Seriously!” I let out a long string of expletives that would have made my older brother and his Army buddies proud.
“Wow,” Toni sighed. “That was some impressive profanity, even coming from your sweet little mouth.” She laughed to herself and then stopped to clutch her head.
“This fucking guy,” I growled and a second later I was out of my little sedan and marching towards his bright red monstrosity. I knocked on the back window, keeping my distance but fully prepared to give this jerk a piece of my mind.
The man who stepped out was the most gorgeous creature I had ever seen in my whole damn life.
Thick black hair that was slightly more stylish than his uptight suit suggested, and deep green eyes that looked like marble swirl. And the suit, designer of course, fit him perfectly to highlight his best features including his broad shoulders, long, thick thighs and a chest that was just perfect to curl up against after a long day. Wait, what? I blinked out of my stupor when the man took a step forward and I took a wary step back.
“What the hell is your problem?”
Long thick fingers, which I tried not to notice, raked through that thick wavy black hair and he let out a frustrated sigh. “You were going too slow.” His words were deep and even, but I heard the accusation in his tone.
I had to laugh at his outrageous words. “So ten miles over the speed limit is too slow?” I felt slightly hysterical at the idea. “Another impatient businessman who thinks his time is more valuable than everybody else’s. Typical.” There was no use trying to make him see sense, you couldn’t reason with crazy, and it was a lesson I’d had to learn the hard way over the years.
“Are you always this understanding?” He shouted the question to my back, but the amusement in his tone didn’t help my mood.
“Understanding?” My feet froze and I whirled on the handsome jerk. “You want understanding because you were so impatient that you just had to get ahead by one car length, which resulted in not one, but two accidents.” I pointed to the pickup truck behind me. “What I understand is that you are an entitled prick.” With the sweetest smile I could muster, I arched a brow and turned away, determined to forget the good-looking jerk’s face and get on with my day.
“I don’t have time for this,” he grumbled under his breath, and even though I knew I should’ve just kept going towards the waiting pickup driver, I didn’t. Maybe it was the Irish on my mom’s side that made me speak up, or maybe he’d just caught me on a sassy day.
I turned again with the same smile. “Just imagine, if you’d just shown a bit of patience you might be at your destination by now. Hell, all of us might be where we were headed if not for one impatient…driver. Now it’s going to take all of us even longer to get where we were going.” I smiled a little wider because taking this guy down a notch had improved my mood.
Thankfully the pickup driver was more reasonable than the hottie in the SUV, and twenty minutes later, traffic—caused by runaway cows—cleared up, and we were well on our way to Elite Nanny Service.
“Holy hell that guy was hot,” Toni said eventually.
I laughed. “How long have you been waiting to let that out?”
“Since he stepped out of the car, but I wanted to give you time to calm down first.”
“Thanks for that,” I chuckled. “He was gorgeous. Too bad he’s one of those guys who thinks the world should just move out of his way and bow to his whims.”
Toni groaned. “That sucks, but to be fair, I’d totally bow before all that hotness. Naked of course.”
“Of course,” I repeated and rolled my eyes. “Thanks, that’s just what I needed to think about for the rest of the day.”
“Anytime,” Toni said with a laugh as I pulled into a parking spot in the lot dedicated to Elite Nanny Service. “Now let’s hope we leave this joint with new assignments.”
As we stepped inside the air conditioned building, I let my shoulders relax, and I put all thoughts of mister tall, dark and arrogant out of my mind for good.
Chapter 2
Dante
Who in the hell did that woman think she was? Yelling at me like her car getting hit was my fault. Okay so maybe it was my fault, just a little, but I needed to get home to my daughter. Lena was all alone at home, so this was an actual emergency. I didn’t actually think what I had to do was more important than the next guy—or girl for that matter—but it actually was more important today. Anyone with children would agree with that.
I drove home at a slower pace now that I had been properly dressed down by a beautiful but annoying woman with golden hair and a sweet smile. “And that sharp tongue…” I reminded myself in the privacy of my SUV.
I couldn’t help but think about the reason I was in such a hurry in the first place. The Nanny Situation, as I had started to refer to the problem I had with finding and keeping a good nanny. The nanny, well, now the ex-nanny, had upped and left in the middle of the day, with nothing but a nasty voicemail as warning. She’d abandoned my daughter all by herself in the house. Fortunately, my landscaping contractor, Billie, was on the grounds as that wretched woman had left. Billie had thankfully agreed to check in on Lena and stay on the property until I made it home to my child. Or until Dotty, our housekeeper, got back from running errands.
Why the hell was is it so hard to find a nanny who actually wanted to do her damn job? Why did every woman who showed up on my doorstep want a promotion into my bedroom? It really was unfathomable. I mean sure, I’m rich, and some might consider me good looking, but they were all perfectly normal during the interview process. I’d had hope for each and every one of them, but somewhere around the one month mark, things always went sideways.
They dressed a little sexier, showing off more skin in outfits highly inappropriate for spending time with a four year old girl. They stuck around for dinner, and issued more invitations for more activities with daddy and daughter. Month after month, for the past six months, it was the same damn thing.
Nanny trying to kiss me.
Nanny showing her tits.
Nanny naked in my bed.
Nanny offering me a blow job.
If I were a different man I might have taken a few of them up on what they were offering, but I had no plans to shell out money for sexual harassment lawsuits when I had no problem finding a woman to warm my bed when I wanted one. It wasn’t my style to mix business with pleasure, and after the way things had gone with my ex-wife, I needed my home to be stable and conflict free. For me and for Lena.
I broke down and called the nanny agency my assistant had recommended months ago. “Elite Nanny Service, how may I assist you today?”
My shoulders relaxed at the woman’s professional, cheery tone. “I’m in need of a nanny as fast as you can send one.”
There was a beat of silence and then a different woman’s voice sounded in my ear. “Hello. This is Serenity Majors, with whom am I speaking?”
“My name is Dante Rush, and I need a nanny for my four year old daughter, Lena.”
“Mr. Rush,” she sighed. “I’m a big fan of your fashion.”
“You know who I am, that’s good. It means you know I’m serious about this, and that I need a nanny immediately.”
“Yes, I’m aware of who you are, so we can skip the part where I tell you that my nannies are all professionals with degrees and years of experience, and as such, expect to be compensated appropriately for their services.”
“I assure you I plan to pay above minimum wage. When will she be available to start?” I sounded like a grumpy asshole and I knew it, but I was already over this day even though it was just after noon.
Serenity laughed, the sound soft and musical, easy on the ears, even if I didn’t know what the hell was so damn funny. “It doesn’t work that way, Mr. Rush.”
“Well how does it work Ms. Majors?”
She sighed, like I was some child she had to explain things to slowly. “How did you last agency match you?”
I frowned. “I’ve never used a nanny, ah, agency before.”
She gasped. “A man with your wealth and looks? Please tell me you didn’t put an ad in the paper or online.”
I frowned inside my car. “Okay, I won’t tell you that.”
This time Serenity laughed loudly, and for far too long for a professional phone call. “All right Mr. Rush. There’s a certain science to matching a family with the right nanny, and that starts with a questionnaire. Normally parents come to the office and fill it out, but I’m assuming by your tone that you’re too busy for such a detour?”
“That would be a correct assumption.”
“All right. Do you have the time now?”
Now? “If it means you’ll send a nanny immediately, then sure.”
Ms. Majors started with basic questions about my work hours, marital status and yearly earnings before she moved on to questions about Lena, her likes and dislikes.
“Is she an active little girl?”
“Why does that matter?”
“The same reason it matters that you make high end, designer clothing for women of all ages and sizes.” At my silence she sighed. “Because I have quite a few older nannies who do well with indoor kids, those who like to spend their time drawing, playing video games and things like that.”
“Oh.” There it was again, that feeling that I was an asshole. “Lena is both. She loves to play with her dolls and stuffed animals, but she also loves to be outside.”
“Will Lena require any educational time during her days?”
“I would really appreciate that,” I said in an effort to sound more accommodating.
She asked what felt like about one thousand questions before we were finished. “Thank you for your time and patience, Mr. Rush. I will get back with you soon with a match or two. Will you make yourself available to interview the prospective nannies?”
“Yes,” I grunted. “Just be sure she’s competent and won’t try to worm her way into my bed.”
“Noted,” she said with a hint of amusement. “And you make sure you don’t prey on a pretty young nanny who’s reliant on you for a pay check.” Before I could defend myself, Serenity ended the call.
“Damn!” I smacked the steering wheel and stepped from the SUV. I waved at Billie who was packing up her van parked on the driveway.
“Hey Billie, thanks so much for staying until I could get home.”
“No worries Dante, I know how hard it is to find good childcare when you’re a working single parent.” Billie was a single mom to a seven year old son herself. Little Jeremy often accompanied his mom on her jobs on the weekends, and sometimes after school. “Lena’s fine, just looked in on her, she’s playing and doesn’t seem to be upset.”
After Billie drove off, I took a rare moment to let the Texas sun beat down on my face before I stepped inside the sprawling ranch style mansion that I had moved into after my divorce.
“Lena?” There was nothing but silence, but a beat later I smiled at the sound of Lena’s tiny feet smacking against the tiled floor just outside her playroom.
“Daddy!” She rushed towards me and I bent to scoop her in my arms. “You’re home!”
“I am. How are you?”
Lena shrugged, her big blue eyes darted left and right. “I’m good Daddy.” She sighed. “Lisa is gone.”
I hugged my girl tighter. “I know honey but I’m working on getting you a nanny who will stick. I promise.”
“You can stay home?” There was such hope in her eyes.
“I can for a while, but sometimes I’m needed at the office Lena. You know that.” I barely had any time in my day for anything but the necessities, but I made sure we ate dinner together most nights. Still, I felt like I was failing in the fatherhood department.
