The Nanny and the CEO Read Online Free PDF Page A

Before Nick could turn to get the baby’s straps undone, Ms. Chamberlain had already accomplished it and plucked him out of the car seat.
    In an instant she had him cuddled against her shoulder. She’d moved too fast for it to be anything more than her natural instinct to comfort. “Did that mean old siren scare you?” Her hand shaped the back of his head. “It scared me, too, but it’s all right.” She rocked him, giving him kisses until his frightened cries turned into whimpers.
    â€œSorry,” she said, flicking her gaze to Nick. “I didn’t mean to grab him, but that siren made me jump and it was easier for me to dive for him than you. His heart is pounding like a jackhammer.” She started to hand the baby to Nick, but he shook his head.
    â€œHe seems perfectly happy where he is for the moment.”
    With those words it appeared he’d sealed his own fate. Still bemused by what had happened, he turned to an oddly silent Paul who’d already pulled the diaper bag and her suitcase out of the limo.
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    The baby was gorgeous. He had the overall look and coloring of his dark, striking father, but it was apparent his mother had been a beauty in her own right. No wonder Mr. Wainwright seemed to brood even as he spoke to Reese. She hadn’t the slightest idea how long he and his wife had been married. What mattered was that she’d only been dead ten weeks.
    Reese had undergone her own crushing pain when Jeremy had broken their engagement, but at least they hadn’t been married or had a child. She didn’t even want to think about the white-hot pain Jamie’s father must still be in. Reese couldn’t figure out how he was coping.
    There was nothing she could do to alleviate his anguish. But if given the chance, she would love his little boy and make him feel secure during the hours his father was at work. By the time fall came and the new nanny took over, his daddy would have put more of his grief behind him.
    Last Christmas Reese had been in agony over her split with Jeremy, but six months had gone by and she was still alive and functioning better these days. Thoughit would take Mr. Wainwright longer to heal, she was living proof that you didn’t die of a broken heart. But he wouldn’t want to hear those words right now so she wouldn’t say them.
    â€œShall we go up?”
    His deep voice broke into her reverie. She turned her head, surprised he’d already gotten out of the limo. Reese took a quick second breath because it appeared he wasn’t about to send her away yet. Feeling the baby cling to her had made the whole situation real for the first time. She discovered she wanted this job very much.
    â€œJamie seems to have quieted down,” she commented.
    â€œThanks to you.” The comment warmed her before he reached for his son. Though he was tiny compared to his father, they looked so right together in their matching colored suits. She surmised Mr. Wainwright was in his early to mid-thirties although age was hard to tell and could add years when one was grieving.
    Realizing she would become morose if she kept thinking about it, she stepped out of the limo with her purse, determined to put on a bright face for Jamie. That was her job after all. She followed his father inside a prewar brick-and-limestone building. Evidently there’d been massive renovations because the interior exuded luxury. They entered the elevator and rode to the fourteenth floor.
    When the doors opened, she glimpsed a penthouse the public only got to see from inside the pages of Architecture Digest. The apartment itself was a piece of modern sculpture with its tall curving walls and a sweeping loft where she glimpsed a library of books and statuary. At every turn she was surprised by a bronzeétagère of Mesoamerican artifacts here or a cubist painting there.
    Impressions of Old World antiques, objets d’art and moiré silk period pieces