Free Nanny Behaving Badly by Judy Jarvie Page A

consume her.
    ‘You’re allowed to explore. It’s me who’s inappropriately dressed, I promise to do better in future.’
    No involvements, no regrets. Remember that.
    Maddie tried to push herself on. But somehow she couldn’t move, even though she knew that’s exactly what she should do. Fast. Their gazes fused. That look put some kind of optical zoom into action. Slow motion pulsing attraction. Tiny sparks of awareness made her hot and flustered as her nipples peaked against the cotton of her top in a physical betrayal.
    These feelings would have embarrassed her had it not been such a surprising, full force reaction. Like turning around and finding you’d come up against a high seas wave assault. When all you had was a swim-float.
    ‘Sorry for intruding.’
    Is this how a hot, too intimate to weather fling with the boss started? Inappropriate glimpses that led in unwise directions? Was this how her father had worked his magic?
    ‘I can hear Josh calling you,’ Lyle nodded.
    Her heart thudded hard, her skin tingled and her body screamed positive response. Her brain yelled abuse for not staying in the kitchen. For not succeeding in making her pulse behave.
    ‘Come on Maddie, slow coach!’ Josh shouted from the room ahead.
    ‘Coming.’
    ‘You may take the stern route with me,’ Lyle smiled, ‘but clearly my son has you around his little finger. Maybe I should be taking lessons?’
    Lyle flexed to reach for a fresh towel and the glimpse of taut muscles was gasp-worthy. He looked up and caught her watching.
    ‘Lessons in closing the door properly. The workouts you don’t need help from anyone with. You’ve been pulling trucks after all,’ she bluffed.
    She saw him smile but Maddie knew her beetroot red blush wouldn’t fade with mere bravado. He’d seen the naked lustful nanny unveiled. He’d caused her to get flustered.
    Where was sassy Maddie, the woman never without a quip?
    She rubbed her brow with a trembling finger. For the foreseeable future she had to back off. If she didn’t, it would be the nail in the coffin of yet another job. Ethical suicide.
    She’d just have to tread with care and keep her mouth zipped tight shut.

    Lyle pounded the drive’s gravel. But solace was in short supply; midnight jogging was hardly a pursuit of the sane. Losing the brain in physical exertion via running, even at midnight, was far preferable to duvet-wrestling with a pillow that had lost all comfort spots.
    Was he crazy? Overworked? Stressing? Or was the stalling look in Maddie’s eyes during their shower encounter the cause? Bringing on this new keep fit impetus?
    She’d frozen like an Arctic snowflake at the sight of him in a towel. He guessed she probably figured he had exhibitionist tendencies. She’d no concerns, but how to tell her that?
    Lyle upped his pace. Pounded, felt his heart pump, his veins throb with the effort. He was on his third circuit of the drive, gravel spraying at his heels, battering flesh.
    It wasn’t just her shower shock that had him vibed.
    Her absence from the café had left a gap. The flood of enquiries and fond regards to be passed to his fleeting but memorable waitress made her absence more marked. In a short space of time he had missed her sparky irreverence and energy too. He’d seen the odd raised brow when he explained her circumstances caring for Josh … oh yeah, he’d noticed those.
    Two and two equals ten. With a lascivious undertone that irked him.
    Whose business was it anyway? And why did the judgements bother him so?
    Lyle stalled the running, wiped his brow and returned to the house. He removed his sports shoes at the back door, then noticed the pair of female hiking shoes that had been added to the shoe rack, the hot pink, daisy patterned wellington boots alongside.
    He stifled further thoughts on Maddie or her footwear. He had to stop, stop, stop thinking about the woman who’d come here to make his life easier. Not jinx his ability to focus