Loving the Don

Chapter 2

2

Armand

The decision to seduce my daughter’s new nanny is made the moment I look into those big blue eyes of hers and see them dilate with desire. She’s got great qualifications, she’s from a family that owes us, and her background check came up ridiculously clean. She’ll be great for my Laura. No, I’m not hiring her just because I want to f**k her.

But I’m definitely going to.

Sweet, virginal, blushing Daniela, soft-voiced and gentle. I’m watching her introduce herself to my baby now as we stand upstairs in the bright playroom. I’m smiling gently, for my daughter’s sake, keeping a close eye on how they interact.

I hired her in minutes, and I was prepared to fire her just as fast if Laura didn’t respond well to her. When Laura lit up when Daniela entered the room, instead of shrinking, I had my first real hope in months. Now I’m watching how gentle and sensitive Daniela is with her, and how encouraging, and I know I made the right choice.

And the whole time I watch Daniela, I’m wondering what her mouth will taste like. Her reaction to me yesterday was so strong that I doubt it would take much to coax her into bed. I wonder if she’s ever had a man please her properly before.

But for now, she’s working a welcome bit of magic with my shy little Laura. I drag my mind out of my boxer briefs and start calculating a nice hiring bonus.

Laura has never fully recovered from her mother’s death. And I can’t blame her—I haven’t either. It happened in front of us, after all.

Bella went up in the same goddamn fireball that took out Jimmy and his wife, the one I had to shield Laura from with my body as we flew back into the rosebushes. We both climbed out of the debris, screaming for her … but she was gone.

Everything’s been a bit broken since then. I meted out my own form of justice by killing the guy who did it, but I couldn’t comfort Laura by telling her that. It wouldn’t have comforted her anyway.

I could only tell her that Mama and her aunt and uncle died too damn fast to have possibly felt anything. Which is probably true. I have to remind myself of that whenever I wake up in the night, reaching for Bella, and feel only an empty space.

Laura’s a good kid—smart, especially for a five-year-old. But she’s shy, and sadder than any child should be. She’s also got it in her head that people don’t like her. I’m glad as hell that she’s responding well to Daniela’s warmth.

I don’t know the first goddamn thing about parenting, and I haven’t had much help. Mother is busy with six other kids, and Father is busy running this town. I was raised to be the next Don, not a single dad.

I love Laura, though. I do my best with the time I have, but she needs a lot more—and she also needs a good woman to show her how to be one. Mother is already raising Jimmy’s kids, now that he’s gone, so that means a nanny.

“Can I show you what I drew?” Laura asks Daniela timidly, holding the drawing pad close against her little chest.

Daniela gives her a warm smile and settles into a small chair so she’s at eye level with Laura. “Sure, sweetie, let’s have a look.”

I have to look away—and turn my hips away slightly, too, because I’m hung too big to hide the bulge growing in my pants. The sensible part of my mind is saying, not again, Armand, you know better, but it’s too goddamned late. Seeing her coax a smile out of Laura within minutes gives me a blue-steel boner almost instantly.

Gina and my mother always scold me about my habit of bedding Laura’s nannies. I know it’s caused problems in the past. We have been through five of them in the last two years, not counting Maggie, who was sixty and ended up retiring from ill health after ten months. But the rest?

Young women, kind women, who loved children, some a bit plain, some quite pretty, but all of them good with my baby daughter, whose heart has been so hurt. Maybe it’s some primal male thing to be attracted to women who will treat my children right. But I couldn’t resist a single one of them.

All of them wanted me, and all of them got me. I have a high libido. They were very, very satisfied.

But all of them quickly came to want more out of me than what I could give them—good s*x, friendliness, and a paycheck. Even knowing about Bella, hearing my warnings and seeing me always dressed in black, they always ended up wanting my heart, not just my c**k. And that can’t happen. I buried my heart with the ashes of my wife.

So they left. And Gina and Mother blame me. Which I guess is fair.

Maybe Daniela will leave too—maybe even for the same reason. I hope not, though. Twenty minutes in, and Laura already likes her.

Problem is that makes her irresistible to me. I adjust myself subtly as I face the window and take a shuddering breath. I should be thinking of something mundane: the new clothes I need to buy for Laura, her desire for a pet, Mother’s birthday.

Instead, I’m thinking of sinking my c**k into Daniela’s soft, warm body, and satisfying the plea I see in those gentle eyes. And that thought, that idea, keeps slipping back into my head no matter how hard I push it away. I have to admit … I haven’t wanted a woman this much since I lost Bella.

So, I’m going to seduce her. Completely, joyously, until we’re both tired of each other. And I’m going to find a way to do it without my baby girl losing someone else.

Maybe pleasing Daniela enough is the key. That, and scrupulous honesty. If she doesn’t get too dazzled, and I’m careful with her, things could really go well this time.

As I look back over my shoulder at her, I know I need to take the risk. I can already tell that Daniela will be worth it.