The CEO's Manny Contract

CHAPTER THREE Part 1

From the look on her gorgeous face, Xander guessed Sophie Daniels was expecting someone else. Didn’t Claire inform her that he was coming? Stepping in further, he strode up to her to offered his hand for a handshake, all the while trying his level best to avoid checking her out. As he got closer, he was hit subtly by her perfume. Something French, he guessed and probably cost more than he made in a month. He wasn’t poor by any means, but he definitely felt like he was at the bottom of the food chain standing beside this wealth of beauty and class.

Coming to a stop in front of her, his foremost thoughts were that the magazines didn’t do a good job of capturing her allure. “Good Morning, Miss Daniels ”

His voice was just how she imagined it would be, only twenty times better. It was like warm s*x on a biscuit. Deep, warm and inviting with a slight rumble to it. She bet she’d feel the vibrations through his chest if she placed her head on it while he spoke. No wonder Daisy looked pink as strawberry ice cream when she came in. Sophie was sure she’d flush a deep scarlet shade too. Luckily, her dark skin hid all traces of a blush

‘Don’t be a perv, Sophie!’ She thought silently to herself, but her subconscious just wasn’t listening and she couldn’t blame it because who could ignore those shoulders? Broad as the horizon with a chest to match, clad in a red tee-shirt shirt and it all tapered to slim hips and long legs, his feet were encased in comfortably worn brown Chelsea boots. All this laid on a frame tall enough to make her tilt her head back a little when he stood right in front of her. And she wasn’t short, at least not for a woman. She stood proudly at 5’8 sans heels. When she had her heels on, not many people –male or female- stood taller than her, at least not tall enough to make her tilt her head back.

Stretching her hand out slowly, she shook his hand and matched his firm grip with one of hers and she noted a hint of surprise on his face and kept her slightly smug smile hidden. The handshake probably lasted longer than either of them intended but in her defense, he had a distracting face. His jaw was clean-shaven and chiseled to perfection with a slim straight nose positioned right above lips that look like they were sculpted primarily for sinful deeds. And don’t get her started on those eyes! Those intense dark green orbs could turn even Medusa to stone. He reminded her vaguely of someone but she just couldn’t remember whom at that moment.

“Good morning...” she replied “...Lesley?” she added hesitantly with a slim brow raised.

Her voice wasn’t as high-pitched as he’d expected. It was sultry and alluring just like the rest of her. He noted the confusion on her face. “Ah… I get it now” he said with a chuckle. A chuckle that may or may not have made her insides do a little flip-flop which annoyed her a little. He must have mistaken her slight scowl for confusion because he continued “Claire must have called me by my middle name, Lesley and you were expecting a lady, right?”

“Yes, I was” she looked at him and then to her daughters and that’s when he noticed one little girl standing behind her mom’s desk and the other at a much smaller desk in the corner, both looking minuscule and adorable

Sensing Sophie’s discomfort, he tried to put her at ease “If it makes you feel any better, I worked at Nanny Poppins for eight years, that’s where I met Claire.” He said “Alexander Lesley Rossi at your service, ma'am. But you can call me Xander" He gave a little bow for the girls' benefit.

"Hi, Xander!" Kelly was the first to speak.

"Why don't you go with Alex?" Kathy inquired "We call Alexander Goodman in our class 'Alex'"

Xander was caught off guard by that question "I prefer Xander cus my middle name already sounds a bit girly and Alex could be a girl's name, too isn't it?"

"So you don’t want your name sounding like girl's?" Kelly asked for clarification

"Exactly "

The girls nodded her head, satisfied with his answer.

"Girls, aren't you supposed to introduce yourselves too?" Sophie asked gently.

They took their cue to approach the big man "I'm Kathrine Daniels" Kathy said, not totally at ease with the stranger.

"And I'm Kelly Daniels. Nice to meet you" She shook Xander's preferred hand. Kathy preferred to stand next to her mother and Sophie didn’t push her to shake his hand.

"The pleasures mine, little lady."

Kelly beamed at being referred to as a 'lady'

"Xander will be your new manny for now until we can find a suitable permanent replacement." Sophia told her girls, who nodded and left the adults to it. Then to Xander, "I'm sorry we just sprung this up on you, Xander and I really appreciate that you could make out time to come help."

"It's no problem at all. I'm not in any position to say no to Claire when she asks for a favour, especially not now."

"Yeah..." She hung her head a bit, focusing on the toe of her shoes.

Cue awkward silence...

"So..." Xander prompted.

She snapped her head back up in embarrassment. "So... why don't you work at Nanny Poppins anymore?" Nanny Poppins was among the best Childcare agencies in New York and they always did a thorough background check on all their employees. But he’s not working there anymore. Was it due to an indiscretion or…

“I resigned to take over the family restaurant” he explained.

"You work at a restaurant?" Kelly asked from her perch on Sophie's swivel chair.

"Yeah... it's more like I own the restaurant." He corrected with faux modesty.

"That’s so cool!"

“What kind of restaurant?” Kathy interjected, breaking her silence.

Turning to face Kathy, Xander replied “An Italian restaurant. You like pizza?”

“I love pizza!” Kathy exclaimed

“Well, maybe we could go check it out sometime. Lots of pasta too, and Ravioli” he added. He may have just found the perfect way to win her over.

Kathy looked straight at Sophie with her soulful blue eyes on full puppy dog mode with a pout “He has pizza and Ravioli, Mommy”

Her little girl was an unashamed glutton, Sophie thought fondly “Tempting my kid with the promise of food is quite a dirty move, Mr Rossi” She said with as much seriousness as she could muster, which wasn’t much at all. She mentally slapped herself. Was she trying to flirt with him?!

“Excuse me,” he said with his hands in the air “But I’m not trying to tempt anybody. Just mentioning the items on my menu. Like lasagna” he said the last word loud enough for Kathy to hear. He had no idea why he was trying so hard,but for some reason, he really wanted to win them over. With a sly smile in Kathy’s direction, He continued “I don’t suppose you’d like to hear what’s on the dessert menu-”

“Okay, that’s eno-“ Sophie tried interrupting him but instead was interrupted by the door opening.

In came her best friend and Chief Marketing Officer, Isabel “Izzy” Garcia. “Sophie, we’re gonna be late for the meeting with the-” she stopped mid-sentence when she noticed the stranger in the room. Never one to be left speechless for long, Izzy recovered quickly going in for a hug with Kathy and Kelly. She offered a hand and a ready smile to Xander “Well, I’m sure we’ve never met before because with a face like that, I’m positive I’d remember.” And she wasn’t even flirting. This was just Izzy being Izzy “I’m Izzy, Chief marketing officer and you are..?”

Shaking her hand, he replied “Xander. I’ll be filling in as a temporary nanny while Miss Daniels finds herself a permanent replacement"

“Well, we better hurry up, Sophie cus we’re already late as it is” Izzy said with a hint of urgency.

Sophie gave each of her girls a kiss on the cheek "I'll be back in time for the park. Have fun with Xander"

As they stepped out of the office, Izzy couldn’t help doing a little shimmy as they walked towards the conference room and she spoke “Who is that piece of hotness?”

Sophie expected this and couldn’t contain her sigh “Imma give you the condensed version of it all. Vera ran off yesterday afternoon, leaving my little girls home alone for 5 damn hours. I was in a fix, so I called Claire, but Claire lost her dad this morning and had to go to Texas to be with her mom and make arrangements for the funeral”

Izzy’s expression saddened “The poor girl. I hope she’s alright”

“She was holding up as well as can be expected, really.”

“And he’s her temporary replacement?”

“I’m still on the fence about it”

“Oh, come on! He looks harmless. He looks like a big strong teddy bear”

“Yeah, he looks as harmless as a dormant chainsaw.” She replied sarcastically “Plus he’s a man, Izzy”

“So much for gender equality.” Izzy grumbled.

“I heard that. I'm not against him cus he's a man. I just wasn't expecting Lesley to be a man. That's all”

“Don’t you trust Claire’s judgement, chica?” At Sophie’s look of defeat, Izzy knew she had won. “Let’s focus on the bright side: He looks just like Ruben Cortada, remember? Except he’s taller and definitely bigger. Did you see his chest?” Izzy fanned her face with one hand, the other placed dramatically on her chest.

“So that’s who he reminded me of!” images of the handsome Cuban model flashed through her mind “And how could I forget Ruben? You made me date him for a month” She aimed an accusatory glance at her best friend

“Oh, come on!” she said with a laugh “It’s been three years. Plus it was all business. It got us crazy sales in Italy, didn’t it?”

“I’d like to think that it was our excellent products and reputation that got us those. And it wasn’t just business for him. The poor dude fell in love with me after a week” She tried to contain her laughter and remain stoic, but it was proving difficult at the moment.

“You can’t blame the man for falling in love, girl. I mean, just look at you! With a face like an angel and a body like sin, heck, even I could fall in love with you and I’m straight as an arrow” It was true. Izzy loved her men and made no move to hide it.

That’s what Sophie loved most about Izzy; the fact that she didn’t care about others’ opinions on her personal life, although she always put the interest of Vivacious first. Sophie and Izzy had started the company together. However, it was money obtained from Sophie’s investments that funded Vivacious. Izzy brought ingenuity and creativity to the table and the science, management and funds were from Sophie. On paper, the company belonged to Sophie but she couldn’t have done it without her and Izzy knew it.

Before stepping into the conference room, they both stopped to compose themselves and do quick makeup and teeth checks in one of the mirrors located on almost every wall specifically for that purpose.