stuck with the macaroni and cheese for lunch, simply because she didn’t have time to prepare anything more elaborate by the time she’d run around doing the shopping. She had added extra cheese shavings to the top and baked the macaroni for five minutes so it would melt, and Riquet really enjoyed it that way.
Salina picked up beef, mushrooms and noodles and prepared a beef noodle dish for dinner. Quick, easy and tasty. She prepared a plate for Jake and kept it in the microwave, but when seven-twenty rolled around and he hadn’t shown up yet, Salina put the dinner in the fridge.
She went back to Riquet, who was coloring in the living room, and sat beside her, watching her work on her latest masterpieces.
She’d had a good first day with the little girl. They had shared a lot of laughs as Ed had driven them from one activity to the other, Riquet regaling Salina with stories about some of the kids in her preschool. For such a young girl, she was quite perceptive.
Riquet had a bubbly and vivacious personality. She truly was a darling, and a joy to work with.
Having worked with some kids who had been spoiled and selfish, this was a welcome change. While Salina loved children in general, she hadn’t liked the way some at the day care where she’d worked had had an appetite for all the latest gadgets at such a young age. Hand-held gaming devices were her biggest pet peeve. Riquet seemed to relish the joy of being a normal little girl. That meant that she enjoyed coloring, drawing, singing, watching television and using her hands and her imagination to entertain herself.
There was no Wii in the apartment, no Xbox 360 and the girl didn’t even have a Nintendo DS. Salina was relieved. She saw some parents introduce these electronic gaming devices into their children’s lives at too young an age, and she felt it was totally inappropriate. Clearly, Jake was a conscientious father, and Salina admired that about him.
At seven-thirty, Salina said, “Time for your bath, Riquet.” The girl was to have her bath, and by eight o’clock be dressed and ready for bed.
“Does your father come home late every night?” Salina couldn’t help asking Riquet as she bathed her a short while later.
Riquet nodded. “Mmm-hmm. He works all the time,” she added sadly.
Twenty minutes later, Salina had Riquet out of the bath, dressed in her pajamas and lying in her canopy bed that was filled with stuffed animals. She read the story Riquet requested, after which she gave her a kiss on the forehead and turned out the lights.
Still no Jake.
Emma hadn’t been kidding when she said the man was a workaholic. Salina could totally see now why he preferred a nanny to be of the live-in variety. If he got home too late, all Salina would be able to do was head to her sister’s apartment, climb into bed and get up the next morning to start the day over again.
She was glad she’d brought her suitcase with her.
Waiting until nine o’clock was all she could handle, because it had been a tiring day. Salina left a note for Jake, letting him know that his dinner was in the fridge and simply needed to be warmed up.
And then she retired to her own bedroom, got undressed and went to the bathroom to take a shower.
She was back in the bedroom, naked as the day she was born, when the door suddenly opened.
Chapter 5
Salina had no time to react. She should have said something—screamed or called out—but by the time the thought came to her, it was too late. Jake was standing in the bedroom.
Staring at her totally naked body.
She saw his eyes widen and his expression morph from surprised into mortification. That’s when she sprang into action, grabbing the towel she had tossed onto the bed, in a futile attempt to cover her body. What was the point now? He had already seen her in the buff.
“Oh, God!” Jake exclaimed, quickly backing up. “I’m so sorry. I knocked—you didn’t answer—God, I feel like an idiot.”
Salina said nothing, just scrambled backward into the bathroom. There she sank onto the bathtub’s edge and let out an angst-filled breath. Oh, Dear Lord, the man had just seen her without her clothes on!
Salina sat in the bathroom, not moving for a good five minutes. She was embarrassed. Never had a man she hadn’t intended to, seen her without any clothes on.
And the last person she wanted to see her like this was her employer.
It’s okay, it’s okay, she repeated to herself. It’s not the end of the world. It was an accident, no big deal. Jake’s probably seen plenty of women naked in his lifetime.
But despite the words she told herself, Salina still felt awkward. How could she face him again, after such a humiliating moment?
She allowed herself a few more minutes of wallowing in embarrassment before she got up, got dressed in her pajamas, slipped a robe on top of that and then went out to see Jake.
He was sitting on the sofa, his head hanging low. When he saw her, he looked up and said, “Salina, I couldn’t be more sorry. I knocked, and when you didn’t answer, I thought maybe you were lying down. I just wanted to check on you, see how your day went. I am the world’s biggest idiot, and I hope you don’t think poorly of me. I behaved inappropriately, infringing on your privacy. I’m truly, truly sorry for that.”
Hearing Jake apologize so profusely, Salina realized that she wasn’t the only one who was humiliated. In fact, judging by his expression, he might feel even worse than she did.
She offered him a small smile and joined him on the sofa. “Don’t beat yourself up,” she began. “It was an accident. I’m not the first naked woman you’ve seen,” she added good-naturedly, hoping to put his mind at ease, when in fact, humiliation was still flowing through her veins. It was a weird thing to have someone see you naked when you weren’t planning on it.
Jake groaned, the sound telling her that he would probably feel guilty about this for a long while. He didn’t meet her eyes.
“Hey,” Salina said softly. “Look at me.”
Slowly, Jake met her gaze. Salina held his eyes, silently letting him know that it was okay. It had been embarrassing, yes, but certainly she would survive. And someday she would be able to laugh about the moment.
And as she stared into Jake’s eyes, something happened. She felt a frisson of heat. She had felt it before—indeed, she had felt a spark of attraction for Jake the very first time she had met him. And seeing him yesterday, too, she had been reminded of just how gorgeous he was. Something about him spoke to her on a level she didn’t understand, but she had been prepared to ignore the feelings.
But now …
Now, she suddenly felt different. Because, looking into Jake’s eyes, she felt heat warming her body from her center, and rolling out to every other part of her. There was something smoldering in Jake’s eyes, something beyond the guilt that he had been feeling moments ago.
Jake was the one to look away. He stood abruptly and walked toward the dining room. “I see you left me some dinner. Thank you. But I’m sorry you went to the trouble. You
