Single Daddy Seduction (a dad's best friend boss/nanny forbidden romance) (Hot Daddy Book 4) Read online

  Single Daddy Seduction

  Hot Daddy Series #4

  Angel Devlin

  Tracy Lorraine

  Contents

  A Note

  1. Sarah

  2. Emmett

  3. Sarah

  4. Emmett

  5. Sarah

  6. Emmett

  7. Sarah

  8. Emmett

  9. Sarah

  10. Emmett

  11. Sarah

  12. Emmett

  13. Sarah

  14. Emmett

  15. Sarah

  16. Emmett

  17. Sarah

  18. Emmett

  19. Sarah

  20. Emmett

  21. Sarah

  22. Emmett

  Epilogue

  Also by Angel & Tracy

  About Angel Devlin

  About Tracy Lorraine

  Copyright © 2019 by Angel Devlin

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Editing by Andie M. Long

  Cover design and formatting by Dandelion Cover Designs

  A Note

  Single Daddy Seduction is written in British English and contains British spelling and grammar. This may appear incorrect to some readers when compared to US English books.

  Angel & Tracy xo

  1

  Sarah

  “She hit me, Daddy. She hit me.”

  “No, I didn’t.” I protested looking at Jim’s face. “Why on earth would I do that? I’ve looked after Melinda, Jessica, and Lana for three years, surely you’re not going to believe her.” But I looked at his face and knew he did. “Look, just give it an hour and I’ll sit in my room and then ask her again. She’ll change her mind and then she can apologise and…”

  “I’ve called the police.”

  My jaw dropped. “You’ve done what?”

  “My daughter says you hit her earlier. On the back and on the leg. I asked if you’d hit her before and she said yes.”

  I looked at Melinda. Nine years old, she’d always been a nightmare to look after. Demanding, argumentative. Lots of, ‘You’re not my mum’. No, Mummy was too busy running a magazine to be at home and if this is what her version of parenthood was like I couldn’t blame her. But I thought we’d been getting somewhere. I mean it had been three years for goodness’ sake. But now, for whatever reason, Melinda had told a lie that I wasn’t sure we could ever get back from.

  My face paled as the thought came, what if the police believed her?

  “Please wait in your room until the police arrive. Be packing your bags and then once they’ve left, I’d like you to leave. I won’t of course be paying you for this last month.”

  The way Jim looked at me was soul destroying. He and Kelly had been so grateful they’d said for my patience with their children and for my not leaving them when other nanny positions became available. Good nannies were hard to find and so we could basically choose our own wages and perks.

  As I sighed and made my way up to my room, I walked past Melinda who gave me a satisfied smirk.

  I was sure she wouldn’t be looking that happy when mummy and daddy found out the truth. God, I hoped they did.

  “Would you like a coffee, Madam?” I look up at the woman dressed in her rail uniform. I’d splashed out even though I was minus my latest wage and upgraded to first class for the journey back to my parents’ house in Twickenham from Crewe. Hellishly, my journey from Oxenholme to Crewe was spent sat near a screaming kid and I’d had my fill of children for now.

  I accepted a coffee but said no to a muffin. The thoughts of what had happened yesterday afternoon were still at the front of my mind. I just kept ruminating. Seeing the situation again and again and again. The police had been and said there was no evidence, but in the circumstances they understood the parents’ concerns and investigations would be ongoing. I wasn’t sure what they meant but would look into my own legal action from home. My phone had beeped incessantly since as the local nannies got the goss and tried to find out the truth. None had been my friends. Everyone in the nanny world was a competitor, friendly until they wanted your job and then they’d try to swoop in.

  After spending the night in a budget hotel and not getting much sleep, first thing this morning I checked out and got on a train home. My parents didn’t know I was coming. The last thing I needed was my mum wittering down the phone last night. I’d needed time to think things over. The situation seemed better explained face to face. Thank goodness I still had my room at their house; a base where I could decide what I did next. Fact is, I had fuck all chance of a nanny job, or maybe any job, while ‘investigations continued’ and the little savings I had amassed wouldn’t last long.

  What the fuck was I going to do? All because of a spoilt, lying brat. I was done with kids. Done. Did not want to spend my time with anymore brats anytime soon.

  Almost home, I catch a cab from the station down to my parents semi-detached on Lincoln Avenue. As it pulls up outside the driveway and I see the familiar porch, a huge sigh of relief floods through me. I’m home. My parents will know what to do and they’ll welcome me in their loving arms. They never wanted me to go there in the first place; my mum felt it was too far away. I’ll spend some time letting them spoil me and then hopefully the recent incident will blow over and I can start afresh.

  I ring the doorbell, but no one answers. Shouting comes from inside the house and my brow furrows. Then I hear an ear-piercing shriek.

  “Can someone get the goddamn door while I put the dishes away and get a wash on, or am I the only one around here capable of doing anything?” I hear my mum shout. My mum never shouts. What on earth is going on?

  Finally, I hear footsteps. “If this is a Jehovah’s Witness or some charity collector, I’m going to give them a right earbashing.” I hear my younger brother say.

  What’s Luke doing here?

  The door opens and my brother peers at my face.

  “Haven’t you got a key?” He turns towards the house before he hears my answer, that my mother took it because she lost their spare and has never replaced it.

  “It’s Sarah.” He yells.

  There’s another scream and my two-year-old niece Marley comes belting through, not a stitch of clothing on.

  “Auntie Say-yah.” She flings herself at my legs and the chocolate mousse she had around her mouth transfers straight to my skinny jeans. Fabulous.

  “What are you doing here?” Luke asks me.

  “Can I actually get through the door, or are you keeping me outside all day?”

  He steps back so I can finally walk inside, picking up Marley who wails at being separated from my leg.

  I drag my cases inside, rolling my eyes at him picking up his kid instead of my cases. Then again, did I really want coating in more chocolate mousse? It hasn’t escaped my notice that my wishes to be child free have immediately been thwarted, but a visit from my brother and niece is nice. I don’t get to see them much.

  “Where’s Liv?” I ask as I walk into the living room, looking around for my brother’s partner. They’ve been together since they met at school at sixteen. Marley came along when they were twenty. Liv calls their relationship passionate. I call it being at loggerheads a lot.


  “She’s in bed. She’s feeling sick.”

  “Oh poor thing. So you got here and she was taken ill? Does she need a doctor?”

  My mum walks in, drying her hands on a dishcloth. Dad bought her a dishwasher, but she refuses to use it, says it doesn’t clean properly.

  “Sarah! Why didn’t you tell me you were visiting?”

  “Well, that’s the thing. Is Dad here?”

  “He’s at work, darling. Which is where I thought you’d be.”

  “Yes, well, I’ve had to take some time off, so I’ve come home. I’ll be back a while. If it’s okay, I’ll just go run upstairs with my things.”

  “You can’t.” My brother tells me. “I’ve already told you. Liv’s in bed.”

  “She’s in my bed?” I’m aghast.

  “No, she’s in our bed. That’s where we’ve been staying for the last three weeks since we got evicted.”

  “Come again?” I state. I can see our mother look from one of us to the other and she steps forward, just as she always did when we were about to take a chunk out of each other as kids.

  “Luke and Olivia are staying here with Marley for a while. Marley’s in Luke’s old room, and Luke and Olivia are in your room.”

  I turn to Luke. “Why did you get evicted? It was for arguing wasn’t it?”

  He looks at the floor confirming everything.

  “I don’t know why you stay together with all the rowing you do.”

  “It’s just banter. Nothing serious. It’s just Liv likes to throw things and she threw a mug and it hit the kitchen window.”

  I stand up straight and move into his personal space. “Well, you’re all going to have to pack yourself into your old room because I’m back.”

  “I’m not moving Liv. She’s got to be looked after in her condition.”

  Please God no.

  “What condition?”

  “She’s six weeks pregnant.”

  I breathe audibly through my nose. “Why has no one told me any of this? That you’ve been evicted and that Liv’s preggers again? That you’re staying at our parents’ house?”

  I look accusingly at my mother.

  She just shrugs her shoulders. “We didn’t want to worry you while you were so far away, so we just figured we’d catch you up on things when you next came for a visit, and here you are and now you’re all caught up.”

  Is my family for real?

  “So I can’t stay here then? In my own room. Because my brother has two rooms.”

  “Of course you can stay. Don’t be silly, Sarah. We have a perfectly good sofa. You can sleep in the living room for now. How long were you thinking of staying?”

  Well it had been for a while.

  “I don’t know. How long are you staying?” I ask my brother. “Is there a chance I’ll get my room back anytime soon?”

  “We’re not looking for anywhere until Liv starts feeling better.”

  I stamp my feet. Twenty-five and stamping my feet like Marley.

  Talking of Marley…

  “Where’s your daughter?” I ask Luke.

  He looks around. “Oh shit, and she still has the chocolate mousse.”

  “Marley?” He shouts running into the hallway.

  Me and mum follow him out and find Marley in the downstairs toilet smearing the remainder of her chocolate mousse all over the walls and floor. It looks like shit is coated everywhere but luckily it smells far nicer.

  “How has it spread so far?” Luke wails.

  “Did she actually eat any of it?” I laugh.

  “It’s okay for you laughing. You don’t have to clean it all up do you?”

  “I’ll get a cloth.” My mum says.

  “You’ll not clean it up either.” I hiss at Luke. “You’ll get Mum to do it. You’ve always been lazy. It wouldn’t surprise me if you got evicted on purpose while Liv’s out of action so you can get Mum and Dad doing everything for you.”

  “Get lost. Why aren’t you at your hoity-toity job anyway? Slumming it back here, aren’t you?”

  Something in my expression must give the game away.

  A slow smile builds on his face. “Have you lost your job?”

  “Sssh.”

  “Oh wow, the golden girl isn’t so golden after all.”

  My mum comes through with a wet cloth. “Everyone out so I can deal with this.”

  “Luke should be doing it.” I protest.

  He picks up Marley. “I have this one to clean up.”

  “You should clean the toilet walls first.”

  “It’s fine, Sarah.” My mum says. “It’s just chocolate mousse. If it was another brown substance, I’d leave Luke to it.”

  Luke smiles at me victorious until Marley lets out a fart and follows through.

  “Oh dear. I’d better leave you to it.” I smirk back. “Thought I was the one having a shitty time of it, but it looks like I’m not alone.”

  2

  Emmett

  I blow out a frustrated sigh as the one-year-old in my arms finally falls asleep just as her twin starts stirring.

  This has pretty much been my life for the past six months, ever since I put the twins into their own room. If one’s peacefully sleeping then the other one is waking, ready to raise the roof with their cries.

  I’m exhausted. To look at me, anyone would think I’m approaching my fiftieth birthday not my fortieth. The bags under my eyes have bags and the fine lines I’d been accumulating before Louisa fell pregnant now seem to be getting deeper with every day that passes.

  “Just let me stay and help so you can at least get a few hours sleep tonight,” Mum says, poking her head into the twins’ nursery with her coat in her hand.

  “No, it’s fine. You’ve been here all day.”

  I love my mum, I really do. I’m not sure what I’d have done without her this year, but I also need my own space, even if it is with two crying babies. Plus, she’s in her seventies; the last thing she should be doing is staying up all night with these two.

  “Emmett, there’s no shame in admitting that you need a little help.”

  “I’m aware.” I don’t mean to snap. She knows this too, but it doesn't stop me feeling awful for doing it. “I’m sorry. I just don’t want to put any more stress on your shoulders.”

  “Emmett, I might be old, but I’m not dying. I’m more than capable of looking after these two for a few hours. I managed just fine with you and your sister.”

  My stomach twists and my heart drops as her eyes glass over at the mention of my older sister. I know that part of the reason she wants to help out so much is partly due to her death. I was only a toddler myself so I don’t really remember her illness but all these years on, she’s still not dealt with the loss.

  Every time she looks at the twins, I know she sees us as kids. She just wants a repeat where she got to see both her kids grow into adults.

  “I know, Mum. You should be enjoying the perks of being a grandparent. You should be able to walk away when things get loud because you’ve already done it once.”

  “But—”

  “No ‘buts’. Get out of here. Go and play bingo or something.”

  “Bingo! Jesus, Emmett, next you’ll be telling me I’m only a hop, skip, and a jump away from pushing up daisies.” I lift a brow in amusement and she swats my shoulder. Letting out a frustrated huff, she shrugs on her coat and bids me farewell.

  She’ll only be gone for a few hours. I could put money on her being here before ten in the morning to help.

  The sound of her footsteps down the stairs fills the silent space around me before the bang of her shutting the front door finally wakes Elouise from her fitful slumber.

  Smoothly walking between the cots, I carefully place Louis down into his bed praying he stays asleep before turning to my daughter and scooping her up in my arms.

  Every bad night we have, I always wonder if it’s because they know they’re missing their mum. They might never have met her but if anything, t
hey’d have known her better than anyone. They lived inside her for seven-and-a-half months; literally a part of her.

  “Hush, little lady. It’s okay,” I soothe, rocking back and forth, hoping it’ll be enough to send her off again.

  A little over an hour later, I finally get back downstairs. I walk into the kitchen and take in the clear work surfaces and both the dishwasher and washing machine working away. I told Mum not to do it all, but then she never listens so I don’t know why I’m so surprised.

  I don’t have the energy to find myself some proper dinner. Instead I pull the cupboard open and pull out a packet of crisps followed by a tumbler and the bottle of whiskey I save for bad days when I just need a moment to remember that I’m more than just a single dad to baby twins.

  I’ve just poured a generous amount into the glass when my phone vibrates in my pocket.

  Ross: I’m outside.

  Smiling down at my phone, I put the bottle back on the side and head for the front door. Ross is my boss, or at least he was before I took paternity leave for the two monsters upstairs. But more than that, he’s a good friend, and luckily for me, he seems to have a sixth sense for when I need someone to talk to.

  Pulling the door open, I smile and gesture for him to come inside. He doesn’t say anything until he’s placed the bag he was carrying down on the kitchen counter and I’ve shut the door. He’s been here enough times when the twins are asleep to know not to make any loud noises.

  “You look fucking rough, mate.”