The Nanny

by Llmav

One eventful summer.

3. Chapter 3

A/N; WHEN YOU ASSUME YOU MAKE AN ASS OUT OF YOU AND ME.

The number of people who messaged me to ask if Austin was the twins' dad blew me away.

There is a very small difference between naughty and nasty, but I only write the former.

So no, he's not.

I know I fucking suck at updating this story, but it's actually one of my personal favorites, so please be patient and I promise I won't abandon it, even if there is some time between updates.

This chapter is kind of long and I hope that makes up a little bit for the delay in updating.

As per usual, the next chapter is half-way written and I hope it won't take me forever to complete it.

Thank you all for all the reviews and follows and just ahhh, all you guys are the best.

I hope you continue to enjoy this (at least by my standards) very slow-paced story...

Please let me know what you think.

The sky was as infinite and clear blue as the pool she was currently splashing around in, her by now tanned body half-way submerged in the water, a few small, breeze-created waves making her petite body bop slightly on the otherwise still water surface.

It was her day off.

She felt weightless, her mind almost as light as her floating body.

This was the life.

Had it not been for not wanting to jeopardize her fragile balance, she would have sighed out loud in contentment.

She hadn't felt as relaxed in weeks, probably ever since she had arrived at the luxurious mansion, the mansion that seemed to hide more secrets than evils in Pandora's box.

Her mind mimicked the sky above, virtually cloud-free, the only looming sign of bad weather being the mentally tattooed image of Cassidy leaving the pool house in the early morning hours.

She had ran through a million and one possible explanations in her head, without being able to successfully coming up with even a single one that made sense.

She kept on telling herself that it was none of her business.

None.

Of.

Her.

Business.

But it still bothered her.

And it bothered her that it bothered her.

The warm water engulfed her body where she was, thoroughly enjoying the large pool that she hadn't seen anyone else use since she got there.

It was funny how the twins, or at least the talkative one out of the two, preferred to stay out of their house, almost as if it wasn't a castle, but rather a nicely disguised prison, the children somehow preferring the freedom of the complicated outside world over the controlled existence of their over-privileged home.

She couldn't say that she blamed them.

Due to the three of them keeping busy, the last couple of weeks had kind of flown by.

She had quickly started to get into the rhythm of things, and her and the twins had set into a comfortable routine.

A simple one.

B- urning sun.

E-xtreme heat.

A-bsolutely gorgeous view.

C-old ice-cream.

H-ot guys.

B-E-A-C-H.

Yeah, that was pretty much it.

All the twins really wanted to do was go to the beach.

Yippie.

Her favorite place on earth.

Or not.

It was growing on her, though. The sand was still getting everywhere, but the beautiful scenery and the amazing outside climate kind of made up for it.

And the even tan that she was currently sporting was an added bonus.

Nelson still remained almost absolutely quiet around her, and she started to think that it was something personal, after all, as she had overheard him speaking to his sister on numerous occasions.

She had taken Austin's advice, the one about staying away from him, and it had been surprisingly easy to do so considering he hadn't been around much.

Had it not been for the small light that flickered to light in his window on a nightly basis, she would have guessed that he had gone out of town or something.

She would like to say that she hadn't really registered his absence.

But she couldn't, because she had.

They had had one awkward run-in, all three of them, of course because why not, one morning a few days after she had seen what still made her eyes bleed and her heart heavy.

Although it was none of her business.

There had been an odd, all-encompassing tension in the kitchen that morning, the big space suddenly not nearly large enough, the way too thick air difficult to breath.

And it had confused her to no end, because she wouldn't necessarily label said tension as sexual, but rather mysterious, a tension created by plenty of unresolved issues and possibly some anger.

He hadn't even really looked her way.

Not that she wanted him to, or anything.

She had not at all been looking at him, so obviously she had not at all noticed how tanned he had been, or how his hair almost seemed even blonder than it had before, and how nice of a contrast that was to his tanned muscular arms that had been fully on display, courtesy of the non-existent sleeves of his striped tank top.

Yeah, she hadn't noticed.

He had almost immediately excused himself, walking out of the kitchen with the speed and grace of an uncoordinated, galloping horse.

Other than those few moments of extreme awkwardness, she hadn't seen Cassidy around much either.

Their daily communication was usually short, and half of it consisted of the blonde informing her of her very intricate and disgustingly detailed itinerary for the day.

Most of the time, she was instantly lost, and Cassidy might as well have spoken in a foreign language, as that probably would have made more sense to her anyways.

Who knew it took so much work to do nothing.

She started to think that Cassidy was purposefully keeping herself too busy, trying to escape the distress of her all but stressful life, and the expression 'money can't by happiness' had never made more sense to her.

She was grateful for the blonde's absence, though.

She preferred it that way.

She hadn't cared much for her female boss ever since their initial meeting, but now she almost literally made her skin crawl.

She still hadn't met Mr. Moon. All she really knew about him was that he was in the music industry, which she guessed made sense and explained all the music related items decorating the spacious mansion.

Or at least the parts of the mansion that she had seen.

Mr. Moon's absence was no longer something that she questioned, just as nobody else seemed to. She hadn't heard the twins (or Tilly, more accurately) speaking about him at all.

Not even once.

Overall, she was enjoying herself. The twins were cute, the weather was nice and the money was so, so good.

She lost track of time as she bopped around, minutes and maybe hours almost literally floating by.

She was still on her back, her brown hair spread out behind her head like some sort of veil, her ears under water, her own pulse beating in her ear the only noise to be heard in the otherwise eerily quiet afternoon.

The sun was burning, scorching, the outside temperature rising by the minute, and yet suddenly, she felt freezing cold.

She got off of her back and moved to stand up in the warm pool.

The water was now hitting her mid-waist, and as she started to look around, she got the very odd feeling that she was being observed.

Weird.

Weird and creepy.

The courtyard was as empty as it had been all morning.

Not even a bug was moving.

Not that she had ever seen any bugs around, but anyways.

The close-by pool house looked like the carbon copy of a miniature dream house that it was, as per usual, still, quiet, like a model home, one without inhabitants.

She continued to scan the backyard, feeling dumb, then moving over to glance at the house-mansion.

It probably was just her imagination, it must be, but she felt as if one of the heavy curtains in the large upstairs window moved ever so slightly as she looked in that direction.

That was weird.

Nobody was up there.

Cassidy and the twins were out, visiting some distant relative (she hadn't really been paying attention, as it was her day off, she was just happy that Cassidy was actually spending a day with her kids.)

Maybe it was the housekeeper, although she was pretty sure that she had heard Cassidy instructing the middle-aged woman earlier the same morning not to go up there.

She shook her had at herself, and resumed her floating session, but for some reason, she was unable to find the level of calmness that she had previously enjoyed.

A couple of minutes later, and a loud booming sound disturbed the semi-peace, and her, as something, most likely another body, plunged into the water, making her body bop arrhythmically on the consequent waves and signaling the end of her solitary break.

She spotted something blond in the corner of her eye.

It was him.

Of course it was.

She immediately stood up, almost as if it was her survival instinct.

Being on her back around him made her nervous.

She was wearing one of her regular bikinis, nothing too skimpy, but she suddenly felt so ridiculously naked that she might as well could have been.

And he wasn't even really looking at her.

She wasn't sure of what to say as he was standing waist-deep at the other side of the pool, but she felt like she needed to say something.

"Hey." Her voice was low, but she felt as if it echoed throughout the open space. Why did it sound like that? Almost as if she was nervous.

He didn't answer, as he continued to run his large hands through his messy hair, the drops of water cascading down from it and leaving wet trails down his bare chest.

Maybe he hadn't heard her.

Or perhaps he was ignoring her.

If so, why did that bother her so much?

"So, I haven't seen you around much lately." Why did she keep on talking? What was wrong with her? Why couldn't she just ignore him, as well?

It made sense, though. She typically talked too much when she was nervous.

"I've been busy." His voice was neutral. Very neutral. Too neutral.

She held back a "with what?", not because it wasn't a legitimate question considering he didn't have a job, but because she realized it was none of her business.

"Oh." She didn't know what else to say.

"And the house is a bit crowded." His voice was suddenly less neutral, and much more angry.

She laughed at the absurdity of his statement, but the laugh got stuck in her throat as she quickly processed what he had meant.

She realized that it seemed like he was making a conscious effort not to look at her, and that bothered her even more.

If anything, she should be the one not wanting to look at him.

But she did.

Crap.

He was still quiet, and for some reason it made her very uncomfortable.

What else could she talk to him about?

Oh, his siblings.

"I think the twins miss you." Tilly might not have uttered a single word about her father over the last couple of weeks, but she wouldn't shut up about her big brother.

He almost looked guilty for a second. "I miss them too."

She nodded, as she could tell that he was telling the truth.

Suddenly his eyes were only on her, and he might as well have been in her as that gaze that made her feel bare, exposed, naked, but also somehow made her kind of want to get naked.

How did he do that?

She should have gone with the bathing suit. Damn it.

He was bare chested, standing three-quarter deep in the heavenly blue water, looking like freaking Poseidon himself, and although she was pretty sure that she didn't like him, she was grateful that they were in the pool, because she could always play off any potential actual drool as water.

Conveniently and right on cue, the mental image of Cassidy popped back into her head.

Good.

Any potential drooling was immediately dried up.

He swam around for a minute, and she pretended not to look are him until she suddenly remembered something. "Were you out here earlier?"

He shook his head. "No. Why?"

She felt silly. "Nothing, it was just...a few minutes ago, I got the feeling that someone was watching me, that's all."

"People are always watching." She expected him to be smiling, indicating that he was joking, because the seriousness of the tone of his voice made her think that he wasn't.

But he wasn't smiling.

She wasn't entirely sure of what he meant by that, but didn't get the chance to ask him anything further, as he dove under the water surface, swimming towards her and resurfacing just a couple of yards away.

And suddenly, he was not far away and way too close.

"I'm sorry to bother you. I just needed to cool down a bit, didn't know you were out here."

He smiled, a genuine smile, a smile that made him look young and wild and free.

Funny how it was suddenly even hotter outside.

And how she was now the one who kind of needed to cool down to.

The water was once again drizzling down his body from his wet hair, a few drops getting stuck in his long eye lashes and yet another few drops lingering on his lips and she got the sudden urge to dry them off.

With her tounge...towel, with her towel.

So yeah, she was clearly completely unaffected by him.

He dove back under the surface, reappearing at the other side of the pool and getting out of it before waving quickly. "See you."

She only nodded in response.

She kind of wished that she hadn't noticed the way the short, black shorts clung to his backside as he walked away from her and towards the pool house.

But(t) she did.

She got out a few minutes later, unable to find the ease she had had earlier in the morning.

She was uncomfortable, so very uncomfortable, but she wasn't completely sure of why.

She quickly wrapped the oversized, luxurious bath towel around her wet body.

And then she suddenly felt much better.

...

It was darkening outside as she walked towards the nearby beach, the fringe on her cut-off jean shorts bouncing against her tanned thighs as she made her way.

Piper and Brooke had invited her to some sort of get-together.

They had spent a lot of time together down on the beach, the endless days of bathing and tanning kind of blending into each other.

The two girls had always been nice to her, but for some reason she felt it necessary to keep her guard up.

They were a bit too nice.

She kind of suspected that her only pull on them was the fact that she had a very attractive almost housemate, although he hadn't been around at all.

That didn't mean that she couldn't socialize, though.

As she walked over towards the small group gathered by the fairly large bonfire, the now almost chilly sand sipping in through her open-toed sandals, she suddenly missed Trish even more.

She really couldn't wait to see her curly-haired best friend again.

She was loudly greeted by a clearly already tipsy Piper, who wrapped her arms around her shoulders and almost knocked her down on the sand in the process before they walked over towards the fire.

Her dead heart sped up drastically when she recognized a blond disarray of short strands situated across from where she was standing, the reflection of the warm flames bouncing off of his handsome features, his broad shoulders, and she could see that he had a small smile on his face.

She wasn't sure why she was so surprised to see him there. If anything, he was the one who belonged there and she was the outside intruder, the newbie, the one who was still trying to learn to play by the for her new set of rules, slowly learning to abide by the laws dictated and created by the leaders of the upper-class community.

He was sitting next to a dark-haired girl that she didn't recognize, but then again, she only recognized about a handful of people in the twenty plus sized group.

She sat down by the fire, on one of the spread-wide blankets, realizing that Piper had disappeared, but Brooke was by her side almost immediately.

"What does she have that I don't?" The brunette was nodding over towards the cosy looking pair at the other side of the fire that she herself had observed just a couple of minutes earlier.

"He will never make a move, I will never make a move, it will never happen..." Brooke sounded sad. Sad and drunk.

"I think you're better off." She truly meant it.

Brooke shook her head and hugged her tight before she stood up and walked away.

She turned towards the fire, with no intention of looking at him but yet somehow finding his eyes anyways.

He looked amused, yet ponderous, his arm now around the dark-haired beauty's minimal waist.

Piper reappeared, out of nowhere, handing her a drink before she started to introduce her to each and every single person that was there.

The boy-man next to her greeted her eagerly while introducing himself as Elliot.

She sat down, and the two of them spoke for a few minutes. She learned that he was enrolled at the nearby college, that he was born and raised in the very same community yang they were currently in and that he had known most of the gathered people for as long as he could remember.

She was enjoying herself. The only thing that was bothering her was that fact that his eyes consistently found hers, despite still having his muscular arm tightly wrapped around that dark-haired girl.

She took another sip of the too strong drink, as she continued her conversation with Elliot.

He was just so...nice.

He seemed simple, uncomplicated, brown-haired, drama-free, the complete opposite of the blond he-devil across from her and therefore exactly what she needed.

He definitely wasn't hooking up with his stepmom.

And then their eyes met. Again. And this time, they both lingered for a bit.

Elliot clearly noticed.

"Oh, God."

"What?"

He nodded over towards Austin.

"You're the shiny new toy that he wants to play with. Trust me, Austin loves toys. Especially new toys."

She certainly didn't want him to play with her.

Did not.

Not.

No, no, no.

She very much and greatly disliked the fact that she was extremely physically attracted to said player, and the attraction was mysteriously increasing at the same pace as the level of her alcohol intoxication.

Or maybe it was just her acceptance of it that was increasing.

She tried to once again think of Cassidy, but this time it wasn't working.

She was still physically attracted to him.

Damn.

She wasn't a big drinker, but it was something about the environment that made her nervous, and she felt as if she could use the liquid courage.

So she kept on drinking.

She couldn't help but notice that he was still looking at her, while now pretending that he wasn't.

She hated the fact that she liked it, hated the fact that she almost forgot what she had seen that early morning a few weeks ago every time their eyes met, which just so happened to occur way too frequently and yet not often enough.

Damn it.

She didn't even like him.

She was pretty sure she even despised him.

Why couldn't her body be as smart as her head?

Her head was spinning, and she knew she had already had a tad too much to drink, and she needed to breath.

And think.

She excused herself, soon sitting down by herself by the nearby water, a few hundred feet away from the increasingly louder group, soon kicking of her sandals and letting the soft, cold ocean waves tickle her toes.

It was dark, and still, and not as warm of a night that she was used to.

Suddenly, something big plopped down next to her, some of the sand hitting her bare legs, and she knew it was him.

Nobody else had that same effect on her heart rate.

"Can I sit with you?"

She shrugged, as if telling him that she could care less, although seeing him twice in one day, after virtually not seeing him at all for a couple of weeks, was clearly messing with her head, as she was kind of glad that he was there.

He sat down, close to her, before he started talking.

"Look I...don't you should be hanging out with Elliot."

She almost choked on the drink that she had brought along despite deciding that she had had enough.

"I don't think you're the one to give me advice."

He shrugged, his bare arm inadvertently rubbing up against hers. "I'm not saying I'm an expert or anything, but I know Elliot, and all I'm saying is for you to be careful. That guy is not as nice as he seems."

If she hadn't known better, she would have interpreted his tone of voice as one of jealousy.

But she knew better.

"Then maybe I should tell you to stay away from your stepmom." The words came out before she had the time to think them through, her current level of intoxication clearly contributing to her finding the courage to speak about the one thing that had been on her mind for weeks.

He almost physically flinched, but stayed quiet, absent-mindedly running his finger through his already messy hair, and from where she sat, he didn't necessarily look mad but clearly upset.

She could have almost sworn that he mumbled something reminiscent of "I wish."

A minute passed before he turned towards her, and from what she could tell in the semi-darkness, he had a serious, non-playful expression on his face.

"I don't know what you think you know about me, but you'll soon see that around here, not everything is always as it first seems."

"I'm sorry, I...it's none of my business." That was the first time she repeated that mantra out loud.

"Look...whatever clues you may think you have...you don't. The math doesn't add up. You're calculating it wrong. The answer is not the one you think it is."

He suddenly rose and walked back towards the bonfire, turning around once he had gotten about halfway. "Just be careful, ok?" He sounded so serious, any hint of the generally present and badly hidden innuendoes notably missing from his voice, and she couldn't come up with a suitable answer, so she just nodded as he continued to walk away.

A few minutes later, and she was back by the bonfire. Elliot's arm somehow mysteriously wrapped around her shoulders almost instantly, but the weight of his body on hers felt too heavy, and almost uncomfortably so, so she moved away while still staying seated next to him.

She waited a few minutes before she hesitantly glanced over in his direction, quickly noticing that his arm was once again wrapped around that girl.

Not that she cared.

She wasn't jealous.

She felt bad for that poor girl.

Almost as if he had felt her looking at him, his eyes met hers once again.

She noticed that he wasn't smirking, he was serious, his eyes drilling into hers from the other side of the dying fire, but somehow making the slow-burning fire between them burn stronger than ever before.

She tried to ignore him for the next few minutes, pretending to be in deep conversation with Elliot, and she therefore didn't at all notice when Austin left, with the skinny girl by his side, and she really didn't care.

She cared so little that she almost didn't hear Elliot's offer of walking her home.

She hesitated, and he clearly noticed as he quickly mumbled something about "just wanting to keep her safe."

She nodded to accept.

She really shouldn't be walking around by herself at night.

She went to find Piper, to say goodbye, and the blonde hugged her tightly and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively when she informed her that Elliot was going to walk her home.

"Oh, that's cool. I mean, I really thought you and Austin...I mean, that day on the beach, I...he looked as if he would have taken you right then and there if he could have. And he's been eyeing you all night."

Crap. So even her very intoxicated semi-friend had noticed.

"Isn't he with that girl?"

Please say no, please say no, please say no...

Not that she cared, or anything.

"Kira? Please." Piper was shaking her head. "That's old news and bad news all wrapped into one."

"So, she's an ex of his?" Why the heck was she so curious?

"No, more like...I don't really even know. Austin doesn't do the relationship thing, though."

Oh.

She shook her head. "It doesn't matter, I'm not interested either way. In any of them."

That was at least 50% true.

"Good for you!". The blonde hugged her again before she skipped off towards the now only handful of people that were lingering by what had been the bonfire.

Elliot popped up by her side, and then they were alone, walking off the beach in silence, side by side.

They walked for a few minutes until he tugged on her hand.

"Come here, I know a shortcut."

They were soon walking through a tiny forest, or perhaps rather a small group of trees, the full moon leading the way through the dark neighborhood.

She suddenly shuddered. It was dark and a bit colder than she had expected.

Elliot noticed and wrapped his arm around her shoulder once again, but it still felt wrong, and she was about to move it off of her when he suddenly pushed her into a nearby tree, her back roughly pressing into the wood and his lips roughly pressing into hers.

At first, she was too surprised to respond, but her body recovered quicker than her brain, and she immediately moved to push him away, while moving her face away from his mouth.

The first "stop" was hesitant, the second one firm, and by the third one she was almost screaming.

"STOP."

"Don't be a fucking tease, we both know you want it."

He wasn't very tall, but yet much bigger and stronger than her, and his hands quickly found their way in under her shirt.

She screamed in protest, but oddly, that only seemed to turn him on further, as his hands were moving towards her bra as his mouth found hers once again, despite her screaming.

The punch came out of nowhere, from left-field, making contact with the right side of the brown haired fuckface's face and almost knocking him off of his feet.

"She said stop, are you fucking deaf or just stupid?" Her blond savior was screaming. Loudly.

"Since when do you care?" Elliot was touching his nose where he stood, a few yards away, and she was pretty sure that he must be bleeding.

"Since fucking now. Now get out of here before I fucking break your nose. And if I see you within a fucking mile of her again I'm going to break every single bone in that pathetic body of yours, understand?"

Elliot didn't answer but left, almost runningly so, and then all that could be heard was her quiet sobs.

She was still leaning up against the tree as her legs were shaking and she wasn't entirely sure that she would we able to stand up by herself.

"Are you ok?" He sounded concerned. And angry. So, so angry.

She nodded and he walked up to her, wrapping his arms around her, sharing his body heat with her for a few minutes and she could feel his heart beat rapidly against hers as he was stroking her hair.

She stopped crying and he let her go.

"Ready to go home?"

She nodded, because she was, although the home she had in mind was probably very different from what he did.

"Thank you."

"I'm just glad I was here."

So was she.

Although she didn't know why he was.

She had seen him walk off in the opposite direction.

"Why are you here, anyways? Did you...follow me?" Her voice was still as shaky as the rest of her body.

He shook his head. "Don't flatter yourself, I was just walking back to the house."

"I thought you were leaving with that skinny girl."

He shook his head again, but this time it seemed to be in disbelief. "You are very good at assuming things, aren't you?"

She knew he wasn't just referring to the current situation.

They walked in silence for a couple of minutes before he spoke again.

"What were you doing here alone with him?"

"He seemed nice and..."

He interrupted her. "You're clearly not that good at reading people."

She started to realize that maybe he had a point.

He suddenly seemed mad again. "Fuck, I told you to stay away from him."

"You also told me to stay away from you."

He groaned and didn't answer, but sped up, walking fast and several yards in front of her, and she could tell by the way that his shoulders were rapidly raising and falling, that he most likely was still furiously mad.

He suddenly stopped and punched a nearby tree, and she shrieked in surprise.

"FUCK."

She wasn't sure of whether he was cursing out of pain or anger, but maybe both, but she didn't have any additional time to think about it before he punched the tree again.

And again. And again, his increasingly loudening curses filling the nighttime air.

He stopped, and she moved to touch his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, I know I should have listened to you and..."

He turned around and interrupted her. Again.

"I'm not mad at you, I'm...I'm mad at myself. And at Elliot. But mostly at myself. I shouldn't have let you leave with him, I should have..."

"That's not your fault or your responsibility, though." It was the truth.

"I know, but..."

"Why do you even care? You don't even really know me." For some reason, she needed to know.

He sounded kind of upset when he answered. "I don't know, okay? But I do care. And you have no fucking idea how much it bothers me that I for some reason really care what you think of me."

She nodded, because she did.

Because it bothered her that she cared, too.

"I may not have the greatest reputation, and some of it may be well-deserved, but there are limits. Even for me. Got it?" He still sounded angry.

She nodded, because she did.

Whatever issue he was having with his stepmother, she instinctively knew that her assumptions had been wrong, and that he wasn't sleeping with her.

They reached the backside of the mansion and she leaned up against the wall, as her legs were still kind of wobbly.

"Thank you again, I don't know what would have happened if..."

He interrupted her and surprised her when he leaned in towards her, placing a soft kiss on her forehead, the oddly intimate gesture making her feel a hundred times tinglier than anything of anyone else she could recall. Ever.

He lingered and his breath was hitting her neck, in short puffs, creating a myriad of goosebumps on her exposed skin, and he smiled, almost sadly, when he noticed.

"One of the reasons I haven't been around much is because I'm trying to stay away from you, damn it."

He was facing her now, his face aligned with hers, and she could feel his breath on her lips before he leaned in again, this time to whisper in her ear.

"There are security cameras. Everywhere. People are always watching, remember?"

And then he walked away, rapidly, leaving her behind with her head spinning yet again, but this time around, it was due to it being filled with questions.

A spinning head and a fast, clearly very undead, heart.

He slammed the door to the pool house shut behind him, the loud bang startling her as it broke the silence of the quiet night, snapping her out of her confusion as she started to make her way back to her room.

She sat down on the huge bed once she got there.

That had been quite a night.

She looked out through the window, and she felt even more lost than she had done before.

And then she saw the small light that was him.

...

The alarm of the way-too-early-set alarm pierced her ears.

Was it even really morning yet?

She groaned loudly and got out of bed.

She needed to dutifully keep up her routine of waking up before the kids.

Even if she was dreadfully hang-over.

She moved to get ready, soon realizing that she needed something to drink.

Like a gallon worth of water.

Possibly two.

She headed for the kitchen.

In addition to her Sahara-dry throat, she also had an explosive headache, but she was incredibly unsure of whether it was due to her too heavy drinking, or the fact that she had barely slept.

He had been in her bed, albeit not physically.

And in her head.

And once she had finally fallen asleep, Elliot had chased her in her nightmares.

She wasn't paying attention to where she was walking, and she suddenly bumped in to someone, and for a second she thought (or maybe hoped, she must still be drunk) that it was him, as the person was about the same height and had similarly blond hair.

It wasn't, though.

Just somebody that slightly resembled him.

She realized that this was probably Mr. Moon.

She was surprised, as she hadn't known that he was home.

"I'm sorry, I'm Ally...I'm the nanny. Nice to meet you, sir."

She extended her hand, and he took it.

"Oh, call me Mike. And I know who you are." He nodded and she got the feeling that he would have smirked, if his face would have been able to do that.

There was something about that man that made her incredibly uncomfortable.

He, just like his wife, looked very young from afar, but closer up, one could tell that he wasn't. He had probably been good-looking once, his son clearly getting some of his genes, but whatever natural handsomeness he might have possessed had been destroyed by too much plastic surgery and only god knew what else.

He was undeniably creepy, and she was suddenly grateful that he hadn't been around much.

She hoped it would stay that way.

She excused herself with a faint 'Nice to meet you", turning back around and walking back towards her room.

She just somehow knew that he was checking out her pajama-clad ass.

...

They were on their way to the beach.

Surprise.

Her hang-over had been significantly reduced in comparison to earlier in the morning, but her head was still a bit heavy as she drove the overloaded golf cart down the narrow street.

A tall figure suddenly appeared on the road in front of them, and she stepped on the break, the golf-cart coming to a screeching halt right in front of him.

"What are you doing here?" She might have sounded more excited than scolding.

It might be because she couldn't get him out of her head.

He smiled. "I'm going to the beach with you guys."

They all cheered, although she was doing so only internally.

She realized that he was wearing the same short, tight shorts that he had been wearing in the pool the previous day, the black material clinging to his thick thighs despite the shorts still being dry, and she couldn't help but notice that they were tight in the front as well.

He jumped in onto the open seat next to hers and they arrived at the beach within minutes, unloading the plethora of things together before settling down on a spot close to the water.

Tilly wouldn't stop talking, her enthusiasm being oddly contagious, and beofre she knew it, they were all building a giant sand castle together.

Even Nelson was participating.

It was a small miracle.

A few minutes later, and they were all admiring their masterpiece.m

"Austin. This is the house you will live in with your family when you get married." Tilly sounded excited.

"But I'm never getting married, Tilly, I've already told you that."

Tilly didn't seem to care, but she stared at him, because she could not not do so, and she knew that disbelief was more than likely written all over her face.

He noticed. "What?"

She was shaking her head. "Next thing, just tell her that Santa Claus doesn't exist."

"He doesn't. And I don't believe in him any more than I do marriage."

She wanted to ask questions, but she didn't, and she just continued to shake her head as he moved and grabbed the small surfboard he had brought along.

"I'll be back." He started to run off towards the water.

"Be careful." She couldn't help it.

He turned back around and smirked. "I will. And if something happens to me, you can always give me mouth-to-mouth."

She blushed, but primarily because she kind of and really wanted to.

Crap.

She observed him from afar, his tall frame riding the small waves perfectly.

He was good.

Very good.

He returned a little while later, soaked and smiling, leaving her soaked and smiling, as well.

They spent a few more hours on the beach, swimming and tanning and talking, before they packed up and walked back towards the golf cart.

That was the best day she had had on the beach so far.

"By the way, I met your dad this morning."

"I'm sure that was a life-changing experience." His tone of voice was not just a little bit sarcastic.

Wow. So there was definitely tension between him and his father, too.

She didn't say anything else, as it was painstakingly clear that he didn't want to talk about it.

They returned to the house, all of them almost completely covered in sand.

The twins headed for the entrance, but she stopped them.

"Let's rinse off first."

They walked towards the back of the mansion, finding the hose that she usually used to wash them off with, turning it on and the twins laughter soon ringing out thought the spacious back yard as they took turns splashing them with the coolish water.

"What about you?" He was smirking at her.

She shook her head.

"No thanks, I'm good."

She saw an almost evil smile form on his face, and she instinctively knew what he was thinking.

She tried to run away, but he caught up with her almost immediately, grabbing her by the waist and lifting her up, carrying her over to the hose before setting her down on the ground, his arms still wrapped around her as he reached for it.

Skin on skin.

Wet skin on wet skin.

Ahhhhhhhhh.

He positioned the hose over her head, the cold water soon dripping down over her hair, making her wet in more ways than one while the twins were still laughing loudly.

She tried to move away, but his arms were immediately around her once again.

"Let me clean you."

She felt dirty, her wet body rubbing up again his, his body undoubtedly responding to hers, as well.

She could both feel it and see it.

Very tight shorts, and all of that.

Funny how cold water could make her feel so hot.

He laughed and turned off the hose, then walking off towards the pool house.

"Bye guys."

All three of them waved goodbye.

They had all but returned to the house, all of them still giggling, when the house keeper approached her.

"Ms. Dawson, Mr. Moon wants to speak to you in his office. Upstairs. Second door to the right."

She was still in her wet bikini, her cover-up damp from it rubbing up against it, and she sighed, albeit only internally, as she really had looked forward to a long, hot shower, both for the purpose of cleaning off and cooling down.

Her annoyance, however, soon turned into anxiousness.

What could her male boss possibly want to talk to her about?

She slowly walked upstairs, realizing that she had really never been up there alone before.

She knocked on the large, closed-shut wooden door, and after a few seconds, a loud "enter" signaled her cue to crack the door open, and she entered.

It was a large office, with a large desk, several chairs placed on one side of it.

Mr. Moon was sitting behind said large desk, now wearing an impeccable looking suit, his face serious.

She was nervous, both because she had a weird gut feeling that she shouldn't be alone with Mr. Moon and because his facial expression made her feel as if she was in trouble.

"Take a seat."

She did, because she didn't dare not to.

"Do you like working for us so far, Ms. Dawson?"

She nodded. She did.

"Good. Very good."

His eyes were running all over her where she was siting, and she felt, if possible, even more uncomfortable.

He suddenly rose, walking around the desk. She was still sitting down, and he was soon standing behind her, too close and she felt very uncomfortable.

"I like to keep a very close relationship with me employees."

She was pretty sure that her skin was literally crawling, as there was no way to misinterpret what he had meant.

"And I have a feeling that we, me and you, are going to get along just fine, Ms. Dawson."

At first she thought she was imagining his finger running against her neck, but as she turned her head, she realized that it wasn't a bad nightmare, it was reality.

She suddenly found her lost voice again. "If you excuse me, I'm going to go check on the kids now."

She rose, rapidly so, mostly because she was pretty certain that she was going to suffocate if she didn't get out of that room, and she was kind of happy that the chair hit him in a very specific place as she stood up. If she hadn't been so crazily uncomfortable, she might have even laughed at the exasperated noise that left his mouth.

She was by the door, almost escaping the lions den, when the wild animal caught up to her, almost growlingly so.

Mr. Moon was undoubtedly a predator, but a much worse version than his son, because whereas Austin was dangerous, his father was apparently downright deadly.

He pushed her, almost violently so, pressing her in to the nearby wall while his arms caged her in, and she felt panic rise throughout her body.

"Now, Ms. Dawson, I'm not sure you know who you're dealing with, but people don't usually say no to me."

And then he leaned in.