in. Are your things in your car?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll help you bring them in. Let me finish feeding Autumn and then I’ll show you around. I was in the kitchen feeding her. I carried a rocker in from the back porch,” he said, wondering at himself. He was babbling—a first in his life. His mind reeled. He had hired what he thought would be a competent nanny. Now he realized he had hired a very appealing woman. How was he going to live with her under his roof and ignore her?
With one hand he pulled the rocker near the fireplace. Between the oval breakfast table and the fireplace was a plaid-upholstered sofa. He motioned toward the sofa. “Have a seat.”
He sat as Marissa sat and crossed her long, shapely legs. He was in a sweat, and he realized he was staring again. He yanked his gaze up to meet her steady look.
“I bought a rocker on the way home today. It’ll be delivered this afternoon. This one belongs on the porch and, frankly, I forgot I had it.”
“Autumn looks more than halfway through that bottle. You might want to stop and burp her,” Marissa suggested.
“Do what?”
“Little babies get air bubbles in their tummies when they take a bottle. Here, I’ll show you. Where do you keep the kitchen towels?”
“In the third drawer by the fridge.”
With a sexy sway of her hips that he could watch all afternoon, Marissa crossed the room, found a towel and returned to stand in front of David. “Lean forward slightly, and I’ll put this over your shoulder.”
He did as instructed and was acutely aware of her bending down to place the towel across his shoulder. He felt her hands flutter over him, caught a whiff of an enticing perfume that smelled a little like roses, and saw silky strands of hair close in front of his face. Her skin was creamy smooth. Damnation, he didn’t want to be attracted to his nanny. That seemed bad business all the way around.
“Now, lean back and put her on your shoulder.”
“I hate to stop her.”
“She won’t mind for a little while and she’ll feel better. It might make her cry less if her tummy doesn’t hurt.”
He took the bottle from Autumn and set it on the floor beside the rocker. He carefully put the baby on his shoulder and she snuggled against him.
“That’s it,” Marissa said, watching him. “Now, pat her back gently.”
Marissa returned to the sofa to sit, and crossed her fabulous legs. He hadn’t noticed her legs in those striped stockings this morning. Now he had to struggle to keep from staring at them.
Autumn gave a little burp that startled him. “She burped.”
“Now you can go back to feeding her.”
“I wish I’d known that last night,” he said with a sigh.
“She probably wishes you’d known it, too,” Marissa told him with a smile.
“You said you’re not married, Marissa. I didn’t ask about a boyfriend.”
Her dimple flashed. “No boyfriends.”
“A friend of mine said you used to be married.”
Her expression didn’t change, but David sensed he had touched a sensitive subject. “I was,” she answered evenly. “To Reed Grambling. He’s remarried and moved to Midland now.”
“I knew him,” David said, recalling a guy who was on the basketball team. “He was a year behind me in school and I remember that he was a popular guy. Sorry it didn’t work out.”
“I fell for his looks and charm, and beneath all that was a man purely interested in himself. And women. After I put him through medical school, he walked. He was through with me. But that’s over, and I have my maiden name back,” she replied.
“You had a rotten deal.”
“I’m forgetting about it,” she stated firmly. “Did you go by the hospital before you came home?” she asked.
“No, I checked with Clint Andover and there was no point in going to the hospital. Clint said the mother is still in a coma. She’s listed as critical.”
“How awful! Oh, my goodness, that poor little baby!” Marissa exclaimed, biting her lip and staring at Autumn.
“We’ll all pray the mother pulls through this. In the meantime, Autumn is in good hands now.” He looked down at the baby. “She’s asleep. If you’d like, I can give you a tour of the house.”
“Sure,” Marissa said, standing when he did. “This is a beautiful kitchen.”
“Dad had it done over several years ago. I was away in the Gulf War, so I didn’t know until I came home. Some of the house has been remodeled and some of it is the original that was built when my great-great-grandpa Sorrenson settled here.”
Marissa listened to David’s deep, husky voice, which was enticing all in itself. Was there a woman in his life? He had said there wasn’t one to help with the baby. It didn’t matter, she reminded herself. He was another man like her former husband—charming, handsome and interested in women who were beautiful and far more worldly than she could ever hope to be.
The house was spacious with large rooms, high-beamed ceilings and polished plank floors. David led her into a wide hallway, where oil seascapes hung along the walls and potted plants stood on the floor.
“Grandpa rebelled when he was young and ran away and joined the navy. He came home after a few years, but he never lost his love for the sea and he collected all these paintings.”
David took her arm lightly and steered her to the right. “In here is the family room—this and the kitchen living area is where I spend most of my time.”
He dropped her arm, yet she could still feel the warm touch of his fingers and she was too aware of him at her side. Since her head barely came to his shoulder, he had to be a foot taller than she was. Tall, handsome, charming. As dangerous to a woman’s heart as her ex-husband had been. Maybe even more so because she had thought David was cute since she was a kid. How was she going to be able to resist him? She was all but drooling on him right now.
Trying to focus on his family room instead of the man beside her, she looked at an enormous room with picture windows that gave a panoramic view of an expanse of ranch land. Bookshelves with books and pictures lined one wall. An immense stone fireplace had an oil painting of a schooner in stormy waters mounted above the mantel. A jumbo-size television screen was at one end of the room. A game table and four chairs stood in another corner. The ceiling was high with massive beams, and she wondered how much stone and lumber it took to build the house.
As she looked around, she suspected she was going to get to know too much about this sexy man—more than enough to fuel that old crush that had been dormant for so long.
They strolled through an elegant living room and large dining room with a long mahogany table that seated twenty easily. She saw the billiard room, the library, his office, and then they walked down the hall to the bedrooms.
“You’ll be in this room,” he said, leading her into a room with a four-poster bed and antique maple furniture. “I haven’t considered where I’ll put Autumn.”
“Put her bed in my room if you want. I’ll be up with her at night. Unless that’s too far from your bedroom.”
“Nope, my room is on the other side of yours.”
“Oh, my!” she gasped.
His head whipped around. “Is something wrong?” he asked, looking at her intently.
“No, of course not,” she answered quickly, feeling her cheeks flush. In the next room. How would she ever get a wink of sleep knowing that he was sleeping so close?