Nanny and the Beast

Yuri

A year ago Yulia, my niece, lost both her parents. Two months ago she completely stopped speaking. Her psychiatrist thought a gentler presence around the house might be good for her. She suggested a nanny for the child. Naturally, I would do anything that would help her regain her happy childhood.

But I didn't expect the woman who stepped into my office. Yeah, she's got my attention, all right, but for all the wrong reasons. I sure as hell don't need this ripe fruit to distract me day and night in my own home.

I tell her she hasn't got the job, and watch her leave my study, but Fate has other plans. Resistance is futile.

April

He lives in a white mansion in London's Knightsbridge, a magnet for playboys and Russian billionaires.   Big, burly bodyguards look at me as if I've not come for a job interview, but to steal the family silver. Whatever. I maintain my professionalism, I'm determined to get this intriguing job of caring for the girl who refuses to speak. A prim woman leads me to his study. She knocks, and a deep, smooth voice beckons us to enter. The door opens and I set eyes on Yuri Volkov.

OMG.

His eyes are like a wolf's. Pitiless. Mesmerizing Dangerous. Obviously he Is drop dead wrong but, I can't stop imagining his big, tanned hands caressing every inch of me. After the briefest interview in the history of interviews he informs me I haven't got the job. As I walk away, humiliated, from his study, it happens. The unthinkable.

And I'm suddenly back in the game.