I got the job of nanny for three billionaire brothers' children.

“The service told you the job is for three children? They’re ten and eight, respectively. My niece, Grace, is five. Are you confident in your ability with those ages?”

“Yes, Mr. Phoenix, I am confident with my ability to handle children of all ages.”

“Here’s the contract.”

I signed.

“Here are my brothers now. They’ll be here all summer, as well. Grace is Conrad’s daughter. On the left. And on the right is Zeke.”

Conrad, oh God not that name.

I would’ve known the man on the left anywhere. I recognized him most from my dreams. Or were they nightmares?

My stomach sank to my feet, and I knew that I’d just signed a contract to make my life a living underworld for four months.

————————

The beast of the castle. That was the first thought I had when I spotted Griffin Phoenix sitting behind the oversized glass desk. Inside the library, he was surrounded by two-story-tall shelves full of books, but he still managed to look like the biggest thing in the room. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the man had his own magnetic field, pulling me towards him like some sort of dark magic. Then, he stood up, and I felt my knees wobble.

“Mrs. Aarons. I appreciate you coming in for an interview on such short notice.” Griffin towered over his desk, his massive frame shrinking everything around him.

I forced myself to walk closer. “Miss. And, please, call me Autumn.”

“Autumn. Have a seat.”

The closer I got, the more I felt like I’d walked through the woods and found a castle full of talking china. Not that there was anything animal-like about Griffin, besides the way he moved like he was hunting prey. And I was no Belle. It was just the amount of wealth that seeped out of the very makeup of the beach house I was standing in. That, and the fact that Griffin seemed about as happy-go-lucky as a cursed prince. Still, there was something oddly familiar about him.

I sat down across from him and felt comically small in the oversized leather chair. It leaned too far back and had all the back support of a daisy. I struggled to stay upright and eventually scooted all the way forward and perched on the edge. All the modern décor in the house almost felt like a way to keep people anxious. There was nowhere to get comfortable.

“I see that you’re a teacher.”

“I am. I’ve worked at the same elementary school for seven years now.” I shifted and forced a wooden smile. “Normally, I work the summer program there, but this year, they’ve shut it down.”

He grunted and held my resume up, blocking me from his sight. “Your record came back clean. Just a parking ticket a few years ago. That’s good.”

I dug my fingers into my knees. “I didn’t realize the nanny service released that information to clients in detail.”

“They don’t. I ran my own check. A much more thorough one.” He seemed to notice the way my eyebrows quirked and dropped the papers to clasp his hands together as he leaned forward. “I hope that’s okay with you, Autumn. They are my kids we’re talking about. I take any and all necessary precautions. It would be a misstep for me to trust some nanny service to do what I could do better.”

I shrugged. “I’m an open book.”

He studied me for a solid minute without speaking, all while I struggled not to squirm. “The service told you the job is for three children? My son, Jones, and my daughter, Caroline. They’re ten and eight, respectively. My niece, Grace, is five. Are you confident in your ability with those ages?”

Every word he said felt like it was dripping with doubt for any of my abilities. Still, I nodded and smiled. “I taught kindergarten for several years and then settled with teaching third grade. I work with kids up to Jones’ age, though, throughout the year. When you have a smaller school, like mine, most teachers float all over.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

I reminded myself that I needed the money nannying for the man would provide. “Yes, Mr. Phoenix, I am confident with my ability to handle children of all ages.”

He stared at me again, his unusually bright green eyes trailing across my face but never dipping lower than my neck. His mouth turned down. “I normally wouldn’t act in such haste, but we need someone right away. The service couldn’t stop singing your praises, and it seems like the data from your students shows a significant amount of growth under your tutelage.”

I forced myself to smile politely. Of course, he wouldn’t realize that the privacy of other students mattered as much as his own. “I’m pretty sure accessing the data from students that aren’t your own isn’t protocol, Mr. Phoenix.”

He waved me off. “Here’s the contract. You can look over it.”

My stomach twisted. Everything in my body was telling me to run. Staying around went against my self-preservation. Still, I took the paperwork and scanned it. The NDA was familiar to me after spending the summers of my youth working for other rich families in the Hamptons. His went a little farther with the threats of punishment if I broke it, but it was to be expected. If only he respected other people’s privacy as much as his own. Along with the NDA was a contract for four months of work. The price tag on that work was three times the size I thought it would be.

The hungry part of me silenced every other part of my brain. I needed that money. That was what mattered. There was no survival without it. Much less anything to preserve.

“Is there a problem?”

I shook my head. “No. No problem.”

Pushing a pen my way, Griffin Phoenix raised his eyebrow in a silent challenge. “Well, then.”

I bit the inside of my cheek hard as I stood up and grabbed the pen. There was still that unnerving wobble to my knees and the feeling that I was agreeing to live with Beast for four months, but it didn’t matter. Nothing else I could do for four months was going to bring in the kind of money he was offering. I signed three different places and initialed two before dropping the pen back on the desk and unconsciously wrapping my arms around my waist.

“Feels a little like I just signed my life away.”

Griffin stood tall, his expression unreadable. “For the next four months, you did. Do I need to have a car pick you up tomorrow?”

I shook my head. “I have a car.”

“Be here at nine, sharp. I’ll have one of the staff give you a tour, and then I’ll introduce you to the children.” He moved around his desk and I got a chance to take in the full stature of him. At probably six and a half feet tall, he was broad, except for his slim waist. His thighs were like tree trunks of muscle, stretching his pants in a way that might’ve been alluring if he didn’t have the disposition of a cactus.

Dressed in dress pants and a button-down shirt, sleeves rolled up, he was probably wearing more money than I’d see that summer. The gold watch on his tan wrist had to be worth more than my car. I ignored the way the veins on his forearms seemed to call out to me and the way his large hands pulled my gaze. None of that was my concern.

I followed him to the library door, my flats lightly tapping against the stone floor. “Nine, it is.”

Griffin opened the door and ushered me out. “You can find your own way out?”

I bit back a laugh at his rudeness and nodded. “Sure.”

He looked over my head and nodded. “Here are my brothers now. They’ll be here all summer, as well. Grace is Conrad’s daughter. On the left. And on the right is Zeke.”

Conrad, oh God not that name.I turned, even though the tingling at the back of my neck told me not to. I would’ve known the man on the left anywhere. I recognized him most from my dreams. Or were they nightmares? My stomach sank to my feet, and I knew that I’d just signed a contract to make my life a living underworld for four months.

***

Thelive-inchefshowed me around the house. I counted ten bedrooms and more bathrooms. There were more rooms than I could count for extra space, including a strange space made up of what could maybe be considered toys for kids, if those kids were as modern as the designers of them. They looked complicated. The woman was nice but reserved. She didn’t say anything more than she had to, and I had the feeling she didn’t care to leave the kitchen.

Greta vanished back to her space as soon as we finished the tour. She left me standing outside the library doors, a pitying smile and a wave her final goodbye.

I knocked before pushing open the door and walking into the same space I’d been in the day before. Griffin was there, the scowl on his face directed at his brother sitting across from him.

I paused, unable to make myself walk farther into the room if Con was the one sitting in the chair, but when the man turned to face me, I saw it wasn’t Con, but his twin. While both Con and Zeke looked identical, there were more than enough clues to set them apart. Like the scar that cut through Zeke’s eyebrow and the way his lips dipped into a charming smile when he saw me.

“Come in.” Griffin stood up from his desk and walked around to greet me. “Greta showed you around?”

I inched closer. “She did. She also helped me put my things in my room.”

Zeke rolled his eyes. “Someone could’ve done that for her, Griff.”

“The kids are in the playroom upstairs. I had Greta hold off on showing you that room. Come.” And just like that, Griffin strolled past me and all but snapped his fingers for me to trail behind him like a dog.

I bit my tongue and silently followed him, reminding myself that I’d signed the contract and that it was a lot of money. I had a feeling that was going to become my mantra.

Before we got to the room, the sound of screaming pierced the air. I winced but rushed forward, used to it. There was hardly a day at school without the sound. Griffin had hurried through a door at the onset of the scream, but when I got inside, he was standing still, looking down on the kid screaming on the floor.

Unsure of how to proceed, I looked at him and found him looking back at me. He seemed unsure himself, so I pushed my shoulders back and went to work.

Kneeling on the floor next to the screaming girl, I gently touched her back. “What’s wrong, honey?”

An older boy stepped forward, a matching scowl to his Daddy’s on his face. “She’s just a baby. Only babies cry like that.”

When Griffin didn’t step in to correct his son, I just shook my head at the boy. “I’ve known grown men who cry sometimes. It’s not a bad thing.”

His scowl deepened. “That’s dumb.”

Choosing to ignore him, I focused on the girl. “Caroline? That’s you, right? I’m Autumn. Can you talk to me?”

She flopped over onto her back and stared up at me with big green eyes and the cutest pout. “Jones pushed me.”

I looked over at the boy and saw his cheeks redden. “Jones? Is that true?”

“What do you care?”

“As your dad can tell you, I’m going to be here with you for the summer. So, I care. I care that your sister isn’t getting pushed around and I care that you’re not a boy who pushes people down.”

Jones looked up at his father and crossed his arms over his little chest. When Griffin nodded, the boy’s cheeks darkened even more, and then he stomped out of the room.

“Caroline, are you okay? Is anything hurt?” I smiled gently. “Besides your feelings? Sometimes, those are the most painful things people hurt, aren’t they?”

She sat up and nodded. “I’m okay.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, okay.”

She giggled at my silly joke and stood up, tears forgotten. “Can I show you my room? Are you my nanny? My friend, Katie, has a nanny. Her name is Margaret. Do you know Margaret?”

I stood up and scratched my head like I was thinking. “I’m not sure. Is she the Margaret with the tall pink hat who only walks backwards? Or the Margaret with the pack of cats that she walks every day?”

Laughing, Caroline took my hand and pulled at me. “Come on, silly; I have so many things to show you!”

I looked up at Griffin and tried to keep the frown off my face. “Where’s Grace?”

He stared down at his daughter for a moment before shoving his hands in his pockets. “With Con. He took her to see her mom for the day. He’ll be back tomorrow.”

I scooped Caroline into my arms. “That means I get more time to get to know you and Jones, then, doesn’t it?”

Instantly wrapping her arms around my neck like I wasn’t a complete stranger, she cheered. “Just me. Jones is in timeout.”

“Hmmm…” I looked up as I pretended to think. “I don’t remember putting anyone in timeout.”

“You did. I saw it.” Grinning, she wiggled to get down and ran out of the room. “Jones, you’re in timeout!”

“You’re not the boss of me, idiot!”

“I’m telling!” Caroline sprinted back into the room where I was still standing next to her dad and looked at me. “Jones called me a bad word.”

I glanced over at Griffin to see if he was going to step in at all, but it was clear that he wasn’t. I couldn’t help the way my eyebrow went up when he met my eyes. Shaking my head slightly, I hurried into the hallway. “Okay, we’re not going to call each other names, but we’re also not going to try to get our siblings in trouble on purpose.”

And it just…went like that. Caroline screamed and threw tantrums the moment things didn’t go her way. Some were even directed at me, with her pushing me away when I tried to comfort her. Jones hated me and made sure I knew it. It was an exhausting day of playing referee in between bouts of trying to get to know the kids.

A shrill scream pierced the air, the same scream I’d heard all day long. Sighing, I looked longingly at the stew and groaned. “That’s my cue.”

It was going to be a long summer.

***

Iwasdreamingabout mermaids. The sounds of the beach coming in through the window I’d left open the night before were spurring beautiful images of Ariel and Flounder. It’d been years since I’d watched The Little Mermaid but sleeping so close to the ocean was filling my head with thoughts of dinglehoppers and handsome princes. I rolled over in my new bed and sighed happily as I was lulled awake by the call of seagulls.

The bed was a cloud, and it held me better than any lover ever had. I wasn’t sure I would be able to get up when my alarm went off. It was hard not to notice the differences between the homes I’d lived in and the mega beach house I was pretending to live in for the summer. I’d never heard the beach from an open window at my parents’ house growing up, or my apartment. I’d also never slept in a bed that probably cost more than my college degree. Some things the Phoenix family could provide with their billions of dollars were pretty nice; I’d give them that. Too bad the bad things that came with the money wasn’t nearly worth it.

I curled up even tighter and sighed. The gentle crashing of the waves couldn’t distract me from the household I’d signed up to be a part of. The brothers weren’t great. Con was the biggest prick from my past, putting it nicely. Zeke hadn’t bothered to speak to me, and Griffin was rude and so out of touch, it was sad. Not to mention how terrible his kids acted. Kids were just little products of their raising, so I couldn’t hold it against them, but they really were pains.

I rolled back over and opened my eyes to see a cherub of a little girl staring down at me with the biggest blue eyes I’d ever seen. I gasped and yanked my blanket up even higher.

“Hi! I’m Grace.”

I sat up and scooted up until my back was against the headboard. “Hi, Grace. I’m Autumn. How long have you been there?”

She crawled into my lap and pulled a strand of my hair through her fingers. “I don’t know. I like your hair. It’s dark like Mommy’s.”

I forced a smile and held my blanket tighter. “How’d you get in here, Grace?”

She scooted even closer to me, her sticky hands coming up to touch my cheeks. “You’re pretty.”

“And you’re super sweet, but can you answer my question, honey?” A genuine smile stretched my mouth when she stuck her tongue out to focus as she gathered my hair in her hands. “How’d you get in?”

“The door was unlocked.”

I frowned then. I’d locked the door after closing myself in the night before.

“The little door. Daddy says I’m not s’posed to use it, but I wanted to see you.” She looked down at my blanket and suddenly laughed. “Are you nakey?”

“Okay, little girl, you’ve made yourself quite familiar with me already. You don’t get to see anything else. How about you go back to bed and I’ll come and get you just as soon as I get up and brush my teeth?”

“And put your clothes on.”

“And put my clothes on.”

There was a knock on the door and Con’s voice rang out. “Autumn? I’m so sorry to bother you, but is Grace in there?”

Grace giggled and jumped off of me. “In here, Daddy!”

“No, Grace, don’t—” It was too late. Grace unlocked and opened the door, letting her father into my room. I cringed and considered pulling the blanket over my head and hiding.

“Grace, baby, you’re not supposed to bother Autumn. And you’re not supposed to use the little doors to sneak in on people. It’s ru—” Con’s voice stopped short, and there was silence for a beat before he cleared his throat. “Sorry, she was just curious to meet you.”

Grace ran back to me and settled on my lap again. “She’s pretty, Daddy.”

I knew my cheeks were flushed, and I was beyond grateful for the first time in my life that I had such bad vision. I couldn’t see details of Con’s face and if he was even looking at me. I could see his figure move dangerously close, though, and then his hand extended my glasses to me from the bedside stand.

My stomach fluttered. He remembered. I didn’t know if I was hoping he wouldn’t recognize me or that he’d had some kind of concussion in his life that made him forget me, but there was a silly part of me that hoped to get out of the summer unscathed from Con. It was harder if he remembered me and wanted to talk details.

I took my glasses, frowning when our fingers touched. Slipping them on, I focused on Grace and went into teacher mode. “Now, I can see you. Wow. This whole time I thought I was talking to the family’s pet cat.”

“I’m not a cat!” Laughing, Grace pulled my glasses down and giggled. “Am I a cat now?”

“Meow?”

She fell backward laughing, leaving me to fix my glasses. My death grip on the blanket covering my undreseed body from them slipped a bit, but I quickly caught it and readjusted, attempting to cover even more.

“Okay, Grace, it’s time to leave Autumn alone.”

Grace jumped up and ran to the door. “I’m going to go wake up Caroline!”

I watched as she disappeared and bit my lip when I realized it left me alone with Con. I stared down at my lap and prayed he left fast, without saying anything.

“Sorry for both of us barging in on you like this.”

I still didn’t look at him. “No problem.”

“She doesn’t know boundaries yet. Or if she does, she’s decided they don’t apply to her.” He grunted. “She’s so cute, it’s hard to discipline her when she does things like this.”

“She storms the bedrooms of undressed nannies often?” I said it without thinking. It somehow made my nakedness more real. And a feature of the conversation.

Con cleared his throat. “Um. Undressed. No, not that I can recall.”

I made the mistake of looking up at him and felt a bolt of awareness shoot through me. The look on Con’s face, interest and desire, was one that I recognized from another summer spent being the help for the rich people of Southampton. Meeting his eyes, seeing the bright blue shift darker, even as his pupils dilated, was dumb. Those eyes had always been my kryptonite.

He clenched his jaw and licked his lips. “I…”

It wasn’t fair that smoke alarms weren’t going off, or a tornado warning, or something. Con was dangerous, and I had to remember that. Jerking to action, I scooted to the opposite side of the bed and yanked the blanket off as I stood up, wrapping it around me like a cocoon. Standing as far away from him as I could get, I shrouded myself from him and his eyes. “Well, I’ll be out soon.”

He got the hint and backed away. “Again, I’m sorry for this.”

I wanted to ask him what else he was sorry for, if he remembered it the same way that I did. I wanted to demand an apology for what he’d put me through. Instead, I forced a smile and waited until he closed the door behind him to let out a shaky breath.

There was no sense in expecting remorse from him. I knew the type of men they were. My family had worked for them for decades. They didn’t apologize, not really. They didn’t care who they hurt on their way to getting what they wanted. I just had to remember that.

***