Filed to story: The Alpha and His Nanny Luna (Tiffany & Asher) Book PDF Free
I groaned and attempted to sit up; somehow, I managed to do it, although the dizziness got worse when I did.
“You hit your head pretty good there, huh?” a familiar male voice said. I winced as I felt a damp cloth touch my tender forehead, another hand supporting my back from underneath as I struggled to stay upright.
“Where am I…?”
“You’re back in the penthouse.”
I blinked several times. Finally, Asher Sterling’s devilishly handsome face came into focus. He was crouching in front of me with a concerned expression as he dabbed at my forehead with a damp cloth. I thought, as I slowly came back to consciousness, that I secretly caught him showing a bit of concern for me; under any other circumstances, I would’ve felt like we had chemistry between us.
“Why did you bring me back here?” I whispered, too weak to speak any more loudly.
“Why did you run?” he asked instead of answering me, his face turning cold again as soon as he saw me looking.
I didn’t answer. Sighing, Asher set down the washcloth and propped a couple of soft pillows under me to help me stay upright, then stood and walked over to the window to look out onto the city street.
“You already signed the contract,” he said. “It’s rude of you to run off like that. I’m only trying to help.”
“Trying to help by sending two terrifying men to attack me on the street in the middle of the night?”
Asher turned back to face me. His expression was, unsurprisingly, cold and emotionless.
“What did you expect me to do? They were never going to hurt you. From what I heard, you took off screaming before they could even talk to you.”
I groaned again and shut my eyes, tenderly touching my fingers to my forehead as a wave of dizziness took over me. Through my closed eyelids I saw Asher’s tall form approaching me once more and crouching down in front of me. He picked up the washcloth again and held it to my forehead. As he did, I heard the door click open.
“Thank you, Selina,” he said. I cracked my eyes open to see the housekeeper hand him a bottle of pills. He opened it and dumped two out into his palm, then held them out to me along with a glass of water. “It’s just Advil,” he said, noticing my hesitation to take the pills. “For the pain. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t drug you.”
I frowned, but gingerly took the pills and popped them into my mouth, washing them down with the glass of water. I heard Selina’s footsteps receding, followed by the sound of the door clicking shut again.
“You know, we did try to call you,” he said, sitting on the arm of a chair across from me and folding his arms across his chest. “Several times, actually. As it turns out, you left your phone here by accident.” He pulled my phone out of his pocket and tossed it onto my lap. The screen lit up as he did so, showing five missed calls.
“Thanks,” I said, slipping my phone into my own pocket. “But you should know that I don’t have any intention of continuing to work for you.”
“I figured you would say that,” he replied. “I suppose I could just as easily find someone else to fill your position, and would honestly prefer it myself at this point, but it seems Ella is quite taken with you.”
I furrowed my brow. “Ella seemed too upset by our… brief history… to want anything to do with me.”
Asher merely shrugged, then called over his shoulder toward the door. “Come in, Ella. Tell Tiffany what you told me.”
I sat up fully and looked over my shoulder to see Ella sheepishly walk into the room. She was looking at the floor and fiddling with a bow on her dress, looking embarrassed.
“Go on, Ella,” Asher said softly. “It’s okay.”
“I’m sorry I yelled at you,” she whispered. She looked up at me then, and her eyes widened when she saw me. “What happened?”
I reached up and touched my forehead, then shook my head and held my hand out for her to take. “I’m okay. Just bumped my head, that’s all.”
Ella tentatively shuffled up to me, placing her small hand in mine as she studied my face. “I thought you lied to me,” she said. “But then I remembered that you asked me about my parents, and daddy told me that you didn’t know who he was when you came to see me yesterday. So I forgive you.”
“Do you want Tiffany to stay?” Asher asked.
Ella nodded vigorously. “Yes. We had so much fun today. I want to have fun with you every day.”
The little girl’s words made me smile and forget about everything else. How could I say no to her?
“Alright,” I said to Ella, glancing briefly at Asher as he looked on with an icy stare. “I’ll stay. But only if you promise to talk to me next time you get mad at me. Okay?”
Ella nodded in agreement. “I promise.” Then, she pulled me closer and cupped her hands around my ear. “If my daddy is going to be with someone, then I suppose I’m okay with it being you.” She pulled away with a smile on her face, then patted me on the shoulder and skipped out of the room before I could respond.
What she had said was so adult-like… Children could be so strange sometimes!
“So, that settles it?” Asher asked once she was gone. “Will you stay?”
His voice was flat, but I could sense a hint of pleading behind it. Somehow, I knew that Ella wasn’t the only one who wanted me to stay.
“Yes,” I said. “I’ll stay.”
Tiffany
After the entire debacle on my first night of employment, my first week went by smoothly and without a single hitch. Ella was a sweet little girl to take care of, and she caused very little trouble, if any at all. In fact, by the end of my first week, I started to feel a little guilty for accepting such a high salary for such an easy job and started helping Selina and the maids around the penthouse when I wasn’t busy with Ella. Helping out with cleaning, cooking, laundry, and grocery shopping not only made me feel better about accepting the salary, but also made me feel less bored when I had nothing else to do. It didn’t make Selina and the maids any more friendly toward me, but it certainly seemed to soften their demeanors a tiny bit as the days marched on.
I also kept a distant, but polite, relationship with Asher. He wasn’t around very often, usually only coming home late at night, so it was easy to keep a distance.
I started to notice a strange occurrence, though. There was a drawer in the kitchen that Selina would periodically open using a small key; I didn’t pay it much mind, just assuming that it was something private, but I was helping out with peeling potatoes in the kitchen one afternoon while Ella was busy with her violin lesson when I noticed Selina come in with a paper pharmacy bag. I watched quietly as she discreetly opened the bag, unlocked the drawer, and dumped the contents of the bag into the drawer.
“Selina! Can you help me?” Amy suddenly called from the other room. She sounded like she was struggling to carry something heavy.
“Coming,” Selina replied. She left the empty paper bag on the counter and scurried away, inadvertently leaving the drawer open.
I tried to focus on peeling the potatoes, but I was nothing if not a curious person — probably a trait I picked up during my upbringing at the orphanage — and couldn’t help myself from quietly sneaking over to the mysterious drawer.
