"We call her Chloe Bean, or sometimes Beaner." I took a few slow steps toward the couch. "She was a month early, looked all shriveled when she was born." At least from what I could tell in the pictures.

"Bean, huh? That's cute." She pressed her palm flat against the webbed material of the playpen, grinning. Chloe lifted her little hand and did the same. "How old is she?"

"She'll be one at the beginning of January."

"Can I...?" She stood and motioned down toward Chloe.

I froze, not sure how I felt about letting this stranger touch my girl. Knew it was going to happen eventually, yeah. Just didn't expect it to be so soon. All the other interviewees I'd brought in didn't even look at Chloe, let alone want to hold her.

Still, what else could I do?

"Go ahead. She's weird around people she doesn't know. Might cry."

But I ate my words, watching in awe as Addie picked her up, carried her to the couch next to me, and plopped her on her lap like it was the most natural thing to do.

"She's gorgeous, Collin. Looks just like you."

I stiffened. No, she didn't look like me. At all. Blue eyes, yeah, but her pale skin and blond curls were both from her mother.

Needing off the subject, I turned to Addison and asked, "Hungry?"

"Starved, actually. I haven't eaten all day." On cue, her stomach growled, making her face turn all pink once more. I glanced down at her stomach.

Her sweater slipped off her shoulder as she moved. My gaze snagged on her collarbone. Tan skin, smooth, perfect...likely the rest of her body was just as stunning.

She didn't seem to notice my looking, thank God. Instead, she had my girl on her lap playing peekaboo. And giggling.

Jesus, if she could handle this, why couldn't I?

I thought back on my last months in the marines. Training with my men for combat, gathering and evaluating intelligence on the enemy-I developed offensive and defensive battle plans, for Christ's sake, so what was my issue with this one woman?

I rubbed a hand over my face, flustered and screwed.

Orders...I needed to give orders. That's what I was used to, what I had to do to keep myself in check.

"Bring her in there, and put her in her seat." I lifted my chin and pointed toward the dining room. When she kept playing with Chloe, ignoring me, my jaw clenched. "Did you hear me?" I stood and walked toward the kitchen to grab the casserole I'd nearly burned my hand off on before she got here.

"Ever hear of the word please?"

I glared over my shoulder at her, finding a smug smile on her face as she stood. Chloe clung to her hip and side like a spider monkey, already mesmerized as she grabbed and pulled on the end of Addison's ponytail.

"You do know the definition of that word, don't you?" Her lips twitched.

I narrowed my eyes. "I know it enough."

At my words, she winked at me-winked at me-only to waltz into my dining room like she owned the place. On the way to the table, she patted my arm and whispered, "Good. Because without manners, there are no life rewards."

And with her ponytail swinging back and forth behind her back and her cryptic tone still ringing through my mind, she set my girl in her chair and then sat down next to her-in my seat, damn it.

How the hell I'd ever survive this night-let alone the nights to come-was beyond me. With all the training I'd gone through, all the combat I'd seen, from boot camp to the desert, to the throes of war and the sight of constant death, there wasn't a single thing I could've done to help me prepare for this woman.

Chapter 10.

Addison Two hours is what it took for me to get an emotion out of Mr. Broody Pants that wasn't irritation or rudeness. And that was only because I'd dropped a glob of tomato sauce down the front of my sweater. Apparently the errors of my unfortunate ways gave Collin the sudden gift of laughter. And man, did the sound both make me mad and bring out the flutters of something unfamiliar in my stomach at the same time. Because seriously, any man with a laugh like that was a seductive demon in disguise.

Now I was sitting on his couch, dressed in some oversize rugby hoodie, while my sweater ran through his dryer. My fingers twitched in anxiousness on my lap as I waited for him to tuck his daughter into bed. His amazing, adorable, cherub-faced daughter with whom, after five minutes in her presence, I was already wholeheartedly in love.

As Collin shut the door to Chloe's bedroom a few minutes later, I sat up straighter, burying my hands in the front pocket of his sweatshirt. His lips were tight; his head was down. I almost asked if he'd eaten something sour, but I thought better of it as he frowned at me.

Seriously. What had I done to tick him off now?

The arrogant, playful-albeit still broody-looking-Number Six I'd met at the bar was MIA. This sweet father and mean-mugging man was someone I didn't know what to do with.

"Let's talk." He took the recliner adjacent to me, hands clenched.

"Yeah. Let's." I gulped, trying to will away the trembling in my voice.

He leaned to his right and grabbed something from the end-table drawer. Glasses. Dark frames, matching his dark hair, which would only make his blue eyes pop. I blinked at the view.

Lips still pursed, he settled the glasses on the bridge of his nose. No way would I admit it out loud, but with those glasses, this arrogant man with a daddy sweet side had officially checked off another swoony box on my hot-man list.

Nerdy glasses equaled a weakness I couldn't even handle.

At my thoughts, I stared down at my skirt, attempting to think about flowers and rainbows-not hot, sweaty sex in his bed down the hall.

Focus, Addie. Focus.

"You've got questions?" He leaned back in his seat, holding a piece of paper in his hands.

Nose scrunched, I leaned forward and settled my elbows on my knees. "Not really. I mean, is she allergic to anything? Does she have favorite foods or a specific list of snacks that she's supposed to eat or not eat? Just kiddo things."

A vein bulged along his temple. If at all possible, he looked tenser than ever. One thing was certain on my end: I sure as hell didn't appreciate his roller-coaster mood swings, especially when we were supposed to be starting over.

"No, I'm not talking about Chloe. I'm talking about her mother."

I stiffened.

Wow. Okay. Where was this coming from? I mean, I assumed he and Chloe's mother weren't on good terms if she wasn't going to be watching Chloe for him when he worked. But then, what did I know?

"You don't have to talk personal stuff with me." I shrugged.

His jaw locked. "Kind of do if you're going to be my daughter's nanny, don't you think?"

"Okay, then. So talk." I flung my hand out in front of me. "Tell me about her. What's she like?"

"She's dead."

I cringed. "Oh God. I-I didn't know. I'm sor-"

"Stop." He stood, his six-foot-something frame hovering over me before he moved to the sliding glass doors that led to a deck outside. "Didn't tell you to get sympathetic on me. Told you because you needed to know."

My throat burned as I swallowed. Why did he want me to know anyway? Was he hiring me? Because I didn't get the distinct feeling he wanted to from his behavior this evening.

Most of the night he'd kept to himself, watching me-watching Chloe and me together. I never once thought I had this job in the bag, which was why I was seconds away from a good night...before he'd come in here and dropped this bomb on me.

A sick part of me was curious about Chloe's mother, and the sad part was, it wasn't because of Chloe. More for the sake of her father.

He turned around and leaned his back against the glass door. "Met Amy in college. We were best friends." I watched his Adam's apple bob up and down as he swallowed. His eyes, so light, were the most expressive part of his body. This time, they went glassy. "Feelings were never supposed to get involved." He scrubbed a hand over his face. "The plan for me was to enlist after college, and she'd been fine with it...until she wasn't."

His hard eyes filled with a depth I'd yet to see in him. "I left anyway and she waited. Told me she loved me. I said it back." He sighed, a sound that sent shivers up my spine. "I mean, four years and we never bothered with the words, but the night before boot camp she's spilling her guts to me."

He stared off in the distance. In a way, I wasn't sure if he realized he was spilling his guts to me, the potential employee. But because I hated to see him suffer-or anyone else, for that matter-I stood and moved forward, touching my toes to his. "Sometimes a person doesn't know what they want until they almost lose it."

He frowned at me, lips locked for the longest time before he finally whispered, "Guess you're right."

I nodded, not expecting him to let it go so easily and waiting at the same time for more of his story. Only, it never came. Instead, Collin studied my face, a perusal with his eyes that both petrified me and made my throat dry.

Then he spoke, and his soft words crackled. Sexy. "You gonna do this, then?"

I swallowed and clenched my sweaty hands. "Depends on what this is."

His nostrils flared, the insinuation in my voice coming out in all the wrong ways.

God, what was wrong with me?

He licked his lips, studying me from under hooded lids. That look and his tongue alone made me want to run fast and far from this guy and his doom and gloom. Yet at the same time, my pulse spiked and every single inch of my skin seemed to overheat. What would happen if I moved closer and pressed my mouth over his? Would he respond? Pull me close? Cup the back of my neck or grab my hair? Either way, I'd be okay with it, as long as it happened.

At the thought, I took a quick step back, unable to contain the shivers dancing up and down my arms. Goose bumps scattered across my already sensitized skin as I moved, while everything inside me remembered what I was here for. A job. Money. A way out.

"I should go." To keep my sanity safe, I walked to the closet where my jacket was hanging, the words run, run, run sounded like a siren in my ears.

"You know what I meant, Addison."

Oh, I did all right. And it had nothing to do with the warmth suddenly pooling between my thighs.

"When?" My voice cracked.

"You start a week from tomorrow. It's five days on, two days off. I expect you to be here on time."

Unable to look back at him, I caressed a string hanging from the end of my jacket sleeve. The sensation of the fabric was a reminder that Collin could most definitely shred me to pieces. Of course I was smart enough to know one didn't mix business and pleasure. Not to mention that the pink eviction notice on my kitchen table at home reminded me how much I needed this job.

"Then I'll be here."

His bare feet slapped against the tiled floor as he moved away from the glass doors. He stopped a foot behind me, reaching for a piece of paper setting on the table to my right. My lower belly warmed as his arm caressed mine and I shifted in place, squeezing my thighs together. This man had the ability to obliterate me with a single touch. And the crazy part was, I suddenly craved that obliteration more than my next breath.

"Two things. You get two hundred and fifty a week, paid out on Fridays."

"That's too much for-"

He pressed his hand against my upper arm, his chest now flush with my back. I shut my eyes and inhaled through my nose.

"Take it. If I could, I'd pay you more."

I nodded, not wanting to argue. With Collin, I knew I would need to pick and choose my battles.

"Also, need to know if you're safe to be alone with my girl before you start."

"Safe?" My voice wavered.

With his other hand, he tapped a knuckle against the paper on the table. The heat of his chest nearly burned through his hooded sweatshirt now. I reached for the sheet and he took a few steps back.

"Need to run a background check on you."

I pulled it to my chest and turned around to face him, but I still couldn't meet his gaze, my eyes flitting from his chin to his chest. "Reasonable enough."

I'd worked in a day care and knew what happened in the field. If our roles were reversed, I'd definitely be doing the same, no questions asked. There were too many crazy people in this world for someone to just trust a random person they'd only met a few times.

He cleared his throat, and I finally lifted my eyes to meet his, expecting the same nasty look on his face that I'd seen on and off all night. What I saw instead was something different-and unnervingly sexy for comfort.

"That gonna bother you at all?" His eyes were softer, his lips relaxed and slightly parted.

"What, that you want to run a background check on me? Absolutely not." I swallowed, wanting him to move even farther away because I liked his nearness far too much.

"Nothing you need tell me before I do?"

"Nope." Nothing to keep me from doing my job, at least. Clean and clear, with not a drop of bad to my name. The things hidden in my past had nothing to do with my ability to be his daughter's caretaker. Things like that didn't show up on background searches; they were tattooed on my heart.

He nodded, the movement slow. Every second he stood there, his eyes seemed to pierce me, his gaze never wavering from mine. God, he had this intensity I hated but was drawn to at the same time. Part of me wondered if his constant hardness was a cover for something else he wasn't willing to share with just anyone.

Before I could count to three, he moved in again, his hot breath against my cheek, his eyes on my mouth. If I stood on my tiptoes and pressed my hands to his chest, maybe I could finally get past wondering what it'd be like to kiss him, taste him, feel his arms around my back, grazing my backside, curving around my ass as he pulled me against his- A piercing wail sounded from down the hall. A baby.

Collin's baby.

"Shit." He winced and took two steps back. "Shit, shit, shit."

I jumped at his pained expression and harsh words. "Is she okay?" I bit my lip, wanting to comfort him, to ask him if he was okay. His face paled as he lowered his chin.

I blinked, the sound of Chloe's cries bringing me back to the here and now. My stomach, a wretched ball of nerves, bounced and jiggled with the beat of my heart.

"C-can I get her?" I moved away, careful not to touch him, just barely glimpsing his nod.