The Au Pair (H.S.) [COMPLETE]

{five}

"Nikola, welcome. I'm glad you could make it," Julia Mitchell-Styles greeted, waving her into the expansive sitting room of the summer home.

"Thank you. I'm glad to be here," Niko said with a smile as she walked further into the finely decorated room.

As Niko scanned the impeccable surroundings, she saw both kids sitting on the couch fidgeting anxiously, looking as though they were wishing to be anywhere else doing just about anything else. Niko wasn't sure why their mother hadn't allowed them to just be kids and run around for a while instead of being stuck in the stuffy sitting room with the boring task of meeting the au pairs that would be with them for the next ninety days.

Niko also saw a quite frumpy looking girl sitting posture-perfect in an armchair next to the couch. She must have been the second au pair Mr. Styles was referring to. Niko was almost sure of it.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'll get back to you..." Julia spoke, confusing Niko slightly until she noticed the Bluetooth device that was perched in her ear.

"Just let me call you back. Yes. I'll call you back in ten," Julia said, clicking off her ear phone device.

"So, where were we?" Julia asked, smiling politely, finally focusing on everyone in the room rather than on her phone.

"Please..." Julia said as she scooted Niko toward an available armchair next to the other au pair. Niko felt slightly awkward, but took the seat anyway.

"Kids, do you remember Nikola?" Julia asked them with an exaggerated smile on her face.

"Hi," they both beamed back at Niko with smiling faces.

"Hi, Jackson. Hi, Avery. I'm super excited to be hanging out this summer. Are you guys ready to have fun?" Niko asked, smiling back at them, trying to sound as enthusiastic as possible.

"Yeah!" They both shouted excitedly.

In all actuality, Niko was just as excited. The moment she met the children, she instantly loved them. And she was certain the summer was going to be a blast getting to hang out with them every day.

"Nikola, this is Mary, the second au pair I hired. You will both be sharing duties over the summer. Thank god. It would have been impossibly hard to only have one of you. Or, god forbid, none. Oh, I can't even imagine. It would have been such a headache. I was actually contemplating three. But that's another story," Julia talked a mile a minute, seemingly to herself, and it made Niko wonder if she was always that self-centered.

Julia Mitchell-Styles was definitely something else. To Niko, she looked like she needed a stiff drink... or something else that was stiff. She silently wondered if Mr. Styles — or Harry, as he told her to call him — was giving it to her regularly. By the way she stood like she had a stick up her ass, and that uptight attitude of hers, Julia definitely seemed like a woman who could use a good go-around between sheets.

After really thinking about it, Niko's eyebrows contorted slightly as she wondered why the hell Julia would ever turn down a man like Mr. Styles. He had a body that was made for sex. And Niko would bet money that he was good.

"Will that work for you, Nikola? Nikola?" Julia asked impatiently.

"Huh?" Niko asked, snapping out of her lust-filled fantasies about her new boss' husband.

"I was just going over the schedule—oh, never mind. I'll type it up and have it to you both by tomorrow," Julia said, waving it off, just as her eyes snapped up toward the doorway.

"Oh, Harry, honey," Julia said, waving her husband into the room.

Harry also had to be snapped out of his own, not-so admirable thoughts — thoughts of the beautiful new arrival to the estate. After he had the pleasure of meeting their new house guest, Harry took Niko's belongings to the room Julia already assigned to her, and he wasn't able to get the little blonde pixie out of his mind — not even for a second. She was absolutely alluring.

Harry's vision fell away from Niko and landed on his wife who stood in the middle of the room wearing full business attire with her dark hair tied back tightly in a bun, despite the fact that she was on holiday and it was nearing a hundred degrees outside. It really was a mark of her character, of who she was and how she was raised. She was a professional even when she didn't need to be.

"Daddy!" Avery beamed at Harry as he walked toward her mother.

"Hello, love," he said, smiling fondly down at one half of his pride and joy, and then at the other half sitting next to her — her brother, Jackson.

"Harry, have you had a chance to meet Nikola?" Julia asked, grasping his arm lightly, holding out her other hand to present him to the young woman he just embarrassingly gawked at in the driveway.

It wasn't lost on Harry when Julia's hand fell away from his arm almost immediately, as if touching her own husband was frowned upon.

"Yes. I had the pleasure of meeting her in the driveway," he informed his wife with a pleasant smile, before sending Niko a flirtatious smirk.

Niko couldn't help but smile back at Mr. Styles. Especially because the smile he sent her seemed like an inside joke just between the two of them — like they shared a secret no one else in the room knew about. And perhaps they did share a secret. Perhaps the little sneaking glances at one another in the driveway were enough for them to be inducted into some super-secret exclusive club for two. Niko was sure that the fact that Mr. Styles had so blatantly checked out her ass as she walked into the house was the cementing factor in their wordless pact with one another. And it made her feel all warm inside.

"Good, good. Honey, could you show the girls to their rooms? I have to call the office back," Julia said to her husband, not even waiting for an answer before dialing her phone.

"It would be entirely my pleasure," he said flatly, rolling his eyes at his uppity wife.

"Jackson, Avery. Why don't you go up to your bedrooms for now?" Julia said, immediately shooing her children away.

"I'll see you guys later, okay?" Niko said to the kids as they ambled off the couch before running out of the sitting room.

"Okay!" They called back to her in unison and it made her smile.

"Come on, ladies. I will show you to your quarters," Harry said, smiling particularly at Niko, completely giving into the fact that he took a firm interest in her.

A fact that would sure as hell get him into loads of trouble if the wife ever caught on.