Desiring His Nanny

Five years ago,

Ruby smiled as she sat in her room with her phone in her face, talking to her parents. They were coming from the airport after a week in China. They had both traveled for work and would be home any time soon.

A twenty-year-old Ruby was happy about this because she had missed them. She had not been at home when they left. She had been at her cousin Savannah's place. Fondly, the short woman was called Savvy, and she loved her nickname as well.

"You seem a little bit pale, Mom," she said as she eyed her mother.

Thankfully, it was her father that was driving and not her mother. She was always jet-lagged after a long trip like that.

Her mother smiled. "Yeah, I admit I need to rest, but what can I do? It's just not easy to put food on your table, now, is it?" she said, teasing her.

Ruby wasn't a child, but she was treated as one, always. She didn't blame her parents though; she was the only child, but sometimes, she reminded them of that fact.

"You know you don't have to work so hard. I can always find a job before going to college," she said.

Going to college was delayed for her not because her parents couldn't afford it, but because she was delayed due to her accident. She had been coming back from a friend's place one night when she was attacked. Ruby was a tall girl, strong as well, so she had fought back, only for him to have pushed her so hard she fell and hit her head. She had to undergo at least two surgeries and therapies to be back on her feet.

Her parents had spent a lot of money to help pay her hospital bills, including her college fund. They weren't rich, but they weren't poor either, and after the accident, their workload had doubled; it had been hard as well.

"Mom, you really need to stop treating me like I'm glass or something that will shatter. I can do things on my own, like finding a job and paying for college. I can even take out a student loan," she said.

Her mother rolled her eyes. "Not while we can work to give you the best, Ruby. You're our only child, and we won't allow you to do something that might make you relapse. Dr. Martins warned us about you doing anything to stress yourself," she pushed the phone away from her face for a second. "Your skull was once cracked, you know." She reminded her.

Ruby shrugged. "Yeah, I know. But Dr. Martins also put me in the clear a couple of months ago," she argued.

"Cupcake," her father's face briefly appeared on the screen of the phone. He probably couldn't focus on the screen because he was driving. "Stop arguing with your mother. You know she means no harm. She just wants the best for you, as do I," he said.

The best was what they wanted all right, but she wouldn't let them do all the work just because of that. She was strong; she could do something to help them instead of watching them burn out like this.

Her father worked for an artifact company that paid barely what they used to get by, while her mother worked for a small art studio that sold overseas artwork. They had both gone to China because their work crossed part of a project. She sighed, deciding that they would have more of the conversation when they got home. She had cooked something for them, so all that remained was for them to get here.

"I hear you, Dad. We'll see," she said.

Her mother gave her a smile, and the next moment, a weird thing happened.

Suddenly, there was a bright white light on her mother's face.

Her mother snapped her face up, and her eyes widened.

Ruby jumped into a sitting position from her bed with her phone still in her hand, but a trembling one now. "Mom, what's going on?" she asked. Her mother's voice shook, and her face went out of focus. She began to shout the name of her husband.

"Gary, oh my God, Gary."

Ruby snapped to her feet. "Mom, what is going on? Talk to me, please," she said.

She heard the sound that tires make when they scratch against the gravel of the road, and then, she saw a terrible shake happen on the screen of her phone, telling her that her mother's phone was trembling in her hand as the car started to swerve.

The last thing she heard before the phone went off was a loud thud.

~~~

He dragged her into the car before stumbling to find her way to the driver's seat. They had both drunk alcohol tonight, but he was less tipsy than she was.

He got behind the wheel of the car and started it. "You should use your damn seatbelt," he said.

"Don't you dare tell me what to do because we have sex together. You're not my husband," the woman said, rolling her eyes.

The man smirked, and then he shook his head. He knew she was going to say that, the brat, but he didn't mind anyway. She always gave him everything he wanted, so that was good.

He was taking them both to his apartment, and they would go their separate ways in the morning. He glanced at her and shook his head when he saw that she was already dozing off. He wondered what she had told her family this time to be with him.

He closed his eyes for a second, and the car swerved into the oncoming lane, making him exclaim, "Holy shit. I need to get my act together," he said, glancing at her to see that she was looking at him now.

"Are you crazy, or are you planning to kill us both?" she asked, and he grunted.

"You want to drive?" he asked her.

Shaking her head, she said, "God, no. I'm drunk."

"So, let me focus on the road and stop yelling at me," he said.

"I wasn't yelling, you ass."

He looked at her again, this time studying the mean set of her jaw. She was in one of her silly moods tonight, but he wasn't in the mood.

He must have taken his eyes away from the road for too long because before he knew what was happening, a bright light shone on the side of his face, and by the time he turned to look at the car, it was too late. The cars rammed into each other, and there was a blackout.

Minutes later, he opened his eyes and wondered for how long he had been sitting there in the wreck of the car. He couldn't say, but he knew it couldn't be that long if no one had arrived at the scene. He looked at the woman sitting beside him in the passenger seat, and then he shook her.

"Wake up," he started, but she made no move to. He shook her even more until he noticed that she wasn't even breathing. Quickly, he checked her pulse to make sure. She was dead, and he was alive.

Damn, this was bad.

First, he had been the one driving her car, and he would probably spend the rest of his life in jail. Second, he had the rest of his life ahead of him, his career, but now, everything wasn't looking that good anymore. This was not good at all.

Thankfully, he was wearing gloves on both hands. It was the beginning of winter, and that was the reason, not because he knew he would be killing someone in a car crash. Outside the car, he saw that the car they had rammed into was upside down. The people inside were probably dead as well.

He told himself he could still salvage the situation.

Quickly, he opened the door, got down from the car, and removed his shirt to clean the blood on the wheel, dusted the seat for his hair or anything, and walked around the car. Looking around to make sure no one was about, he dragged her out and into the driver's seat. It was her car, so it would make sense that she was driving when the cops arrived. He used his glove to press into the gash at the side of her head and rubbed the blood onto the wheel, shaking her so that some would splash about, then he closed the door.

He walked back to the passenger seat to see if her blood was anywhere, and luckily, there was none. That was good.

He grabbed his bag from the back seat and then looked around again. Tonight seemed to be his lucky night. Not a single car was in sight, and the place was all dark. He looked for a street cam but could only see one.

For a fact, he knew that it wasn't working anymore, so no one could tell that he was there, or was the one driving. He took a last glance towards both cars, making sure there was no sign of life there anymore, then he disappeared into the darkness.

Five Years Later

This was the first time in her life that she wished she hadn't lost contact with her secret benefactor who had helped her through college. She needed the solidarity of having a backbone at the moment, the hope that she could, yet again, rise above her circumstances and be who she wanted.

Ruby sighed as she walked to the restaurant that was only a few blocks away. She was meeting her boyfriend tonight, and even though that should cheer her up, the fact that she had just lost her job five hours ago was pressing down on her.

She was just going to have dinner with him and go home. She could have gone home straight, but they had already made plans, and today was his birthday. That brought a half-smile to her face.

Roy was a nice guy, even though she saw a side of him that sometimes made her wonder if being nice was just a cover for who he really was. Or maybe she was the bad person, thinking like that about her boyfriend who had been nothing but supportive of her.

He was a police officer, and he had always supported her dream of going to law school and being a criminal lawyer. That had been her dream forever. It was what her parents wanted her to be, and she loved it as well.

She had just finished college a while back, and thankfully, she had no student loan to repay thanks to the secret benefactor who had sponsored her school fees and everything else, but it didn't make things easy for her.

Like every other college student, Ruby worked her ass off, working nine hours at a job at the coffee shop in the morning before or after a lecture, according to her timetable, at the art gallery where her mother worked in the afternoon, and then at a bar at night, only going home at night.

Yeah, that was a bad idea, considering her history with walking at night, but she had no choice. She was helping her cousin, Olivia, her only family left, also in college like she was, to pay for her rent while saving the little that remained. Olivia was also working at the time, but it was to support the college loan to pay for her school fees and books. They had both agreed, even though it took time to convince her that she wanted to help, that they would support each other whenever they needed help. She was studying to be a nurse, while Ruby was studying to be a lawyer.

She still hadn't gone to law school because, after graduation, they had both worked for a year to pay back Olivia's student loan, living together in a one-room apartment they could afford after sorting out their food and saving.

Now, she had little saved up, but that couldn't take her to law school, so for now, she was going to have to look for a job.

She quickened her pace as she glanced at the wristwatch she had on her left wrist to see that she would be late if she didn't do that now.

Roy had agreed to come to the restaurant after his shift at the station, and that was only five minutes away, so she had to be there and settled before he arrived.

Soon, she got to the restaurant, and someone led her to the reserved table. It was quite an expensive place, but she wanted this year's birthday to be a nice one. They had been dating for three years now, and she had only ever gotten him a gift, something she could tell he hated from the look in his eyes each time but pretended to like it. This year, she had thought of going out of her budget and getting him a present that was worth it. Roy had always talked about how much he loved this restaurant, so she had planned to bring him here. However, doing that now would leave her probably broke for a few weeks if she didn't get a job soon.

She had made the plan before losing her job, so she wasn't going to cancel it now. Besides, it wasn't as if she had planned to be fired today anyway, so there was nothing to do.

As soon as she sat down, she removed her phone from her bag and texted Roy.

Ruby: Hey, Roy. Where are you?

Roy: I'll be there soon. I have something important I need to discuss with you.

Ruby wondered what the important thing was. He had been acting a little weird lately, so it made it difficult to know what he wanted to say. Perhaps, he was going to propose.

As soon as the thought came to her, she widened her eyes. What in the world was she thinking about? She didn't think that was it, but the thought soon made her smile. She wasn't sure whether she wanted to be married to Roy, but the idea sure was nice.

She texted him back.

Ruby: Okay then. I'm waiting right here.

She placed her phone on the table, but the ringing sound jolted her a bit, making her almost jump in her seat. She picked the phone up to see on the screen that it was Olivia who was calling her.

"Hey, girl. Are you okay?" that was the first thing she heard her say when she picked up the call.

Ruby sighed, realizing that Olivia had seen her text at last about getting fired. "No, Livy, I'm not. I just want to crawl into a hole and die," she said.

"Oh, honey. Don't say that. I'm so sorry you had to lose your job. Your boss is such an ass, you know that, so don't blame yourself," she said.

Olivia was the type of person who never hid the way she felt about a person. She had always told her that her boss was an ass, and she had said the same thing about Roy, but that was probably because she didn't like him, for whatever reason.

"Where are you?" Olivia asked, her voice interrupting her thought. "You should come home, and we'll eat ice cream until our faces are stuffed. I'm leaving the hospital soon. I'll just tell

Liam I need to be with you," she said. Liam was her three-month boyfriend who was also a nurse in the same hospital she was working at but in a different department. Olivia worked in the emergency ward while Liam worked in the intensive care unit.

"You don't have to, I'm meeting Roy for dinner. It's his birthday, remember?" Ruby said.

There was a silence at the other end for a couple of moments, and then she said. "Oh please, I don't put that in my head. I'll still talk to Liam, and I'll be at home when you get here."

Ruby smiled. "Thanks, Livy. I don't know what I'll do without you." She was grateful for having such a wonderful cousin as her family.

Olivia was a nice woman who used most of her free time volunteering at an old people's clinic downtown. She was just so wonderful; Ruby couldn't believe her luck to have her. "Right back at you, Ruby. I don't know what I'll do without you either," Olivia said too. Ruby smiled. "Oh, shut it, you old woman. Stop repeating what I said. Be creative for once," she said, teasing her. Olivia laughed, and the sound soothed her a little, making her smile even wider. She soon saw Roy making his way towards her, and she said, "Hey, Roy is here. We'll see each other back at home," and she ended the call.

She quickly stashed her phone back in her bag just as Roy approached her. Before she could stand up, he came to her and kissed her cheek.

"Hey, you," he said, smiling down at her. "Hey, Roy," she greeted back as he sat down opposite her. Before she could say anything else, a waiter approached them.

"Good evening, sir, ma'am. I will be your server for the evening. What would you like to order?" he asked.

Ruby looked at Roy, and he ordered for both of them. Then she ordered a bottle of wine, the cheapest one. She needed it anyway, to wash off the anger her job loss had left in her. After the waiter left, Ruby looked back at Roy with a nervous smile.

With a shrug, she said, "I lost my job today. I was fired." She made it sound as simple as possible so as not to make it a big deal. It was his birthday, and she didn't want anything to disrupt that.

Roy raised his eyebrows in a question. "Oh, really?" he asked. "Well, I'm sorry to hear that," he added, his tone lacking genuine concern.

Ruby swallowed down the lump in her throat at how he had reacted. Well, she didn't know what she expected. He had always acted that way when she told him something bad. There was never a time when he pulled her into a hug and told her everything would be fine. These moments were part of the reason why she thought that his nice facade was just a cover for who he really was.

Sighing, she said, "You said you had something important to discuss with me. Is everything all right?" she asked, trying to steer the conversation away from her job loss.

Nodding, he said, "Well, the thing is, I don't want to beat around the bush," he paused, looking around before locking eyes with her.

Ruby furrowed her brows in a frown, inching forward in her seat, wondering what he wanted to say.

"I think we should stop here," he said simply.

"Okay, what do you mean? Did you change your mind about having dinner here?" she asked, trying to make light of the situation.

He shook his head. "No, Ruby. Look, you're a nice woman, and you're really going to be great for someone else, but I've realized not for me. I think we should stop seeing each other," he said, his tone indifferent.

What the hell was he talking about? Was he drunk?

That wasn't the case, she could tell. She, after all, didn't smell anything on his breath when he kissed her cheek.

"Wait, is this because we've never had sex?" she asked. She had told him from the beginning of their relationship that she was waiting to have sex until she was married, even though the truth was she was waiting for the right person.

Roy shook his head with a grin. "What the hell? Do you think it's because I want to have sex? You don't think I've not been having sex since we started dating, do you?" he asked, smiling.

It was as if Ruby didn't know who he was anymore.

"I just don't want you anymore," he said coldly, leaving Ruby stunned and hurt by his callous words.

Still the same night

"I just don't want you anymore," the words kept ringing in her ear as she looked at him. She just couldn't believe this. Why was he suddenly being this cruel to her, showing her the side she had always wondered about?

"Is this some sort of joke?" she asked as she picked his hands, but he removed them sharply.

"Do I look like I'm joking?" he asked her, a stern look on his face. He shook his head. "Look, Ruby. I don't want to hurt you; that's why I wanted to leave it at that. But you're making a face as if I'm a bad person. I'm not," he said.

But he was! He was cruel and being an ass for no reason, or maybe there was one, so she asked. "Why? Why are you doing this? Did I do something wrong? Is that it?" She didn't care that her voice was starting to rise with the tempo. "If that's it, please. Let me apologize," she said.

Roy rolled his eyes and grunted. "Oh, please, you can't. How can you apologize for being a prude? I can count the number of times you kissed me even when I asked you to. I always kiss you, and you won't kiss me back sometimes. How can you apologize for being in a relationship with me without me getting anything out of it? Not sex, not money, not even the kind of partner I want. You don't dress like you should as a woman even though you have a great shape, which was why I approached you in the first place.

"I honestly thought you would change your mind as time goes by about the no-sex thing in the relationship, trying so hard to get you to be intimate, but you wouldn't budge. You wear khaki instead of jeans like a man and wear big blouses like you're some old chick. Well, I can't take it any longer."

By the time he was done talking, Ruby was already crying. She felt the tears running down her cheeks, but she was too dumbfounded to react or clean them off. Maybe she should beg him and assure him she would change; maybe that would stop her from feeling as if she would die from the chest pain she was currently feeling. It was as if her heart would rip out of her chest any moment from now if care wasn't taken.

This man had just admitted to only approaching her because she had a great figure and whether or not he could get her to be intimate with him was why he stayed with her, and the first thing she could think of was to beg him.

Was she trying to be pathetic or what? A man whom she couldn't recognize at that moment was staring back at her, waiting for her to say something, but what to say eluded her. She couldn't tell whether this was a dream or she was really going through a mess.

She had just lost her job some hours ago, with her boss complaining of how weirdly she dressed for work and being too clumsy, and now this? Something was definitely wrong with her. Both of them couldn't have been wrong, now, could they?

"Don't you dare think about yourself like that, Ruby," she heard Olivia's voice in her head as if she was right there behind her. Ruby nodded her head mentally. That was true; that wasn't who she was, no matter what they said. She might wear weird clothes that looked unattractive, but it wasn't enough reason for anyone to get rid of her.

It was their loss, not hers. She wasn't going to allow them to bring her down. Her mistake was not seeing them for who they were and trying to see reason with them.

She regretted crying in front of this jerk like this, letting him see her in that condition. He probably thought that he was too important she was scared to lose him and thought that she couldn't live without him.

Clearing her throat, she picked out a tissue from the box on the table and cleaned her eyes. To control her voice, she spoke in almost a whisper. "You're such a terrible person, Roy, and I am the biggest fool for not seeing it until now. I was so blind by the need to have a man in my life that I didn't see who you really were or hear all I was told about you by Olivia. Now I see why she had always hated you because she could see the scum that you were and smell how rotten you are. I hope that you find someone as cruel as you, and you end up together," she said.

She didn't expect what happened next. Roy threw his head back and laughed. "What the hell was that?" he asked after he stopped laughing. "You must think that saying all that would make me feel bad about myself, don't you?" he asked with his brows raised.

When Ruby didn't say anything, he laughed again. She couldn't because her tongue was tied. She really couldn't believe she had been with a man like this for the period of time they had been together. It was just so shocking for her, surprising even.

"Just let me give you a piece of advice. Whether you change your way of dressing or you don't, you're doomed to never find anyone. No one would want a prude like you, never. They sure would come, no doubt, but they would never stay with you, trust me. I don't know why I bothered coming all the way here when I could have broken up with you over a text. Just so you know, I still had sex today, so it's never a problem for me." He stood up from his seat and looked down at her.

He stared for a long while before shaking his head at her. "I'm so sorry for you. You look pathetic even now. I mean, who brings their boyfriend to a fancy restaurant like this, with clothes looking like a sack of rice?" he asked, and Ruby looked down at the free gown she had on.

"You're surely a lost cause." And with that, he walked out of the restaurant without a backward glance.

Ruby put her hands to her face to cover it, embarrassed because he had said the last part in a loud voice, knowing that people that were two tables over had heard him. Behind her hands, she peeked at one of them to see them giving her a weird look; then she covered her face right back.

It was the sound of the waiter arriving at her table with food and wine that made her raise her head.

Damn! She had totally forgotten about the food and wine they had ordered. She looked down at the baked potatoes, steak, and cheese. The bastard had even ordered her his favorite.

She was going to have to pay for his food as well anyway, but it sure wouldn't feel good anymore. Sighing, she smiled up at the waiter and said, "Please, can I get this packed to go?"

He looked at her and nodded. "Right away ma'am," and he was gone.