“Send someone down to the garage to pick up the bags,” Max said to Hugo, entering the elevator.

He was in a terrible mood from the harrowing experience of shopping for formula and diapers. Fortunately, as soon as he entered the convenience store open 24/7, a nice blonde with a pixie haircut came to his rescue and helped him choose among too many products to count. Before he left, the girl told him her shift had almost ended, and if he wanted to go to her place he was more than welcome. He had to politely decline her offer which only worsened his mood.

Max didn’t think the night could get any worse, but he was proven wrong as soon as he entered his penthouse.

The scene that welcomed him was straight from a nightmare. The screaming wail started immediately. The little monster wriggled in the carrier, rocking it dangerously, as she tried to break free of the restraints. Max had no experience whatsoever with kids but was sure they weren’t supposed to have faces that shade of red or to produce a stench that rivaled an open-air sewer.

“Is it possible to make it stop, for fuck’s sake?” Max looked at Hugo, whose own color was starting to change into the same red shade as the monster’s.

“The poor thing is probably drowning in her own poop and is hungry, you idiot,” a feminine voice proclaimed from behind him, silencing the monster.

Max’s blood boiled to an explosive temperature. He turned, ready to give whoever had spoken a piece of his mind.

“How—”

“People like you shouldn’t have kids,” a curvaceous, petite brunette said, cocking her hip to the side and giving him a raised eyebrow as if daring him to reply.

Max felt his skin tingle with energy but kept his temper in check. He wasn’t an alpha for nothing and wouldn’t let a slip of a female get under his skin. Plus, his dragon wasn’t acting out for once, and that helped.

Aghast, Jack stood behind the woman. He grabbed her elbow and squeezed. “I apologize, sir. I woke my sister with my call, and she isn’t a morning person.”

The hellion jerked her arm out of Jack’s hold, making him hiss under his breath, “Stop it,” then out loud, he said, “Sir, this is Vivienne. Vivienne, this is my boss, Mr. Maximus Prize.”

Max thought he saw the young woman scoff when her brother said his name but decided he must have imagined it. Women threw themselves at his feet; they didn’t go out of their way to irritate him. And to think that his evening of debauchery had started out so promising. What had he done to deserve such a hellish nightmare? Would this night ever end? To answer his question, the baby started crying again.

The brunette walked past Max, moving a considerable amount of air for someone so small, and rushed to the carrier.

“When was the last diaper change?” she asked, throwing daggers at all the men in the room, but reserving her final, venomous glance for Max.

“How the fuck would I know?” he spat back with equal part rage and shock that this woman could treat him with no respect whatsoever. “This poop-machine came out of nowhere. It’s not like I know where she’s from or what she was doing before someone left her on my doorstep and this bunch of idiots decided to keep her.”

The room fell into silence; only it wasn’t the blissful kind. It was more the kind of stunned silence that follows a deranged person’s reaction.

The last time Max lost his cool, he had been a green teenager, and his history teacher insulted him in front of the entire class. He spent a week at home and months in therapy to cure his aggressive behavior. After that episode, Max had always kept his reactions in check. He sparred and boxed three times a week to curb the worst of his explosive character because when you are born a dragon shifter, you need all the help in the world not to blow everything and everyone to cinder once a day.

Now, this woman had come and done it.

Max felt the heat burn through his body, demanding an outlet. The threesome with the blondes would have gone a long way to keep his energy in check, but he was instead dealing with a pint-sized, poopy-making monster and its supposed nanny.

The woman had the audacity to raise an eyebrow at him. “Really?” she asked, giving him so much attitude, Max almost lost his cool again.

“Vivienne, please,” Jack begged his sister.

“What?” she asked, throwing her hands in the air while her face was a mask of innocence.

“Look for someone else.” Looking at Hugo, Max made sure to keep his voice low and to enunciate every word slowly.

“Sir, it’s impossible to find someone this early in the morning,” Hugo said.

“Vivienne is already here,” Jack interceded.

“I’ll talk to you later,” Max said to Jack who had the decency to look contrite.

“While you use your big brain to find a solution, I’ll take care of this angel,” Vivienne said, freeing the baby from the carrier and picking her up. “Do you have a bathroom I can use?” she asked Max.

The baby almost disappeared in her arms, her little head with the big pink bow nestled against the nanny’s soft-looking breasts. The image was strangely pleasant, and Max had to blink out of a temporary fog. Throughout the outlandish situation, his dragon remained the personification of calm. “Over there,” he said, motioning for Jack to accompany her sister.

As soon as they disappeared around the corner, Max called Wilson.

“Find me another nanny,” he said as soon as Wilson answered, several rings later.

“I’d just fallen asleep, damn it, Max. You know it takes me forever.”

“You put me in this mess—”

“It was more likely your dick that put you in this situation—”

“The baby isn’t mine,” Max barked. “And I want a different nanny.”

“Are you having a tantrum? And what’s wrong with Jack’s sister? Hasn’t she showed up?”

“She showed up all right, and she must be gone in the next hour, or I’ll strangle her.”

“We definitely don’t want that. What’s wrong with the nanny?” Wilson’s voice held a curious tone that Max didn’t like.

“I don’t like her.”

“You don’t like her,” Wilson repeated.

“I hate her and want her gone from my penthouse as soon as possible.”

“You are having a tantrum.” Wilson chuckled.

“I am this close to firing you.” If Max didn’t let his dragon out for a long flight, he would be liable to destroy his beautiful apartment.

“You can’t fire me.”

“Try me.”

“It takes time to find a PR specialist who can manage your kind of epic screw-ups. In a few hours, the media circus will be all over you about the lawsuit.” Wilson let the concept sink in for a few seconds.

“Damn you,” Max growled as his friend unmercifully laughed. “I’ll fire you as soon as this is over.”

“Sure,” Wilson said. “I haven’t had a day of vacation since I started working for you. Prepare a good severance package, and I won’t sue you for breach of contract like Mrs. Catalani did.” He hung up before Max could say anything else.

“What the—” In a fit of rage he couldn’t control any longer, Max threw the cellphone across the room.

Only instead of crashing against the marble floor, the phone hit Vivienne squarely on the forehead as she stepped back into the room.

The string of blasphemies that came out of the nanny’s mouth would’ve made a seasoned sailor blush.