Page 3 of The Maid's Pregnancy Bombshell

Swallowing hard, she shook her head in agreement, seemingly dumbstruck by his assistance with her shoes. He brushed sand away with a light sweep of his hand across the top of her foot and Alana shivered, extraordinarily conscious of the firm fingers at her ankle holding it steady. Unwarily, she looked up at him for the first time and sank into dark eyes that under the lights above were tortoiseshell perfection set in his lean bronzed face. Every shade of amber and gold swirled in those eyes. And those cheekbones, she enumerated, that sculpted shadowed jaw line, that unexpectedly full sensual mouth and the faint breeze playing with the silvery fair strands across his sleek dark brows. She wanted totouchhim. In all her life she had never wanted so badly to reach out to touch anyone and she pushed her hands below her thighs to ensure that she kept them to herself.

‘You’re not even considering me for the job, are you?’ Alana condemned. ‘You think I’m—’

Ares looked levelly back at her. ‘Too young, too naïve and probably unreliable into the bargain.’

‘You’re only twenty-nine. I read that somewhere!’ she added with the speed of embarrassment lest he suspect that she had searched out information about him, which she had many weeks earlier after his stay at the hotel. And in terms of an online search the known facts about Ares Sarris were very few and far between beyond his meteoric success as a tech mogul. Ares certainly didn’t live a playboy lifestyle in the public eye as her brother-in-law had done before he’d met her sister. He had been described as reclusive and mysterious because nobody seemed to know how or, indeed, even quitewhenhe had appeared in the Sarris family.

‘And I’m not unreliable, not the least bit unreliable!’ she snapped in fiery addition.

Ares vaulted upright again, amusement his guiding principle in her presence and a rare experience for him. But for all that, he was very much aware that she was a true beauty in that unadorned classic way that so many women sought but missed out on. She sported nothing greater than a hint of shadow on her lids and lip gloss. And as he straightened and caught an accidental glimpse of her full creamy breasts below the neckline of her dress, he went momentarily rigid, fighting off an erection, because, in truth, it was quite some time since he had been with a woman. The reminder that he was a fully adult male with hormonal impulses was unwelcome to Ares. He had always put work first and foremost, scheduling occasional sex into his timetable while simultaneously reminding himself that sex was an indulgence he could do without.

He extended his hand. ‘Let me walk you back to the hotel,’ he suggested smoothly.

‘I would be really good as a pretend wife,’ Alana told him earnestly, much as if she were trying to sell herself in an interview.

His handsome mouth quirked. ‘Why do you think that?’

‘I’d do everything I was asked to do and think myself lucky to get the opportunity,’ she continued winningly. ‘I’d also hopefully be a bargain in terms of price!’

Above her down-bent head, Ares could not resist a wicked grin. ‘Let’s hope nobody else overhearsthisparticular conversation.’

‘I only want enough to settle my one debt,’ she continued doggedly.

‘And how much is this debt?’ Ares could not resist asking, ridiculously diverted by her and not bored the way he usually was with her sex.

‘It’s alot,’ she warned him in an undertone and then she practically whispered,‘Thirty thousand pounds...’

Ares was trying hard not to laugh out loud. ‘Yes, you would be a very inexpensive acquisition for that amount—’

‘Are you considering me yet?’ she prompted hopefully, pausing on the path as the lights of the big hotel loomed into view ahead of them.

Ares gazed down at her with eyes that were now black as the night sky. ‘I’m afraid not. What’s your name? I don’t even know your name.’

‘Alana... Alana Davison. You’re not giving me a chance,’ she complained.

‘Why would I?’ Ares asked drily.

‘Because it would be perfect for both of us. Obviously, you don’t want a proper wife and I certainly don’t want a husband!’ she pointed out cheerfully. ‘And I’m very trustworthy. I promised my dad before he died that I would never tell my sister, Skye, about what he had done and I never have because if I did tell her, it wouldhurther too much. I also have no family other than Skye and Enzo to be suspicious and, let’s face it, like most newly marrieds they’ll be very much wrapped up in their own little bubble. I’m a very hard worker—’

‘I wouldn’t be hiring you to do actual work,’ Ares inserted into that animated flood.

‘I’m sure I could do something. I’m very willing and adaptable. I like kids and pets...’ Alana looked up at him hopefully.

‘I have neither to offer for your care,’ he divulged ruefully, finding himself strangely reluctant to hurt her feelings when she was trying so hard to impress. ‘Is the hard sell over? Could we now return to the hotel?’

Her expressive face reddened as she moved on down the path. ‘At least promise to think about it...about me as a possibility,’ she pressed.

Ares released his breath on a slow hiss, drew out his phone and opened it. ‘Give me your number but, in all likelihood, youwon’tbe hearing from me,’ he warned her wryly. ‘But my lawyers will be asking you to sign a non-disclosure agreement very soon.’

‘Of course I’ll sign it,’ she muttered hurriedly, keen to reassure him.

‘I could pay you for doing that—’

‘No, no, no!’ she exclaimed in dismay. ‘You can’t pay me for having done something Ishouldn’thave done—surely you see that?’

And that immediate refusal of cash when she was desperate for it was the most eye-opening experience that Ares had had in years. She had a sense of honour and that was rare indeed, he conceded as he strode away. She had connected with him on some level he didn’t understand but that didn’t mean that he appreciated her appeal. Ares didn’t like impulsive promptings or anything out of the norm for him. In fact, it made him immediately suspicious and ill at ease, although, he recalled, he had not felt uncomfortable while in her company. For curiosity value alone, he would have a background check done on Alana Davison and his lawyers would have the NDA signed. There would be no further personal contact. Why the hell would there be?

CHAPTER TWO

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