Page 14 of The Maid Married To The Billionaire

‘You’re used to maids picking up after you though, aren’t you?’

‘I would prefer not to answer that question on the grounds that I suspect that some kind of moral judgement is likely to come my way,’ Enzo replied.

‘Any other fields in which you shine?’ she prompted, ready to change the subject because it wasn’t her place to nag when he was paying her to take care of everything on the domestic front.

‘I speak several languages fluently. I’m good at negotiation. I’m supposed to be terrific in bed but then women will always tell you that, if you’re rich,’ he quipped wryly, shocking her with his candour. ‘Am I allowed to ask if you shine there as well?’

Skye had grown very tense. She knew that he had recognised that she was nervous of the evening ahead and that he was trying to distract her to get her to relax. It was just unfortunate that he had stumbled on that particular subject. ‘I don’t...shine, I mean,’ she told him tightly. ‘In fact, I have it on recent authority that I’m rubbish in that line. And I really don’t care if it’s true or not. I don’t like sex. It does nothing for me.’

Having stopped at the traffic lights, Enzo flicked her a frowning glance. ‘Hewasa charmer, wasn’t he? He was putting you down. He seems to have been the sort of guy who likes to keep a woman down. Don’t pay any heed to his opinion.’

‘I’m not. I was just being frank, possiblytoofrank,’ she muttered uneasily, her cheeks belatedly burning like fire in the dimness of the car. ‘Shouldn’t we be talking about this evening? Who am I supposed to be?’

‘Yourself, of course. My girlfriend. Teacher, currently too busy with me and your siblings to work.’

‘Girlfriend?’

‘You’re living with me. I have no intention of telling anyone that you’re my housekeeper.’

‘Ashamed?’

‘Dio mio...it’s simpler for us both if we pretend to be together this evening,’ Enzo responded. ‘I could have called half a dozen women in London to come up here and act the part but there would’ve been strings and expectations attached, and I didn’t want that complication. You’re doing me a huge favour and I appreciate it.’

‘It’s costing you enough...the trip to the Blackthorn Hotel beauty spa and the outfit I’m wearing did not, I suppose, come cheap,’ Skye reminded him. ‘And really...?Half a dozenwomen would have been willing to drop everything and come up here on short notice just to please you?’

‘It’s the wealth I inherited that’s the draw, not me as an individual,’ he breathed with sardonic bite.

‘Maybe for some of them but I doubt it’s the driving motivation forallof them,’ Skye told him mildly. ‘I mean, stop being such a cynic. Some of those ladies may just like you.’

‘Do you?’ he asked her unexpectedly.

Skye shot him an unexpectedly sunny smile. ‘Yes, I do. You have a great deal of charm, which I’m sure you’re well aware of, and you’ve been kind to the kids. If you’re kind to my siblings, I become a big fan. Oh...random question here. Why were all the frocks the stylist brought some shade of purple? Is it your favourite colour?’

Enzo laughed. ‘No, your eyes are the colour of lilacs, and I thought a similar shade would suit you.’

Skye shot him an unimpressed glance. ‘They’re not lilac. My goodness, I only wish they were! Lilac sounds exotic. Actually, they’re a greyish light blue,’ she told him informatively.

‘Lilac,’ Enzo repeated stubbornly as he turned down the road to the Blackthorn Hotel where her sister worked and the Mackies executive dinner was being held.

‘Oh, my goodness, so where are we supposed to have met?’

‘Your car broke down. Always best to stick as close to the truth as possible. Of course, the car breakdown happened months ago,’ Enzo mocked. ‘I’m not the sort of crazy guy who would invite a woman I’ve only known a few hours to live with me.’

‘Aren’t you?’ Skye sent him a winging look of amusement. ‘It’s my bet that you can be impulsive and that you pride yourself on your ability to judge character.’

Enzo shot her an arrested glance, for that surmise had struck a little too close to home for comfort. ‘Do you think you could act keen and clingy at this event for my benefit?’

Skye heaved a long-suffering sigh. ‘If I worked at it. I’m not the clingy type and I imagine that you hate clingers.’

‘I do,’ Enzo confirmed, closing an arm round her for show and walking her towards the hotel entrance. ‘But I’m fed up with the ambitious sex bombs at Mackies coming on to me and a clingy girlfriend will tell them that they’re wasting their time.’

‘I won’t let you out of my sight,’ Skye promised with amusement.

As drinks were served in an anteroom, Skye was conscious of being the cynosure of curious eyes. Enzo introduced her to the executives, including three very attractive brunettes, garbed in dresses that were very short and harboured strategic cut-outs that played up their ample bosoms and curvy behinds.

‘You’re sisters,’ she guessed, having registered that they all had the same surname. ‘And the daughters of the Mackie family, who originally owned the firm?’

‘Your boyfriend hasn’t made the same connection,’ Martina, the head of marketing, informed her rather smugly.

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