Page 31 of The Maid Married To The Billionaire

‘You look tired,’ Enzo remarked, ebony brows pleating as he scanned the faint purple shadows below her beautiful eyes and the downward curve of her lips.

‘I was thinking of an early night...without the usual connotations,’ she added in haste as Enzo’s dark glittering gaze literally smouldered.

Enzo laughed with considerable amusement. ‘As long as you’re in my bed.’

‘Actually, I was thinking—’

‘Mybed,’ Enzo incised without hesitation. ‘We don’t sleep apart. When I’m back at work I won’t see much of you otherwise and we need to make the most of the time we have.’

Disconcerted by that speech and the assurance with which he spoke, Skye felt her cheeks burn even while her heart turned over at the news that he wanted to spend more time with her. ‘You said that you’d had an idea?’

‘I’m not sure you’re ready to hear it yet. When you explained that you were under supervision with the social services, I realised that I had put you in a rather dodgy position. If you were simply working for me, it might be all right, but we’re having an affair and some people would view that as a matter of concern, particularly when I’m said to have a...questionable reputation with women,’ he framed between compressed lips.

At last he had put a label on what they shared. An affair? It sounded rather racier than Skye felt herself to be, but she couldn’t think of any other word to cover their new togetherness. Colour fluctuating, she went off to fetch the coffee. He had seen the same writing on the wall that she had foreseen. Her standing in his life was far from ideal. She was no longer merely a live-in housekeeper, not since they had become much more personally involved. She would look like a foolish, undisciplined woman who had tumbled carelessly out of one disastrous relationship with a man into another that could prove almost as damaging from her siblings’ point of view.

Enzo accepted his coffee. ‘No comment?’

Skye compressed her lips. ‘What you said was true and the children are already attached to you, which is not a good idea when you’re leaving.’

‘I have a solution to all of it and I would be happy to make the sacrifice.’

‘Sacrifice?’ Skye interrupted in dismay. ‘What on earth are you talking about?’

‘You’re so good at being a fake girlfriend I think you would be a blast as a fake wife.’

Lilac eyes as wide as they would open stared back at him in disbelief. ‘Enzo...are you crazy?’

‘I want you to consider the idea. I’ve become fond of the children and I would pretty much do anything to ensure that you get to keep them with you,’ Enzo admitted. ‘I consulted my British lawyer for advice—’

‘I bet he didn’t tell you to marry your penniless housekeeper to help her!’ Skye exclaimed, wreathed in mortification as she understood the meaning of that word ‘sacrifice’ as pertaining to her and the children.

‘I’m completely free to marry anyone I want and if I can put you in a better position to adopt your siblings, I’m willing to do it.’

‘Well, thank you very much but I’m not willing to accept you as asacrifice!’ Skye shot back at him with burning cheeks, thrusting back the dining chair to stand up.

‘We have to talk about this.’

‘No, wedon’t! We definitely don’t!’

‘Skye?’ Enzo swore under his breath as he watched her pile up dishes to clear the table. ‘Sit down and have your coffee.’

She raised a brow. ‘Is that an order, sir?’

Enzo dealt her a quelling appraisal. ‘It is. But let’s take the coffee across the hall and be a little more relaxed.’

‘I can’t be relaxed when you’re talking about marrying me purely to do the kids and me a favour,’ she argued.

Ignoring that statement, Enzo swept up the coffee and strode across the hall into the sitting room where she had already lit the corner lamps. He proceeded to seek the controls that would ignite the gas fire because the room was chilly and, while he was still searching, Skye nudged him gently out of the way and took care of it.

‘I was planning to start putting up the Christmas decorations tomorrow. Is that all right with you?’ she asked brightly, faking it as best she could, keen to change the subject when what he had suggested was sheer insanity.

‘You’ll have to buy it all new for this place.’ Enzo pulled out a credit card and extended it to her as she sank down on the edge of a plush sectional unit. She grasped it with reluctant fingers. ‘And stop trying to change the subject.’

‘But what you said...about marriage...was ridiculous,’ Skye told him tautly. ‘You can’t say stuff like that.’

‘Why not?’ Enzo sent her a questioning look, refusing to be either uncomfortable or knocked off topic. ‘I’m prepared to deliver on my suggestion. Right now, you need me.’

Skye flipped upright again in frustration and embarrassment. ‘Idon’tneed you!’

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