Page 6 of The Maid Married To The Billionaire

‘I’ll take care of the toast,’ Skye said with amusement, Shona clasped under one arm while she filled the kettle to make a bottle for the baby. ‘I need the baby stuff I left behind.’

‘I’ll send you over with a car and a driver today and you can collect it all. I also have a proposition to make,’ Enzo announced. ‘I need a housekeeper. You need a job and a roof over your head. Interested?’

CHAPTER TWO

SKYEFROWNEDINsurprise and then nodded as she filled the bottle and mixed it before plunging it into cold water to cool. ‘I could be. Where’s Sparky?’

‘Out in the back garden. I’m afraid we’ve no food for him,’ Enzo reminded her.

‘Sparky hungie... Brodie hungie,’ her little brother complained.

‘Hungry,’ she corrected as she slotted bread into the toaster. ‘The toast is on now and I bought some cereal last night.’

Housekeeping, she reflected absently. It would give them a safe place to live and allow her to continue looking after the children. Taking care of one man’s household requirements didn’t sound too onerous either and, best of all, while she was earning she would be free to search out another teaching job, temporary or otherwise. Allowing Ritchie to clip her employment wings and keep her at home had been a mistake but at the time she had been glad of the opportunity to spend time with her newly bereaved little brother and sister. It had been a period of terrible upheaval for all of them, she conceded belatedly. Maybe grief for the loving parents she had lost had played a part in her decision to move in with Ritchie.

‘Let me take the baby,’ Enzo offered, reaching out to cradle Shona and sit down by the kitchen table.

‘Exactly what would the job entail?’ Skye asked.

‘It would only be for a couple of months because I won’t be in England much beyond Christmas,’ Enzo warned. ‘You look after the house and the shopping and the cooking and I’ll be happy. I only need a late evening meal. I’ll be working most of the time.’

Skye tested the milk from the bottle on her wrist. ‘It sounds good. I could do with some breathing space to get myself back together before I make a fresh start somewhere. What would you pay me?’

Enzo quoted a sum.

‘That’s far too much!’ she told him instantly, shocked by the amount of money he was offering her.

‘You’ll be doing everything here and I suspect that you could do with the money,’ Enzo pointed out calmly. ‘As soon as your car is back on the road, you’ll have your independence back.’

‘I’ll take it. What’s the address of this place? I need to let my sister know where we are.’

Taking note of the address, she gathered Shona back into her arms, and gave her the bottle, which she drank happily, big blue eyes firmly locked on Skye’s face.

‘If you can get the coffee machine to produce a decent coffee, there’ll be a bonus,’ Enzo informed her wryly.

‘It’s not rocket science.’

‘Might as well be.’ Enzo sighed, watching her pour cereal for Brodie and seat him at the table before starting to butter toast. ‘You’re good at multi-tasking.’

‘You have to be with kids. Do you want any toast?’ she asked.

Her slight frame was really tiny in his clothes and there was something oddly sexy about knowing she was wearing something of his against her skin. He didn’t know what it was, didn’t wish to dwell on that angle. Such considerations were out of bounds now that she was an employee. In any case, he was very aware of how vulnerable she was right now; she’d clearly been in an abusive relationship and he felt a responsibility towards her. He would need to be careful to make her feel safe and not give her any reason to be nervous around him.

Her movements were very stiff and he noticed that she was avoiding bending or twisting as best she could, not an easy challenge with young children to look after, he reflected grimly. One eye was encircled with multicoloured bruising but nothing could hide her delicate bone structure, her pale-as-alabaster, perfect skin or the soft fullness of her pink lips.

‘Enzo?Toast?’ she queried when he failed to respond.

Enzo shook his handsome dark head a little as though to clear his thoughts. ‘No, thanks. I like fruit, coffee and a croissant in the morning.’

‘OK, you’ve got yourself a housekeeper,’ Skye told him. ‘I’ll get our stuff picked up today and go shopping.’

He set a black credit card down on the table.

‘What’s my budget?’

‘There isn’t one.’

‘What do you like to eat?’ Skye enquired as she dug a small notebook out of her bag and flashed a pen. ‘And what do younotlike?’

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