Maid for Montero - By Kim Lawrence Page 0,29

I meant to do? Drag poor Susie in with her abscessed tooth? Her mother says the poor girl is in agony.’

‘You were meant to delegate.’ It amazed him that she had not grasped this basic precept.

‘I don’t like telling people what to do.’ Zoe found it was easier and less stressful to do things herself.

‘Delegation is part of your job. Scrubbing floors is not.’

His coldness hit her like a slap in the face. ‘I wasn’t…’ She bit her tongue and bowed her head.

The show of humility did not fool Isandro for one second. He knew full well it was an act. She was about as humble as a battle cruiser.

‘Part of your job is also learning the difference between showing sympathy and being a soft touch.’

Zoe’s head lifted at the suggestion. ‘I’m not a soft touch!’ she protested indignantly.

‘People take advantage of you.’ His annoyance that she was either unable or unwilling to see this was etched on his hard features.

‘You didn’t!’ She closed her eyes and lifted a hand to her head, let her chin fall to her chest and thought, Please let me die now. ‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to say that. It just sort of slipped out.’

‘Not because I did not want to, if that is what is bothering you. Did you get any sleep?’ The violet smudges under her eyes showed up clear against her translucent skin, as did the handful of freckles across the bridge of her nose.

She nodded. ‘And I woke with a bit of a headache.’ His mobile lips twitched. ‘Called a hangover.’

Zoe shuddered as she got to her feet. ‘I can’t imagine why people drink.’

‘Not everyone has your zero tolerance. For some people it’s their drug of choice, and it’s legal.’

‘What’s yours, or don’t you need one? Sorry…I keep forgetting…Can I take your order for dinner, sir?’

‘You can’t go from trying to kiss my face off to calling me sir. Neither are what I expect of my housekeeper. I will settle for a happy medium.’

The mortified colour rushed to her cheeks as she pressed her teeth into her full lower lip. ‘I am sorry for last night. I really am. But what you did for Chloe and John, that was…very kind.’

His features froze. ‘That stays within these walls. Is that understood?’

Before she could reply to this terse warning, the front door swung open and the twins rushed in. At least Georgie rushed. Harry walked with his nose in a book.

‘No, not here. I’ve told you, the flat—’

‘We know. You forgot to put the key under the mat.’ Georgie looked at Isandro and grinned. ‘We have to keep out of your way.’ She wrinkled her nose. ‘Don’t you like kids?’

‘It depends on the kid.’ He strolled across to the boy, a skinny child with strawberry-blond hair. ‘You’re Harry.’

Harry nodded.

‘Run along, children.’ She pulled the key fob out of her pocket and tossed it to Georgie. ‘I’ve left you some sandwiches for eleven. I’ll be over at lunchtime.’

‘What’s that you’re reading?’ Isandro looked at the title on the spine. ‘You like the stars?’

Of course he did. Skinny, undersized boys with books and no friends always did. Isandro knew because he had been one himself. In his case he had grown twelve inches at sixteen and gone from being the despised wimp to the jock that everybody wanted to know.

Harry nodded, his face suffused with pink.

‘On the wall on my desk I have a photo of the Horse-head nebula. Have you seen it?’

‘We’re not allowed in the house. Especially your office.’ So Harry was not a rule-breaker. ‘I like looking at the night sky, but I want to be an astrophysicist when I grow up.’

Zoe blinked. This was news to her.

‘Cool,’ Isandro said.

‘Run along, children.’ She was both pleased and relieved when they both did as she asked—with Georgie, you never knew.

‘You, too,’ Isandro said when they had left. ‘Ring the agency first and get a replacement for…whatever her name is.’

‘Susie.’

‘Then take the rest of the day off. I’m off to London.’

She assumed when he left that they would not see him for some time. She had understood that this was the norm. But over the next few weeks he kept arriving unexpectedly, sometimes spending a night, sometimes not even that long.

At first mystified by his behaviour, she realised that he was hoping to catch her out, though it did seem a lot of trouble to go to. Never knowing when he would turn up made it difficult to relax…and though trying to catch her