Читать книгу Contracted For The Spaniard's Heir - Кэтти Уильямс, CATHY WILLIAMS, Cathy Williams - Страница 9

LUCA HAD REACHED a decision. He’d done what he did best. Faced with a problem, he had brought his natural creativity to the situation, thought on his feet and come up with a solution.

He’d sacked the nanny. He needed cover. And it wasn’t going to fall on his shoulders because he didn’t have enough hours in the day.

Miss Muller, efficient though she was, could hardly be expected to turn her hand to child minding a six-year-old. She’d never had children and, from the little he had glimpsed of her interaction with Jake, an eagerness to make up for that lack was not there.

And the agency wasn’t going to be much help in the immediate future. They were painstaking when it came to the business of sourcing nannies. Leave it with them and he could be collecting his pension before they came up with a replacement, especially given the short, chequered history of the previous two, both sacked.

Cover was staring him in the face. The girl was perfect. He was good when it came to reading people and he could read that this one would be up to the job.

He would lay his cards on the table soon enough but first he would find out as much as he could about her personal circumstances because her personal circumstances could be used to his advantage.

He would at least have to determine her availability.

It didn’t occur to him to ask her directly whether she would be able to step into the breach because getting what you wanted always panned out better once you’d got a feel for the lie of the land. A lifetime of dealing with people had given Luca a healthy scepticism when it came to making sure he got the best possible deal from them.

This girl was no gold-digger, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t be tempted to try her luck if she thought she could pull a fast one.

‘You never told me why you were walking dogs.’ He lazily returned to the question he had earlier directed at her. He tilted his big body at an angle that allowed him to watch her closely from under lowered lashes. ‘You have a job. I don’t know what teachers get paid, but I’m assuming it’s not so little that they have to take a begging bowl onto the streets.’

‘Walking dogs isn’t the same as taking a begging bowl onto the streets.’

‘Figure of speech. Shouldn’t you be enjoying your respite from tetchy kids and classrooms?’

‘I...’ Ellie reddened. ‘I like dogs,’ she said lamely. ‘And I like walking.’

‘And that’s very commendable, but you surely must do it because of the money?’

‘I... As it happens, I find the additional income very useful.’ Ellie heard herself stutter out the truth and immediately told herself that it was nothing to be ashamed about and that she shouldn’t let herself be cowed into editing her personality which was, by its nature, open and honest.

‘Why?’

‘Why? Mr Ross, Luca, I’m not one of your employees. I don’t actually have to tell you anything.’

‘Instead of getting worked up because I’m asking you a few questions, you need to sit back and listen to me without interruption for a few minutes.’

Ellie’s mouth dropped open.

‘You probably want to get back to your house as much as I need to return to work, but there was something I wanted to propose to you, and I think you would be open to my suggestion—especially if you tell me that you need money.’

‘I never said that I needed money.’

‘You don’t have to but I’m good at joining dots. I heard the anxiety in your voice when you talked to me about reuniting those dogs with their owners. You were apprehensive about upsetting them. You don’t want to upset them because, however much you love dogs and love walking, it’s not a labour of love for you. Ergo, you need the money.

‘Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t give a damn what you want the money for—addiction to fine wine, an obsession with designer clothes...or maybe you’re saving for a round-the-world cruise. I don’t care. It’s all the same to me. You have no criminal record, because checks would have been done on you before you became a teacher. Here’s the deal.’

He leant forward, palms flattened on the desk. ‘I no longer have a nanny and I can’t afford to spare the time out for babysitting duties. Miss Muller isn’t going to be able to step up to the plate here and I would not ask her to. However, as I said to you, my nephew took to you and that in itself speaks volumes. Combined with the fact that you clearly need the money, we could work together towards a satisfactory solution to my problem.’

Ellie stared at him in a daze. She was accustomed to controlling situations. It was part and parcel of her job, but right now she felt as though she had handed the reins over to someone who was cheerfully steering her in the direction he wanted her to go.

‘I’ll admit my immediate reaction to you showing up at my front door with my godson was one of instant suspicion.’

Ellie was fascinated by Luca’s lack of apology for behaviour that frankly had been pretty outrageous. When she had walked Jake back, she had anticipated gratitude. She had mentally prepared an informative speech about the importance of family and of understanding the psyche of children. It was going to be a severe speech, as befitted the situation. She had even mulled over the possibility that she might step into a quagmire that would necessitate outside intervention. She worked in a school where that sort of thing had occurred on a couple of occasions, although something about Jake had made her think that his family life wasn’t going to be a disaster zone. His clothes had been dishevelled and muddy from the dogs but expensive all the same.

She hadn’t anticipated a series of events that had seen her told coolly that she could have been hauled down to a police station, accused of staging the whole thing for money and then eventually been given the all-clear without a hint of remorse.

‘I got that,’ Ellie said tightly as her mind continued to whirr. She couldn’t take her eyes off him. He was larger than life in every sense of the word and in his presence every nerve-ending in her body was on red alert, every sense and pulse stretched to breaking point. From the proud angle of his head to the luxuriant dark hair and exotically sculpted features, the man oozed more than just sexuality and it knocked her for six.

And now he was offering her a job?

‘Naturally I would do my own background check on you anyway,’ he murmured, half to himself.

‘You’re offering me a job?’ Just in case she’d got hold of the wrong end of the stick.

‘The circumstances are a little unusual,’ Luca admitted. ‘It’s not in my nature to jump into anything without first testing the water, but I need someone to look after Jake, and sooner rather than later...’

‘But you could always just take a couple of weeks off work. Maybe go on holiday with him whilst the agency finds a replacement. If he’s had trouble settling down then a holiday might be just the thing he needs.’

‘I don’t have time for holidays,’ Luca said flatly.

‘Never?’ Ellie asked incredulously, wondering what the point of being rich was if you never took time out to enjoy your hard-earned cash. If she had money, then she would travel the world. It was a luxury she had never had.

‘There’s no time off when you’re running a business the size of mine.’ Luca shrugged. ‘It may sound harsh but I’m simply being realistic.’ He leaned back and sighed heavily, with a hint of impatience. ‘This escapade has made me realise that Jake needs someone who is not only capable of taking him from A to B and making sure he is fed and watered, but someone with whom he has some kind of bond. He clearly didn’t bond with either of the previous nannies, but in the space of a very short time he managed to do that with you, and I’m guessing your experience as a teacher has something to do with that.’ He looked at her shrewdly. ‘So here we are.’

‘I already have a job,’ Ellie said. As job offers went, this one certainly hadn’t been wrapped up in any pretty packaging. He was in a jam and she was a possible solution. No beating about the bush with any niceties.

‘Teaching, and walking dogs for the additional income.’

She decided not to go down the ‘needing money’ road again. Luca made her nervous and uncomfortable and she couldn’t think of anything worse than working for him. ‘There’s no way,’ she said politely, ‘that I would ever consider jacking in my full-time job to become a nanny to your godson. I love my job. I enjoy working with lots of different kids.’

He would make a terrible employer. It was obvious that he was as warm and cuddly as a rattlesnake. He thought nothing of getting rid of people who didn’t live up to his high expectations and, while he was quick to blame, he didn’t seem prepared to accept that he might be the root cause of Jake’s behaviour.

Work for him?

She would rather walk on a bed of burning coals. Part of the reason she enjoyed what she did, aside from the satisfaction of working with the kids, was that she really loved the people she worked alongside.

They were on her wavelength. They were all part of the greater caring community who didn’t rush to put themselves first.

Luca Ross was part of the cut-throat community who thought nothing of taking what they wanted whatever the cost. He was arrogant, ruthless and manipulative. She’d been in his company for a handful of hours and already she felt wrung out.

‘I’m not talking about a long-term position,’ he clarified, still fully confident that he was going to get what he wanted because, frankly, he always did. ‘Of course, a suitable nanny will be found in due course, but that’s going to take time, and this time around I will have more input to the procedure than previously.’

Ellie was making a mental list in her head of all the things she disliked about him and she tacked this new one on. He probably left choosing the nannies to his secretary because he was too busy and couldn’t be bothered...

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, standing up so that he could take the hint that their conversation was at an end. Her body broke out in light perspiration as he slowly rose to his feet. He strolled towards her, in no hurry.

His long, lean body oozed latent strength and suffocating masculinity. She could almost see the flex of sinew and muscle under the charcoal-grey trousers and the white shirt, which he had cuffed to the elbow. His forearms were liberally sprinkled with dark hair. She wondered whether his chest would likewise be sprinkled with dark hair and she furiously stopped herself in crazy mid-thought.

He cast an ominous shadow as he finally paused to stand in front of her, and Ellie had to will herself not to cower.

The mental checklist of things she disliked about the man was growing by the second. Not only did he think he could get whatever he wanted but he was not averse to using sheer brawn and intimidation tactics to get there.

‘Sorry?’

‘I’m not interested in working for you.’ She cleared her throat and their eyes collided, causing the air to rush out of her body in a whoosh. ‘I appreciate the offer, but you’re better off going back to the agency, and maybe taking more of a hands-on approach this time, because you seemed to imply that you hadn’t on the previous occasions.’

‘How can you appreciate my offer when you haven’t heard the details?’

‘I don’t need to.’

‘Care to tell me why?’

‘I know you think that you can get whatever you want because you’re rich, but you can’t.’ She tore her eyes away with difficulty. He was standing so close to her that she could breathe in whatever woody, intensely masculine aftershave he was wearing.

Breathing was proving to be a problem. It was unnerving. She forced herself to remain calm and composed because he was just standing there; he wasn’t trying to prevent her from leaving the room. She remembered how to breathe and then looked at him.

‘Jake ran away for a reason.’ Her voice, thankfully, did not betray the utter turmoil his proximity was bringing on. ‘Okay, so maybe he didn’t like the nanny very much, or perhaps he got bored and decided to venture out, but the bottom line is that there’s obviously something missing on the home front and that something can only be provided by you.’

‘We’re going round in circles.’

‘Because we’re on completely different wavelengths.’ She cleared her throat and wished that he would back off by even a couple of inches so that she could get her act together. ‘And that’s just one reason why I could never work for you. We’re from different worlds.’

‘Since when do people have to think alike in order to have a satisfactory working arrangement?’

‘It matters to me,’ Ellie persisted. Since she had nothing to lose, she said, bluntly, ‘I don’t like what you stand for. I’m not into money and I don’t approve of people who focus all their energy on making it. I’m happy doing what I’m doing, and I wish you all the best in your search for a replacement for the nanny you sacked.’

Luca stared at her in silence then he nodded slowly.

He backed away, leaving a cool void behind him. Desperate to leave only seconds earlier, Ellie now hovered uneasily. He had moved back to the desk but was now perched on the edge and was watching her with a thoughtful expression.

‘So...’ She licked her lips nervously.

‘You were on your way out?’

‘Yes, I was!’ She pulled open the door and an odd thought suddenly sprang into her addled brain—this will be the last time you set eyes on this man. She blinked, surprised and bemused at the discomfiture that thought provoked out of nowhere.

Ellie thought he might have tried to stop her, one last stab at persuading her to hear him out, and she was disconcerted to find that she was almost disappointed when he remained in the office while she let herself out of the house, pausing and looking up the stairs on her way out.

Should she try and find Jake? Say goodbye? She wanted to. In a short space of time, he had touched her with his shy overtures of friendship.

No. She’d already become way too involved in his backstory. She’d done her good deed for the week and delivered him back to his home and it was doubtful she would lay eyes on him again.

Whatever nanny Luca got, Ellie’s money was on the poor girl being monitored more closely than a convict on parole. She would be manacled to the poor child while Luca carried on making money and kidding himself that he was being a good guardian by flinging cash at the problem that had landed on his doorstep.

Hateful and obnoxious, she thought, barely aware of the walk back to the park and then on to the nearest bus because she was so busy thinking of him.

Ellie shared a house with three other girls. Every time she approached the front door, she recalled the far nicer little place she had rented previously where she had been able to relax in peace; where she hadn’t had to jostle for space in the fridge; any time she wanted to herself now had to be spent in a bedroom that was only just about big enough for a bed, a chest of drawers and a wardrobe that was a whisker away from being held together by masking tape. But needs must.

She wondered, but only briefly, whether she should have listened to whatever offer Luca had been prepared to put on the table...

* * *

Twenty-four hours later, Ellie was on her way back home when she noticed a long, sleek, black car pull away from the kerb, picking up speed and then slowing down until it was right alongside her.

The persistent rain of the past couple of weeks had stopped and, at a little after six-thirty in the evening, a watery sun was trying to remind everyone that it was still summer.

The road was quiet, practically deserted, and with a flare of panic she quickened her steps, only almost to collide into the passenger door of the car which had been flung open, barring her path.

‘Hop in, Ellie.’

She recognised the voice instantly and, when she peered inside, her heart did a quick flip and her breathing hitched. Luca was the last person she had been expecting to see again.

The tinted windows had prevented her from seeing the driver and now she wondered how on earth he had managed to do that? Show up just when she was on her way back to her house. Did he have some sort of telepathic X-ray vision?

She blinked, her mouth opening and shutting while Luca looked at her in total silence.

‘How did you find me?’

‘Hop in.’

‘No!’

‘Don’t slam the door. Just get in the car and listen to what I have to say.’

‘How did you find me?’ she repeated, reluctant to get in the car yet not wanting to draw attention to herself. She slid into the passenger seat and slammed the door behind her.

In the enclosed space, she was uneasily conscious of the raw sexuality that had accosted her the last time she had been in his company. He was so staggeringly male, so devoid of any soft side, so unapologetically masculine.

She looked at him and didn’t know whether it was because he had been on her mind, or whether it was just the shock of seeing him when she hadn’t expected to, but her body was suddenly filled with a disturbing electric charge.

Her nipples pinched, scraping against her tee shirt because she seldom wore a bra except to work. What was the point when there was precious little to hold in place? And there was a stickiness between her legs that horrified her, made her want to slam her thighs together tightly.

‘Don’t forget, I know where your dog-walking clients live,’ Luca intoned smoothly. ‘I asked them whether you were out with their dogs. Actually, I struck jackpot with owner number one. You’re a creature of habit, Ellie. Same routine. It was a pretty simple process of deduction that you would be heading back to your house around now. Mrs Wilson was kind enough to let me have your address. She also gave me your mobile number but I thought it best if I surprised you.’

‘She had no right to hand over my private details!’

‘Maybe she could tell at a glance that I wasn’t a homicidal maniac.’

‘That’s not the point.’

‘Which is your house?’

‘I don’t want you in my house!’

‘Then we can sit here and have this conversation,’ he said calmly. He killed the engine and reclined in the chair, angling his big body so that he was facing her.

‘We’ve covered everything there is to say. I’m not going to work for you.’

‘You’ve moved.’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘You never used to live in this part of London. You used to rent a tidy little flat in West London, but you gave that up two months ago so that you could move to this area which is, at the very best, dodgy.’

‘How did you find all of that out?’

‘I can find out anything I want to,’ Luca told her without batting an eyelid. ‘And I wanted to find out about you because I want you. You’re saving money, and a brief background check leads me to believe that it’s because you’re helping your father out of a hole.’

Ellie stiffened, shocked and dismayed. How far was his reach?

‘Tell me about it,’ he said, but his voice was curiously gentle. ‘And don’t let your feelings for me and your pride get in the way of your common sense, Ellie. Like I told you, we can help one another. As business arrangements go, this could be an extremely rewarding one for both of us. I need someone there for Jake. Did you know that he’s asked after you?’

Suspicion poured out of every pore in Ellie’s body but that question, tacked on at the end, made her hesitate, even though she suspected that he was a man who would work the cards in his hand any way he chose if it could get him what he wanted.

You didn’t get to the top by being kind and caring and making allowances for the weak and feeble. You got to the top by being ruthless, and he was at the very top.

‘It’s the first conversation I think I’ve had with Jake since he came over here. Or, at least, the first conversation that wasn’t like squeezing blood from a stone.’

Ellie opened her mouth to inform him that she wasn’t interested, and besides she resented the fact that he had been investigating her behind her back, but instead she heard herself say, ‘What do you mean?’

‘We’ve barely spoken. I’ve had reports from the nannies but the times we’ve sat down together over a meal, he’s only managed to mutter a few monosyllabic answers to the questions I’ve asked. This morning, he asked after you, and after those mutts you introduced him to. He wanted to know whether he would be able to return to the park so that he could walk with you.’

His expression was shuttered but Ellie was good at reading body language and what she was seeing was genuine emotion from a man who probably found it difficult to express himself in terms of feelings and who was at a loss with a situation he couldn’t control.

‘This would not be a permanent position,’ he told her softly, shifting, because a car was not the most comfortable of places in which to have a protracted conversation. ‘It would be a matter of a few weeks, no more than the duration of the summer holidays, during which time you could perhaps help source a replacement nanny for Jake. I think your input would be helpful on that front. It’s clear you have an instinctive empathy with children, which is something I clearly lack.’

Ellie opened her mouth and he raised his hand.

‘No, allow me to finish before you start digging your heels in.’ He shot her a crooked smile and Ellie blinked because, shorn temporarily of that authoritarian streak in him that she had previously glimpsed, he was curiously human. It was unnerving.

‘I could have found out the details of whatever commitment you may have towards your father, but I stopped short of that because it doesn’t matter, and I also felt that if you wanted to fill me in then you would. I will pay you enough to more than cover the entire debt your father has incurred.’

‘That’s a crazy assurance,’ Ellie said shakily. Her eyes dropped to where he was resting his hand lightly on the gear shaft and she inconsequentially thought what shapely hands he had.

‘My pockets are shockingly deep,’ Luca returned without a trace of false modesty. He paused and inclined his head to one side. ‘What happened? Do you want to talk about it?’

The vision of being released from the stranglehold of a debt that would take her years to clear dangled in front of Ellie’s eyes like an oasis in the desert.

‘If you’d rather not go into the details, then that’s fine. All I want to know is this: are you prepared to consider my offer? In return for a handful of weeks working for me, your father will never have to worry about his debts again. You don’t have to like me to agree to this. That doesn’t enter the equation. All you have to do is ask yourself whether you’re willing to prolong your father’s unhappy situation because of misplaced pride.’

As trump cards went, Ellie knew that he had pulled out the ace of spades. Her father was stressed beyond belief and frankly so was she.

Did she want him to know the situation? Ellie already knew that she would agree to what he wanted. He’d somehow managed to find the precise spot where his appeal would hit pay dirt.

‘It would be a relief to clear my father’s debts,’ Ellie said stiffly.

‘Before you continue, do you want to carry on this conversation in your house? I’m too big to sit in this car indefinitely. I need to stretch my legs.’

‘I share the place with other girls.’ She involuntarily grimaced. ‘But I guess we could go to a pub. There’s one not far from here. I could direct you.’

Having secured the deal, Luca had no intention of letting the grass grow under his feet. They were in the pub with a bottle of chilled wine in front of them within fifteen minutes.

‘So...?’ he pressed urgently.

‘My dad has found himself in a bit of a pickle.’ She opened up, because she did want him to know more than just the bones of why she was taking this job. He’d found out so much about her that he could easily have found out the entire story and the fact that he hadn’t softened her impression of him. Just a little. If she chose not to explain anything, she knew that he wouldn’t try to find out off his own bat but, for some reason, she didn’t want him to be left with the suspicion that her father had blown away his savings on rubbish.

‘He got taken in by a scam on the Internet. He didn’t admit to what had happened for a while. In fact, I only found out because I happened to come across a letter from the bank he had left on the console table in the sitting room. When I asked him what was happening, he admitted to everything. The bills have been piling up and he hasn’t been able to meet his mortgage payments for the past few months. He’s been having panic attacks.’

She looked down quickly. ‘Apologies,’ she said huskily. ‘My dad and I are very close and I can’t bear to think what he must have been going through. Anyway, of course I earn enough to keep body and soul together, but I’ve had to move into somewhere smaller temporarily. It’s been very stressful and you should know that if it weren’t for...this situation there is no way I would be sitting here having this conversation.’ She looked at Luca, her green eyes challenging.

The clarity of her gaze was so disconcerting that for a few seconds words failed him.

He was staring at someone from another planet. He had offered her an easy, hassle-free job and instead of biting his hand off and naming her price she had turned him down. She was only accepting the offer now because she would have been insane to refuse it.

Luca was accustomed to women who accepted his generosity without batting an eyelid. He was made of money and he had never yet come up against any woman who didn’t enjoy spending some of it when it was on offer.

He hadn’t cared why she’d needed money when he had first suggested the job. He’d been confident that she would snap at the chance to get her hands on some to fund whatever lifestyle had left her in debt. He’d assumed a credit card crisis and had banked on her trying to manoeuvre to get the maximum out of him.

He was quietly pleased that he hadn’t been able to buy her.

‘Tell me how much your father owes,’ he said, not beating around the bush, and Ellie reddened and hesitated.

‘Do you think I’m going to laugh because he’s been the victim of a scam?’

She didn’t answer that, instead naming a figure that seemed so huge to her that she looked away in embarrassment.

‘Naturally I don’t expect you to cover that stupid amount...’

Luca told her what he was willing to pay her, and for once in his life he wasn’t interested in driving a hard bargain.

The woman had such fundamental integrity that he was surprised to discover a side to him that wasn’t utterly cynical. Born into wealth, Luca had seen from the sidelines how ugly the pursuit of money could be after his mother had died. As an eligible middle-aged widower, his father had become a magnet for women from the ages of twenty to seventy. Many of the women, having admitted defeat with his father, had turned their attentions to him, even though Luca had been a mere boy of seventeen at the time.

His own experiences as an adult had hardly served to change his opinion that there wasn’t a woman alive who wouldn’t do whatever it took when the stakes were high.

Luca didn’t mind. He was happy to be lavish with the women he dated but he had no intention of settling down with any of them. He had no intention of settling down, full-stop.

He was fascinated by Ellie’s clear-eyed gaze as their eyes met.

Predictably, she was staggered by the sum he was willing to pay. Even more predictably, she hotly refused to allow him to part with such a vast amount of cash.

‘You’re overreacting,’ he dismissed, reaching to top her glass up. ‘I’m not offering you the crown jewels...’

‘As good as. It goes against my nature to accept a sum as large as that.’

‘And it goes against my nature to be stingy when it comes to a situation like this. You’ll be doing me a service, and I’m a man who rewards good service.’

A quiver of excitement rippled through her as their eyes met and tangled. This was a business arrangement, but right now it felt like an adventure...