Her smile nearly faltered. “Are we done?” she managed to ask, holding her trembling hands behind her back.
Donovan frowned, still watching her closely. “We’re done,” he said softly.
She made her escape. What a mess! What kind of housekeeper acted like she did? None. “And ones who did probably get fired,” she told herself.
Well, that wasn’t going to be her. She was going to be the best housekeeper Donovan had ever known.
Two days later Donovan woke to the scent of flowers and lemon and—
“Anna,” he said out loud.
A groan nearly escaped him. It was unacceptable that he had already learned her scent. What was that about?
“Inactivity,” he reasoned as he got dressed and left the room. Since he’d been here he’d spent too much time in the house with no one other than his employees, and Anna was simply the employee he saw the most.
And an exemplary one at that. That lemon scent…she was polishing the furniture. He supposed she did that on a regular basis. Everything shone. The hardwood floors gleamed. Not a speck of dust or a smudge was to be found, even though this was a very large house. There was a vase of yellow roses in a cut glass vase on a sideboard in the dining room. There were flowers in almost every room.
At the moment he could hear her humming in the distance. A clank sounded, followed by an “Ow!”
Donovan frowned. He moved off in the direction of the sounds and found her tucked half-beneath a bathroom sink, a red pipe wrench almost the length of her forearm in hand.
“Anna?”
She scooted out and sat up, just missing banging her head on the hard porcelain of the sink above her.
“Yes?” Her gray eyes were wide. There was a smudge on her cheek. She looked adorable.
Donovan frowned harder still. “What are you doing?”
She looked down at the pipe wrench. “Just repairing a small plumbing problem.”
“That’s not necessary.”
“Yes, it is. The drain was a bit slow.”
“I have money. There are people called plumbers who make their living fixing drains.”
She shifted her gaze to the side. “I know that, but I can do it. I have a book from the library. I’ve read articles on the Internet. I’m capable of handling this.”
“I see.” And he did. He had given her two weeks, but she needed more time, more money. For the baby she wanted.
Donovan nearly winced at that. The smartest thing to do would be to send her away, but he had promised her two weeks, and it was becoming increasingly clear that she was going to push herself to her limits in those two weeks trying to prove to him that he should keep her. Were those dark circles of exhaustion beneath her eyes?
He wanted to swear, but he didn’t. As a father he had learned to watch his tongue most of the time. The thought cut into him. He ignored it. He forced himself not to think about the fact that very soon Anna might be a mother learning all she needed to know about babies instead of plumbing.
“All right,” he said suddenly.
She blinked. “All right?”
“You’re hired. As my housekeeper, if you want the job.” He turned away, not wanting to see the eagerness in her eyes. Those eyes could unwittingly tempt a man, even a man who didn’t want to be tempted.
“Yes. Thank you,” she said in a quiet, grateful voice that nearly killed him. She was grateful? He didn’t deserve her gratitude. She was damn good at what she did. She would be good at a lot of things. Like motherhood.
The pipe wrench clinked against metal, and he turned back. “You’re hired, on one condition.”
She froze, those too-innocent, grateful eyes gazing up at him. For half a second he wanted to walk back, pick her up and kiss the gratitude from those fresh berry lips, to show her that, as always, he was a bit of a selfish jerk. He would not have her thinking he was more than he was.
“I appreciate your expertise and your work ethic. You’re an exemplary employee, but hire someone for the tough jobs. I don’t want you hurting yourself on my watch. That’s an order, Anna.” He practically growled the last few words.
For a minute her lips tightened and he almost slipped up and smiled. She didn’t like orders? Good. That was something he could use to keep his own inappropriate thoughts of her at bay. If she resented him, there was no danger.
He forced himself to glower at her. “I mean it.”
She smiled then.
Donovan sucked in a deep breath. “What?”
“You hired me,” she said simply. “I won’t let you regret it.”
But he already did.
CHAPTER FIVE
“OKAY, the truth has finally hit. I’m still here and by all rights I should be ecstatic, bouncing off the walls,” Anna muttered to herself two days later as she prepared to make Donovan’s bed. She had a good job and she didn’t have to worry about losing it.
Why was there still a part of her that was worried days after she’d been given what she wanted?
Donovan had shown no signs of changing his mind. Actually, she’d hardly seen him. He’d given her the task of RSVPing to the invitations and then he had closeted himself in the library and gym. Now and then she heard the clink of weights being lifted. She tried very hard not to think about what Donovan would look like, shirtless, his muscles gleaming from the exertion.
The thought brought her up short.
Maybe ideas like that are what’s worrying you, she thought. Maybe you’re afraid that your gratitude to Donovan goes beyond gratitude?
“Ridiculous. He’s just easy to work for,” she told herself.
That must be it. He trusted her to do what needed doing and other than insisting she call in experts for the big jobs, he didn’t make any rules. What woman wouldn’t be overjoyed to have those kinds of work-place conditions?
Anna took a deep breath, finished the bed and headed off to do the next job on the long list of tasks she had assigned herself to do. She had more than enough to keep her mind occupied and off of her employer.
Later, however, as she worked in the big open sunroom, running a cloth over the shutters, she heard a noise, a strangled curse and all thoughts of the task at hand slipped away. Donovan had been out on the deck, reading a newspaper. Now he was on his feet, the paper on the ground, pages flying away in the breeze.
But it wasn’t the escaping pages of newsprint that had caused his curse, Anna saw. His face was turned to the side as he watched something in the distance. His jaw was rigid, his hands were tight fists at his side. He held his big body so still that he might have been a statue.
She looked in the direction of his gaze. A family was on the shore path that curved around the perimeter of the twenty-one-plus miles of Lake Geneva. The path was seldom crowded, but a family out enjoying a hike here wasn’t all that unusual, and Anna realized that Donovan must have surely seen other families on his section of lake frontage. It probably was painful under the best of circumstances, but this had to be worse. These people were different.
The family trailed out over the narrow path, a young girl of about ten leading the way, followed by her mother, but it was the man and the young boy bringing up the rear that caught Anna’s attention, and, she was sure, had also brought Donovan to his feet.
The child was about five or six at the most. He was painfully frail, obviously ill, and his father had stopped to lean down and speak to him, the words so soft that they didn’t carry, even through the open screens of the sunroom.
The boy, however, in the way boys had, replied without regard to any listeners who might be nearby.
“I’m mostly okay,” he said, when it was clear that he wasn’t. “I don’t want to go back inside yet. It’s been so long since I’ve been out.”
His father looked worried, uncertain, as if he’d been pushed to his limits. When he turned, Anna could see the fatigue in his expression even from here. He reached down as if to pick up the boy and carry him.
A noise on the deck, t
he clatter of footsteps brought Anna’s attention back to Donovan. He was coming inside, and as he did, he looked at her with a dark, unreadable expression. He had shut off his emotions.
“Let them sit on the deck,” was all he said. “And…if they need a ride, I would appreciate it if you would find someone to take care of that as well.”
Anna nodded. “I will.” She knew what he meant. There were a limited number of public access points to the shore path, and Donovan’s house wasn’t that close to any of them. It would be difficult for the father to carry his child the necessary distance to get back to the nearest access point.
“You don’t have to handle things yourself.”
She shook her head. “I want to.” And there was the difference between them. Pregnant women made her uncomfortable, but children? She adored being near them, whereas they brought shadows to Donovan’s eyes.
“Thank you.” Donovan’s voice was terse, his brows drawn together in a frown. He moved into the house.
She headed for the path. An hour later she was back at work. The parents had been grateful. They’d tried to give her money when she pulled her car up in front of the opulent resort where they were staying. When the mother had taken the children inside, the father stayed behind to talk to Anna.
“Eric has had the best doctors money can buy, and he’s getting better, but it’s been a tough year. He only got out of the hospital recently and we wanted to give him a special day. Thank you for sharing your deck and giving us a lift.”
Anna shrugged. “I’m only the messenger. My employer owns the deck and the car that brought you here.”
“I’d like to send him a thank-you.”
Anna took a deep breath. She was one hundred percent certain that Donovan wouldn’t want her sharing his personal information with anyone.
“I promise I’ll give him your thanks,” she said. She wanted to say more, but what could she say? Donovan Barrett lost a child not much older than yours? He can’t be near children? Your thank-you might only remind him that he used to help children just like Eric and now he can’t do it anymore?
The man looked at her as if she weren’t quite as nice as he had at first thought, but she just shook her head. “He was concerned for your family, but he’s a very private man.”
The dawning of understanding slid into the man’s eyes. “The curse of the wealthy,” he said. And Anna supposed he was partially right. She reminded herself that there were many layers that separated her from her boss, and money was one of them.
When she came back into the house, she found a grim Donovan waiting for her. “I’m sorry about that,” he said.
She blinked. “It was no problem.”
“You’re not here to run interference for me. At least not in this way.”
“I’m the housekeeper. That covers a multitude of tasks.” She tried to keep her tone light and pretend she hadn’t noticed Donovan’s discomfort regarding the boy.
“Your job doesn’t cover this, and I shouldn’t have asked you to handle this situation.”
“Why not? We both know that while you hired me as a housekeeper, you were doing me a favor.”
He crossed his arms, raising one brow. “You’re a great housekeeper.”
“I don’t have a clue what housekeepers are supposed to do. Well, not much of one anyway.”
He glanced around. “You must be doing things right. I don’t see anything wrong.”
“I’m just playing things by ear.” And sometimes doing it badly. She was pretty sure that most housekeepers weren’t as frank with their employers as she was. “Maybe I should try wearing a uniform.”
A trace of amusement crossed Donovan’s lips. “If it makes you feel more official, go right ahead, but I’m fine with you as you are.” He looked at her then, starting at her T-shirt and traveling down her jeans to her tennis shoes, as if he hadn’t really noticed what she wore most of the time.
Awareness ripped through Anna, and her T-shirt suddenly felt too tight. She glanced down at the Live For Today emblazoned across her chest in blazing hot-pink.
“This is probably not very professional,” she admitted.
But when she looked up and saw that the shadows had flown from his eyes, her concern about her clothing fled.
“I like the sentiment,” he said. “It suits you.” He started to turn away, then turned back, his lips tight.
“They’re all right?”
She didn’t have to ask who “they” were. “Yes,” she said, “and the little boy’s health is improving. His father sends his thanks.”
“He should have been thanking you.”
“He did.”
“Good.” Donovan’s voice was clipped. He was studying her intently. Anna felt too aware of herself in a way she never had before.
Somewhere in the house, a clock chimed softly. Six o’clock. Like Cinderella startled by the knowledge that she had to run, Anna realized that she had been staring into her boss’s eyes for too long. She also realized something else.
“You’re due at the Williams’s party in an hour.”
Donovan frowned and swore.
Anna blinked. Donovan never swore.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’d forgotten about the party.”
She shook her head, confused. “You don’t sound as if you really want to go.”
He looked into her eyes and her stomach flipped over. Darn this man for making her suddenly wake up to her own femininity. She didn’t want a man. She certainly couldn’t want this man. She had heart-deep dreams that clashed with everything Donovan was and would be, and even if that weren’t true…
She ran her fingers purposely across the rip in the thigh of her jeans. She wasn’t wearing them to be fashionable but because she couldn’t afford to buy new ones and she hadn’t had time to patch these yet. The women Donovan would spend his time with tonight would never be in that kind of situation. Someday she might be cleaning the house of one of those ladies.
Donovan was studying her carefully. She prayed that he couldn’t read her thoughts or know how much he affected her.
“I want to go to the party,” he said. “It’s why I came here. To play.”
Anna nodded. “Then you’d better go play. You’d better get ready. I’ll just get back to what I was doing.”
Slowly, he shook his head. “No.”
“No?” She frowned, not sure what he meant.
“It’s six o’clock. Go home, Anna.”
But they both knew that she lived here. She would be here when he left and she would be here when he got back.
And in the hours in between? she asked herself.
She would not think about what he was doing. Not at all. She most certainly would not allow herself to do anything so foolish.
So she waited, pretending to be up in her room reading but really just trying not to think about him getting ready, forcing herself not to go say goodbye. Only when he was out the door did she allow herself a quick peek out the window. He was dressed in black and white, his broad back impressive as he walked toward his car.
Most of the functions he had been invited to were informal due to the nature of the resort atmosphere of this area, but this party had been black tie. His suit was immaculate. He looked good in black. Even the starkness of the material couldn’t hide the fact that he was muscled and fit.
“The women are going to love you, Donovan Barrett,” Anna whispered.
And then, cursing herself for even thinking such a thought, Anna marched downstairs, picked up her list of things to do and started working again. Employee or not, she was not going to allow a man to dictate how she spent her free time.
Not even a man who was her boss.
Not even a man with eyes that made her consider things that could never be.
Or a man whose pain made her ache to help him, when she knew that she was the last person on earth who could do that.
“I’m not going to think of you at all tonight, Mr. Barrett,” she muttered
to herself as she scrubbed a spot on the wall for the third time.
The Williams mansion was aglow with what looked to be a thousand lights. Donovan parked his car and strolled up to the door, bracing himself for the night ahead.
He nodded to the black-clad servant who opened the door and led him to the back of the house where the sounds of chatter and clinking glasses could be heard.
As he entered the huge room filled with men in stark black and white, and women with perfect hair, perfectly made up faces and teeth so straight and immaculately white that it appeared as if a dentist magician had been at work here, Donovan relaxed slightly.
This was a world he knew, one he had inhabited in what already seemed like another lifetime.
He accepted a glass of champagne from a white-uniformed servant and moved toward the mass of guests.
A woman dressed in pale peach with auburn hair separated herself from the masses and moved toward him, holding out her hand. She looked at him appreciatively. It was a look he recognized. “You must be Donovan.”
He tilted his head in acquiescence. “Are you Kendra Williams?” Although there was no real question of who she was. Besides the obvious fact that she was the one greeting him, there was the fact that Anna had told him that his hostess was a petite, dark-haired, beautiful green-eyed woman. Heir to this house, Mannion Way, and all of her family’s fortune, she had been divorced for three years.
The woman tilted her head in a queenlike manner. “Yes, I’m Kendra, and I must say that getting a magnificent man like you here was a coup. Absolutely everyone wants you. Thank you for choosing me first.”
The room behind her had gone amazingly silent, so this comment was heard by all. The silence didn’t surprise Donovan. He was a stranger, a new toy. The old toys needed to know if he would fit in.
He laughed. “Well, I’ve taken some time to acclimate, but I’m enjoying the opportunity to finally meet my neighbors. Thank you for inviting me. Great old house. Superb wine. Wonderful company.” Which said absolutely nothing but did the trick. The other potential hosts and hostesses had not been slighted but Kendra had not been put in her place, either.
The Maid and the Millionaire Page 4