The Billionaire's Housekeeper Mistress (9 page)

He didn’t call out to her.

She didn’t look back.

But she felt him watching her.

The nape of her neck tingled with heat.

Just as she reached the closest door into the house she heard the distinctive splash of someone diving into the pool. It emphatically reinforced Ethan’s statement that he wouldn’t run after her. She could leave his property without any fear of pursuit.

It probably should have given her a feeling of relief, but it didn’t.

The plain truth was it made her feel easily dispensable from his life.

And the bitter truth was…he wasn’t from hers.

F
OR
Daisy there was no escaping from the fact that if Ethan Cartwright could deliver his side of the deal, it would make a very positive difference to her entire family. Taking it meant she would have to act quickly on the offer for it to appear all above board. The most natural reaction from her was to look pleased, excited about the wonderful opportunity for her father to benefit from Ethan’s financial expertise.

She worked hard at giving precisely that impression when she arrived home, bubbling over with the news that her boss would make time on Monday morning to advise her father on where he might better place his superannuation funds. The look of hope that sprang into her father’s eyes relieved the tight band squeezing her heart. It was definitely worth being Ethan’s mistress to lift the depression that had sapped the happiness from her parents’ lives.

There was no pretence about their pleasure and excitement.

Daisy steeled herself to the sticking point and made the call.

The sound of Ethan’s deep, rich voice giving his
name in response sent a shiver down her spine. The memory of how it had been in bed together was suddenly very sharp. She did want it again—wanted him. Too much. Which was where the hurt would come in. But she’d weather it somehow.

She took a deep breath and poured warmth into her voice. ‘Ethan, it’s Daisy. I want to thank you again for your offer, and Dad wants to thank you, too. I’m passing you over to him.’

Her father took the receiver and expressed his gratitude, as well as confirming he would keep the eleven o’clock meeting on Monday morning. Then apparently Ethan requested to speak to her again.

‘Yes?’ she asked somewhat breathlessly, her pulse quickening at the thought of him bringing up the relationship he expected to have with her.

‘Work on the games room—the shelves and bar—begins on Monday,’ he stated matter-of-factly. ‘I’ll be leaving early for work to make time for your father. I’ll need you here to let the tradesmen in. And supervise as usual. Can I count on you?’

‘Yes. No problem,’ she assured him. ‘I’ll keep checking what they’re doing against the plans Charlie Hollier drew up.’

‘Fine! I’d appreciate it if you also keep leaving me your little notes at the end of each day. Progress and problems.’

‘I will,’ she promised.

‘I’m glad you’ll still be around, Daisy. I would have missed you if you weren’t.’

‘Well, I’m glad I rate that much,’ she said dryly. ‘Have a good weekend, Ethan. I guess I’ll see you when I see you.’

She put the telephone down before he could say anything more personal, making it difficult to transmit to her parents that nothing out of the ordinary was going on. She knew
they
wouldn’t accept the deal if they knew about it. Now that it was already in train, she had to make it work right so they would never suspect what Ethan was extracting from her as his reward.

Monday was not an easy day for Daisy at Hunters Hill. While she assiduously supervised the work being done, her mind kept fretting over what was going on between Ethan and her father at their meeting. It wasn’t certain that anything would be agreed upon. Her father had always been a cautious man with money—budget-ing, saving. He might find Ethan’s advice too much of a gamble to take. In which case, she wouldn’t have to be Ethan’s mistress and there’d still be the financial problem at home.

Weirdly enough, she found herself willing the deal to go through.

And she honestly didn’t know if this was because she wanted her parents to feel secure for the rest of their lives, or because she actually did want an affair with Ethan, regardless of its being a primrose path that would inevitably dwindle out. He was, without a doubt, the sexiest man she had ever met. If she could just let herself enjoy having him for the rest of this year or until he lost interest in her…surely she could manage that if she kept her head on straight about it ending sooner or later.

Her nerves were totally strung out by the time she arrived home and her mental ambivalence was finally settled by her father’s announcement that he had placed his financial affairs in Ethan’s hands and was convinced there would soon be an upturn in their fortunes. He
wouldn’t go into detail about the decisions made. Ethan had insisted on absolute confidentiality regarding the advice given. However, her father’s happy demeanour clearly demonstrated he believed in it and trusted it.

The die was cast.

Now came the waiting to see if the advice proved good.

It was a strange kind of hiatus, being at Ethan’s house each workday, watching it evolve into his personal home, yet not ever seeing him. He was gone before she arrived and she was gone before he returned. The only connection they had were notes they left for each other—all of them relating to the renovations.

Time rolled on. The games room with its bar was completed and the shelves were filled with an incredible array of board games, which Ethan must have had in storage somewhere. One morning she found a selection of carpet samples in various shades of green laid out in front of the staircase with a note attached—‘Which one would you choose to live with?’

Why would he want her opinion?

It wasn’t as if he’d invited her to live with him.

She was to be set up in an apartment, completely separate from his residence.

At first Daisy was inclined to dismiss the question, leaving a reply that read, ‘It’s up to you to choose.’

However, as the day wore on, she kept looking at the carpet samples, imagining how each one would look on the staircase. The moss green seemed more right than the others. Possibly she was drawn to it because it was the colour of Ethan’s eyes. In the end she left a note pinned to it, saying, ‘This one,’ even though it was irrelevant to her what went down in his home.

At the end of the week, the carpet-layers came in, took up the red carpet and replaced it with the moss green. It was absurd how much pleasure it gave her. Most probably her choice had coincided with his, simply reinforcing it, but she still wore a smile all day, happy that he liked what she liked. Which was true about a lot of things. And in her heart of hearts, Daisy couldn’t help wishing that Ethan might come to appreciate how compatible they were and not ever lose interest in her.

Which was dangerous thinking, she sternly told herself.

Sex with her whenever he liked was Ethan’s aim. It had been from the day they’d met. In one sense it was flattering that he should go to such extraordinary lengths to acquire her acquiescence to it. On the other hand, Daisy suspected it was in the nature of the man—a ruthless drive to manipulate circumstances so he would get what he wanted.

She shouldn’t forget that.

The friendly little notes, the carpet question, the laying off of any physical pressure could all be a softening-up process so she would be a more amenable mistress, not a grudging one who had been pushed into the position.

The whole house gradually turned into what Ethan had envisaged. Furniture arrived—the billiard table, wonderfully comfortable sofas in moss-green velvet for the home theatre section, bedroom suites for the guest rooms. Different lighting fixtures were put in to suit the new decor, plus all the electrical apparatus for the sound system and the massive television screen.

Daisy had little left to supervise. Once the renovation
of the old carriage house was done she wouldn’t be needed here and still she hadn’t been able to land a job elsewhere. She began to feel anxious about everything—her lack of work to justify the salary Ethan paid her, the whole money problem, whether his side of the deal would, indeed, pay off, and how soon.

Each night her father was glued to the financial report on television news programmes. Almost six weeks went by before the item he was waiting for hit the headlines. The government had approved a Chinese corporation’s bid to invest in the Redback Mining Company, which was rich in iron ore deposits but too deeply in debt to exploit their holdings. The share price, which had bottomed out at five cents months ago, had already exploded up to a dollar.

Her father whooped with glee, leapt up from his armchair, pulled her mother out of hers and danced her around the lounge room in a joyful polka, yelling out, ‘He did it! He did it!’ in a wild version of a song from
My Fair Lady
.

He eventually calmed down enough to confide that, on Ethan’s advice, he had plunged everything on the Redback Mining Company. He would sell the bulk of his shares tomorrow and make a massive profit, pay off the bank, help the family out with whatever they needed, live sweetly for ever after.

So this was it, Daisy thought, dizzied by the spectacular nature of her parents’ sudden rise in fortune. Ethan had delivered. And watching her father brimming over with ebullience, her mother beside herself with happy relief and excitement, she felt a fierce gladness in the outcome of the deal, regardless of any cost to herself down the track.

Ethan was not slow in claiming his reward. The next morning a note from him spelled it out—‘Make some excuse to your parents for being away this weekend and spend it here with me. I want you waiting for me when I come home after work on Friday.’

It was a straight-out demand. The first of many, Daisy realised, feeling a jolt of stark truth. Her mind had instinctively softened the situation, shaping the relationship she would have with Ethan into an affair, colouring it with hopes and wishes and desires. It struck home now that an affair was a two-way street and Ethan’s mind was set on having their connection only one way—his way. That was the deal she had accepted.

The idea of being so very deeply in his power shot a shiver of fear down her spine. She was used to being her own person, making her own choices. What if Ethan’s demands became intolerable? She couldn’t let him completely dominate her. The line had to be drawn somewhere.

Daisy fought a sense of panic for the rest of the day, telling herself Ethan was a reasonable man. He had shown anger at what he’d considered Lynda Twiggley’s tyranny. He’d treated all the tradesmen with respect. He was not about to use her badly. It wasn’t in his character.

Besides, pride wouldn’t allow her to show him any fear.

In fact, pride insisted she accept his demand gracefully.

In the end, she wrote him a simple little note in reply—‘Thank you. I’ll be here.’

Her parents were in such a euphoric state with future plans of their own, they didn’t question her announcement that she would be away for the weekend, having
been invited to spend it with a friend. They were eager for her to have a good time, delighted that she was free to do it and not be tight about money any more.

Daisy packed everything she thought she might need—her tennis gear, bikini, a couple of sets of casual clothes, two dressy outfits, and the gorgeous silk kimono she had bought at a second-hand designer shop, having fallen in love with the wild floral pattern that swirled with red and yellow and orange, chartreuse and olive-green.

Her mouth curled with irony as she folded this garment into her bag. It was a very apt casual robe for this weekend, since she was about to become Ethan’s geisha girl. Certainly there wasn’t any point in taking her pyjamas. She was careful, however, to include the contraceptive pills she’d been taking amongst the toiletries she was packing.

No way was falling pregnant part of the deal. She had her own life to live after these nine months with Ethan, establishing a new career, possibly meeting a man who would want marriage and children with her. She would only be twenty-eight when this was over.

She left home early enough on Friday morning to make a quick shopping foray at the local supermarket before continuing on to Hunters Hill. In keeping with accepting her fate gracefully and also showing gratitude for what he’d done for her parents, she’d decided to welcome Ethan home with the tastiest meal she could cook, as well as wearing her prettiest dress and looking her absolute best. Pretending it was a dinner date would surely help her feel less nervous, and hopefully stop Ethan from jumping on her bones the minute he was through the door.

It had been well over a month—almost two—since their deal had been struck, with no physical contact since then, and he wouldn’t be feeling any need to carry through any seductive routine. The prize was his to take whenever he wanted. She just hoped he’d let her feel…not like a sexual commodity to be used at his convenience.

The renovations to the house had been completed so she had it to herself to do what she wanted without raising any curiosity in the tradesmen who were still fixing up the garage and the storeroom at the back of it. In between dutifully checking their progress, she cooked a lamb ragout, made the sweet corn and sour cream dip her family always devoured first at parties, wrapped slices of prosciutto ham around melon balls, opened a packet of Brie cheese and laid pitted dates beside it, prepared the snow peas and florets of broccoli for last minute microwaving.

Keeping busy helped hold the build-up of tension at bay until after the men had left for the day. Daisy then went into a frantic whirl of getting herself ready for Ethan, using one of the guest bathrooms to take a shower, wash her hair, blow-dry the long brown tresses into curling softly around her shoulders.

Her make-up took longer than usual. It was difficult to stop her trembling hands from smudging the eyeliner and making a mess with the mascara, but the end result was worth the trouble. Her eyes were her best feature and with her hair making a dark, shiny frame for her face, she looked better than Ethan had ever seen her before. Her heart was thumping with the need for him to be surprised at how attractive she could look. The hope that he might see the possibility that she could be
a partner for him beyond the bedroom kept sliding through her mind, regardless of how unlikely it was.

Her dress was a lovely, feminine design, made of silk patterned in red and white swirls. It had little cap sleeves, balancing a low, sweetheart neckline which left a hint of cleavage on display. The tightly fitting bodice was styled in a crossover ruche and the swingy skirt fell in graceful folds to knee length. Her bare legs and high-heeled strappy white sandals definitely made it a sexy dress, but not overtly so. She felt good in it, and Daisy needed to feel good about herself. Especially tonight.