The Maid's Best Kept Secret (The Marchetti Dynasty 1)

How had she survived without this?

What had she been doing?

Nikos’s hand was moving from her hip, caressing her waist, then cupping the solid weight of her breast in his hand. Maggie moaned into his mouth as he squeezed gently. Her flesh was aching. Sensitive. And it was sensitive because—

Maggie pulled back abruptly. Reality and the present moment eclipsed the lure of the past.

‘What are you doing?’ Her voice was husky.

‘You mean what are we doing?’

The full impact of the fact that he was here, and that within about a nanosecond she had been in his arms again, combusting all over, was not welcome. She saw the stamp of very male satisfaction on his face and it incensed her.

She pushed free of Nikos’s arms. ‘Oh, my God—you’re so arrogant you really thought you could just pick up where we left off a year ago? Is this some kind of fetish you have for menial staff—?’

‘Stop that.’ His voice was like the lash of a whip.

Maggie’s skin was hot and tight, her heart hammering. Between her legs she was slick and hot. Her breasts were aching.

But suddenly she remembered and she turned around. ‘I have to go. I don’t have time to stand here and be mauled by a rich playboy who gets his kicks from—’

‘Now, wait just a sec—’

‘Maggie, there you are. I’ve been looking all over for you.’

Maggie came to a standstill. There was a young woman standing in the doorway leading into the kitchen, holding a baby in her arms. He had dark hair and dark eyes and his legs and arms were windmilling frantically.

Immediately everything else was forgotten and Maggie instinctively reached for him, cradling him in her arms, checking him over. ‘Is he okay?’

‘He’s fine—I think he’s just hungry. We ran out of your expressed milk.’

Maggie looked at Sara. She was from Merkazad, the country in the Middle East where Nessa’s sister lived with her family.

‘Okay—thanks, Sara, I’ll feed him and put him down. Can you do me a huge favour and let Nessa know I won’t be back to the party this evening?’

‘Sure. No problem.’

Maggie saw the girl’s eyes go behind her and widen as she took in Nikos Marchetti. Damn.

Sara left and Maggie slowly turned around. Much as she would have preferred to keep going in the other direction she knew she couldn’t.

Her breasts were tingling again, but for entirely different reasons now. If she hadn’t been so distracted by this man she would have noticed the signs and gone to her son before he’d had to be brought to her.

Nikos was looking at the baby with a mixture of shock, incomprehension and horror. His bowtie was askew. Hair mussed.

Had she done that?

Mortification sent a hot wave of shame through her body. She had so much to say to this man, and yet when the moment had come she’d said nothing. Just climbed all over him like a lust-crazed monkey.

She lifted her son and put him over her shoulder, patting his back with an unsteady hand. ‘I need to go. I have to feed him.’

She turned, but of course she didn’t get far.

‘Wait just a minute.’

His accent was thicker, and somehow that made Maggie’s heart race again. What was wrong with her? She was in a moment of real crisis and her feverish brain was stuck in a lust loop.

Nikos came and stood in front of her. ‘What the hell, Maggie...? Who is this?’