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

‘There’s more at stake than just us.’

She frowned. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘The Marchetti Group. Even though some time has passed since my father’s death, people are still watching to see how us three half-brothers will work as a cohesive unit. We’re all single, which makes us inherently less trustworthy to our largely conservative shareholders who are growing more nervous as the years pass. Stability of the brand and its image is everything.’

His mouth twisted.

‘When the press find out about you and Daniel they’ll have a field-day. It won’t come as a huge surprise to many that I’ve

fathered a child, but it will make the shareholders even more nervous.’

Maggie shelved his comment about people not being surprised. ‘So you want us to get married purely to shore up the image of the Marchetti brand?’

‘It won’t just be for that—although that is a big part of it, yes.’

Panic threatened to rise again. Nikos sounded so implacable. Her mind raced, trying to take this in.

‘But I don’t know anything about you...’ The memory of looking him up on the internet made her blush. Quickly she said, ‘I mean, what about your family? You have two brothers? Are you even close?’

Nikos’s face turned to stone. ‘I have two half-brothers—one older, one younger. We all have different mothers. And in a word? No, we’re not especially close. But we’re all committed to the Marchetti Group.’

That sounded so...cold.

In as reasonable a tone as Maggie could muster, she said, ‘I understand why you want to do things differently—so do I—but you of all people know the damage a bad marriage can do. We don’t love each other.’

Nikos’s face became derisive. ‘Love? If anything can destabilise a marriage it’s love. Love is for naive fools.’

‘It’s not naive to believe in love.’ Her hands balled into fists at her sides. ‘I loved my mother and she loved me. She did everything to protect me. It almost killed me when she died. And when Daniel was born...the love I felt for him straight away is like nothing I can describe. All-encompassing. I would do anything for him.’

Nikos heard Maggie’s words, but she might as well have been speaking another language. He had no idea what she was talking about. He didn’t dispute her feelings, but he’d never felt anything like what she was describing.

When his grandparents had died he’d felt nothing. They’d bitterly disapproved of him and had always seen him as evidence of their daughter’s foolishness. They’d let his father take him away when he’d turned twelve without even sparing him a backward glance.

He didn’t have to be a psychologist to know that a lot of his rebellion had been as much to do with testing the boundaries—seeing what it would take to get him expelled from the family completely—as it had with getting his father’s attention. And, if he was honest, his half-brothers’ attention too.

But Nikos didn’t welcome this introspection, and he had a sense that Maggie was seeing far too much.

‘You say you’d do anything for our son? I can offer you and Daniel a secure and stable life. A luxurious life. That’s more of a guarantee than love will ever give you.’

Maggie’s teeth worried at her lower lip and Nikos had to curb his urge to reach out and tug it free. The waves of desire that had beat so furiously just a short while before were still there...just under the surface.

‘We have something far more potent and tangible than love between us. Desire. And a child.’

‘Desire won’t last for ever, though...and then what?’

Nikos didn’t have an answer for that, and it irritated him intensely. He usually had no problem getting people to agree to whatever he proposed.

Maggie spoke again. ‘This is a lot to think about.’

Frustration at how off-centre she made him feel made Nikos’s voice sharp. ‘You’ve had a year to think about it.’

She paled and he felt a stab of conscience. You should have tried harder to find her.

He pushed the inner voice down and forced a more conciliatory tone into his own voice. ‘I think we can do better for Daniel. He deserves better.’

‘You’ve barely looked at him.’

Nikos’s chest constricted when he thought of that tiny vulnerable body. That dark hair.