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

He hasn’t slept with anyone else since you.

She hated that voice in her head, making her think of things like that. Things that gave her hope. That made her wish for other things, like a proper relationship with Nikos—not separate bedrooms and moments snatched while they were on this whistlestop tour around Europe.

Once the tour was over...when things calmed down...surely then things would settle into a routine? Although Nikos and routine didn’t really go together. He seemed very much at home with this peripatetic existence, but Maggie knew she couldn’t live like this on a regular basis.

But maybe now...maybe now that he seemed to want to bond with Daniel...things could change?

Maggie laughed and Daniel gurgled. ‘Honestly—he won’t break. Just take his legs together in your hand and lift him up...good...then wipe his bottom with the baby wipe. That’s it. Make sure it’s dry and clean. Put the nappy here...’

The concentration on Nikos’s face as he mastered the art of changing a nappy was nothing short of comical. It told Maggie a lot more about him than she’d bet he would ever want anyone to know.

He placed Daniel down on the clean nappy and pulled it up between his legs, then secured it over his belly with the sticky tapes on the sides.

‘I did it!’

After about ten attempts.

Maggie didn’t say it out loud. Daniel had been amazingly patient. As if he’d sensed his father was trying to make an effort.

‘You did.’

Nikos pulled on Daniel’s Babygro and secured the buttons, then scooped up his son, carefully supporting his head, and walked out into the apartment with him.

Marianne was standing in the doorway and she sent Maggie an expressive look. Maggie returned it, with a smile and a small shrug, and followed Nikos out. The other woman had just arrived back from Paris, so hadn’t yet witnessed Nikos’s new interest in his son.

Maggie knew she shouldn’t really be surprised that someone as focused as Nikos was taking to his role as a father with an expert zeal and a speed that left her breathless. They’d arrived in London earlier that day, and on the plane over from Madrid he’d fed Daniel from a bottle. And winded him. And when Daniel had vomited down Nikos’s back he hadn’t even cared. He’d just changed his shirt.

And then, on their drive to the hotel from the airport, she’d overheard him rescheduling a meeting for later in the day so he could come with them to the apartment and spend some time with Daniel.

Nikos turned around with his big hand across Daniel’s back. ‘Hyde Park is nearby—we could go for a walk and get a coffee?’

Maggie tried to tamp down the surge of happiness. ‘Sure... If you have time?’

‘Of course I have time.’

They went out with Daniel in his compact pram. The temperatures were starting to turn cooler after the summer and there was a freshness in the air. There was also, although Maggie hated even to think it, a sense of hope.

When they’d walked through the park for a while, and found a place to sit down and have coffee—decaf for her—she said, ‘So what’s on the agenda this evening?’

He took a sip of espresso. ‘It’s the opening of a new designer store on Bond Street—one of our labels.’

He mentioned the iconic name and Maggie’s eyes widened. It was a byword in extreme luxe fashion—one of the most timeless brands in the world.

‘That’s one of yours?’

Nikos nodded. ‘It won’t be that formal an event, though. It’s just a party to welcome the new head designer.’

Immediately Maggie felt anxious. ‘What does that mean? What should I wear?’

Nikos looked wicked. ‘Something very short and very sparkly.’

CHAPTER TEN

THANKS TO THE stylist at the boutique in the London M Group hotel Maggie had been able to fulfil Nikos’s brief, and when they arrived at the event on Bond Street she was wearing a very short and sparkly green dress paired with vertiginous heels. He’d instructed her to leave her hair down.

Maggie clung to Nikos’s hand as they ran the gauntlet of photographers lining each side of the short red carpet. They were calling her name as well as Nikos’s now.

‘Maggie, love, over here!’