Mills & Boon Stars Collection: Sinful Proposals: Seduced into Her Boss's Service / Wearing the De Angelis Ring / The Surprise De Angelis Baby

Sunny felt her lips twitch in a smile. It was bad enough that he was so distractingly attractive. Add a wry sense of humour into the mix and that attraction became combustible.

‘Why have you run through so many nannies?’ She was genuinely perplexed because Flora seemed a far from difficult child.

‘She hasn’t wanted to have a nanny so she’s made sure to get rid of them,’ Stefano said shortly. He stood up and poured them both another glass of wine. ‘I mistakenly assumed that someone young and enthusiastic would be the first choice but they’ve all found her stubborn refusal to communicate unbearably frustrating...’

‘I don’t try and force her into having fun,’ Sunny mused thoughtfully.

‘Edith, the woman who comes in during the day to help out, is sixty-three years old, although she’s already mentioned that she doesn’t like the way Flora talks to her.’

‘Which is how?’

‘Patronisingly.’

Sunny wondered whether Flora’s patronising wasn’t a response to the older woman also being patronising and then was surprised that she was finding excuses for her young charge and taking her side over a woman she hadn’t even met.

‘I... Okay, that’s fine.’ She stood up and felt the two glasses of wine rush to her head. ‘What time would you like me to come on Saturday?’

‘My driver will collect you at ten and I’ll need you for the whole day, I’m afraid. I won’t be home until at least nine in the evening.’

Stefano thought that she looked like someone who had suddenly remembered that she should be fleeing the scene of the crime instead of hanging around making small talk with the officer in charge.

‘And don’t forget that you have full use of the account. You have the card. Take advantage of it.’

They were at the front door. When Sunny looked up, she felt her heart skip a beat because he was so close to her, almost but not quite invading her space.

For a second, a brief destabilising second, instead of wanting to step back, she wanted to move closer, wanted to place the palm of her hand on his chest and feel the hardness of muscle under her fingers.

‘Perhaps I will,’ she said shortly, swerving away and opening the door. ‘And there’s no need for Eric to drive me home.’ She felt breathless, as though she’d been running a marathon and now had to steady herself or else fall over from the exertion. ‘I can make my way to the station. It’s only a half hour walk and the exercise will do me good.’

‘I wouldn’t hear of it,’ Stefano murmured, not taking his eyes from her face even though he was already on his cellphone calling his driver to the front.

Sunny felt herself break out in a fine film of perspiration and she stuck her hands behind her back, clasping her computer case between them and clutching it for dear life.

This was what it felt like to be turned on and it was the first time it had ever happened to her. John had never turned her on. She had liked him, perhaps even loved him in the way you loved a dear, dear friend, but this overwhelming physical helplessness had been absent.

She didn’t know why it had chosen to make an appearance now but she knew that it was utterly inappropriate and complete madness and was to be stamped out at all costs.

* * *

Sunny had no idea what she was going to do with Flora on Saturday but the day dawned with the promise of heat.

She had grown up in London and now lived in London and so escaping London, going to Stefano’s sprawling mansion in Berkshire always felt like a sneaky escape and even more so now because it was the weekend.

On the spur of the moment, she packed a little bag and thought that if it was hot enough she might dip her feet in the pool.

She’d asked Flora whether she swam in it at all and was told that of course she did.

‘I learned to swim when I was two,’ she had told Sunny proudly. ‘We had a swimming pool in our house in New Zealand and Annie used to take me twice a week to the public pool so that I could get practice swimming with other girls. In competitions. I always won.’

‘I bet your mother was proud of you,’ Sunny had said, because she would have been proud, but her mother, she was informed, had rarely gone to stuff like that because it was boring.

‘She liked going out,’ Flora had said, shrugging her shoulders, ‘parties and stuff. She liked dressing up.’

Lonely on both sides of the world, Sunny had thought. You could be lonely even if you had loads of money because loneliness was very fair and even-handed when it decided to pay a visit. No distinctions were ever made.

Eric came to collect her promptly at ten, always on time, and she allowed herself a sigh of pure anticipation at spending the day out, doing something other than working or household chores. Plus Amy was overjoyed to have the flat to herself for the day.

‘I’m going to show him that I can be a domestic goddess,’ she had confided.

‘Brilliant idea.’

‘Something Thai,’ Amy had said vaguely. ‘A salad or something. Don’t worry. I’ll be gone by the time you get home...’

Sunny had wondered whether some sort of Thai salad was going to work with her friend’s latest big love interest but who was she to say anything? She had images in her head of a guy who was inappropriate on so many levels that it made her feel dizzy when she thought about it.

But today she would just relax and enjoy herself because she had one more week and then she’d be gone.

She’d miss Flora.

In her own way, Flora was as fragile as she had been at that age and Sunny felt a pang when she thought about saying goodbye and walking away, leaving her in the capable hands of another nanny.

It was already baking hot by the time the driver pulled into the long drive that led up to the house. She expected to find Stefano there, had braced herself for some polite conversation but she was greeted at the door by the housekeeper, who came, it would seem, to clean on the weekends.

‘We could do something exciting and fun,’ she suggested to Flora, racking her brain to think of what might fit the bill. ‘Perhaps a zoo...or a park...maybe the movies...or something...’

‘I disapprove of zoos,’ Flora ruled out that option immediately and Sunny grinned.

‘Or we could just...have lunch somewhere nice and then come back here...’

‘And swim!’

‘I’ll have to stay in the shallow end...’

‘Why?’

‘Because I... I never actually learned how to swim...’

‘I’ll teach you!’

With a project in hand, Flora was happy to rush through the various fun things Sunny felt she should be doing. The zoo, which would have meant trekking back into London, was fortunately ruled out and instead they went to a nearby beauty spot for a picnic. There was a huge lake, acres of woodland and many, many people also out enjoying the area with their kids and their dogs.

Flora talked about New Zealand, about what she had done there and about the open spaces and natural beauty. Her mother rarely featured in these accounts, except in passing, and her father not at all. Had he been over to see her at all? Sunny wondered. Or had he washed his hands of his own child the second he had obtained a divorce? Strangely, although he was a workaholic and although, as far as Sunny was concerned, he needed to take way more interest in his daughter, she didn’t see him as the sort of guy who would ever walk away from responsibility.

Walking around the lake, she realised that speculating about Stefano Gunn was becoming a full-time occupation. When she wasn’t thinking about work she was thinking about him and having told herself that there was no way she would allow herself to be curious about him or his circumstances, she still was.

Eric, fortunately, was there to save them the huge walk back in blistering sunshine and it was a little after two by the time Sunny had stripped down to the modest black bikini she had brought with her.

She had always wanted to know how to swim. Indeed, she had started a few swimming lessons less than a year ago but time had been in short supply and she had stopped them. The fact was that her life had just been too disordered, too unpredictable for something as constant as swimming lessons and when she had earned her scholarship to the boarding school she had made sure to steer clear of the enormous swimming pool. With few close friends, no one had questioned her reluctance to go swimming and, as it was a voluntary after-school activity, there had been no awkward or embarrassing confessions about her lack of know-how.