The Billionaire's Housekeeper Mistress by Emma Darcy Page B

more care was taken in the first place. But maybe he was a control freak, which wouldn’t be easy to live with. She had to stop thinking things that added to an attraction that was already too disturbingly strong.
    The doorbell was a welcome distraction.
    It was the architect.
    ‘Hi! I’m Charlie Hollier and I presume you’re Daisy Donahue,’ he rattled out with a broad smile. ‘Ethan called me and said you’d be here.’
    ‘Right!’ She smiled back. He was short and stocky, not much taller than her, with a rather homely face and friendly blue eyes twinkling at her as though he was happy to make her acquaintance. The fact that he was wearing blue jeans and a blue-and-white checked sports shirt also made Daisy feel immediately relaxed with him.
    ‘He mentioned you suggested a bar in the games room. Good idea! Should have thought of it myself. We won’t have to wait until the end of a game to go and get a drink from the kitchen.’
    ‘You’re one of his Tuesday group?’
    He nodded. ‘Always a great night. Let’s go and have a look where best to put it.’
    They walked inside to survey the situation. Daisy could not contain her curiosity. ‘How many of you come to play?’
    ‘Well, there’s the old solid core from Riverview. Ethan and Mickey started it amongst the boarders in our class when we were at school together. A bit of competitive fun when we weren’t at sport or study. That’s three regulars plus Mickey when he’s in town, and other friends we’ve made since then. Usually we have eight people turn up, sometimes more.’
    Riverview…it was one of the big private schools at Hunters Hill, sited just across the Lane Cove River from this house. Being a boarder probably meant each student had allotted spaces for his possessions and hewould certainly be disciplined into making his bed. If Ethan Cartwright had spent the six years of secondary school there, that could have become habitual, and it would be fairly natural for him to have a place for everything and everything kept in its place—nothing too odd about it.
    Daisy was bursting to ask more questions about Ethan Cartwright’s personal life, but reined in what could be seen as too much interest from a mere employee.
    The architect decided on a corner bar next to the wall that backed onto the utility room—easy to run plumbing for a sink through from there. He would amend the plans and give a new set to Daisy so she could keep an eye on everything and stop mistakes from being made. ‘I’m delighted Ethan has found someone to be on the spot all the time,’ he added enthusiastically. ‘You’d be surprised how often things have to be fixed because they weren’t done right in the first place.’
    Daisy was relieved to hear this. It made her feel she could be of real value here, earning her salary.
    ‘In fact, I’d appreciate it—Ethan would, too—if you’d ensure that the men laying the slate around the pool today get the mix right,’ Charlie ran on as they strolled out to the back of the house where the work was going on. ‘Quite a lot of the slate will be charcoal-grey without the blue-green streaks in it. Sometimes they just reach for the next piece of slate in the pile and you end up with a square metre of all grey instead of splashes of colour here and there.’
    ‘Okay. I’ll keep an eye on that,’ Daisy promised, feeling better and better about the job.
    They toured the whole site together with Charlie checking on progress, Daisy listening to how he wantedeverything to be. ‘It seems a bit weird to me that all this is just for one person,’ she couldn’t help commenting as they returned to the house.
    ‘Actually Ethan was planning to get married when he bought the place,’ Charlie tossed off casually. ‘Changed his mind, thank God!’
    She shot him a quizzical look. ‘You didn’t like the woman?’
    He grimaced. ‘A bit too much into being the lady of the manor for my liking. But I’m glad Ethan decided to keep the