The Billionaire Boss's Innocent Bride(16)

'It can be, or it can be underlying stress or it can have nothing to do   with what's going on around you at the time,' she told him.

'So you've taken medical advice, Alex?'

'Yes.' She swallowed. 'I really thought I was over them,' she said again   and added unthinkingly, 'I guess there's more stress in my life at the   moment than I'm accustomed to.'

He let go of her hand and turned to look at her with his elbow propped on the back of the settee. 'Why? Interpreting?'

She looked into his eyes and could have kicked herself because   interpreting was a breeze compared to what she was going through on his   account. But he was not to know that …

'Uh-it's not as easy as it looks.'

His lips twisted. 'I never for one moment imagined it was. So that's   all?' He raised his eyebrows and she noticed the little scar at the   outer edge of his left eyebrow again.

She looked away and didn't answer immediately.

'Alex?' he said quietly. 'Tell me.'

'I think it's just-I think it's-' She stopped. Although the attack was   over, she didn't feel well enough to be inventive or clever or anything.   'That's all.'

He watched her intently, then smiled at her. 'OK. Finish your brandy. Do   you think you'll be able to sleep? Would you like to stay down here?  We  could fix you up a bed on the settee.'

'No. Thank you, but I'll be fine upstairs now.'

'Not that there's any hurry.' He reached for the remote on the coffee   table in front of the settee and flicked the television on. 'Sit down   and relax for a little while. Let's see what we've got-ah, movies. Are   you a fan?'

'Sometimes,' she admitted. 'Now that is one of my favourites,' she said about an Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant classic.

'Let's watch it. Comfortable? Curl up if you feel like it. What we need   is popcorn, which I'm pretty sure we don't have, but another small tot   of brandy won't go amiss.'

In the end, Alex did fall asleep on the settee in the den although this   time it was Max Goodwin not Margaret Winston who slid a pillow under  her  head and covered her with a warm rug.

She'd been enjoying the movie, and his company, but two thirds of the   way through the emotional excesses of the evening got to her and she   couldn't keep her eyes open.                       
       
           



       

She was not to know that her temporary employer stood looking down at   her for a long time after he'd covered her up, then found himself doing   some serious thinking. Nothing could have prepared her for the   consequences of it …

To complicate matters, Nicky woke up with a fever the next morning.

'I think it's chicken pox,' Alex said to Max in the breakfast room. She   was already showered and ready for the golf day-she'd done all that   before Nicky had woken-

wearing three-quarter khaki trousers and an Argyle sweater, Margaret's choice, not hers.

Max was also already dressed for golf in navy trousers and a pale blue polo T-shirt. He'd just come down for breakfast.

He paused in the act of pouring his coffee. 'Think?'

'Mrs Mills has sent for the doctor, but we both think that's what it is.   He's running a temperature, he's got a couple of itchy spots and it   explains the way he suddenly got tired before I would have expected him   to, last night.'

Max stirred and she could see him thinking back.

'The other thing is, he doesn't want to let me out of his sight.' She   stared at Max Goodwin, her expression concerned and anxious.   'Six-year-olds are not essentially sensible when they don't feel well.   They usually want their mothers pretty badly.'

'I'll come up and see him now. How are you?'

'I'm fine, thank you. I apologize for falling asleep on your settee, yet   again,' she said ruefully. 'But I don't quite know how we're going to   handle this.'

He took in her tied-back hair and the delicate blue shadows beneath her   eyes, then he looked away abruptly and squared his shoulders. But all  he  said was, 'Let's go and see him.'

'Just a moment-have you had chicken pox?'

That brought him up short. He narrowed his eyes. 'If I did, I can't remember it.'

'Is there any way of checking up? Your mother, maybe? Although, if you   haven't had it you are most likely going to get it now, but at least   you'll be forewarned.'

Max Goodwin folded his arms and looked down at her somewhat grimly. 'Have you got any more good news for me, Miss Hill?'

Alex chuckled. 'I'm sorry, but it is better to be prepared.'

'As they say in the Boy Scouts.' He pulled his mobile out of his shirt   pocket. 'My sister Olivia will know-my mother passed away last year.'

'I'm sorry.'

'Thank you-Livvy, Max,' he said into the phone. 'Did I have chicken pox as a kid?'

He ended the call a few minutes later. 'You'll be glad to know, well,   I'm certainly glad to know, that I did have them. We had them at the   same time actually, but, whereas my sister Olivia was a model patient, I   was a shocker. Same old story.' He looked at her expressionlessly   except for the wicked little glint in his eyes. 'It's amazing I didn't   grow up with some serious complexes brought on by my saintly sister.'

'Maybe you did. Maybe,' Alex said gravely, 'your desire to get your own   way is an inverse reaction to a subliminal inferiority complex bestowed   on you by your sibling?'

He put his head to one side. 'Say that again?'

'I couldn't,' she confessed with a grin. 'It just rolled off my tongue. Well-'

'What about you?' he broke in to query. 'Have you had chicken pox?'

'Yes.'

He relaxed.

'Actually I was a model patient too-maybe it's just girls?' she added.

'Maybe. They certainly know how to dent your ego. After you, Miss Hill.'

'Thank you, Mr Goodwin.' She led the way to the stairs.

Nicky perked up a bit at the sight of his father.

An hour later Alex joined Max in his study at his request.

Nicky was dozing and the doctor had confirmed the diagnosis.

The study was a mini oval office with tall windows overlooking the   water. The oak desk was highly polished, and the wooden-framed chairs   were upholstered in a striped fabric, amber on aubergine. The rug was a   handmade silk Persian from Isfahan-Mrs Mills had taken her on a tour of   the house and pointed out many of the treasures it contained.

'Sit down, Alex. I've pulled out of the golf, which-' he smiled a   lightning smile at her '-as you know I wasn't that keen on anyway. I've   also found a replacement for you so far as interpreting goes for the   rest of the negotiations.'

Alex's eyes widened. 'For all the other functions too?'

He nodded.

'Simon will kill me!' She looked bewildered and even more anxious as she stopped.                       
       
           



       

'Simon?' he queried with his eyebrows raised.

'Simon Wellford of the agency I work for. My boss, in other words. He   was over the moon about getting this assignment because he thought it   could lead to a lot more work.'

'It can. It will,' Max said decisively. 'And it could have happened   anyway-it was always written into the contract he signed that you were a   temporary replacement. It so happens the interpreter who got sick,   whose place you took, has got better a lot sooner than was anticipated.   He's ready to come back to work. But, listen, I've got a proposition to   make. Come and work for me, Alex.'





CHAPTER SIX


'AS A nanny?' Alex stared at Max, totally bemused.

'As my PA, which may-' he looked humorous '-cover mainly child-minding   duties over the near future, but from then on will have a much broader   scope.'

'I don't understand.'

He sat forward. 'These negotiations are going to be successful, Alex-'

'I thought you said there was some hard bargaining-and so on?'

'There is, but I wouldn't have undertaken them if I hadn't done my   homework and if I hadn't thought they'd succeed.' For a moment the   tough, successful high-flier he was was very evident in the set of his   face. Then he relaxed and continued, 'Once this is over, I'll be   spending quite a bit of time going backwards and forwards to China so a   permanent interpreter, as well as a quick wit, will be an asset to me.'

Alex's eyes nearly fell out on stalks. 'M-me?' she hazarded raggedly. He   looked amused as he nodded. 'What's so surprising about that?'

She blinked a couple of times. 'It … I … I just didn't expect it.'

'You'd be part of the household,' he went on and took particular stock   of her reaction to that, but he couldn't decide if it was shock or   relief he saw in her eyes.

'Not only because of Nicky, but because I'll be spending a lot more time   down here so-it would kill two birds with one stone,' he added.

She took a breath. 'But Nicky will be going back to his mother. Or-won't he?' she asked experimentally.