The Billionaire's Housekeeper Mistress(53)

But he didn’t understand what he was walking into. She had to stop him from buying a huge basket of chocolate Easter bunnies and eggs for the children. Their parents, who couldn’t afford such expensive luxuries, might resent such largesse, although she couldn’t bring herself to tell him so, saying only she’d be taking a bag of little Easter eggs to be hidden in the garden for the treasure hunt, and too much was too much. It would be enough if he gave her mother a box of chocolates as a thank-you gift.

The family day loomed as a nightmare.

She had no happy dreams about it at all.

In fact, she was fairly certain it would end the dream she had been nursing.

She and Ethan came from different worlds which were too far apart to bridge the gap. Common sense had told her that this was an ill-fated attraction, leading only to bed while lust was running hot. She should have stayed in the closet for the rest of this year—deal done and free to run. That wouldn’t have raised any family problems and she wouldn’t be feeling so horribly torn, wanting the impossible.


Ethan was acutely aware of Daisy’s tension over this coming visit with her family. He gradually came to realise she didn’t believe he could fit into her world. Proving to her that she could fit into his only resolved half the problem that had made her keep him at a distance until he’d forced her into a relationship with him.

She hadn’t come into it feeling it was right for her. She’d done it for her family. That close-knit unit meant more to her than anything else and Ethan was beginning to sense he had to win acceptance and liking from every one of them to free Daisy of her misgivings about their connection.

This was a completely foreign situation to him. He’d been more or less detached from his parents since boyhood. While he was quite fond of both of them, they played absolutely no part in his relationships with other people. That was his personal business, nothing to do with them. He didn’t seek their approval. They never showed disapproval. The decisions were his. He was the one who had to live with them. That had been drummed into him for as long as he could remember.

This definitely was not the case with Daisy. How he reacted to her family and how they responded to him was obviously a huge issue in her mind. He’d met her father and liked him, but money had been the only agenda at those meetings, not his daughter.

All he knew for certain was he had another battle on his hands.

And Daisy was worth fighting for.





CHAPTER FIFTEEN



‘MY BROTHERS always wear jeans,’ Daisy told Ethan before he dressed on Sunday morning.

He obligingly took the hint and dressed in jeans.

‘It’s better if we go in my car,’ she said as they were about to leave.

The green eyes turned hard and resolute. ‘There’s no hiding who I am, Daisy.’

True, but he didn’t have to rub their noses in his wealth with a flash BMW. She returned a challenging look. ‘This is a first meeting. Do you want my family to see you or your car?’

It was a major test, and to Daisy’s intense relief, Ethan acknowledged her point. ‘Okay, we’ll go in yours.’ His mouth quirked in wry appeal. ‘Will that help you relax?’

She heaved a sigh to loosen up the tightness in her chest and managed a wobbly smile. ‘I can’t help feeling a bit anxious. I want them to like you.’

He smiled back, taking her hand and squeezing it. ‘I want that, too.’

It lifted some of the burden from her heart. As she drove them both to Ryde, she kept telling herself Ethan had shown himself master of any situation and he would handle this one as well as he’d handled the barbecue with the tradesmen. However, that wasn’t really the problem. If their relationship was to have any chance of a long future, this visit would be the first of many, not a single occasion that could be easily negotiated. The big question was whether he would want to repeat the experience or prefer to back off from it.

She parked her car in the street adjacent to the one where her parents lived. ‘Which house?’ Ethan asked, eyeing the nearby residences.

They were all ordinary brick houses, as was her parents’, their architecture very basic. Nevertheless, it was a good, friendly neighbourhood, neat, tidy, gardens well tended, and Daisy was not about to apologise for its lack of class. This was where she came from and where she would come back to if Ethan couldn’t accept it.

‘Not here,’ she answered. ‘Around the corner. Our house is in a cul-de-sac and all the children will be out playing street cricket. I don’t want the car to be in their way. It’s not far to walk.’