by Kira Archer
Luca folded his arms across his chest. “Isn’t that how this whole thing started? Letting them use the pool now would be like rewarding their bad behavior from last time. Besides,” he said before she could protest, “Nico is still trying to get the pH balance of the pool right after they were in it last time. I don’t know what they threw in there but I nearly had to drain the thing and start from scratch.”
“It wouldn’t be like that this time. They know how to behave. They’re just bored. They’re children, not dogs. You can’t tell them to sit and stay and expect them to wait for your next command.”
Luca frowned at her. He knew she had a point but he didn’t want to acknowledge it.
“Fine. I will make sure Joe either has something more suitable for them to do or we will take them somewhere or something. I’ll send him out right now for a truckload of toys. But for right now, can they sit and watch the movie? I don’t think it’s going to kill them.”
She sighed. “Fine. However, while we are on the subject…”
He groaned and rubbed a hand over his face. “What now?”
“If the children are going to be in your home, there are a few things I’d prefer you didn’t leave lying around.”
“Such as?” he asked, his irritation rising again.
“Just off the top of my head, you’ve got a bar in the corner where the liquor is out in the open. Your entertainment center is stocked with movies that are highly inappropriate for children…and a few that are highly inappropriate for adults as well.”
He grinned at that one, but let her continue without comment.
“You have cigars and matches lying about. Your coffee table is made of glass and has sharp corners. If one of the girls were to trip, it could be disastrous. They aren’t toddlers, of course, so I don’t think we need to childproof the entire house, but kids do tend to get a little rambunctious now and then so I figure it’s better to be safe than sorry. There are—”
Luca held up a hand to stop her. His head was already pounding and they’d been there only five minutes.
“Enough, Stanzia. Give it a rest.” He pulled her aside, out of earshot of the girls. “This is my house. I’m not changing anything because a bunch of kids happen to be here for a few weeks. If they are too old for Barney, I’m sure they are old enough to know to keep their hands off booze and matches. If not, remove the dangerous items yourself but leave the rest alone.”
She opened her mouth to speak again, but he didn’t let her get that far.
“If you’ll excuse me for a minute, I need to take care of a few things in my office.”
Her eyes narrowed for a moment. Then her face cleared and she gave him a sweet smile that he didn’t trust for a minute.
“You go right ahead and do whatever you need to do.”
He smiled at her. Finally. “Thank you. Joe,” he said, gesturing for the man to follow him.
Constance nodded at him and he said, “Kalimera, Miss McMurty,” bestowing a brilliant smile on her as he extracted himself from the girls and made his way to the office.
“Kalimera, Joseph. And please, call me Constance.”
“As you wish, ma’am. Sir,” he said, turning his attention to Luca. “I have the items you asked for. I’ve placed them on your desk.”
“Thanks, Joe.”
“I’ll go join the girls,” Constance said.
Luca nodded absentmindedly. “I’ll be in my office for a bit.”
“Don’t mind us,” Constance called over her shoulder.
Chapter Eleven
Luca watched her leave, admiring the way her hips swayed back and forth when she walked. The cutoff jean shorts she wore complimented her figure far more than those hideous khaki things he’d first seen her in, and he’d thankfully broken her of those hideous sandals.
When she disappeared into the kitchen, Luca turned to find Joe waiting patiently for him with an amused smile that he tried to hide by turning quickly away. Luca chose to ignore it. Calling attention to the fact that he’d been ogling her would only make matters worse.
Joe followed him into the office and closed the door.
“Do you have those papers from the office I need to sign?” Luca asked him.
Joe nodded and pulled out a briefcase. Luca went through his paperwork as fast as he could, wanting to get that out of the way before some wayward child came crashing through his office door. His father had been surprised when he’d jumped back into the work pool and shown a renewed interest soon after their meeting, but he hadn’t hesitated to include him on the new projects they had in the works. Luca had forgotten how much he enjoyed working with his dad, being involved in new real estate ventures, scoping out locations and developing new properties. He just needed to find a way to balance it with some sort of social life so he didn’t become a total workaholic like his old man.
Once he had all the relevant contracts signed for the new project his father had assigned to him, he turned back to the other papers on his desk.
“How’s our plan going?” he asked Joe.
“I’ve pulled up the main sites and there are a selection of the usual papers on your desk. All carry the pictures from the jewelry store, of course. There’s lots of buzz online about the ring, several flattering pictures. There are a few, however, that Miss McMurty might find objectionable.”
Luca snorted while browsing the different websites. “What doesn’t she find objectionable?”
Joe didn’t answer that but instead pointed out the article in question on his computer screen. Someone had been doing their homework. While most sites offered up the usual information on Constance, this one had gone a bit deeper. They’d reported she was the daughter of James McMurty, whom she had said worked at the embassy. He was the United States ambassador to Greece, something she’d neglected to mention, but the journalists had discovered quickly enough. They detailed her schooling, her rather boring yet educationally impressive resume, and her relatively new situation as a House Mother, but it didn’t stop there.
The world wanted to know who Constance McMurty was, and they weren’t being scrupulous about finding out. Her whole life story was written in those pages, things Luca had never dreamed were a part of her past—like her abandonment at an orphanage when she was three. Her adoption by the ambassador and his wife two years later. The death of her adoptive mother a few years after that. He never would have guessed she’d suffered so much.
He flipped through a few more sites. They all had pretty much the same images and info. There were a few pictures that he hadn’t expected, however, and Constance probably wouldn’t be happy.
A loud crash and the sound of someone running past his door jerked his attention away from the computer.
“What the hell was that?”
“The sound of six children in your house, sir,” Joe said.
“I was aware of that much,” Luca said, giving him the sarcastic look that remark deserved and headed for the door.
He marched down the hallway to the great room. The site that met him had him frozen in shock.
The girls scurried everywhere, their arms full of his belongings. Constance sat on the couch in the center of the room, supervising the depositing of those belongings into boxes, while Mrs. Lasko and the maid stood by watching, their faces etched with wary amusement, until they caught sight of him. Then all amusement fled and only the wariness remained. Smart women. They were right to be worried.
Constance, on the other hand, looked up at him with a smile, seemingly oblivious to the fact that she was allowing the children to ransack his house.
“What the fu—”
“Sir,” Joe said, shaking his head.
Luca glared at him but minded his language. After all, he wouldn’t want to corrupt the little kleptomaniacs who were looting his house.
“Constance, what in the ever-loving hell is going on?” he asked, keeping his voice just under a shout by sheer force of will.
She blinked at him innocently. “You
said if I wanted to remove the dangerous items in the house to go ahead. So I am.”
He snagged an R-rated movie out of the arms of a passing kid who looked like she’d just robbed a Redbox and held it up. “How is this dangerous?”
“Aside from the rating, it’s a horrible movie. Totally inappropriate for children.”
“And you think they might accidentally pop an R-rated movie into the Blu-ray one night and have a go at it, do you?”
She shrugged. “You never know. Better safe than sorry.”
He was really starting to hate that phrase. He stared at her, so dazed with astonishment he wasn’t sure how to react. Another kid hurried by with a bottle of Ouzo in each hand.
“Hey, you…”
“Lexi,” Elena supplied helpfully.
Constance looked up in surprise but Luca was too busy chasing down the Ouzo thief to notice much.
“Give those back,” he said, making a grab for them.
She made it to Constance and the box she was amassing before he caught up with her.
He stood in front of her, fists clenched at his sides as he surveyed the damage. His shelves had been stripped bare of anything even slightly objectionable, his bar had been cleaned out, and even the coffee table had disappeared.
Constance stood and looked him straight in the eye. His anger faded a hair. Pissed or not, he couldn’t help but be impressed that she could hold her ground when he was less than six inches from her and ready to seriously spank someone. The sudden image of the prim and proper Miss McMurty squirming over his knee in carnal delight was a delicious thought…
“Girls, why don’t you take a break for a minute? Go make sure your belongings are put away neatly in your rooms.”
She waited until they’d scurried off before turning back to him. “Look, I know you’re angry,” Constance said, pulling him out of his daydream and back to the nightmare of reality, “but you told me I could get rid of the dangerous stuff. I was doing what you said.”
“Oh, don’t give me that innocent act. That would be like me telling you to kill a spider and you burning my house down around my ears.”
“It’s not that bad,” she said with a little pout.
“Not that bad? Not that bad? Are you serious? I meant you could put away the matches, maybe even lock the liquor up in the cabinet. I did not give you permission to clear out my house.”
“I’m sorry, Luca, but I cannot allow the children around these things. You had an antique fishing spear above your mantel for heaven’s sake!”
“The children should be well enough behaved to stay out of other people’s belongings.”
“They are well behaved, usually.”
“Then there shouldn’t be an issue with a spear on the wall as a decoration, or a few R-rated movies on my shelves. Or liquor in the liquor cabinet where it belongs.”
Constance stared him down. There was quite a bit more he’d like to say to her but he’d wait to see if she’d crack first.
“All right, I’ll put some of it back.”
He opened his mouth to argue but she cut him off.
“I’ll concede most of it, as long as you put the movies on a high shelf or something and keep the liquor locked up, and promise not to drink around the children.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“I’m very serious. I’m responsible for these children. I won’t have them subjected to a drunken…” She gestured at him, unable or unwilling to finish her sentence.
“A drunken what?” he asked, his anger fading into amusement. The woman had balls, he’d give her that.
She huffed. “You know what I mean.”
“Yes, I’m afraid I do. Not a very flattering image you have of me.”
“I don’t mean any offense by it,” she said.
“Too bad. Offense taken.” No way was he letting her out of this that easy.
But she surprised him again.
“Fine, be offended, as long as you abide by my wishes.” She folded her arms across her chest, putting her metaphorical foot down.
Two could play at that game. “This is my house. You’ll abide by my wishes.”
“You’re the one who wanted the children as part of the arrangement.”
“That’s not true. I just wanted you.”
She blinked up at him, her lovely mouth open with an inaudible gasp.
“The kids were Joe’s idea,” he added.
They both turned to look at him.
“It’s going lovely, too, if I do say so,” Joseph said with a pleased smile. “Nothing but good press today.”
Luca’s eyes narrowed. The man was diabolical. Brilliant. Indispensable. But diabolical.
“As I was saying,” Constance continued. “If you want the children to be part of this, you’ve got to be willing to make some concessions.”
“Your concessions are turning my life upside down.”
Her lips twitched upward. “Yes, children have a way of doing that.”
Reminding him yet again why he never wanted any. They’d been in his life only a few hours and he didn’t even recognize his own home anymore. Granted, if he had his own children they’d hopefully arrive one at a time. Maybe they were easier to handle if you started out slow. Then again, the sight of the box Constance had going, full of his favorite things that were apparently not kid-friendly, was a nice visual of what he’d have to give up for the privilege of signing away his life.
“You’re enjoying this,” he said. “In fact, I think you’re just doing it to torture me.”
“That wasn’t my intention, but I’ll admit, it’s a nice fringe benefit.”
He tried to glare at her but he couldn’t maintain the expression while she gazed up at him with that flirty, mischievous twinkle in her eyes.
She stepped closer and put her hand on his arm.
He looked down at her in surprise.
“I’m not asking for much here, Luca. Don’t drink or smoke around the children. Keep the dangerous substances under lock and key just in case. And the coffee table stays gone. That thing is a million stitches just waiting to happen.”
“All right. I’ll concede. But…” he said, stopping her before she could let her triumph show too much. “You’ll have to concede something as well.”
“What?” she asked, her voice full of suspicion. She had a right to be suspicious because what he wanted she wouldn’t want to give up.
“I’ll tell you that a bit later. When we have less of an audience,” he said, nodding at the children who had filed back into the room and stood watching the two of them.
Her eyes narrowed, but finally she nodded. “Fine. Later then. But for now?” she said, nodding towards the girls.
Luca sighed. “Fine. Go swimming.”
The girls jumped and screamed and then ran for the bedrooms, he assumed to put on their suits. All except Elena. She just looked at him.
“What?” he asked.
Constance frowned at him but Elena tilted her head. “Thanks for the pool.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I’ll stay out of the deep end.”
“That would be a good idea.”
“And I won’t touch the flowers.”
Luca resisted the urge to smile. He got the impression the little girl in front of him would take that the wrong way. Instead he responded as seriously as she had. “Thank you.”
Elena nodded. “You’re welcome.” Then she turned without another word and wandered off to find the other girls and Luca turned back to Constance, who stared at him like he’d suddenly announced he was becoming a priest.
“What?” he asked again. He was starting to sound like a parrot, echoing everything he said.
Constance shook her head, bemused. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard Elena thank anyone for anything before. She’s a quiet child.” She tilted her head to peruse him, much as Elena had. “She must like you.”
He snorted. “Don’t sound so surprised. It has been known to happen
on occasion.”
A faint blush staining her cheeks. “That’s not what I meant.”
“I know. I guess me and the kid understand each other, that’s all.”
Her brow furrowed like she was trying to figure it out, then her face cleared and she gave him a grateful smile.
“You know what? I’m not even going to question it. I’ll be thankful and move on.”
“Really? Are you feeling okay?” he said.
She gave him a mock glare and turned to follow the girls out to the patio.
Luca grabbed her hand again before she could leave.
“They’re fine where they’re at. Mrs. Lasko and Mrs. Ballas should be back there with them.” He looked at Joe for confirmation. He nodded and Luca continued. “We can go out in a minute, but we need to see how things are going first.”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I’m assuming you haven’t been online yet this morning? Or seen the papers?”
Her frown deepened. “No. I assumed there would be pictures of us, as that is the whole point of all this. Are there not?”
“Yes, but they’ve surpassed even my expectations.”
“Why don’t you sound happy about that?”
Luca glanced at Joe who nodded and left them alone. Luca led Constance into his office and sat her down at his desk. He already had several of the worst media sites pulled up so she could see the photos.
“I’m not unhappy necessarily, but I don’t think you’ll be happy about how intrusive they are being. I thought you should see.”
Constance didn’t say another word but scrolled through the sites. Pictures of them at dinner, walking through town, in the jewelry store, pictures of them kissing. She finally paused on the one he knew would upset her the most. Someone with a long-range lens had managed to get a shot of them in her bedroom. Luca, with his arm braced against the wall, leaning toward her. Constance, her upturned face looking like she was waiting for his kiss.
“They took pictures of us inside my home?” she asked, her voice faint. “I knew they’d take pictures everywhere else, but…can they do that? I mean legally? We were inside my private property.”
“Legal doesn’t mean much to them if it will get them a juicy picture.”
