She turned. ‘I’m sorry, I’ll miss the inspection time if I don’t leave now. I have to find parking and—’
‘Don’t go. You don’t need to. You can stay here, in the apartment.’
He didn’t know what had possessed him to make that offer. It was all kinds of crazy. To have her actually living on the premises would do nothing for his resolve to keep things between them strictly on an employer-employee basis. He should rescind the offer immediately.
‘You already have the key,’ he said. ‘Just move in.’
* * *
Shelley was so taken aback she stood with one foot on the bottom of the step, the other on the pathway.
‘Are you serious?’ she asked.
He shrugged those broad shoulders. ‘You need a home. The apartment is empty. It makes sense.’
‘But I... I shouldn’t... I couldn’t—’ Excitement fluttered into life only to be vanquished by caution.
‘It’s there for staff. You’re staff.’
‘Yes, I am, but...’
How to express her feelings that she was scared of living in such close proximity to him? She found him too attractive to be so near to him twenty-four-seven. Now she could go home, go out, try and forget the Rapunzel incident and how it had made her feel. Living here, knowing he was on the other side of a wall, might not be so easy.
As far as she knew Declan lived alone in the enormous house. A team of cleaners had come in on the last two Tuesdays and stayed half the day. The delivery van of an exclusive grocery store had also swept up the gravel drive several times. But no one else had come, not during the day anyway.
His house would become not just her place of employment, but also her home. Just her and him—the man who sent shivers of awareness through her no matter how she tried to suppress them.
Right now he towered four steps above her, dark, brooding and yet with something in his eyes that made her think he would be hurt if she knocked back his offer of the apartment.
The apartment that would solve her problem of where to live.
A solution that might bring more problems with it than it solved.
He shrugged again. ‘Of course, if you’d rather live in a cheap apartment in Edgecliff...’
‘No. Of course I wouldn’t. I’d love to live in the apartment. It’s beautiful. The poshest staff quarters in Sydney, I should imagine. Your lucky housekeeper—she must have been thrilled when she saw how it was decorated.’
He fell silent for a moment too long. ‘It was prepared for our nanny,’ he said. ‘The wonderful woman who used to be my nanny when I was a child. But...but she never moved in.’
‘Oh,’ she said. Classic Shelley foot-in-mouth moment. He looked so bleak that if he had been anyone else, she would have rushed to hug him. But she stayed put on the step.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said.
The history of her working relationship with Declan would be punctuated by endless repeats of the word sorry. ‘I need to think before I speak.’
‘You weren’t to know,’ he said. He shifted impatiently from one foot to the other. ‘So what’s it to be? Yes or no?’
‘I want to say yes but I need to know what the rent is first. I... I might not be able to afford it.’
No might about it. She almost certainly wouldn’t be able to afford the rent and the realisation brought with it a fierce regret. She would love to live in that apartment.
‘No rent,’ he said.
‘But—’
‘No buts.’ The words were accompanied by a dark, Declan scowl.
‘But—I mean not but. I mean...if I don’t pay rent I—’
‘This is staff accommodation. You’re staff. End of story.’
‘I have to pay my own way.’ She had never been able to accept a gift that might have been tied with invisible strings.
‘If you insist on a monetary transaction I will rescind my offer.’
She had no doubt he meant it. ‘No! Please don’t do that. I’ll work on Saturdays. For free. Well, not free. My labour in return for accommodation.’
‘There’s no need for that. However if you insist—’
‘I insist. When can I move in?’
‘Whenever you want.’
‘Saturday. This Saturday. I’ll start the extra work next Saturday.’
‘It’s a deal,’ he said. ‘Just remember not to use the door into the house—it’s the one in the kitchen.’
‘Of course not. I don’t have a key, anyway.’
‘The key you have operates both doors.’
‘I’ll respect your privacy,’ she said. ‘I promise.’
He nodded.
‘I don’t have a lot of stuff to move in,’ she said, bubbling with excitement now that she could accept the reality of the situation. ‘Most of my possessions are stored with my grandmother at Blackheath in the mountains. I hope you don’t mind if my sister gives me a hand to move in.’
‘So long as I don’t have to meet her,’ he said.
‘I’ll make sure of that,’ she said. ‘Thank you, Declan.’
He acknowledged her thanks with another nod.
She looked down at her smart outfit. ‘Now I’m all dressed up with nowhere to go,’ she said. ‘I just might drive on down to Double Bay and treat myself to a café lunch.’
She bit down firmly on words that threatened to spill and invite him to join her for lunch. The fact that he was her boss didn’t stop her. There was no law that said work colleagues couldn’t share a bite to eat—she did it all the time.
No. She didn’t voice the invitation because it would sound perilously close to asking him on a date. And that was never going to happen.
She thanked him again and walked down the pathway, happy with the unexpected outcome of her meeting with Declan. She had a beautiful home until her contract here came to an end and she flew away to fulfil her dreams.
For her heart’s sake she just had to keep well clear of Declan in the hours that were hers to spend as she pleased.
DECLAN DID NOT want to meet Shelley’s sister. Or her sister’s fiancé, who was helping with the move. Meeting her family would be a link he did not want to establish. But he felt compelled to watch—perhaps to make it seem real that Shelley was going to be living here from today on.
With typical Shelley efficiency, she’d arrived early in the morning with her crew. Feeling uncomfortably as if he was spying on them, he watched from his office window. A tall, very slender young woman with short brown hair, who must be the sister, and a red-headed guy helped Shelley bring in her stuff.
Just a few boxes and suitcases appeared to constitute her possessions. Shelley herself had a laptop computer slung over her shoulder and some clothes still on their hangers to take in.
It was still a shock to see her out of her gardening gear. Today she wore faded, figure-hugging jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and the ugliest running shoes he had ever seen—practical, no doubt, but a shocking contrast