The Man Behind the Mask by Maggie Cox

this lovely old house, and putting her worries and concerns aside for a while.
    â€˜Well, I’d better carry on, then. Dinner will be ready around seven. Is that all right with you?’
    â€˜That is fine. We need to talk about your remuneration. We have not discussed it yet. Perhaps after dinner you would see me in my study?’
    â€˜Okay.’
    It was as if the door of informality Eduardo had opened earlier when he had cordially invited her to joinhim had been shut firmly in her face. In its place formality suddenly reigned, and as she walked back down the long echoing corridor towards the grand stair case that led down stairs Marianne silently admitted that she didn’t like it. She didn’t like it one bit…

CHAPTER SIX
    E DUARDO had wanted to mention the fact that he regretted his earlier outburst when they had been walking together in the grounds. But then he’d considered that if he set a precedent he could well be apologising to Marianne the entire time she worked for him. Better that she quickly learned how to adapt to his mood swings and cope with them as best she could. But perversely it also irked him that she hadn’t accepted his invitation to sit a while and talk.
    With the excellent dinner she had cooked behind them, Eduardo now faced her across the polished expanse of the impressively large desk in his study. Was he deliberately putting up barriers between them? It would not surprise him. Not when he sensed himself becoming more and more captivated by her and apprehensive of where that might leave him.
    â€˜This is the figure I had in mind,’ he said out loud, pushing the piece of paper he had scribbled on towards her.
    Peering at what he had written, Marianne leaned back silently in her chair.
    â€˜Well?’ Impatiently Eduardo tapped his pen on the blotter.
    â€˜It’s too much.’
    â€˜We are not going down that route again, are we?’
    â€˜I’m not being deliberately difficult, Mr De Souza—’
    â€˜Eduardo.’
    She flushed a little. ‘Is it right that I call you Eduardo when I’m an employee of yours…not a friend? It wouldn’t seem right. Anyway…what I meant was what you’re offering seems far too generous. Especially when you consider that I’m living in, and all my meals are included as well.’
    Looping some soft strands of dark honey hair round her small ear, Marianne lifted her chin. All of a sudden Eduardo’s entire attention was commanded by her mouth…her pretty, sweetly shaped lips in which he’d just detected an intriguing tremble. Erotic heat poured violently through his blood stream, and never had he known such instantaneous torrid desire grip him with quite such commanding force before. It took him a moment to collect himself enough to speak.
    â€˜There are not many employees, I am sure, who would protest about being paid too generously,’ he commented dryly. ‘You are certainly one of a kind, Marianne.’
    â€˜That may be so. But, like I told you before, I’m not a charity case. You should pay me the rate you would normally pay someone taking up this position.’
    â€˜How do you know that this is not the rate I would normally pay?’
    â€˜I don’t. But I think it’s in your nature to be kind…to help those you see as less fortunate. All I ask is that you pay me the true rate the post commands. That will be more than good enough.’
    She believed it was in his nature to be kind. The idea almost froze Eduardo in his seat. After all that had happened, kind was the last word he would have used to describe his nature. Peevishly, and to prove her wrong, he snatched the paper towards him and wrote down a different figure—deducting at least five per cent from the usual house keeper salary Marianne had suggested he pay her. He pushed it back to her and got up from his seat.
    Examining what he had written, he heard her softly murmur,