Can't Buy Me Love by Amy Lillard Read Free Book Online

happy that his master was home.
    Blake smiled. “Until a few years ago Holmes was homeless. I took him in and gave him a job. You’d never know by looking at him now that he had ever been anything but a butler.”
    “Oh.”
    “I suppose I should warn you now. The rest of the staff is made up of people just like Holmes. Sylvia, the cook used to be a stripper. She’s originally from England; that’s where Holmes got his accent.”
    “ You mean he’s not English?”
    “ No, he’s from Wisconsin, but he thinks all good butlers must come from England. He made Sylvia teach him how to speak with an accent.”
    “ You’re teasing me.”
    Blake shook his head and raised his hand echoing Maddie ’s earlier oath. “Scout’s Honor.”
    “ And you say the rest of the household is like this?”
    “ The upstairs maid, Julie, was a prostitute. I’m not sure what the downstairs maid used to do, but I’d swear she packs a gun half the time. Her name’s Dancy. And the gardener, Maurice, is a recovering alcoholic.” He shrugged as if everyone’s domestics were as varied as his.
    “What about him?” Paige asked, unable to take her eyes off the wiggling black curls that made up the tiny dog.
    “This is Bruno,” Blake said. “He belonged to my aunt.”
    “Can I hold him?”
    “By all means.” Blake handed her the dog and Paige fell instantly in love.
    Bruno squirmed and grunted doing his best to lick her face. Paige laughed. “I’ve always wanted a dog.”
    “I guess it’s your lucky day.”
    Paige scratched the dog behind his ears and cradled him so his perfectly manicured nails wouldn’t snag the lace of her dress. It wasn’t a new dress, but it was her wedding dress. And it should be treated as special as it was.
    “ Come,” Blake said taking her elbow and leading her up the stairs that Holmes had just ascended. “I’ll show you to our suite.”
    “ About this afternoon,” he started quietly as he led her down an immaculate hallway of gleaming hard wood floors and pristine-white painted walls. “The servants are very loyal, but they’re still servants. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
    “ You think I tipped the press.” Hot emotion filled her. How could he? They had a contract, and she would uphold that contract. “You couldn’t believe any of your angelic servants would tell the press, now could you?” She resisted the urge to set Bruno down so she could slam her hands onto her hips.
    “ None of them know this marriage isn’t real.”
    “ Oh.”
    “ I plan to keep it that way.”
    Well, that had sufficiently taken the wind out of her sails and taken with it the only hope she had of getting a decent night ’s sleep in the next year. After Blake’s confession on the origin of his servants, she had hoped they could drop the pretense of man and wife when they were at his house. She had hoped she wouldn’t have to sleep in the same bed with him night after night, after night...
    “ You’ll sleep here.” Blake opened the door to a large sunny room, decorated in varying shades of yellow mixed with white. It was airy and clean, like sunshine and lollipops.
    “ It’s beautiful.” In fact it was the most beautiful room she had ever seen. Not that saying that was saying much. She had been raised in a one room hut.
    She scratched Bruno under the chin and tried not to look at the four-postered oak bed with its buttercup yellow spread. Then what he had said struck her. She snapped her attention back to her husband. “Where are you going to sleep?”
    He walked over to a door and opened it revealing a bathroom decorated in sunny yellows and navy blue. He pointed to the door on the opposite side of the huge, rectangular room. “My room is through there. When my uncle first became ill, it became very difficult for him to share a bed, even to sleep. My aunt had the master suite redesigned. I’ve had my things in there,”—he pointed to the door—“since his death. The servants will expect