Beautifully Irresistible (4 page)

I got up, showered then headed downstairs to prepare breakfast.

Zack was already seated at the kitchen table reading a financial newspaper. He was wearing a ridiculously expensive dark blue suit and grey tie. His hair was perfectly groomed and he was talking to someone on his phone. My body stiffened as I took in every single detail of his appearance.

Yep, he was still the hottest thing I had ever seen.

“Yes, that’s what I already said. We need this story contained and nipped in the bud as soon as possible. I will see you in the office.”

He appeared rattled by something.

“Good morning,” I said to break the tension.

“Good morning. Did you sleep well?”

“Yes, fine thanks. Can I make you some breakfast?”

“No, it’s okay thanks. I usually just grab a coffee. I’m not really a breakfast person.”

I wouldn’t mind if you wanted to eat me for breakfast!

“What time do the twins get up?” I asked checking my watch.

It was 7.30am.

“Hopefully soon, they have a tendency to leave it until the last minute.” He smiled warmly at me.

Scarlett clattered nosily through the door with an armful of books. Jasper was close behind her, sulking. He was obviously not a morning person.

“Morning, Dad.”

She quickly pecked his cheek.

“Good morning, sweetheart. Don’t forget about Jennifer,” he scolded.

“Morning,” came the surly reply.

I realised I had my work cut out with her.

“Morning Dad, Jennifer,” Jasper mumbled.

I quickly served some cereal and toast as they gulped down some fresh orange.

“Jennifer, the white Audi outside is for your personal use,” he told me as he tossed the keys over.

“Thank you,” I replied catching them.

“Have a good day,” he said as he gave me one last heated look and disappeared outside.

I heard him start up his Range Rover and roar off.

“We best get going, Jennifer,” Scarlett told me quite sweetly.

“Yes, we had,” Jasper muttered grabbing his bag.

I grabbed my bag and got into the very expensive Audi convertible praying to god that I didn’t bump it.

“You can get in the back grumpy!” Scarlett bossily instructed her brother.

He pulled a face and climbed in. I looked round and saw that he had clamped some headphones over his ears and his eyes were closed.

“You will need to direct me Scarlett.”

“Turn right at the end of the driveway,” she told me as she plastered make-up on.

I was sure that her Dad didn’t know how much she slapped on. She then un-buttoned the top two buttons of her blouse. I debated saying something but quickly decided against it.

The Audi handled very nicely along the winding road and I enjoyed listening to the throaty roar of the engine.

“Do you have any hobbies or interests, Scarlett?” I asked, trying to break the ice in the silent car.

Hopefully, if we could find some common ground we could be friends. I had a feeling it was all an act with her.

“I enjoy riding. I have two horses, Rio and Bobby. Bobby is a flea-bitten grey and Rio is a dark bay,” she replied, giving in.

“They sound lovely. I used to have a pony when I was your age. My Mum and Dad have a lot of horses. I miss riding.”

‘Well, maybe you could start riding again now,’ she told me smiling.

I felt like I was making some progress. Good.

“Are there any other horses?”

“Yes, my Mum’s horse Puzzle and my Dad’s horse Ace,” she replied as her eyes filled up with tears. One slid down her pink cheek.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you Scarlett.”

“It’s ok. She went out riding that day and never came back. Puzzle turned up and we assumed he had thrown her off. Dad and all the staff searched the woods for days but we never found her.”

“Don’t give up hope, Scarlett.”

“Thanks Jennifer,” she replied wiping her eyes.

I slowed the car down as we approached the school. Unsurprisingly, it looked like an expensive school.

“Thanks Jennifer. We finish at 3.15pm. Bye!” Scarlett said as she jumped out of the car.

“Goodbye, beautiful!” Jasper shouted as he got out of the back.

He gave me a stunning smile clearly aware of his charms. I grinned back at his harmless flirting.

“Bye!”

I roared off towards the village. Carrying on down the road, I discovered a large supermarket where I stocked up on food for the week. The sun was shining as I made my way back to the house.

After I had unpacked the shopping and tidied around, I decided that some more exploring was in order, but I needed to contact Ross first.

“Hello Sir, it’s Jennifer. I am all settled into the house. He has given me a brand new Audi to use,” I told him.

“I see, very nice, Black. You need to gather anything that you can. Speak to the other staff and get a feeling about what kind of marriage Mr Cole had. We are getting nowhere fast with this enquiry so anything you can find out will be helpful. What’s he like, Jennifer?”

“He’s very handsome, confident and pretty sure of himself. He loves his twins very much. They are the centre of his world.”

“Well, work on him and I don’t like saying these things but you know what you have to do if the need arises. It shouldn’t be too much of a chore since he is so handsome. The last thing we want to do is blow your cover.”

I quickly realised he meant that I could sleep with him if I had to. How embarrassing it was talking to him about it but we all had to make small sacrifices and I thought I could definitely manage to do that!

There had to be some perks in a job that could be demanding and dangerous.

“Okay, understood. I will report any findings back to you straight away. Goodbye Sir.”

I decided on a tour of the house. I went down a wide hallway and entered the first room on the right. It was a beautiful room decorated in cream and purple with a large four poster bed. There was a large en-suite and an enormous dressing room. I quickly realised that this was Phoebe’s bedroom. Her perfume lay unused on her dressing table. I opened one of the wardrobes in the dressing room. There were dozens of designer dresses, blouses and suits.

To the right of the wardrobe were several shelves of beautiful shoes. The walk in wardrobe was like something out of a film. She certainly had very good taste in clothes. Suddenly I heard movement in the hallway. It must be Marcia. Luckily I had closed the door to the bedroom behind me.

I heard her singing as she passed the doorway and then the sound faded away. Quietly, I slipped out of the bedroom and continued my tour.

There were several guest bedrooms so I bypassed those as I came across Scarlett’s bedroom, a typical teenager’s room. Clothes, shoes and make-up were strewn around the large room. There were posters of mainly rock bands on the walls.

The next room was Jasper’s bedroom. It had a fairly strong odour to it. The bed was unmade and clothes were strewn around the floor and the curtains were still closed. Rock posters and bikini-clad girls adorned the walls which were painted black. Shuddering, I quickly closed the door.

I carried on to the next room on the left. This one was Zachary’s bedroom. It was immaculately tidy and everything was in its rightful place. The colours of the room were black and charcoal grey. I sat on his bed and for some reason I smelt his pillow. It smelt of a very expensive masculine aftershave. I took a deep breath and as I closed my eyes, I saw his handsome face. On a table there was a photograph of him and Phoebe. She looked beautiful and they were looking into each other’s eyes. They seemed so happy.

After I had dragged myself away from Zachary’s bedroom, I investigated the downstairs rooms. There was a large sitting room, a drawing room, a huge dining room and a snug with a large television on the wall complete with leather recliners.

I turned a corner and discovered a huge games room with a full-sized snooker table and bar in one corner. This room was amazing. There were large comfy sofas and another large flat screen television on the wall. Continuing on, I found another room that was locked. I realised that it was his study. I would have to try and get into this room at another time or find a key for it.

Continuing on my tour, I found a laundry in the basement and the gymnasium that I saw Zachary working out in last night.

The gymnasium looked out on to the pool and cabana area.

I found a huge garage for his car collection. I peeked through the window and saw two quad bikes and a very sexy Harley Davidson motorbike. There was also a sports car under a cover. It was Phoebe’s Mercedes. I remembered it being pulled in and swept by forensics.

Behind the garage lay the stable block. I took the path that led there and went in.

Scarlett’s horses were next door to each other and I greeted them both as they investigated me. They were beautifully well-bred horses. The stable block was very well maintained and I imagined that there must be staff working here.

“Hello, can I help you with something, Miss?” a voice enquired from behind me.

“Hello, I’m Jennifer the new housekeeper,” I replied, extending my hand.

“Oh right. I’m Billy. I’m in charge of the stables,” a small grey-haired man in his fifties told me.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Billy.”

“Likewise, Jennifer. Do you ride?”

“Yes, my Mum and Dad have an equestrian facility in North Yorkshire.”

“Maybe Scarlett will let you ride Bobby or Rio.”

“Yes, she hinted I might be able to. I would like that.”

“Have you seen Puzzle?”

“No. Not yet.”

“I will show you him. You will never have seen a more sorry-looking horse. He is pining for his mistress, the poor thing.”

We went into the next stable block where Puzzle stood with his head hanging down at the back of his stable facing the wall. He was an absolutely stunning white horse.

“Puzzle, come here boy,” Billy gently said.

At first he wouldn’t turn around but he eventually headed over to the stable door. He had such loneliness and sadness in his huge brown eyes. I stroked his face and tickled his ears as he stared down at the ground.

“Oh, he is a sorry state alright, Billy.”

“I know. I don’t know what to do with him. I spend a lot of time with him but nobody has been able to ride him since Mrs Cole’s disappearance. He just bucks them off and he would never do that with Mrs Cole. He was always a perfect gentleman with her.”

“He looks so lonely.”

In the next stable, I saw Zack’s horse, Ace, a rich dark bay of about 18 hands. Ace was really gorgeous. Just like his owner.

I returned to the house and realised that it was already time to collect the twins.

The journey to school was made enjoyable by my new Audi. She ran like a dream. I let the top down and really enjoyed the warm spring sunshine.

As I pulled up to the school, Scarlett was arguing with a boy. I wondered if it was Ollie. He had hold of her arm and she didn’t look happy at all.

“Get off me, Ollie!” she shouted, trying to pull away.

I decided to get out of the car and see what was going on.

“You heard her. Let go of her arm,” I told him, trying to position myself between them.

“Okay, calm down, whoever you are!” he shouted in my face.

I looked down on him and his bad skin. Scarlett could do so much better.

“Clear off, now!” I grimly instructed him.

He skulked off, looking over his shoulder at Scarlett.

“Thanks Jennifer. He was really scaring me there.”

“What did that tool want?” Jasper shouted storming over and staring at Ollie.

“Nothing, Jasper. Jennifer scared him off,” she informed her brother, smiling.

“If he gives you any more trouble just let me know!” he told her, grabbing her into a bear hug.

It was a sweet moment.

Jasper got into the back and clamped his headphones into place again. What a sociable soul.

Scarlett looked round to check that he wasn’t listening to our conversation.

“Jennifer, please don’t tell my Dad. He wouldn’t like it.”

“Okay, but any more trouble from him and I will have to tell him.”

“Thanks.”

“Is he your boyfriend?”

“He was but he kept pushing me to do, well, you know what, don’t you?” she put her head down and blushed.

“Yes, I understand. You should never feel pressured to do anything you don’t want to, Scarlett. You will know when the time is right, believe me.”

“Thanks Jennifer. It’s really nice having someone to talk to. I miss my Mum so much.”

Chapter Three

During the next two weeks, I settled into my role in the house and found that I was really enjoying myself. I had gathered a few bits of information but nothing very useful yet. Gatsby and I were firm friends and we went on long walks together around the woods.