Until You're Mine Read Online Free

begins with a fond swipe of a hand across her belly. Then, in a whisper, ‘The twins aren’t mine. I mean, they are, of course, but I’m not their biological mother. Just so you know.’
    ‘Oh. OK. That’s fine.’
    ‘My first wife died of cancer when the boys were two months old. Came out of nowhere and swept the life from her.’ He raises his hands at my sudden pained expression. ‘Nope. It’s OK.’
    I switch to a little sympathetic purse of my lips and a respectfully low flick of my gaze. It’s all that’s needed. ‘Hey, well done, you,’ I say as Noah races back to me flapping a pad of paper. ‘Now, why don’t you have a race to see who can collect the most crayons off the floor? Then it’s a competition to see who can draw the best picture of me. Right?’
    ‘Wight!’ says Oscar. He jumps up and down with excitement. His cheeks turn pink.
    Noah stands staring at me for a second – unnerving, I have to say – and then quite calmly he tears a piece of paper from the pad. ‘For you, Oscar.’ And he gives it to his brother.
    ‘Good boy,’ I say. ‘Now, off you go and I want to see them both when you’re finished!’
    The twins shuffle off in their silly slippers – characters from some cartoon or other – and settle down at the table with the crayons. Oscar asks his brother for the blue. Noah hands it over.
    ‘I’m impressed,’ James says reluctantly.
    ‘Pure distraction with a bit of healthy sibling competition thrown in for good measure.’
    ‘We’re looking for someone to live in Monday to Friday, Zoe. Would that be a problem?’ Claudia’s cheeks have turned coral, making me imagine I’ve touched my thumb to them, a little smudge of powder blush. The heat of pregnancy.
    ‘That wouldn’t be a problem at all.’ I think of the flat, of everything contained in it. Then I think of living here. My heart flutters so I take a deep breath. ‘I can totally understand why you’d need someone on hand all hours during the week.’ If I’m honest, the timing of this job is perfect.
    ‘But you could go home at weekends,’ she says.
    My heart sinks, though I don’t show my disappointment. I must fit in with what they want. ‘I could disappear on Friday evening and reappear magically on Monday morning. But I can stay weekends too if you need me.’ An answer to satisfy for now, I hope. In reality, it won’t work like this. I can’t help believing in fate.
    ‘Look!’ Noah calls out. He flaps a piece of paper in my direction.
    ‘Ooh, keep it a secret until you’re finished,’ I tell him, and turn back to his parents. ‘When I take a job I like to become part of the family but to keep my distance too, if you know what I mean. I’m here if you need me, vanished if you don’t.’
    Claudia nods her approval.
    ‘I’m away at sea much of the time,’ James informs me. He doesn’t need to. ‘I’m a Naval officer. A submariner. You’ll mainly be dealing with Claudia.’
    You’ll mainly be dealing with
 . . . as if I already have the job in his mind.
    ‘Do you want to look around the house? See what you’d be letting yourself in for?’ Claudia is standing, hands on the back of her hips in that typical pregnant-woman pose. I make a point of not staring at her bump.
    ‘Sure.’
    We start downstairs and Claudia leads me from one room to another. They are all grand and some don’t look like they’re ever used. ‘We don’t use this one very often,’ she says as we enter the dining room, echoing my thought. ‘Just at Christmas, on special occasions. When friends come for supper we usually eat in the kitchen.’ The room is cold and has a long shiny table with twelve carved dining chairs set around it. There’s an ornate fireplace, intricate plaster cornices, and a chandelier in dusky hues of violet hangs centrally. It’s a beautiful room but not at all cosy.
    We cross the chequerboard hallway again.
    ‘And the boys, well, they don’t come in this room very often.’ Not