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"What do you think, Billie?" Tilly was asking her younger sister as they joined the billionaire for breakfast on one Saturday morning. "Mr. Hardwall is asking me out on a date."
Logan managed not to roll his eyes at the primness of her tone. Listening to her, no one would probably believe him if he had said that just this morning, the very same woman had slipped into his bedroom to gave him the most unforgettable wake-up call, rousing the billionaire out of his sleep with his cock in her mouth.
The memory of Tilly taking all of his cum into her throat had Logan shifting on his seat just as his gaze accidentally collided with his wife's mini-me. He saw the way Billie was looking at him, almost as if debating how much she could get out of the billionaire, and he raised a brow. Have you forgotten about the time I caught you watching TV at 4AM...and I didn't tell your sister about it?
Billie quickly turned back to Tilly, saying earnestly, "You should say yes."
The billionaire glanced down at his phone to hide his smirk.
"He's already like a big brother to me," the girl was saying before smiling up at Logan like butter wouldn't ever melt in her mouth. "Right, Mr. Hardwall?"
He smiled back at her. "That's correct, and you should start calling me Logan."
Her eyes seemed to purposely widen. "Are you sure?"
"I'd consider it an honor if you did," he told her gravely. "Like I told you before, I truly want you and your sister to be a permanent part of my life—-"
Overkill, he heard Tilly cough under her breath, but he ignored this.
"And since you already think I'm your big brother..."
The younger girl grinned. "Good point. I'll start calling you Logan then, and maybe..." Her voice turned sly. "Soon, people might change the way they call my sister, too."
Tilly frowned. "Change how?"
"Oh, you know, from Ms. Wakefield to Mrs. Hardwall?"
The billionaire struggled to keep a straight face as Tilly sputtered in disbelief, but when Liam, who was seated in his high chair next to his soon-to-be-ex-nanny, started imitating Tilly's sputtering, Logan's broad shoulders began to shake with uncontrollable mirth while Billie practically fell out of her seat laughing.
"No, Liam," Tilly was pleading with the toddler. "You shouldn't be making fun of Nanny, too."
The little boy frowned up at her. "Nanny?"
"Mama," Billie whispered.
Liam's chubby face brightened. "Mama!"
Little she-devil really had a good head on her shoulders, he reflected approvingly, seeing the way the girl had one-upped her sister. It was a good thing the brat was on his side, and another good thing, Logan thought, was how his life had turned out in recent days.
It had been two weeks since the incident with Claudette, now no longer in his employ...as well as being on the wrong end of the billionaire's legal team.
That night, while an exhausted Tilly had fallen asleep in his bed, the billionaire had checked his phone as was his habit, and it was then he had seen Charlotte's message.
He had been able to put one and one together after that, realizing how Claudette must've seen his friend's message, hence that damning scene she had contrived in front of Tilly and the press.
And if he had been married to any other woman, the billionaire brooded, things could've easily gone Claudette's way, and that staged kiss would've effectively thrown a wedge between Tilly and him.
Instead, it had backfired, with Tilly trusting his word without a qualm, and things had actually turned for the better after the incident.
To make up for the still-circulating rumors about him and Claudette, Logan had taken steps to at least make her position in his life clear with those working for him. And his first move: hiring another au pair for the day shift, and since there was no such thing as a nanny working for another nanny, none of his house staff even pretended they still thought of Tilly as one of them.
His housekeeper even went as far as consulting Tilly about the weekly menu, his executive staff at the office knew better than to ever put Tilly's calls on hold, and even his friends' wives had started inviting her to public gatherings that a mere "nanny" wouldn't normally be expected to participate.
If Logan had his way, he would've given the timeline the middle finger and publicly declared their relationship a long time ago.
But for some reason, it was Tilly who now wished to take things slowly.
Tilly noticed the way the billionaire was staring at her, and instead of the usual glitter of lust, his dark gaze was veiled, and she couldn't help feeling self-conscious. "What?"
Billie nearly snorted, thinking that her big sister was only playing hard to get. "Logan's obviously smitten with you, Tilly."
"Yes, Tilly." The billionaire's deadpanned tone once again had Tilly in stitches. "Logan's obviously smitten with you, so why not give the poor man a break and say you'd go out with him on a date?"
"I'm just worried I'm not his type," Tilly demurred. "Have you seen the women he used to date? They're all blondes."
The billionaire didn't miss a beat, asking, "Surely the guy's entitled to change his mind?"
"And then there's the alphabet thing those girls were also famous for."
Two pairs of eyes swung to her in open puzzlement at her words, but it was Billie who asked blankly, "The alphabet?"
"Oh, you know." Tilly's voice took on a breezy tone. "MD, PhD, JD, MB, and I think there might even have been a TSgt once?"
Billie still didn't get it, but the billionaire did, and amusement gleamed in his gaze as he drawled, "There is nothing for you to feel bad about. None of their, err, letters can compare to yours."
"But I don't have any—-"
Leaning towards her, the billionaire whispered into her ear, "It's called MRS," and Tilly ended up choking and blushing all at the same time.
Even young as she was, Billie was far from oblivious to the undercurrent of tension charging the air between the older couple, and she shook her head at the pair's stubborness. It was so obvious they liked each other. So why did they insist on playing this weird and stupid game of just being friends?
Tilly couldn't help making a face when her sister suddenly asked permission to play in the garden with Liam and Jeannie, the newly hired nanny. Turning to the billionaire, she said wryly, "She totally did that just to get us alone."
"She probably found it awkward," Logan speculated idly, "seeing that you're the one completely smitten with me instead."
"I wasn't acting anything like that," Tilly protested, but the billionaire simply smirked, and she was torn between exasperation and a tender, helpless form of amusement at the amount of blatant satisfaction carved over the billionaire's chiseled features. Why would he even want her smitten was beyond her, considering how much of their mail-order marriage contract had revolved around his insistence to keep their relationship strictly business-like.
And that was just one of the continuously increasing number of contradictions the billionaire presented, Tilly couldn't help thinking.
Not once had he ever spoken about love, but then she'd catch him looking at her at times, and the look in his eyes almost made her believe in the impossible. One moment, he would seem hell-bent on keeping his distance from her, but in the days the billionaire would suddenly come home and find her gone, he'd use any method short of siccing the police on her to locate her, almost as if he was afraid of her leaving him.
Can I believe you love me?
She terribly wished she could just ask him that once and for all, but even the mere thought of doing so made her feel guilty and greedy, with Tilly unable to forget the countless ways he had changed her life and Billie's for the better.
This has to be enough, she told herself. Love him without holding him back. That had been her promise to herself, and she could never stay true to that if she spoke to him of her feelings.
"Tilly..."
Logan's darkly musical voice had her biting back a sigh as she turned to him, and her heart skipped a beat at the look in his eyes.
"Just say yes, baby."
"I want to," Tilly said solemnly, "but you might think I'm too easy."
"But you are easy—-"
She half-sputtered, half-laughed. Jerk!
"And you'll never be able to help it," the billionaire purred, "since your body was made for me to please."
Oh, this man.
"So just say yes, and let's get our timeline moving." When his head slowly bent down, her eyes automatically closed and her lips parted, Tilly waiting for a kiss...that wasn't meant to happen.
"Mr. Hardwall?"
The sound of the head housekeeper's voice had Tilly's cheeks burning as her eyes flew wide open. She saw the billionaire smirking and Enid doing her best not to laugh, and she could feel herself turning a deeper shade of red.
"The guys at the gatehouse radioed in. They say the Crown Prince of Namja is on his way."